You can make money blogging. One of the reasons that many bloggers get started is that they want to share their passion for a topic with others. But if you can share a passion and make money while doing it, why not? Blogging doesn’t have to be altogether altruistic.
There are many benefits from blogging. To me the biggest one is the freedom of choice. You can effectively be anywhere in the world when you blog. So, the bottom line is this: You can choose your own lifestyle, and your own location, when you are a blogger. So why not pick the beach? The choice is yours!
Monetisation Options
There are dozens and dozens of advertising programs available. Some are available to anyone and everyone and others are by application only (and not everyone gets approved). But regardless of how many programmes you sign up for, there is a bit of an art to making money with your blog. A lot of people abandon it before making any money at all. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- It can take time to make money with your blog. You need to walk before you can run, so to speak. Be patient and learn as much as you can while building a blog filled with great content. If your content is good and you learn about blog marketing, eventually the traffic will improve and you can begin to see revenue. Don’t expect earnings overnight.
- Too much advertising could hurt your blog. Keep reader experience in mind when deciding how many ads to put up and where to put them. Try to keep your design as clean as possible. Too many ads can also affect your site loading time and you don’t want visitors leaving before they get a chance to read your blog posts.
- Consider testing advertisements out to see how they look and how they convert. Testing and tweaking are part and parcel of the blogging process.
- Don’t try to convert visitors just once. Instead of relying 100% on the ads on the site, consider building a marketing list through a newsletter, too. That newsletter can draw people back to your blog repeatedly and share information and offers with them in their email as well. This will open the door to monetisation through email marketing which can mean that you have opportunities to advertise interesting offers to people on an ongoing basis.
- Take advantage of help that affiliate programme managers can offer. Some will mentor you or set up special creative graphics that will better blend with your blog design. For any program you join, spend time on that website and read the advice and tips given by the affiliate or advertising program.
- If you have trouble getting approved by programs you’re interested in joining, work on increasing your traffic levels and on publishing more content and apply again. If you apply when your site is too new to quantify, many advertising programs will reject you. Don’t be afraid to contact an affiliate program directly after a rejection to find out what you can do to make your blog eligible to participate.
- Look at popular blogs in your niche. A bit of competitive analysis can give you ideas for various monetisation strategies and can help you find new ad campaigns to join as well.
In the Learn How To Blog program, we spend the first 3 months with you setting up the basics for your blog. We understand how important it is to get the foundations right before you monetise your blog. Hence, we cover Monetisation in Module 4 when you and the blog are both ready to progress and monetise.
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Yes I like that about blogging too-you can do it from anywhere in the world. I am currently finishing up a teaching stint in South Korea. Unlike most of the rest of you quietly tucked up in your western beds I have to face periodic threats of nuclear war by a strange man across the border and -this is just as irritating- disgusting local food. Suffice it to say my blogging has suffered.
Hi John.
The guy north of the border is probably controlled by the guy north of his border..
My dog, Buddy, doesn’t like Korean cuisine either. Quite a coincidence, really.
As well as making money directly from advertisements on your blog, there’s a more indirect method. Basically you leverage the credibility and authority that your blog gives you to get other work such as writing for print publications, and teaching. This is not as straightforward, but I think it can be more lucrative in the long run.
Good point Matt.
Your article was very helpful. I am a new blogger and got rejected by many sites and almost gave up, but now i understand that this isn’t easy and planning on making a fresh start.
Thank you for your comment Pasha, we are pleased that you like it.