When you’re thinking about turning a blog into a business, there’s a lot to be said about generating a continuous, long term income. Not all blogs can be profitable, not all blogs can make money passively, and not all bloggers know what to do to make good money through the written word.
All of these factors combined lead to a lot of confusion about making money online. Is blogging a good way to bring in cash or not? It’s something we all have our own opinion on, and the results can vary wildly from person to person.
But you shouldn’t let this put you off. If you want to turn what was once a personal or hobby blog into your full time job, there’s just a few things you should keep in mind. 8, in fact, that’ll help you make informed decisions about where you want to go and what you’ll need to do next.
YOU CAN BE HONEST WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
If you’re a previously established blog and you want to start making money through your efforts, make sure you tell your audience ahead of time. Let them know where your head is at, and what you’re planning next.
You could even ask for opinions about your thought process, and see if anyone reading has experience with doing the same. You never know, there could be someone in the same boat who has just been dying to talk about it with somebody.
Remember, your audience isn’t an entirely separate entity. They’re a group of people who have specifically signed up to hear what you have to say. You don’t have to surprise them with affiliate links or a new course they need to fork out for. Doing so could even damage the goodwill you’ve spent all this time building.
But if you’re honest, they’re going to respect you for it. Really, they’re not going to mind if you want to start making a bit of cash for your efforts!
NOT ALL EMAIL LISTS ARE CREATED EQUALLY
Getting people to sign up to an email list is a big deal. They’re trusting you with some personal information and you need to pay that back tenfold. For most blogs, that means passing on personal, exclusive tips only to those who have signed up.
And usually this works; if people know it’s good on the other side, they’re going to sign up to see what’s going on, especially since doing so is free. All you have to do is advertise the usefulness of your emails and they’ll soon be there!
However, if your email list is mostly deleting your emails before they’ve even been opened, you’re not dealing with healthy leads who could make you money. This means you’re not currently impressing the people who have signed up, and this could be for a variety of reasons.
Maybe it’s the wrong audience? Maybe your emails are too frequent? Maybe they’ve outgrown your content? All of these things can happen. You need to do a bit of investigating to find out what’s happened to your email list and whether or not it’s time to change.
TRY OUT A FEW ADS, NOT HUGE AMOUNTS
Placing ads on a blog is still a very popular way to make money. For anyone surfing the net without an ad blocker, ads are commonplace and a normal part of using the modern internet. You can rely on at least 50% of your audience to see them, and maybe about a tenth of that amount to click on them.
However, they’re only going to click if their experience is pleasant. If the ads make sense for the blog page they’re on and are entirely unobtrusive to the page itself. For example, if the ad is a banner at the top of the page, doesn’t blink and flash at them the whole time, and certainly doesn’t follow them down the page!
Try out placing just a couple on each page and see how things go. Your audience will soon let you know if they don’t like seeing them! Even if they don’t say so directly, your traffic will drop and you’ll get very few click-throughs that make you money.
SIGN UP TO THE RIGHT AFFILIATE MARKETING PLATFORMS
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. If you’ve got a blog and you’re signed up to an affiliate platform or two, you can make money when people click on your link.
For sites like Amazon, even if the person doesn’t buy that specific product, you’ll still earn commission on anything else they buy while that window is still open. If the cookies are in the right place, the pennies come your way!
However, you need to sign up to the right platforms for your blog. If you write about digital marketing, find out about becoming an SEO affiliate marketer. If you write reviews for tech products or children’s toys, you can look into the big name brands in each sector and see if they offer their own affiliate programs.
Do a bit of research and don’t dive in head first. A good affiliate is something you can place in nearly everything you write – it’s not something to be used sparingly.
ANY PRODUCT NEED TO MAKE SENSE
If you’re going to sell something to your audience through your blog, the product in question needs to make sense.
If you’re a coder with over 10 years experience and you want to teach people to code in the same way – that would make sense. If you were running a beauty blog focused primarily on makeup tutorials, creating and selling your own brushes would also make sense.
However, if either of these blogs suddenly wrote up a guide on how to invest in cryptocurrency, people would get a bit suspicious! The product needs to align with the content, and thus with the audience you’ve attracted so far.
The easiest money is made off of the people who are already in place to give it to you; you just need to provide them with the opportunity.
YOUR NICHE MATTERS
You’ve probably heard this a lot already, but niche does matter in the world of blog monetization. If you’re in a niche that doesn’t offer a lot of money, you’re not going to suddenly be able to make a lot.
Small niches have the worst monetization rates, so the more specific your blog content is, the harder a time you’re going to have. A wider, more well known niche is going to have a lot more opportunities – but they’re also going to have a lot more people going after them as well.
You have to be careful either way. But make sure your blog offers content that can be monetized in more ways than one. If you can use all of the methods listed above in tandem, you’re going to diversify your income and make it a lot harder to lose it all one day.
YOU’LL SPEND A LOT MORE BEFORE MAKING ANYTHING
It’s the hardest truth to swallow, but it’s also the most important one. You’re going to spend a lot of money setting up a blog before you make anything off of it. You’re going to pay out hosting and website fees. You’re going to pay for your book to be printed, bound, and distributed before it earns anything.
You’re also going to pay out in time as well. It takes time to put a 10 week course together, no matter how much initial interest you receive.
Ultimately you’re going to see a dip in your finances before you see a rise, and that rise could be a long time coming as well. Don’t let this panic you; most blogs can make money. But most blogs also need that prep time and a good bit of capital behind them as well.
BE CAREFUL ABOUT ANY SPONSORS
Working with sponsors is a very good way to make money while blogging. You could even make tens of thousands from just one deal! Just make sure the brand in contact with you is real and actually willing to pay you money.
Scams go round all the time and all kinds of bloggers get trapped in them. Make sure you’re careful about who you’re talking to and always do your own background research before signing any contracts. The more careful you are, the safer your blog is.
MONETISING YOUR BLOG: A FINAL WORD
Blogging can make for good business, but it all depends on what you want to do with your time. Pick your niche right, understand the terms and conditions of any affiliates you sign up with, and make sure your audience always comes first.
So, are you willing to put in the effort? It’s something for you to decide! For those with an already established blog, pivoting towards money making efforts won’t be too difficult. For those who have just started out, the road is going to be longer.
Thank you so much for reading! – xo N
Connect with me on social media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Bloglovin
this is a contributed post.
New Lune 