Have you ever dreamt of getting paid for having your own blog?
The possibility of creating a solid side income from your writing isn't far fetched. There are 500 million blogs that exist and 60 million of those are on WordPress.
This article will show you how to quickly start making money as a blogger, big or small. It'll go through what tools you should use and some tips to get your blog optimized for revenue.
Now, making money as a blogger doesn't happen overnight, but this article will definitely teach you how quickly can a blog make money and how do people make money blogging.
Who knows?
Maybe your site will end up as one of the biggest blogs in the world. Think of the income that'll generate.
If blogging isn't for you and you're looking for more ways to make some side money, be sure to read our 7 Legit Ways to Earn piece.
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How Quickly Can You Start Making Money As A Blogger?
It's possible to start making money from a blog right off the bat, however for consistent income it takes about 6 months.
Having a track record of constant posts and user interaction is vital for a blog to generate the traffic necessary to create revenue.
While you could monetize your blog right when it begins, the income would be pennies since advertisers aren't willing to pay the big bucks for a site without high traffic.
Let's go over how a blog can be monetized and then go into how to make money blogging for beginners.
How Do People Make Money Blogging?
There are several ways to start making money as a blogger. Some are more effective than others, but at the end of the day it depends on the type of blog. Let's go over three of the most popular ones.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when a site places links to other businesses and gets paid for the amount of traffic they sent or when customers make a purchase.
For example, if you wrote a blog piece about basketball and decided to have an affiliate link to Amazon for a toy basketball, this would be affiliate marketing.
You'd get paid if someone used that link to make a purchase of that ball. This type of marketing can be incredibly lucrative if you write content such as product reviews or lists of best products in a certain field.
Affiliate marketing works best when the link is on related content.
It would seem out of place if you had a link to a book about cooking, but your article is about the next iPhone.
Customers are more inclined to click on affiliate links and make a purchase if they are already consuming similar content.
They would realize that “Hey, that's a good idea. I think I'll look more into this X product.”
While affiliate marketing can start out slow, the links can stay on the site forever and thus generate solid passive income.
Sometimes, traffic picks up on certain content during different times of the year. That would lead to people making more purchases of that product during that time.
Sponsored Blog Posts
Once you can show that you have a consistent amount of traffic, sponsored blog posts could be a fantastic way to make money.
This is when someone (most of the time a business) asks you to write an article about them or something related in their field.
For example, they may ask you to review their latest product, or they may ask you to write about businesses like them in the area.
Either way, they are looking for exposure to your readers while also paying you for that exposure.
You should be very careful with sponsored blog posts though. If your readers sense that they are just being used to advertise a business, then it may deter them.
Make sure that you know what kind of business or product your reader wants and accept a sponsored blog post based on that.
Overdoing this sort of monetization could cause a decrease in traffic rather than an increase.
Advertisement
The most popular form of monetization is through advertisement. Platforms such as Google AdSense and WordPress Ads allow you to easily integrate ads into your blog.
You can make sure they are flowing with the design of your blog and don't look out of place. The platform will pay you for every 1000 views and a little more for clicks. Advertisements are the most consistent form of monetization because you get paid for views and don't require any interaction.
A word of caution here as well. Make sure that you aren't loading your pages up with ads for the money.
Your readers don't want to be bombarded by 20 ads when they just want to read your post.
Having a balance between the ads and the content will satisfy both parties.
For more information on how to monetize your blog, check out our article on 8 Ways To Monetize A Blog.
Steps To Create a Monetize-Ready Blog
You may be asking yourself, can a free blog make money? The answer is yes.
However, there are some steps you should take to make your blog look professional.
Hire Writers For Content
It can be difficult to pump out content on a daily basis, but it's one of the most important ways to start making money as a blogger for beginners.
A solid stream of content every day will make readers want to come back and see what's new. It'll also create a following that you can use to monetize your blog.
Hiring writers to write some pieces of content can really decrease the load on you. A website like WriterAccess does a fantastic job with this. Their team of writers is ready to write on virtually any subject.
Simply, you'd have to create an account on their website and then you can choose what sort of writers you want and what subject you want them to write about.
In about a few days, you'll have a ready to post a piece for your blog. This is a great way to supplement your existing content and even write for you if you're busy with other things.
Create An Eye-Catching Design
The first thing any reader will notice about your blog is the design. Having a beautiful clean design can do wonders for driving more traffic.
However, it's not everyone's forte to design websites which is OK!
