A couple of years ago, I undertook a search. A quest to make money blogging and make millions of dollars every month; enough to retire from my job and live the life of my dreams. But alas, that didn’t happen after my first blog post.
Come on man! What? People didn’t rush to my blog after the first post. They didn’t even come to give me their money after my 9, 10, 11, and so on…
What the hell?
Did I have my hopes too high? You can bet I did. No one is going to be the next Tymothy Sykes or Cute Girls Hairstyle guru overnight.
This career field is relatively new with the advent of the Internet (and no, I’m not endorsing Al Gore for his alleged invention). Thousands of people have jumped on the so-called band bandwagon. According to DazInfo.com, a tech blog, there were over 111 million bloggers online at the end of 2011 (Old data, sure, but I didn’t want to waste time writing this article to do more research, so I’ll stick with the outdated data).
You see my point here. I’m not even going to try to speculate how many bloggers there are in 2013. You get it, too many to count. However, there are thousands of bloggers who make a good living online.
So what do these bloggers do to make money? The answers are quite simple. So simple, in fact, that you’ll say to yourself, “Damn me, why didn’t I think of that?”
Admit it, we all do this when an invention comes on the market that we thought about years ago, or one that’s so simple we should have thought about it, like the tricycle lawn mower (that would be the best gift we ever received).
But I digress, I better get back to my countdown of the top 10 ways to make money blogging, before my mind-numbing introduction puts you to sleep.
Countdown to 10 ways to make money blogging
Here we go…
The 10th way to make money blogging: dress like your favorite superhero and act like a jerk on camera
There are plenty of creative people on the web who dress up as their favorite superheroes and then throw away any self-respect they act to act goofy on camera.
The professionals:
- Some of these people have over 1,000,000 views on YouTube, that’s enough.
The cons:
- If you don’t feel comfortable running around your house in your pajamas and acting like an overgrown ADHD kid who ate 100 Pixie Stix for lunch, then I don’t suggest you use this strategy.
- Don’t get me wrong, I think some of these videos are hilarious. And they’re probably making a nice passive income every month from YouTube. It’s just not my style. But if it’s yours, go ahead.
Method number 9 to make money blogging: Placing ads on your blog with Google AdSense
Google AdSense is a program where you can place ads on your blog through Google. You get paid when visitors click on an ad on your site.
The professionals:
- You make a little money.
The cons:
- You make a little money.
- Google AdSense is a good way to make some small change, but you’ll never make a full-time income with AdSense if it’s the only way to make money on your site.
- Plus, the AdSense ads on your site take your hard-earned traffic and direct it to another seller.
Practice Number 8 to Make Money Blogging – Become an Amazon Associate and Sell Your Products
This program works very similar to AdSense, only you are selling products for Amazon. I use this program to promote my books and others that I think will be useful to my visitors. But then again, there are some pitfalls with just relying on the Amazon Associates Program.
The professionals:
- You can create your own Amazon store on your website and sell any and all Amazon products.
- They pay you monthly.
The cons:
- You only earn a 4% commission on the purchase price.
- Consequently, you will need to sell an unheard of number of Amazon products from your site.
- Also, visitors, once again, are taken from your website.
- Isn’t the point of having a blog to keep your visitors there?
Strategy number 7 to make money blogging: sell your own ad space
A creative way to make money blogging is to sell your own ad space on your website. I have seen this done on many successful blogs. Just remember that the ad space you sell needs to be related to the niche your blog is in. I wouldn’t recommend selling ad space to a candle collector blogger if their blog is about new and upcoming technology.
The professionals:
- Selling advertising space on your blog can generate a good monthly income.
- You can also build your search engine ranking by stipulating that bloggers who buy ad space on your blog link to your blog in some way.
The cons:
- If you’re a new blogger, I wouldn’t advise trying to sell ad space. If you only get 50-500 visitors a day, bloggers won’t be tempted to buy space from you because you’re not getting enough traffic to your website. I suggest you start considering selling ad space on your blog when you are averaging around 1,000 visitors per day. That way, potential customers will be motivated to buy from you because the return on their investment is worth the risk.
