Today we are going to talk about something really fun! How to start making money with your blog!
When I first started blogging in 2012, I thought the only way to get paid was to have ads on my blog. I didn’t even believe that making good money from blogging was even possible.
Boy, was I wrong! There are so many ways that you can make money blogging.
Now, there is one thing I want you to remember. To make money blogging, it does take time. You should not expect to make a full-time income overnight; however, in my experience, it is possible to be profitable within your first few months of launching your blog.
FIVE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WITH A BLOG
In this post, I am going to introduce you to five ways you can monetize your blog.
1. Advertising
The first monetization route that many bloggers jump to is ads. They set up their blogs, sign up for Adsense, and they expect to have the money start rolling in.
Unless you have thousands and thousands of pageviews each month, it is more than likely that your ads will only pay for your coffee, not your Caribbean cruise.
I recommend waiting to put ads on your site until you hit 25k sessions per month (sessions are slightly more than pageviews). At 25k sessions, you can apply for Mediavine. With Mediavine your RPM is generally a lot higher. RPM stands for rate per mille (mille is Latin for 1,000) and is your revenue per 1,000 sessions or pageviews (depending on which platform you use).
Your RPM can vary by niche, but once you get on a premium network like Mediavine, typical numbers range from about $9-25 RPM. This can also vary by the time of year. From October to December, when brands are pushing their ads for the holiday months, usually rates will go up.
There are two primary ways that you are paid for ads.
Pay Per Click
Meaning you get paid each time someone clicks on the advertisement.
Pay Per Impression
These ads are paid based upon the number of times the advertisement is seen.
Pinterest can help you increase your ad income by increasing traffic to pages where you have ads posted.
Ads can be one piece to your monetization puzzle, but be sure to implement them strategically.
2. Affiliate Marketing
I LOVE affiliate marketing. Essentially, affiliate marketing is sharing products you love with your readers, and when they make a purchase, you earn a commission. What is great is that this is at no extra expense to them, and oftentimes they get special perks if they use your link.
For example, when someone uses my Tailwind link instead of getting just their first 100 pins free, they get their first month free!
Affiliate marketing is the first way I started making money from my blog. There were so many tools and resources that helped me grow my blog and businesses, so it was easy to share with my readers.
Within two days of starting affiliate marketing, I made my first affiliate sale, and by my third month of this blog, I made over $1200 in affiliate income!
For most bloggers, I would recommend starting with affiliates to monetize your blog. It is easy to do and can be very lucrative. In the next lesson we’ll dig in deeper to how you can make money with affiliate marketing.
Here are a few affiliate networks you can join:
- ShareASale
- FlexOffers
- Awin – They have a $5 fee to make sure you are legit, but you get it back with your first payout.
- CJ Affiliate – wait on this one until you are getting a little bit of traffic, or they might not approve you.
- Ultimate Bundles
- Amazon Affiliate
- Bonus Tip: Don’t forget you can use affiliate links on Pinterest!
3. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts can be a great way to bring in some money from your blog and get your blog in front of a new audience. Often times, if the brand you work with is a small business, you will get a lot of social media love after your collaboration.
Before you begin pitching for sponsored posts, be sure to create a media kit. This is like your blog’s resume. You want to include a friendly picture, a bio, and relevant statistics to your blog. I recommend at least including your social media statistics and page views for your blog. Bonus points if you include demographic information about your audience.
To find sponsored opportunities, you have a few options you can work with a sponsorship network, or you can personally reach out to different brands.
If you are interested in joining a network, here are a few popular options.
- Izea
- Linqia
- Social Fabric (Collective Bias)
- Tap Influence
- Pollinate Media
Another great way to find brands to work with is through an app called Collabor8. This is an app that helps influencers and brands connect. I have coordinated some of my favorite sponsored posts, thanks to the Collabor8 app.
For more information on sponsored posts, read this post here.
4. Services
Your blog can be an amazing platform to promote your services. Having your own blog will give potential clients a taste of who you are. Write posts relevant to your service and include your services in your posts.
Services To Make Money Blogging:
- Virtual Assistant
- Freelance Writer
- Pinterest Manager
- Run Facebook Ads for bloggers – learn how to run FB ads and then market your services!
There are tons of different services you can offer on your blog to help you make money as a beginner. If you don’t have a lot of traffic or an audience, yet it can be difficult to make money blogging.
When you offer a service, you just need a few clients to make a significant amount. This is the fastest way to make money blogging as a beginner.
5. Selling Your Own Products
This may be my favorite monetization method of all. On your blog, you can sell digital or physical products. Creating and selling your own products is incredibly rewarding.
Similarly to the services section, you can use your blog as a platform to gain customers for your products. If you have an Etsy shop for blog templates, for example, consider writing blog posts about web design and branding, then funnel your readers over to your shop.
My blog is more of an educational platform to teach success principals, how to make money online, how to build successful blogs and online businesses, so I am creating a complete course on how to successfully build a profitable blog.
Creating your own product can be a bit of a “what came first the chicken or the egg” scenario.
You can approach it in two ways.
1. If you already have a blog but have not created a product yet here are a few tips to help you establish what to sell.
First, analyze your audience. Which of your posts have the most traffic? This can be indicative of what your readers are most interested in. Which posts have the most comments, repins, and shares?
2. You have a product but have not launched your blog.
Analyze who is the target market for your product and consider what their interests are.
A few more ideas for how to make money blogging with your own products:
- Digital products on Etsy or Creative Market
- Physical products on Amazon via their service Fulfilled By Amazon
- Courses hosted on Teachable
- Dropship items on Shopify (Check out this guide on a Shopify side hustle here.)
- A membership site
- Handmade items on Etsy (One of my readers made over six-figures doing this!)
- An ebook delivered via Amazon or DPD
- Direct Sales products that you love
YOU REALLY CAN MAKE MONEY WITH A BLOG!
If you invest the time and treat your blog like a business, you will be able to make money from your blog.
One question I am often asked is, “When should I monetize my blog?” Honestly, I started adding affiliate links to my blog in my first month.
By my second month, I made about $400 in affiliate income, and in my third month, I made over $1200 in affiliate income. In my third month, I also launched the pre-sale for my first course.
(If you are interested in creating a course, check out this blog post where I outline the exact process I follow + tools I use to create online courses.)
When you start monetizing your blog, just remember to keep your reader in mind. Only share what would benefit them and avoid plastering ads all over your site. In all of the ways mentioned to make money blogging, your reader is your customer.
How are you going to monetize your blog?
When you are ready CLICK HERE to go to Step-Seven!