There are plenty of websites that allow you to use free and paid templates to get started. One of those websites is called Canva.
Canva lets you choose from a wide variety of paid and premium templates to use for your blog.
Each of their templates is customizable and you'll definitely be able to find one that fits your blog's theme and content.
I suggest you take some time when choosing a template because having the perfect design can really make the difference.
Since each template can be customized, you could add functionality and widgets to your blog as you need them.
So don't worry if it's not perfect when you start but make sure you're constantly tweaking it as you figure out what your readers want.
Host Your Site On A Custom Domain
When you first start your blog, you might use a platform like WordPress.
However, they will give you a default URL like blogname.wordpress.com.
This is fine when you're starting off, but to really make your website your own you should get a custom domain.
This will make it easier for your readers to remember your link and it'll open you up to a lot of advertisers.
Many advertisers have a rule that the website has to be a true domain and not a subdomain.
One of the best ways to host your own blog is through Bluehost. They make it incredibly easy for you to transfer your existing blog to its own domain.
If you're just starting out with a new blog, then you can host it there as well. Bluehost gives you the flexibility to store your files and customize the security of your blog.
Most domains can be purchased for a very low yearly cost. Once you buy the domain, it's yours to do whatever you want with it.
Tips On How To Grow Traffic
If you're thinking about how can a free blog make money, you're in the right section.
To monetize a free blog to the point where it can give you passive income it's going to have to have thousands of readers per month.
How can you accomplish this?
Always Pump Out Content
Readers have to be incentivized to keep returning to your blog. It's difficult to sustain traffic to a site if it's always new people.
Passive income can happen only when there are followers who constantly come back to the website.
To achieve this, you have to make content. It might sound like a no-brainer, but a vast majority of blogs make the mistake of not posting enough.
They post a few articles and then nothing for weeks. This really hurts the traffic of a site and it can be really tough to bring it back up.
Create a posting schedule for yourself. Whether it be 2 times a week or every day, make sure you follow it and post.
Your readers will know when to expect new content and can be ready. It's very important to treat it like a job because it is.
This is the number one thing that any professional blogger would ask you if you asked them “How do people make money blogging?”
They will tell you all about how they write hundreds of pieces of content per year on a consistent basis.
Social Media Presence
Your blog can't just be a blog. It has to be a community. To do this, you have to use social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Having a presence outside of just your blog's content is really important to drive content to it.
You can use your social media accounts to speak with your readers and interact with them.
You can also reach out to others with blogs and share tips and ideas. How quickly can a blog make money? As quickly as your social media reach grows.
It becomes incredibly easy to drive traffic to your site if you have a lot of followers on your social media.
You can simply post a link to your new post and you'll instantly get readers.
Having a social media presence doesn't happen overnight though. It's very similar to the previous tip. You have to pump out content there as well.
Don't sound like all you're doing is advertising your blog though. You should genuinely be interacting with your followers and other writers.
It's not just about the views, but about the community that you're creating. Check out Gary Vee and his 100 pieces of content a day video for more help with this tip.
Specialize and SEO
When you're first starting out with your blog, it's very important to find your niche.
Being too broad would make it difficult for you to compete with the larger, more established blogs out there.
Instead, find an area that you feel comfortable with and start writing about it. This goes hand in hand with keywords and SEO.
You need to make the search engines work for you. That means, your articles have to be search engine optimized (SEO) for the topic you're writing about.
This'll let you compete with the bigger blogs and get viewers to your smaller site.
When people wonder how to make money blogging for beginners, they normally overlook SEO.
Small-time writers just start writing without thinking about the search engines even though most of their traffic is going to come from this and social media.
Be sure to look up how to make an article SEO and start incorporating this into your content. It will do wonders for you and your blog.
Judge Your Own Content
I'm sorry to be blunt, but you're not perfect and neither is your content. Being critical of what you're posting is key to improving your blog.
Many writers become complacent with their writing and don't think about making improvements.
This could work for a little while, but eventually, readers will get bored, especially if you're making the same mistakes over and over again.
Your blog is free and can a free blog make money? Yes.
But to create a passive stream of income, your blog will have to grow and that means your quality has to improve over time.
The best way to do this is to set aside some time every few weeks and read over a few pieces that you wrote.
Think about it from a new reader's standpoint and then from a repeating reader. I'm sure you'll be able to find a few things to improve on.
For more tips on how to make passive income from a blog, take a look at our article on 9 Legit Ways to Earn Passive Income Blogging.
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