How to make money blogging
Making money from any new venture always takes some time. But it’s definitely possible. Just look at our behaviour during the COVID pandemic alone - people are staying home, homeschooling, doing DIY, watching Netflix…. and spending time online is going gangbusters.
People are spending more time than ever reading and watching content, so it makes sense that others should be making it. And hopefully, making a small profit from it too.
The first thing to know is you need to build an audience and this takes commitment and consistent, quality posts. It’s great if you can incorporate video and at least one social media channel too.
Secondly, most bloggers don’t make money in the first year, unless they already have a solid audience. Once you do get some income happening, profits will probably be small and may only just cover your costs.
But if the followers, comments, questions and social engagement are growing, don’t give up! You’re onto something that people want to know about.
Here’s how successful bloggers can make money
Affiliate links
A lot of bloggers use affiliate links in their posts and sometimes scattered on their websites too. For example, if you blog about cooking, you might have affiliate links to various kitchen applicances. When a reader clicks on one of those links, it takes them to the kitchen applicance website and if they subsequently purchase a product, the blogger gets a small commission.
This is known as affiliate marketing. Two things to note about it: bloggers have to be transparent that they’re using affiliate links in their posts, and commissions are generally small. You won’t get rich with affiliate marketing but every little bit counts, right?
Lots of software and apps also offer affiliate links, so it’s worth checking with any you subscribe to. Check out this Hubspot post on affiliate programs.
Ad revenue
If you’re happy having ads in your content or on your website, you could try monetising your site with ads. Google AdSense is a popular company for this. They use the cost per click (CPC) model, which basically calculates the value of an ad based on the views on your site/content. The higher the readership, the higher the value of advertising, and therefore the more revenue you can make. This Nerd Wallet review of AdSense explains it in more detail.
Ad revenue works best for bloggers with large followings but you can also do it with one or two really strong blog posts that are getting a lot of hits.
Influencer sponsorship
If you’re getting into the influencer sphere, you really need to have a large following and engagement rate. Instagram is very popular for influencer sponsorship but blog and video content are also hotbeds.
As you probably know, influencer marketing is when a business pays a blogger/influencer to promote their products or services. Payment can take the form of actual money (almost always), free products, promotional items or discount codes.
If you’re got the following, this is a good one to consider. Just decide beforehand what you want from the transaction and what to charge.
Taking on clients
Getting back from the freebie fun is another, more practical way of making money through blogging - taking on clients. If you’re been blogging for a while and have a steady readership, consider offering a specific service to clients.
This works particularly well if you’re in a niche area (in which case, you don’t even need a large following) or you offer a technical service that people may struggle to do on their own. Take me for example, I blog about digital marketing, web design and copywriting, and I also offer all those services on this very website.
Online courses
Online courses are huge right now and COVID has certainly helped that along. It definitely takes time to set up, write content, and market an online course but it offers huge paybacks. If you are already teaching people skills through a blog or YouTube channel, an online course is a natural next step.
Plus, it’s evergreen, so once you have the course set up, you can offer it again and again, with only a few tweaks to keep it up to date.
Ironically, you may have to take an online course to learn how to set one up, and it also pays to have done a course or two to see the different styles out there. The best course I’ve done is Kate Toon’s Recipe for SEO Success but I’ve also heard great things about Lindy Alexander’s Write Earn Thrive and Xo Sarah’s Dare to Grow.
Paid newsletter subscription
If you blog regularly, it’s likely you already have an existing subscriber base. And if you’re teaching something of value, there’s no reason why you can’t offer it as a paid service.
Again, it’s worth testing out other people’s paid subscriptions to see what they offer. Along with your pearls of wisdom, you may want/need to include templates, downloads, work opportunities and ebooks. It’s definitely more work than a regular newsletter but it’s money while you sleep, and of course, you can repurpose all that content elsewhere in your business.
Digital products (ebooks, guides, templates etc)
These sorts of products are great evergreen content and turn your blog posts into saleable products. Plus, once you’ve made them, you can keep on trucking them out in all sorts of ways. Put a shop on your website and sell them there. Offer them as free downloads for your subscription list. Use them as bait for a competition.
It’s a good idea to invest in a graphic designer to help turn your content into something spiffy and don’t forget to brand everything.
Physical products sold online/website (books, food, craft etc)
And there’s still good old real stuff that people love buying. If this is your business, blogging provides a great marketing tool to sell real products online.
Also, avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. Don’t limit yourself to an Etsy page, add a shop to your website too. Take custom orders via email. Use Instagram and Facebook to market your products and funnel customers to your website.
Take the time to think about these sorts of monetary opportunities early on in your freelance business. Even if you can’t imagine how you will achieve them, it really helps to have those pie-in-the-sky goals to guide your business and your blogging in the right direction.
Good luck!
About the author: Lilani Goonesena is a digital communications specialist and the director of LIGO Creative. Based in Canberra, LIGO delivers content, editing, SEO copywriting, web design, strategy, social media and branding for government, the development sector and businesses. Contact LIGO today.
