Your friends have got blogs, and they are making Money. Your favorite bloggers whose posts about minimalism or healthy living you never miss are making money.

Are you someone who is just realizing the monetary potential of blogging? Have you already got a blog but are struggling to make money off your posts? Regardless, this blog post will provide you with the answer for how to make money writing a blog.

Writing a blog doesn’t require that you be a professional writer. Your blog posts can have a personal tone and it can sound like you are giving advice to a close friend. That’s the beauty of blogs and that’s why so many readers flock to blogs to get their content.

Even if you are not the best writer, you can create relevant, enjoyable content for your blog if you just bear a few things in mind.

The most important thing to remember is that like with everything else making Money Writing a blog too takes time—months and sometimes even a year—and work. So, don’t be posting one article and expecting your bank account to fill up immediately.

Before we get into the specifics of how to make money writing a blog, let me answer a few questions that I find beginner-bloggers wondering about.

How much money can you make blogging?

The answer is there’s truly no limit—upper or lower. Some super successful bloggers even make millions of dollars while others make little or no money. Some of the top money making blogs are The Huffington Post, Mashable, Life Hacker, Problogger, and Expert Photography, among others.

The good thing about blogging is that if you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche, your blog can be a source of steady full-time income.

What Are The Types Of Blogs That Make Money?

Most bloggers might tell you to follow your passion when you inquire about types of blogs that make money. And the creative freedom that this answer provides is liberating.

But think about it this way. Your blog is your business. If you were setting up a shop, what would you sell in that shop? Most definitely, products or services that have some demand, that customers find useful and are willing to pay for. That’s what you have to do with your blog too.

Remember not all blog niches are created equal. There are certain types of blogs that make money, and that’s the direction you need to head in.

Among the most popular niches is “How to make money?” Now, this isn’t a surprise at all; be it “How to make money writing a blog,” or “How to make money through SEO,” there’s growing demand for these types of content. There’s a large readership of people looking to call it quits at their traditional jobs, and are now wondering how they can make money from home.

They might be, just like you, wondering how to make money writing a blog, copywriting, selling SEO services, and so on. There’s a lot that can be said in this niche, hence the popularity.

Other niches that do well, not necessarily in this order, are personal finance, health and fitness, beauty and fashion, food and lifestyle, and self-help blogs aimed at personal development.

This might not be what you want to hear, but passion is overrated. Go where the problem is, go where the audience is. That’s the only way to get traffic.

How To Start A Blog For Free And Make Money?

If you are new to the blogging game, you have definitely asked yourself this question.

First, you need to pick a great blogging platform. I recommend WordPress and so will most other bloggers. WordPress has got innumerable plug-ins and add-ons, and it’s extremely easy to use: You don’t need any technical expertise, phew!

Almost all professional bloggers will recommend self-hosted blogs rather than free ones. A free blog might be so in the beginning, but in the long run, it will cost you good money to promote it. That’s because search engines gravitate towards self-hosted blogs.

Also, you don’t own your blog if you are running it on a free platform, which means the hosting platform can delete your blog at any time if it so wishes.

Having a self-hosted blog means that you will actually own the website rather than sharing the URL with the provider of the free platform. You can choose the ads that run on your blog; that’s not the case with free blogs.

And most importantly, self-hosted blogs can make you money. Free ones? Not so much. If you came here wanting to know how to start a blog for free and make money, I am sorry to say that’s that’s not the most profitable option.

Now if you are going with the self-hosted option, you need to know how to start a blog. If you are new to the blogging game, this is where you need to pay the most attention. I am going to assume you chose to set up a WordPress blog.

Now let’s get into it, shall we?

Setting up a self-hosted blog is simple. You will need a domain (your website URL) and a blogging platform where you can publish your content. Most of these hosting platforms will have a one-click install option for WordPress.

And it’s not expensive to own or run a self-hosted blog. You need to buy the web address and pay a yearly fee to the hosting platform. But that fee won’t be a lot, especially taking into account the potential returns on investment.

How Do Bloggers Make Money From Blogging?

Once your blog is up and running, you are going to need followers, and loads of them to make money off your blog. You have to be active on platforms such as medium.com and Quora to drive qualified traffic to your blog.

