How to start a blog to make money is one of the goals bloggers consciously and unconsciously set for themselves. After finding out how to start a blog, over time you want a better way you can earn from your blog, because, blogging is an investment unless you want to blog for fun which I doubt anyone will want to put in their time, resources and sometimes savings just to entertain others.
If you are on the journey to financial freedom, then its high time you want to set up your goals and make money from your blog.
Why did you start a blog to make money?
The following are some of the reasons certain persons joined the bandwagon of blogging;
You are mom blogger, you need a source of income that will allow you stay at home, work and look after your kids and yet be able to have a source of revenue and stay away from a life of credit cards debts.
You are a student looking for a side income that could help you stay off or pay up your student loans and live a debt-free life.
Maybe, you wanted a community of my own just like me, that will allow you to express your thoughts, grow, learn and make money
A very common reason: You hate sitting down or resuming at your workplace because you find it boring and deep down, you desperately want a way of your predicament, you want to know how to make money from your blog.
Case Studies:
Angela Vaz, a blogger and curly hair illustrator at Stray Curls, in her bio, stated she was working at a place where she builds websites for people in India and did all of those computer-stuffs she hates badly.
She started blogging because she needed an avenue that could help her express her passion ‘ drawing” while earning, so she started another blog called stray curls.
I know a friend who currently works at a bank, and almost every day, she complains how she hates her job.
She wants a life that will take her away from the boring job, although, she runs a blog and yet to make a substantial amount of money from her blog, to quit her job.
Learn how to start a blog using this simple guide
Before we delve into how to make money from a blog? let’s discuss;
Facts about making money from a blog;
Fact #1 -Blogging is not a Ponzi Scheme:
This is a problem with a lot of new bloggers and that’s why click bait articles like ” Start a blog and make money in 15-minutes on Pinterest” gets faster opening rates because everyone wants to make money with a blog.
Blogging is a game or rather, a business of consistency.
If you have the mindset that blogging will give you $1 on the day you started blogging then darling, you will get burnt out within a week.
It is a gradual process, to make money from the blog you need a few things which includes the right niche, the right content, the right growth strategy, the right audience and the right products.
Fact #2- Your Niche Matters:
Whoever told you that the niche you find yourself in blogging doesn’t matter for you to blog to make money, please kindly trash that idea.
In my free e-book ” The Kangaroo guide to picking a blogging niche” I discussed and explained all you need to know about a blog niche.
You may be asking, what has my blogging niche got to do with making money from my blog?
Well, your blogging niche should be picked based on the formula below:
Blogging Niche= Skill + Passion + Audience problem
If you are in a niche such as vegan diets, you know you are targeting people who want to go vegan or are trying to maintain their diet.
When you create quality contents to meet the problems of your target audience, they will want to stick around for long.
If you decide to create a product based on the vegan diet they will be willing to buy from you.
Illustration Using Vegan Diets
Let’s Imagine; You create a blog post on vegan diets;
What do you think will happen?
Sales will happen because, that content you created was specifically for a particular niche, a well-targeted audience with a problem, a lead magnet for their emails and products for you to make money.
FACTS #3- You need an Email List to Blog to Make Money:
In many of my list post on strategies and growth hacks for bloggers, I make a lot of emphasis on growing your email list as a new blogger.
It is better to have an email list of 1000 loyal subscribers than an Instagram account of 5000 followers, with an email list of 1000 followers.
Because, if you create the right products, you can make money from your blog by having an income of $500 from that list.
Things you need to grow your email list and blog to make money:
An email marketing software: you can use Mailchimp, Mailerlite for free up to 1000 subscribers which is a good start especially if you are starting on a frugal budget
A lead magnet: A lead magnet is some sort of freebie you give to your prospective subscribers in exchange for their email address, it could be in form of a content upgrade, a reduced price for purchasing your site or course membership,
A lead magnet is something of value that you give in exchange for an email address.
E.g Ellduclos offers her e-course worth $49 for $17 when you sign up to her list. How nice?
