Welcome to Day 5, the lesson we’ve all been waiting for: how to make money with your blog right now!
So, I don’t mean poof and suddenly you’ll see $$$ in your bank account. You do have to take steps but they are simple. On that note, I want to make sure to state that blogging is not some sort of “get rich quick” thing. You do have to put in plenty of time, effort, and hard work just like we discussed on Day 1.
Ways to make money blogging (in no particular order):
1. Sponsorships
A sponsorship is basically a form of an ad that a sponsor pays for. This ad can come in a variety of mediums like a sponsored blog post, a sponsored social media post (like Instagram), a mention in a blog post or sponsored banners on your blog. I personally am not an expert in blog sponsorships, so I am going to direct you to some fantastic bloggers who are:
2. Affiliate Marketing
We all do “word of mouth” type marketing, we just don’t usually get paid for it. When you refer someone to a movie you loved, a book you can’t put down or a hairdresser that is just amazing, then you are marketing. To make money doing this, you become an affiliate of products you love and when you refer people, then you make money. This is how I made much of my starting out. It’s easy to do and churns a decent profit.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is a finance blogger that makes most of her 100,000+ monthly income from affiliate marketing. She has an ecourse called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
Because of this course, my blog profited right away (within days) and within months I was making hundreds even when I stepped away from blogging for a few months! If you seriously want to make money blogging, I strongly encourage you to take this course. The profits I have made from taking this course far outweigh what I paid for it and it’s amazing passive income.
3. Display Advertising
This category is pretty simple. Basically, this is advertising on your site in a context such as images, text, audio or video. This advertiser delivers messages to site visitors. When visitors see the ad, you make money. Usually, you insert the code provided to you on your blog and the more visitors, the more money you make. It really is that simple. Google Adsense and Media.net are popular companies.
My recommendations based upon monthly views:
- 0 – 25,000 – Media.net
- 25,000 – MediaVine
- 100,000 – AdThrive
4. Personal Products
One of the best ways to really make money blogging is to launch your own personal product. If you are a new blogger, an idea may not come to you right away. It takes a little time to understand your audience, what skills are valuable to them and what they need.
Ebooks, online courses, templates and even coaching services are a few of the ways bloggers make money personally. The great thing about a personal product: you aren’t getting a small percentage of the sale like the other categories.
5. Working with other bloggers
You can make great money as a VA (virtual assistant), staff writer, editor, and proofreader. There are many, many different resources online for these categories. To start out, (unless you already have experience in these areas) I would recommend having experience with your blog. Once you get into a writing rhythm and understand tasks required, you will have a better understanding of what these jobs entail.
Concluding suggestions:
- My number one suggestion for making money right away is affiliate marketing and to take the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing class. I’ve made far more money than I paid for that class and the sole reason I profited from affiliate marketing was due to that class. There are a lot of laws and legality around affiliate marketing a blogger needs to know in order to be successful. Michelle lays everything out clearly, step-by-step. She also gives you a very long list of affiliates in every niche that accepts brand new bloggers out of the gate.
- Add media.net right away to your new blog. You probably won’t receive a giant profit right away but at least you are getting paid for your traffic.
- Create a personal product within the year of your launch. You may not know what that is right now but try to keep this on your radar. Suggestion: use Teachable for ecourses and SendOwl for ebooks. Create a free opt-in that ‘captures’ readers in the category of your product. Hype up the product with that list and after you’ve created it, let them know!
That’s all for today. Tomorrow, we’ll dive into driving traffic which ties very well to making money. Until next time!
Day 1: Is blogging right for you? How to succeed as a blogger
Day 2: Successfully name your blog & find your niche
Day 3: How to set up your blog EASILY
Day 4: How to brand your blog
Day 5: Make money from your blog right now
Day 6: Drive organic, engaged traffic to your blog
Day 7: Create your editorial calendar, 50+ post ideas and start blogging!
