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Blogging is a proven method to make money online. If you are new to the online business world, blogging is actually a good starting point for you for a few reasons.
Reason #1: It’s easy and quick to get started. All you need is a domain name and web hosting. Even if you are not tech-savvy, you can set everything up with a few clicks.
Reason #2: You can build and grow your blog on the side without quitting your job. It’s extremely flexible. If you have other commitments, you just need to fit your blogging schedule around them.
Reason #3: There are many ways to earn money from your blog. Most of them are truly passive income.
How To Generate Cash From Your Blog
Method #1: You can make money with advertising on your website.
To get started, you need to apply with Google AdSense or an ads Management Company like MediaVine.
Once you get accepted, you can start making money from the ads displayed on your website.
In fact, for big publishers such as Entrepreneur.com, one of their biggest sources of revenue is advertising.
From the screenshot below, you can see that one display ads are placed right in the middle of their front page.
Here’s another example of making money with advertising.
Below is a food blog that shares recipes and also sells its own products.
You can see that they place ads just below one of their cooking videos.
Now, how much can you make with ads?
It’s estimated that you can make around $1 for every 1,000 pageviews on your blog.
That means you can expect to make roughly $100 a day if you have 100,000 pageviews every month on your blog.
Here’s the definition of pageview according to Google:
“A pageview (or pageview hit, page tracking hit) is an instance of a page being loaded (or reloaded) in a browser. Pageviews is a metric defined as the total number of pages viewed.”
In other words, the more visitors you have and the more pages they view on your blog, the higher your ads revenue.
You can start your blog with Bluehost, just like how I did it with my website.
Method #2: You can make money from promoting other people’s products or services as an affiliate.
When it comes monetizing your blog, I recommend that you start with affiliate marketing first because it’s the quickest way to make money from your blog.
Right now, more than half of my blog revenue comes from affiliate marketing.
The best part about affiliate marketing is that it’s completely passive.
So, you could be earning an affiliate commission even while you are sleeping or spending time with your family.
That’s also one of the reasons I chose affiliate marketing because it gives me a lot of flexibility to spend more time with my son.
Here’s an example of me promoting investment books on my website.
Basically, what I did was that I signed up to be an Amazon affiliate.
As an Amazon affiliate, I can promote any product that is being sold on Amazon using my unique affiliate link ( yes, that is how they know the sale is referred by you)
The investment books above are shown at the end of one of my investing blog posts because I felt that it was relevant and it might even be helpful to some readers who want to read more on the topic.
If my readers think that the book is good and decides to buy, then I will be paid a small commission by Amazon at no additional cost to him or her.
So, I highly recommend affiliate marketing to anyone who wants to start blogging for the first time.
But, to succeed in affiliate marketing, you need to learn how to get started the right way.
Here’s a FREE affiliate training that you can sign up to get yourself started.
To find good affiliate programs, you can join popular affiliate networks such as Flexoffers (I’m personally using it)
For each affiliate program, it has its own payout structure.
Some offer you a one-time fixed dollar amount payout while others give you a percentage of their sales as your commission.
So, how much can you make from affiliate marketing?
It all comes down to how much traffic your blog receives and how many of them you can convert into buying the products or services you are promoting.
The income potential from affiliate marketing can be quite high if you follow the right strategy.
For example, Lucie’s List, a website about baby gears, is definitely making at least 5-figure every month from affiliate marketing alone.
Method #3: You can make money with sponsored posts.
Companies are always trying to reach out to their target customers through different advertising channel.
Sponsored post is one of them.
Below is one example of a sponsored post on a Mom blog.
The company called Torani produces flavoring syrup and sauce.
So, one of its target customers is moms.
Asking a mom blogger to promote its products on their blog is a very smart marketing decision because her blog audience is mostly moms.
So, depending on your niche and audience demographics, you will attract different types of sponsors.
For example, if you are running a personal finance blog, your potential sponsor could be insurance companies or banks.
If you have a website in the niche of beauty and skincare, then your potential sponsor could be cosmetics companies or plastic surgery clinic.
How much can you make with sponsored post?
Generally, you can charge anywhere from $300 to upwards of $2000, depending on a few factors such as your website traffic and social following.
If you have tons of website traffic and a huge social media following, you can probably command a much higher price.
For example, KellyMom.com charges a one-month sponsorship fee of $3000 in exchange for a sponsored post on its website and a Facebook post.
Method #4: You can make money by selling your own products on your blog.
It can be physical products or digital products. But, it is more common and much more profitable to sell digital products such as eBooks, online courses, and printable.
For my blog, I have been selling my own online program” Service Arbitrage Pro” on autopilot.
That means the entire sales process is fully automated.
Method#5: You can make money by selling your own services on your website.
So, what services can you offer on your blog?
To help you figure out what you can offer, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your skills and expertise?
- What problems can you help your audience solve?
- What results can you help your audience achieve?
- What advice does your audience often ask from you?
- What challenges have you overcome?
- What results have you achieved?
Generally, it is very common for bloggers to offer coaching and consulting services related to their niche.
For example, FIRE (Financial Independent Early Retirement) blogger might offer consulting on how to achieve FIRE.
A marketing blogger who writes about SEO and content marketing might offer SEO services to help businesses rank higher on Google and get more organic traffic and leads.
Where To Start When You Are A Total Beginner
There are 3 simple steps to follow to get your online blogging business started.
- Set up your blog
- Build an audience
- Start making money
Set Up Your Blog
So, how do you set up your website, just like my blog you are reading right now?
Step #1: Purchase a domain name & web hosting
For my website, I purchased my domain name and web hosting plan from Bluehost. It’s one of the cheapest web hosting plans around and offers 24/7 online support.
If you are just starting out, the cheapest annual plan from Bluehost is good enough.
You can start your blog with Bluehost now with just $3.95 per month.
Step #2: Get your website live
Once you have purchased your domain name and web hosting, it’s time to get your blog live and design your blog.
Let me give you an analogy.
If your domain name were your house address and your web hosting were your house, then a WordPress blog theme would be the interior design of your house.
There are many free WordPress themes.
When you are just starting out, you can just choose any of the free themes available.
But, if you are serious about making money with your website and have the money to invest, then I would recommend that you purchase a fast, light and responsive WordPress theme.
When it comes to choosing the right theme, there are TWO things that are super important:
- Speed
- Responsive design
- Conversion-focused
Ideally, you want a WordPress theme that is light and fast, so your website will load quickly for your website visitors.
A fast website gives them a better user experience as well.
Next, you need your theme to be responsive.
That means your website can be viewed on all types of devices – mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
But, you shouldn’t just want a fast and responsive website.
At the end of the day, you also want a website that can help bring you more subscribers, more customers, and more revenue
For that reason, I highly recommend Thrive Themes which is conversion-focused.
After you have decided on the theme, your next step is to install it for your blog.
If you are using Bluehost, its one-click WordPress install allows you to install your WordPress theme effortlessly.
Free Training: How I Generated A Full-Time Income Online With My Blog In Less Than 12 Months
Step #3: Start writing content on your website
Now, your blog is live.
You need to start publishing content on your blog and also get your website indexed by Google, so you will get free organic traffic from Google later on.
For your blog content, quality always trumps quantity for two reasons.
When you write high-quality blog posts that give a lot of value, your audience will like and share your content and also perceive you as an authority in your niche.
Over time, they could become loyal fans of your blog.
Another reason is that Google loves good and original content. If you publish good and original blog posts consistently, Google could drive more traffic to your website over time.
As you build your blog and your audience, you start experimenting with different monetization methods and see which one is the best for you.
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