From the illustration where we discussed vegan diets and 10-vegan recipes, the 10- vegan diet is a lead magnet, it could be in the form of a cheat sheet, or an e-book or a checklist.
Google Drive: You need google drive or Dropbox to house your freebie and a shareable link to direct them over.
PS: I am creating a free ultimate guide for new bloggers to grow their email list, and attract the right customers for their products.
Update: I created a free guide on Best Strategies for Placing Optin forms that Grow your List Consistently.
FACT #4- You Need an Audience to make money blogging
If you want to blog to make money or create a money-making blog, you need an audience with a problem, that you have the skill and solution to and that’s where your blogging niche comes in.
You need to find out where your target audience and hanging out, discover their problems, solve their problems and convert them for sales.
Common Places Where your Target Audience Hangout
Some common places where your target audience hangout include;
Pinterest: As Facebook and Instagram keep making their algorithm difficult, people are turning to the visual search engine called Pinterest.
On Pinterest, you can find bloggers, people of all niches, ranging from home decor, DIY, lifestyle, beauty, food, blogging and a list of numerous industries who have one problem or the other they are trying to fix and are willing to pay in return if you solve their problems.
Facebook Group Pods: In Facebook groups, you will find bloggers of all niches and levels; newbie, intermediate and amateur.
These are places where you get to see people ask their real problems and it will baffle you the kind of questions they are asking.
This is how you observe different problems and which fits into your niche and how well can you fix them.
Recently, I joined a thread and answered people’s questions, and they asked for my blog URL because I published a blog post on 10-growth hacks for new bloggers and it touched so many angles of blogging.
I got feedbacks and below is one of them that struck me concerning lead magnets;
“I loved this blog article, I saved it for additional referencing. Also pinned. Thank you for sharing this. I didn’t realize we needed to place the opt-in in 7 strategic locations within our blog. Thanks for sharing.”
Now, this comment was about productivity on the same blog post but she needed a planner.
Before that blog post, I have been playing with the idea of creating a blog planner.
It is a new year, and every blogger has a new resolution, how to blog to make money is usually one of them.
Blogging to make money is usually an offspring of how productive a blogger can be and hence, a very good planner.
So I took the blog planner serious after reading the comment below from that blog post “10-hacks to grow your blog as a new blogger”.
“What I am taking home as a new blogger is to be productive and not busy. Every new blogger should read this post. So rich with research and facts that I didn’t know. Thank you for sharing. I am also wondering where to get a good and affordable blog planner”.
Having blog traffic is not an issue when you are looking at growing your blog to make money, you need to uncover the right audience to make money from a blog.
We have addressed some blog money-making issues and criteria, let’s delve into What product and services to sell on the blog to make money.
ARE YOU READY TO ROW?
List of Things and Services you could Offer on your Blog to Make Money
For you to make money on your blog, there are a few things you could offer on your blog which can be categorised into
- Services
- Products
Services you could Offer on Your Blog to make money
1. Ads and Affiliates
Affiliates services includes putting up third party contents such as ads, courses or products on your blog to earn commissions when purchases or clicks are made
Most brands such as domain hosting companies, themes, plugins and template market offer affiliates using these popular networks;
ii. Commission Junction (CJ)
iii. Shareasale
iv. Awin
v. Mediavine Ads; Before now, Google Adsense was the king of all ads network as it was the only ad network which was trusted and well manged until Mediavine came in.
To be accepted with Mediavine, your blog needs to be in good standing with Google and will need to have had at least 25K sessions in the last 30 days. Sessions, not page views.
So What do you say about Mediavine for now? What’s your reaction “Leggo or pilizzz wait?”
Vi. Google Adsense: Google Adsense is one the oldest and trusted ad network but these days people are beginning to ditch it for Mediavine or some other ad network.
Google and the Mediavine ads pay either per click or impressions you get on your blog (how many persons clicked on your site).
Vii. Other bloggers in your niche may be open to affiliates, just choose the affiliates that are suitable for you and your audience, audience because they are the ones to buy into your products.
2. Placing Custom Ads on your Blog:
Custom ads is a very common practice where someone or a brand approaches you to place a banner or link to their site and products for some time and in return, you are offered money as payments for this.
