Chances are if you have a heartbeat, you want to make money. Money is not only a want but also a necessity, and with so many ways to make money online, it can be confusing when it comes to where you should get started. As you can tell by the title, I will be telling you today all about how you can make money by having a blog.

Whether you already have an established website or you’re just starting out from scratch, this guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to make money by blogging. Complete with blogging statistics, crucial blog strategies, and more, you’ll be a blogging expert by the time you finish this article.

Why Blogging?

So, why should you start blogging? Is it lucrative? Many people think that blogging was only popular in the mid-2000s. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Blogging is more popular now than ever and there are several reasons why you may want to get in on the action. We’ve included five reasons that show why blogging is a great hobby or job to take part in.

1. Have Your Voice Heard

Blogging is a great way to have your voice heard. You can do this by telling stories, voicing your opinion, or by giving people suggestions. When you write about something that you enjoy, you’ll have a lot of fun writing about it. When you voice your opinion through a blog, your passion will show through your words. 

If you write about suggestions for people, it’s an easy way to build an audience and get people to trust you. Don’t be afraid to write in your unique voice or about topics that you find interesting that also may be a bit niche. You’d be surprised by how popular niche blogs are.

2. Meet New People

Another great reason to start blogging is to meet new people. Whether you’re an extrovert, an introvert, or something in between, you probably know that the Internet is a great place to easily meet new people. You don’t have to let your audience just be an audience. They can quickly become friends, colleagues, or acquaintances. 

If people relate to your blog, chances are they’ll reach out to you. With that being said, you don’t have to be friends with every single person who reads your blog; that’s actually quite unrealistic. But, it is a great way to meet new people who share similar interests as you.

3. Accessibility

When you have a blog, you can write from just about anywhere, whether you’re sitting at a coffee shop, taking public transit home from work, bored at home, or stuck on a long flight; you can always blog during those moments. 

A blog is also accessible to your audience. As long as they have an internet connection, they will likely be able to find and read your blog. This is incredibly convenient for your audience and is a big plus for you as well.

4. Get Creative

Blogging allows you to be incredibly creative. Not only does the blog itself call for creativity but so does brainstorming blog topics, designing the website, and interacting with your audience.

Being creative is a great way to reduce stress and ignite the right side of your brain. 

You don’t have to be the best selling author to be able to write a successful blog. As long as you allow your creativity to lead you to write about things you actually care about, you’ll be on the right track! 

5. Make Money

Lastly, and probably the reason you’re reading this, is to learn how to make money by blogging. There are several ways you can make money when you have a blog whether it’s through affiliate links, ads, or something else (more on this later!). However, making money with a blog is not as easy as it sounds but we have tips and tricks ready for you (later on) to help you make this as easy as possible. 

How To Start A Blog

Starting a blog it doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it may seem. You don’t have to be incredibly tech-savvy to run a successful blog. And even if you are tech-savvy but don’t quite know where to start, we’ve created a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog by using the six steps listed below. 

1. Write About What You Enjoy

First off, you want to write about subjects that you enjoy. People love passion; if you’re passionate about something, write about it. Your blog should be focused on a specific topic or umbrella topic.

Don’t think that just because there are other blogs about the same topics that yours won’t matter. You have your own unique voice and experiences that will shine through your blog specifically. This can help attract traffic and your readers will likely be able to relate to you.

When you’re trying to come up with blog topic ideas, there are a couple of things you need to consider. First, you should ask yourself if you like learning about said topic. If you don’t, people will be able to notice. You’ll also run out of ideas rather quickly and your work won’t be consistent.

Next, you want to ask yourself if other people are interested in the same topic. If the answer is no, you won’t have any readers. It doesn’t matter their age, race, gender, or anything else, as long as people are interested, you’ll have readers. If you’re unsure if people like the topic that you’re considering writing about, type the topic into a search engine and see how many results come up. The more results, the more popular the topic is.

2. Properly Name Your Blog 

Next, you want to properly name your blog and get a web hosting platform that is cheap and easy to use. This can be a really fun part of creating your blog. You can name it anything you want, but try not to be too cheesy or offensive.

Many people start out by naming the blog after themselves or they use words that start with the same letter as their topic. For example, if you’re writing a blog about cats, you could call it Curious Cats or Facts About Felines. Those titles are catchy and easy for people to remember.

When it comes to your domain name, you want to make sure it isn’t complicated or hard to spell. Domain names are absolutely crucial for blogs and usually will cost you $10 or less per year. It’s good to know that you don’t have to come up with a domain name immediately, and you can always change it later on.

When it comes to web hosting, this is a service that allows people to access your blog by using the Internet. There are a variety of different web hosting companies available, all at different price points. Most web hosting companies charge between $3 and $1,000 per month. As you can see, that is quite the range, making it all the more reason to find a web hosting company that works for you and your budget. 

