So you have heard about blogging, and putting up one has piqued your interest? Great, probably your next question is how do I get started and how to earn money blogging? I will cover that in this post today.
But first let’s debunk a popular myth most newbies are misled to believe, and that is, you can earn loads of money overnight.
There are people successfully cashing in thousands of dollars each month from blogging. But achieving anything close to that calls for dedication and hard work and it often takes a lot of time.
On the other hand, there’s also another myth that the whole ‘earn money blogging’ thing is a myth but that too is nothing but a tall tale.
How to earn money blogging?
There are a whole lot of ways to set up a blog and earn money from it. The key is to find a technique that works best for you and using a few others too as a supplement.
For example, if you know affiliates work best for you, promote affiliate products wherever possible. And putting ads, where affiliate promotions are not applicable.
7 ways to earn money blogging
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Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is basically where you post a link to someone else’s product on your blog. Then whenever someone buys through your link, you will be paid.
Networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction and ShareaSale are sites where you can look for vendors who you can work with as an affiliate. The key is to carefully pick a niche for your blog. Then pick relevant, high commission and high converting products that have to do with your blog topic.
This is one of the most common and popular ways to earn money blogging.
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Sell Ad Space
Selling ad space on your site is another good way to monetize your blog, especially if your blog gets a significant amount of traffic. How much you can charge will depend on the number of visitors, Alexa ranking, and a whole lot of other factors.
With this method, pricing your ads is a bit tricky and getting advertisers to place ads on your site is not an easy thing.
Your best bet is to go with ad networks like Chitika and Adsense. They save you the trouble of having to search advertisers for each ad spot on your site. Instead, you can get started showing ads on your sites in no time at all, that way.
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Ebook selling
Ebooks are the easiest ones to create. You can write something on Word and convert it using a simple software program. Then setup payment using PayPal, or submit it to an affiliate network such as Clickbank to handle payment processing for you, and you’re good to go.
That said though, you must have knowledge about the thing that you are going to write about. It has to provide to the reader knowledge that people will gladly pay to learn.
By and large, you can write a guide on how to do something, or a course or instruction about a topic. Video courses, audio courses and e-course are also other alternatives to Ebooks that you can sell on your site.
Some bloggers find writing a paperback (book) lucrative. This is an option for those who can afford to get a book printed. Who knows, maybe the next best seller success story might be yours.
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Services
Offering a service of some sort is arguably the fastest way to earn money blogging.
Whether it be writing, programming, or web development, all you have to do is advertise your service on your website.
You can advertise a service that you are offering on a Freelance website, or one that you are selling on your own website. Make sure that your service is related, at least in some way, to your blog’s theme. By building a blog related to the services that you plan to offer, you can also build a platform to showcase your skills and past work. Your blog can serve as your portfolio since employers or clients prefer real life examples.
The only downside is that you are required to stick around, or in other words you’re going to need to do all the hard tasks and you won’t have much time left to other stuffs. You are glued to your desk always trying to complete your next assignment.
But still, it is a great way to start the ball rolling. You could even end up establishing relationships with many clients that you can sell other services to.
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Membership programs
Simply, membership programs are where members can pay to get access to premium content. A simple example is, say your blog is about relationships, you can make your membership where readers can find more in-depth information, or where you personally answer their questions. You get the idea?
But the catch is that membership sites often require your updating them very regularly, and the information you’re sharing with your members should be an insider info or epic content.
In addition to that, you either have to be an expert at something; or create a community based platform where the users generate the content themselves… and for that you need a wide user base and a unique idea.
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Coupon publishing
This involves becoming an affiliate for top vendors in an industry and publishing newly released coupons on your site, then ranking your site on search engines.
This method can be competitive in some niches and it’s really hard to rank for some coupon keywords in some niches. On top of that, it relies heavily on the speed at which you publish the coupons.
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Email marketing
Email marketing basically involves setting up an email campaign using services such as Aweber, GetResponse or iContact. Basically what you do is ask visitors to subscribe to your email list, in exchange for a free gift (like an ebook or ecourse). Then you will be sending them valuable content or info. And send promos to products now and then (affiliate products or your own products) along with your messages.
It is also possible for you to send them newly posted posts or articles. Then once they are on your website, they will click on an ad or purchase an affiliate product. The key is to provide value, and stay relevant and focus on building relationships.
What’s Your Feedback?
So, in your opinion, how to earn money blogging? Which ones have proved to be the most lucrative to you? Share your secrets and ideas with other readers of this blog.