You’ve started a blog, or at least you are thinking about starting one. Perhaps you love to write, or you feel that you have some information and knowledge that you wish to share with the world. Maybe you want to seek fame and you think that the best route for you to pursue it is though blogging online. These are all great reasons to start a blog. However, if you’re going to make this project sustainable in the long term, you will want to earn some money from your efforts. If you’re wondering how to make a living blogging, you came to the right place.
In this post we’ll tell you about thirteen different ways to earn money from your blog. If you’ve already started blogging, you can put many of these suggestions into practice right away. On the other hand, if you have been thinking about blogging but have not yet put the wheels in motion to make it happen, then these suggestions will likely inspire you to get the ball rolling.
Read on and take notes; these suggestions may very well change your life forever.
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Blogging Is Great
There are so many wonderful things about blogging.
First and foremost, you get to be heard. Everyone wants to be heard, but in a busy world like ours, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. When you are a blogger, you put your words out there on the internet for everyone to see. They are there for years to come if you so desire, and if you put in the work, you can build a following of people who will hang on your every word.
Second, blogging is a fantastic creative outlet. Although it takes a lot of effort, you’ll likely find that writing on a regular basis will inspire you to do amazing things in your life. Having a creative outlet like a blog will help you to reduce your stress levels, too.
Passive Income
There are other benefits as well. However, for the purpose of this article, we should look to one of the biggest and most obvious benefits of blogging: passive income.
You may have realized by now that there are only so many hours in a day and that your energy is limited. It’s impossible to work thirty hours in any day because there aren’t that many hours available. It’s also impossible to stay focused and effective at any job past a certain point; that point is different for everyone.
Therefore, the amount of money that you can make from a traditional job is limited, too. You can only work so many hours, and you can only make so much money during those hours.
Passive income is different. When you set up passive income streams, you can be making money twenty-four hours a day. You can earn money simultaneously while you are working at another job, and you can earn money while you are on vacation in Hawaii.
You can even earn money while you are sleeping.
Guess what? Blogging is an excellent way to earn passive income.
How to Make a Living Blogging
If you want to learn how to make a living blogging, read on. These thirteen suggestions are all ways to monetize your blog. Some are simple and require little time investment to implement. Others will require a bit more work on your part.
Not every suggestion will work for every individual, so take your time and think them all through. Choose one or two of the options to try first and then go from there. Maybe someday you’ll end up applying all thirteen of these awesome suggestions.
1. Advertising Networks
Using your blog for advertising is, in general, one of the easiest ways to make a living from your blog.
The most simple way to incorporate advertising into your blog is through the use of advertising networks. The two most popular ad networks out there are Google AdSense and Media.net.
There are several great things about using advertising networks. First of all, once you sign up, there is not much else you need to do after that other than collect the money that you make. These services are set up in a way that aims to make the whole process easy on the blogger.
Second of all, the ads that will appear on your site will be relevant to your readers. The way this works is twofold. The ad network service searches your article for keywords and posts advertisements that are related to it. It also tracks the reader’s interest and, in turn, posts ads that he or she specifically might find interesting.
Many bloggers earn thousands of dollars per month through advertising in this way. It’s easy, and it’s lucrative. Signing up for one of these services is something you should do right away.
2. Native Advertising
Native advertising is similar to the above, but also very different.
This type of advertising is made to look like the blog posts you have posted on your site, but it comes from an outside source. You have likely encountered some native advertising on social media or on other blogs that you read, sometimes without even realizing it.
The downside of native advertising is that you are tricking your readers to think that they are reading something you wrote, when really what they are reading is an article written by a paid, outside source to encourage them to purchase a specific product.
However, this is something that is okay with you, then go for it. Lots of bloggers include native advertising on their sites and it’s possible to make quite a bit of additional income doing it.
There are a number of different sites that offer native advertising services including Google AdSense, Mgid, Outbrain, and Taboola.
3. Direct Advertisements
Yet another type of advertising that you can facilitate on your blog is direct advertising. This is likely what you think of first when it comes to selling advertising and using it to your advantage. Direct advertising is the act of one company or individual selling an ad that they will display on their website directly to another company.
Let’s say you run a blog about camping in national and state parks in the United States. Your readers most likely will need some camping gear like tents, cooking equipment, lanterns, sleeping bags, and so on. You might consider selling direct advertising on your blog to a chain of camping outfitters located near some of our country’s national parks.
