Making Money By Blogging

Some say there are no legitimate ways to make money from home, but that's not true.  Many people make a living from home, and one of the ways people do so is by blogging.  What you're reading right now is an article on a blog, and you may notice advertisements on the side of the blog or below this article.  That means this blog is monetized (and most blogs are).  Monetizing a blog is one of many ways to make money with blogging.

Ways To Make Money Blogging

1. Monetizing Your Blog With Ad Platforms - The way this works is that you create a blog in a specific niche (in this case, the niche is homeschooling, so this blog focuses on homeschooling and anything homeschooling parents will find useful).  After writing between 15-100 high quality blog posts that contain information that people genuinely want to read, the blog author uses a platform like Google Adsense to place ads in specific places where they will be visible by blog readers.  

Depending on the type of ads that are placed on the blog, the blog author gets between a few cents and a few dollars per click on the advertisements, or a few cents for every thousand or so views to the ads.  

Take note: when making money per ad click this is only for legitimate ad clicks.  Ad platforms like Adsense have algorithms to tell who clicked on the ad (the blog author is not allowed to click on ads), how long people stayed on the website the ad directed them to, and if any purchases were made etc.  After a blog author makes at least $100 in ad clicks or ad views, they can then cash out their earnings.

It should be noted that the more people you can get to your blog, the more money you can make with this method.  In order to get people to your blog, having a big social media presence is important.  Having a lot of high quality articles is also important.  If you can create a following of loyal readers by regular updates and frequent new articles, you will get readers coming back to your blog again and again (and thus get eyes on your ads again and again).

It should also be noted that using the appropriate keywords and SEO (search engine optimization) is also important.  The keywords you use on your blog articles determine the type of ads that come up on your page.  Some ads are only worth a few cents per click, others can be worth a few dollars (or even twenty dollars) per click.  You'll need to look into doing keyword research to figure out what kind of keywords you should be targeting in the hopes of getting those higher paid ads to pop up alongside your articles.  Of course, in many niches, the ads will only be worth a few cents no matter which keywords you use, and that's ok.  Many people blog because they're passionate about something, not because they're trying to make money, and they only put adsense or other ads up on their blog in the hopes of making a few extra dollars per year.  Using the right keywords is also important because you want ads to populate on your page that your readers will be interested in clicking on.  If your blog is about cats, you don't want ads about lawyers or buying a new car to pop up on your page.  Instead it would be better to have ads about cat food, cat litter, or cat toys coming up.

TIP: Don't choose to write a blog about something you're not passionate about.  Readers will be able to tell.

2. Monetize With Ads You Curate Yourself - Many successful blogs choose not to use an ad platform like Adsense.  Instead they sell adspace directly to advertisers.  Big blogs with 500,000 to a million plus readers can sell a single adblock for $300-$1,000 a month.  Imagine your blog has a huge social media presence and a lot of readers monthly, and you have four ad spaces available per month.  If you sell each of the four ad spaces at $500 per month, that's $2,000 a month just from advertisements sitting on the top, or side of your page, or beneath articles.

Selling ads like this means you'll be contacting businesses yourself that you think your readers will want to know about or buy from.  Don't expect businesses to be lining up asking to purchase your adspace.

3. Sell Featured (or Sponsored) Articles - I currently write for a large travel blog with a big following and a huge social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.  For between $500-$2,000, we write incredible featured articles about resorts, vacation rentals, and other businesses in order to help drive traffic to those businesses.  There are a few things to keep in mind if you do this sort of thing:

• First: Don't expect to sell featured articles if you have less than 500,000 followers on your blog's social media pages or if your blog itself gets less than 500,000 views per month.
• Second: You should not be writing paid featured articles if they aren't in line with what your readers want to read.  For a travel blog, it wouldn't make sense to write an article about a new type of mop and floor cleaner.  While that may be interesting to write about, it's not for readers who come to a travel blog specifically to read about amazing destinations they may want to visit.
• Third: Just because you offer paid articles on your blog, don't expect people to be knocking on your door asking to pay you to write articles for them.  This sort of thing takes a lot of research and footwork on the part of the blog authors and administrators.  You have to cold call businesses you think would be interested in your service of writing paid articles, and then you have to really sell them on it.  Selling them on it means having killer packages ready to go.  For the popular travel blog I write for, we don't just offer an amazing article for $2,000, we also share that article on all of our social media outlets every month for the next twelve months, and organically plug the client's business on all of the social media outlets several times a month.  This is why having a large social media following is an important part of making money with blogging.  Clients don't just want to buy an article, they want to buy a package that will drive the most traffic to their business as possible.
• Fourth: Paid articles you write have to be well researched and written like other articles on your blog that aren't paid.  You don't want it to look like a paid article, as that isn't going to be good for you, your readers, or the client the article is about.  It needs to look organic, and be genuine.  For many featured articles I have written for the travel blog, it has taken up to two weeks of research, writing, editing, and going back and forth with the client and blog owner before an article is ready to publish.

4. Do Sponsored Reviews Of Products Or Services Your Readers Want To Know About - This is an interesting way to make money with your blog.  I say interesting, because you may not be getting cash as payment, and instead get items or services.  If you have a blog about cats, companies that make cat products may contact you (or you may contact them), asking to do a review on their product in exchange for that product.  Rarely will a company offer to pay you money to do a review.  When you do this kind of review article, you will always tell the reader that you have been paid to do the review, either in cash or by receiving the free product in exchange for the review.  Even if it's not the law in your area to disclose this, it's the polite thing to do and the way to gain the trust of your readers.  It's better to be open and honest with readers from the start.

When being paid (by cash or product) to do a review, it's important to write an honest review of the product.  I have had people ask me to write positive reviews of their product before for money and have always turned them down.  Think about how you would feel when researching a product or service you are thinking about buying.  Would you appreciate it if a bunch of people who had been paid to write the review wrote positive reviews when the product isn't that great?  That would lead you to buy the product and then be disappointed in it and feel as though you've wasted your money.  Always be honest.

The Absolute Truth About Blogging For Profit

I've given you four ways to make a profit with blogging, but I want you to know that blogging for profit isn't easy.  Many bloggers never make a cent by blogging.  It takes hard work, time, and dedication.  For years, the travel blog I write for didn't make a profit, and it was only through the dedication of the blog owner and writers willing to do things for free for years that the blog grew, gained a social media following, and finally became successful.  Don't expect to start making money over night, or even within the first year.  Is it possible to make money in the first year?  Absolutely, but it's rare.

You have to find ways to keep yourself motivated, and this is another reason that you should be blogging about something you're passionate about.  If you don't know much about law, and aren't passionate about law, but just decide to blog about law because ads for law firms make several dollars per click, you'll be 99% more likely to give up after the first few weeks or first couple of months, simply because you don't enjoy what you're writing about.

There's also a huge learning process for blogging and how to make things look and sound right.  In this process you'll spend thousands of hours honing your writing skills, working on SEO (search engine optimization), researching your topic, and reading and watching blogging tutorials online.  If you're not dedicated to being the best blogger in your niche, you're probably not going to make any money blogging.  It's a commitment you have to make right at the start of your blogging journey.

Should you blog for profit?  I hope I've given you enough information in this post to help you decide whether blogging is the right way for you to make money online.  If you decide to start blogging, this is just the start.  Hot Shot Blogger has some good tips on how to get started.  YouTube also has a lot of helpful tutorials on the subject.

Leave us a comment on your experiences with blogging for profit or with blogging in general.  Have you begun to make a profit yet?  What are some of the things you've struggled with in your blogging journey?  What are your top 3 tips to help others in their blogging journey?