3. Use WordPress

It is absolutely crucial to have blogging software, such as WordPress. WordPress is the most popular blogging software because it is user-friendly, easy to use, and free. Some people may not like WordPress and will try to find a different blogging software. 

There are tons of different blogging software options available, but they’re usually pretty spendy. WordPress offers literally thousands of free plug-ins that allow you to customize your blog to make it exactly how you want it.

When you hear the word software, you may assume that you have to know a lot of tech information to use it properly. Thankfully, WordPress makes it easy for just about anyone to use. You can install it easily online and there are step-by-step prompts to help you easily create a blog.

4. Design Your Blog 

Speaking of customization, you want to design your blog to match your brand. If you are using WordPress, there are several themes that you can choose from. You may enjoy knowing that you can change your theme at any time, which can come in handy if your brand changes.

Think about your blog, your personal style, and what you want it to look like. Do you want to have fun and unique fonts? Maybe you’re going for a more minimalistic approach. Whatever the case, it’s important to design your blog to fit your personal style and brand to help your blog readers connect with you.

WordPress also has plug-ins. Plug-ins are ways you can easily customize your page. You can add forums, polls, contact forms, and more.

5. Brainstorm Topics

So, at this point, your blog is all ready to be published. But before you do that, you’ll need to brainstorm ideas of what you should write about. You could easily Google what you should write about, but it doesn’t need to be too complicated.

You could even try opening up a new document and just start writing. See what comes out and then check if it’s interesting and fits within your blog topic. If not, there are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you come up with blog ideas.

You want to ask yourself what stirs up passion within yourself and your readers. If your blog is about health and beauty, your readers may get excited about a new DIY facemask they can make with things they have at home.

You also may want to consider any common issues that your readers might experience. With this same example, you could write about people struggling with acne, fat burning tips, or how to fit a workout into your busy workday.

Try to think of the demographics of your readers. Chances are, the readers of a health and lifestyle blog will be more laid-back and likely creative. Try to write in a style that will engage them.

Then ask what your blog readers enjoy and dislike about the topic. Do your readers love working out but hate getting sweaty? Write about that. Are your readers passionate about make-up, but don’t want to use products tested on animals? Write a blog post about the top 10 cruelty-free makeup products. See? It doesn’t have to be too difficult or time-consuming. 

6. Write!

Now that you’ve ensured a domain, downloaded writing software, brainstormed topic ideas, it’s time to write. Publishing your first blog post can be quite intimidating. What if your readers don’t like what you have to say? What if you offend someone? What if you don’t even have any readers to offend? 

Just like anything else in life, by releasing a blog, you’re taking a leap into the unknown. Not having readers at first is normal, but if you apply all of the tips and tricks that you’ve read so far, you’re bound to gain traffic eventually.

Need-To-Know Strategies

Below you’ll find six need-to-know strategies to help make your blog as successful as possible. Let’s get started by talking about a budget.

1. Having A Budget

You may not think you even need a budget to have a blog, but you’d be wrong. You need to create a realistic budget for each month and the year in total. The budget can include things like a domain, a website, additional WordPress plug-ins, or even items to test for blog posts.

You may also need to factor in whether or not you’re paying someone to write your blog posts. Also, if you plan to have guest bloggers, they may expect compensation. Make sure this is discussed and communicated clearly before any deals are made.

Lastly, when it comes to a budget, think about how much you may need to set aside to run ads on Google or social media platforms. Google and social media websites are highly trafficked and a great place to showcase your blog to new people. Ads online can vary in price quite a bit, which is why it’s important to have a budget with some wiggle room. 

2. Knowing Your Audience

Knowing who your audience is absolutely crucial. This can help you create better content for your readers. You may not want to write about the best kid’s toys if your blog is aimed at a single 20-somethings or teenagers. Knowing who your audience is is a great way to establish a relationship with them.

Knowing the demographics of your audience will help you to create content that not only you enjoy but that engages them as well. Your audience will be made up of several different types of people. Some people who have blogs specifically write their content to appeal to their target audience. If you do this, you want to conduct market research.

3. Creating Goals

Another strategy for having a successful blog is creating clear goals. Having goals will help you stay on track and create content people will want to read about. Having goals is also a great way to keep your audience‘s attention. 

For example, you could write a blog post about the best summer skincare products and then have your call-to-action at the end of the post; mention your next article and the topic. Just make sure the two topics correlate so that your audience will feel led to read future posts. 

4. Have High-Quality Content

You want to make sure you have high-quality content on your website. Adding images and videos to your blog is a great way to hold audience retention. If you do decide to add images or videos to your blog posts, make sure they’re high quality. 