Create viral content; focus especially on snappy headlines that will get people to click on your content. Make sure your content lives up to the headlines; write content that your audience is interested in. Hanging out on Quora or Medium will give you an idea of the content your readers will find useful.

Use social media platforms to get people interested in your content. Instagram is great for creating an appealing first impression. I can’t tell you just how many interesting websites and blogs I have been led to because of Instagram.

Now that we’ve created a foundation for how to make money writing a blog, let’s examine the different kinds of income stream you can build for your blog. There are many direct and indirect income streams from blogging, and you can find ways that suit your blog the best.

How To Make Money Writing A Blog: Advertising

A blog, in terms of making money through advertising, operates in the same way as a newspaper or a magazine. As you get more traffic in your blog, brands will want to advertise their business on it. Depending on how popular your blog is, your reach and the demographic, they will pay you loads of money for it, and that’s how to make money writing a blog through ads.

You might have seen such ads—display ads, giveaways and newsletters—on blogs that you regularly visit. Bloggers also get paid for writing good reviews for brands and for sponsored posts. Brands will only invest in you to sponsor their products/services if you can influence your audience’s purchase decision. A major portion of the income for top money making blogs such as Techcrunch, Mashable, and Smashing Magazine comes from advertising.

This might be difficult for bloggers that are just starting out. Ad networks such as Google AdSense is how you make money through CPC and CPM ads. Though profitable, advertising income is not the only or the ideal income stream if you are a novice blogger.

How to Make Money Writing A Blog: Affiliate Sales

Depending on your niche, affiliate sales can be a lucrative way of making money off a blog. You link your blog to different products that you think would be of interest to your readers.

If your readers buy that product or service using your link you will receive a commission. The commission usually goes up to 50 percent and is the main source of Income for blogs such as SmartPassiveIncome and Timothy Skyes.

It’s important to ensure that the products and services that you link with your blog are good quality and that your audience will find them useful. Otherwise, the credibility of your blog will decline, as it would seem as though you sell stamps of approval for money. There’s nothing worse for a blogger than that.

There are numerous Affiliate sale sites such as Amazon Associates, Amazon Influencer Program, and Bluehost, among others.

How To Make Money As A Blogger Through Events

Increasingly more and more bloggers are making money by running events. Blogs like Problogger, for example, organize conferences hosting hundreds of bloggers. That is a great way to make money through sponsors or by charging readers to attend.

Bloggers also run smaller meet-ups where attendees are charged a certain amount of entrance fee. If you are a blogger looking to organize a meet-up, you need to bear in mind the venue, food and drink and entertainment. There are companies that provide these services. You also need to arrange for a platform where your event can be promoted and tickets can be sold from.

Charging for entry is, of course, a decision that bloggers struggle with. If you can’t get a sponsor, you have no option but to charge for an event. And that might mean you struggle selling tickets.

How To Make Money Writing A Blog: Digital And Physical Sales

Bloggers also sell their own physical or digital products to make money writing a blog. They use that blog to promote their product, find potential customers and connect with them. Digital products are ideal because they don’t require inventory or shipping, saving you loads in operational costs.

Some digital products bloggers sell are ecourses, online classes or workshops on graphic design or content writing, photography lessons, premium content, etc. If you have been wondering how to make money writing a book, writing a blog will allow you to practice and produce enough content to get there.

If you make products, you can promote your art or printed photographs, paintings, DIY products, physical books. Bloggers, once they have a large following, also launch their own brands from fashion to makeup lines. And they already have a ready pool of customers to sell their products too. They can them earn money by both selling their products and through advertising and affiliate marketing.

Conclusion

So, to sum up, here’s a short answer for how to make money with a blog for beginners. Start a blog, position yourselves as an authority in your niche, drive traffic to your blog and engage with your readers to build trust among your audience.

Then you can pick one of the many income streams: advertising income, affiliate links, selling private ads or sponsorship space on newsletters, hosting events or selling products and services.

Regardless of what your preferred mode of income is, don’t ever rely on one income stream; diversify!

Make sure to continually build credibility. Everything essentially boils down to fresh, insightful content that no one else is offering. And for that, you will have to find a suitable niche.

Go where the problem is. And offer solutions. At the end of the day, that’s what you get paid for.

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