When you sell direct advertising, the company you sell it to benefits because they are reaching the people they want to reach. You also benefit, because you can pick and choose what companies you allow to advertise on your site.
This combination is beneficial for both parties and for your readers. Your readers will trust the companies that you promote because you are promoting them. The business will get more customers because you sent your readers their way. You will benefit from the advertising revenue.
It can be difficult to find businesses that want to engage in direct advertising on your site at first, but as you grow, this will be more and more enticing for many. You can find advertisers by reaching out to them, or by posting a media kit on your site to draw them in.
4. Brand Campaigns
Brand campaigns can be a lot of fun and can help both you and the brands that you choose to promote. You are probably familiar with the term “influencer,” which is a buzzword today. Once your blog gets going, you can be an influencer, too.
In a brand campaign, you personally write about a specific brand and why you like it so much. If you have readers that are dedicated to you, trust you, and want to be like you, you can influence them to purchase items from this brand simply by saying that you like them and why.
You may think this sort of thing does not work, but oh, it does. According to a recent study of marketers, 94% said that they have found that influencer marketing is an effective strategy for their businesses.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is sort of a combination of several of the above strategies. Many bloggers believe it is the number one, most profitable way to make money online from your blog.
In short, affiliate marketing is marketing in which you first suggest a product to your readers. If all goes well, they will click on the link to that product on your blog and will be taken to the merchant’s site. If and when they decide to purchase the item, you will receive a commission.
You can find products and businesses that would like to be promoted in this way. Some of the payouts are small, but they can add up fast. Others can offer you a huge commission of even up to several thousand dollars for a single affiliate purchase.
It’s absolutely worth incorporating affiliate marketing into your blog. One great resource that can help you in this realm is Legendary Marketer.
6. Publish Ebooks
If people like to hear what you have to say online, chances are that they will also be interested in what you have to say offline, too. Ebooks are becoming more and more popular these days and almost every avid reader has an e-reader or an e-reader app on their phone or tablet. There were 266 million ebooks sold in 2017 and that number continues to increase each year.
The great thing about ebooks for bloggers is that they are easy to self-publish. You don’t need to find a publisher to print and publish your creation; instead, you can publish it yourself for little or no overhead or investment. You won’t have a bunch of physical books on hand to store and mail out; you can instead sell your book through your blog and other sites. Many bloggers write several books each year.
7. Offer Physical Products
You can also offer physical products through your site. If you choose to publish a hard copy of any of your ebooks, you can sell them directly to your customers in an online store. Beyond that, the possibilities here are endless. Once you garner a following, your readers may also be interested in merchandise like t-shirts, stickers, water bottles, items specific to your niche, and more.
8. Offer Online Courses
If readers come to your site time and time again, it’s likely because they are learning from you and enjoy hearing what you have to say. You can parlay this into income for yourself by offering online courses.
You probably know a lot about something that interests other people. You can teach them everything you know in an online course, and sell this course to them.
An online course can have a variety of formats, but most bloggers today choose to offer them via video. These are quick and easy to produce after some planning, and they are often a big hit. Your readers will feel like they are getting to know you better and as if they have met you face to face, and this can result in increased sales of your other products and services, too.
9. Market Yourself as a Public Speaker
Just as your readers would love to watch you on video, they would also love to come to hear you speak in person. Many bloggers have much success in marketing themselves as public speakers.
This can work in two different ways. First, you can offer in-person speeches and workshops to your readers somewhere where you can all come together. Or, you can use your blogging experience to market yourself to businesses in your niche that might invite you to speak at one of their meetings or at a larger conference.
10. Create a Membership Site
A membership site is another great idea to make ongoing income from your blog. Offering a membership option on your blog gives your readers a chance to get one step closer to you and provides them with access to content that non-paying members cannot see.
Membership sites give you the opportunity to make money and market directly to people that have already shown that they are willing to spend some money on you. Don’t overlook these as an option; many bloggers swear by membership sites and earn a large income each month by simply letting them do their thing.
Happy Blogging
Now that you know how to make a living blogging, what are you waiting for? There’s a great big internet out there just waiting for you. Once you get started, get some content on your site, and set up some of these passive income streams, you’ll soon see that blogging isn’t just fun, it can be very lucrative, too. Good luck on your mission, and happy blogging to you.
If you are interested in hearing more about blogging, affiliate marketing, and passive income, check out the rest of my site. I’ve created a great deal of information to help you on your way.