Way #6 to Make Money Blogging – Write Reviews for Money
This is a pretty easy way to make money blogging. It’s also a great way to create content, which is a must for all bloggers… Content. Delighted. Delighted. However, you will have to do some research to find companies that pay you to write reviews, such as PayPerPost and ReviewMe.
The professionals:
- Like I said before, reviewing products is a great way to generate content ideas for your blog..
- Customers, when faced with purchasing decisions, use the Internet to find reviews on the products they are looking to buy.
- Some companies even pay you a nice fee for a product review.
The cons:
- Some of the companies that pay bloggers for reviews have strict requirements. You’ll need to do your research to find out which ones will best suit your needs and skill set.
- Plus, they don’t pay much per post. However, I have seen some that will offer up to $200 per post, but will limit you to how many you can write each month.
Strategy number 5 to make money blogging – Ask for donations
Now, I personally don’t ask for donations on my blogs, but I’ve seen it on others. I usually see donation buttons on personal blogs where the blogger is not trying to sell products to their visitors. This is perfectly suitable for these types of blogs. But in my opinion, if you’re trying to sell products on your blog and keep asking for donations, you seem a bit needy. Also, this tells your visitors that no one is buying from you because you are asking for money.
The professionals:
- Free money. That’s all I can think of.
The cons:
- Not many people donate to blogs unless there is a cause attached. For example, if your blog is about helping find a cure for a child’s cancer, then by all means hit a donate button on your blog. If that doesn’t fit your blog’s niche, don’t do it.
Method #4 to Make Money Blogging: Sell Other People’s Products as an Affiliate
I already mentioned a way to become an affiliate in number 8. To make money blogging as an affiliate, you essentially sign up to sell another company’s products for a commission. In fact, most major retailers now offer affiliate services to help them sell their products.
The professionals:
- You don’t need to create your own products, which saves a lot of time.
- You can earn a fixed income every month.
The cons:
- A make money blogging As an affiliate, you will need to sell a lot of products just to produce the kind of income you want. For example, you only earn 4% with Amazon.
- However, I have seen other companies on the web that offer up to 25%, even up to 75% in commissions. There is only one company that I know of on the internet that offers 100% commission on the sales of their products.
Strategy number 3 to make money blogging: offer a membership to your website with a monthly fee to access exclusive content
Many writers now offer memberships to exclusive content on their blogs to make money blogging. These memberships range from a small monthly fee to a large one-time fee. For example, ESPN offers a monthly access fee to its premium content on ESPN Insider.
The professionals:
- You can charge as much as you want for access to your exclusive content, just make sure it’s reasonable.
- This will also create a good monthly income for your blog.
The cons:
- In order to offer memberships to your site, you will need to write or create content that is in some way different from your free content on your blog.
- This premium content should also offer some kind of value that your visitor can’t find anywhere else for free. Also, I suggest that you only offer memberships for exclusive content when you are receiving an average of 1,000 visitors per day.
Method #2 to Make Money Blogging: Create and Sell Your Own Products
Now, I would normally put this way to make money blogging at number 1 because it is by far the best way to make money blogging. Furthermore, your own products also give you authority in your own niche and make you look like an expert.
The professionals:
- Visitors see you as an expert in your niche.
- Allow total creativity of what you want to sell.
- You control the price of your products.
The cons:
- Creating your own products takes an enormous amount of time; time that should be spent on attracting followers for your blog.
- General expenses and costs, if you send products by mail.
The #1 way to make money blogging: Find a company that gives you resell rights to all of their products at 100% commission.
While the above 9 ways to make money blogging are all effective in their own way, the number 1 way I have found to make money blogging on the internet is to find a proven company that has already created the products and gives you the rights. of resale in 100% commissions.
This may sound too good to be true. But there is a company that practices this.
The professionals:
- All
The cons:
- Doing nothing will earn you $0
All in all, these are all good ways to make money blogging. In fact, you can use each of them as multiple streams of income. The point is to be diligent, persevere and be creative. It will take a lot of blog posts to drive traffic to your blog and gain loyal readers. It won’t happen after only 10, so keep going and good luck.
Until next time: keep blogging and making money,
shaun mesick