Placing custom ads is one of the direct ways to make money from a blog.
When I was in the entertainment niche, I used this as a source of driving revenue to my blog but, if you are blogging to make passive income, there are better and sure ways to make money blogging.
3. Sponsored Post/ Reviews:
Sponsored post and reviews are like selling private ads and this can come in the form of banners, buttons, or links. Most bloggers make money writing sponsored posts. You write about a product or give a review of an advertiser’s product or service.
The type of sponsored post or reviews you will be approached for is totally dependent on your niche and audience type.
As a blogger teaching blogging, the type of reviews or sponsored post I will accept will be on blogging related products or services.
Example; I may choose to review plugins, templates, courses etc. these are blog related kinds of stuff.
Illustration: A beauty blogger is likely to review makeup, soaps, skincare products etc.
Illustration II: A fashion blogger may likely accept products and sponsored post on clothing, shoes, and fashion related products
You cannot be in a fashion niche and you go ahead to review products on health. That’s off your niche.
How to get Companies or Brands for Sponsored Post
There is no magic about getting brands to work with you but you need to learn to reach out to brands if you feel you have the right audience, simply pitch an idea to them, stating you have the right audience and their products suit your audience, send them your media kit.
When starting out, companies may not reach out to you yet, don’t wait for them to, go for them and if you are turned down, kindly knock on the next door.
Never downplay your opportunity to use your blog to make money, kill impostor syndrome and reach out to that brand today!
On the other hand, sometimes brands may reach out to work with you requesting your media kit if you don’t have one, I created beautiful professional media kit templates
4. Selling Your Own Products and Services on Your Blog to make money:
This is one of my favourite on how to make money with a blog.
If you really want to blog to make money you should think about creating your own products.
It may not be very expensive or all comprehensive as a new blogger but over time, you will find out what fuels your interest and that of your readers.
When I started this blog all over again, I had in mind to create an e-course which I knew was expensive if I wanted to have a successful launch.
Somewhere in me, I have been playing with the idea of landing pages and template designs.
While putting down this blog post, I have been building templates and things I want to sell before I will launch my e-course.
You do not necessarily have to wait until you are expert, start with sharing your little skill and experiences to your readers, using it solve their problems, in return, you can make money from your blog.
Save this, Pin this to your blogging board.
How to find out what to sell on your blog to Make Money
This may not be a comprehensive list but I will try to keep things as simple as possible.
In the illustration above, we discussed a simple funnel on vegan diets, using a “Vegan diet post, vegan diet Lead magnet and a course on how to stick with a vegan diet”.
The illustration above proves two points;
Point #1: It is a well-targeted approach.
It is niched- It was solely targeted at those who eat but not just eat, those who want to go vegan.
This simply means your products should be properly niched, it should invoke curiosity and properly suit your reader
Point #2: It is very Intentional
Each part of the funnel has clear intentions which are to make sales.
When writing a blog post, your blog post should have a goal, is it to make money, educate or just one of your flip and win.
You cannot have the intentions of making a vegan diet product and yet you write a post or create a lead magnet talking about “why everyone should eat beef or pork”.
That’s like throwing a needle into a river believing you will get it back.
Products You Can Sell to Make Money
- E-books
- Printables
- Workbooks
- Planners
- Courses
Use your Sweet (Unique thing about you or your business) + Your skill + Audience Problems to create a product.
Services you can offer on your blog to make money
- Coaching services
- Write for other sites and blogs
- Write newsletters for other bloggers
- A virtual assistant
- Become a social media manager.
In conclusion:
If you want to live above paycheck to paycheck, and you feel blogging is an over-saturated industry, I am just informing you that there is room for everybody, just discover your unique selling point.
But, what makes you different from others in your industry?
Is it your pattern of writing, your designs, your ability to write things that capture people’s attention?
Use that sweet spot plus your audience problems and create something for sale no matter how small it may be. This will help you create a source of livelihood.
What are you good at and what product can you make. How are you earning from your blog, please share with us in the comment section?
Save this pin for later