Let’s say you’re showing your audience your skincare routine. They don’t want to see a pixelated video that was filmed in low lighting. All content on your blog will reflect you and your brand, which is why it’s important to make sure you put a lot of effort and attention into it.

5. Stay Up-To-Date

Speaking of content, make sure your blog posts are up-to-date. You can do this by going through older blog posts and updating them regularly. This not only keeps your content fresh, but it will also draw readers’ attention to blog posts they may not have seen yet.

In this day in age, people are expecting new content daily. If you’re able to, put out new content daily or weekly at the very least. This way you keep traffic coming into your website and can quickly build an audience.

6. Be Engaging

Lastly, make sure everything about your blog is engaging. The last thing someone wants to read is a boring blog post. Chances are, if they’re bored, they’ll exit out of your blog and find a more entertaining one. This will increase your bounce rate and decrease the amount of consistent traffic you see on your website.

A sneaky way to be engaging is to include a lot of internal articles within each blog post. An internal article, or link, is where you place a link within a blog post of yours that leads to another relevant blog post on your site. This keeps readers on your website and blog instead of exiting and going to another writer’s or company’s blog. Being engaging isn’t hard and is an easy way to have a successful blog!

Top 5 Ways To Make Money Blogging

Now we’re getting to the good part where you’ll learn the five best ways that you can make money by blogging. Feel free to try one, two, or all five of these strategies to bring in the most income from your website each month. Let’s take a look at what made the cut:

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money from your blog. One of the most popular affiliate marketing programs is Amazon Affiliates. Using this strategy is the process of becoming an affiliate for specific products or services and promoting them within your blog posts. When promoting them, it doesn’t have to come off like you’re trying to make a sale. 

Let’s say you’re writing a blog post called “The Top 10 Christmas Gifts Of 2019 That Wives Love!” In this blog post, you could mention a product you’re an affiliate with. You can write about why you love the product, how it made the list, and the key features of the product. 

It is important to keep in mind that when you do this, you must tell disclose to your readers that you will make money if they buy said product or service with your link. This will keep you out of legal trouble and show your audience that you’re honest. 

2. Put Ads On Your Posts

Another great way that you can make money when you’re blogging is by putting ads on your blog posts. The most beneficial way to go about doing this is by using Google Adsense. You can do this by simply adding a script to your website to display Google ads.

But how do you get paid from this? You will make money every time a visitor of your website clicks on the ads. Google will give you a specific fee that they determine via cost per click, better known as CPC. If this sounds like something you’re interested in trying out, you can sign up here. 

3. Sell Online Content

If you have the skills and talents to offer your audience more, you can use them to sell online content. This could be something such as an online coaching class. Let’s say you have a blog dedicated to everything related to entrepreneurship. You could easily promote an online coaching class where you teach people how to write a business plan or scope out the competition. 

There are a myriad of topics you could teach people online. To do this, you could have people sign up via email and pay a specific fee for the class. Make sure you tell them what their money will be getting them in terms of content and any special information or content that you don’t share on your public blog. 

4. Offer Services

Chances are, if you’re a blogger, you’re likely a talented writer. You could offer your services as a freelance writer to other blogs. This is an awesome way to make extra money by blogging. As long as you’re not ghostwriting, you’ll be able to use this strategy as a way to get your name out there. 

If the posts and articles you write about require any external links, you may even be able to link to your own website! How cool is that? There are a lot of sites where you can find freelance jobs, such as Upwork. 

5. Sponsored Blog Posts

You may not want your blog showcasing Google ads for a number of reasons. Maybe you think it will turn off your audience or maybe you don’t like not knowing what the ad will be trying to sell. Whatever the case may be, you can also make money by sponsored blog posts instead of advertisements.

This is similar to affiliate marketing, except you usually are required to write an entire post about a specific product or service. Just like affiliate marketing, you have to make sure your audience is aware that that specific blog post is sponsored and that you’re making money from it. 

If this sounds like something you want to do, create a media kit and start reaching out to companies to get a sponsorship deal! An important thing to keep in mind when doing this is to read the fine print of sponsorship deals. The last thing you want is to be tied up in a deal that you don’t want to be a part of. 

Final Takeaway

If you’ve made it this far, you’re practically a blogging expert by now. Blogging can not only be a fun way to express your thoughts and creativity, but it can also be monetized. Making money from doing something you love is the best type of job! Remember to find your target audience and create engaging content. 

There are several ways to make money by blogging. You can try running ads on your blog posts, becoming an affiliate for a product you stand behind, or offer online services to your blog readers. Whichever you choose, make sure to always disclose when you’re getting paid and be honest with your audience.