How to Make Money Blogging - There are 4 Main Ways

bycld111

5.6K followers

5 years ago

I recently covered this topic on my website, but I thought I would expand it to here too because I like writing to my fellow WA'ers! (This is more for the new guys and gals around here, but experts, feel free to chime in in the comments sections.) I assume we're all here for 1 main reason. That's to learn how to make money blogging.

First of all, before I go on, I read Kyle's blog post today, and it really described the path I'm going down lately. In case you missed it, it's here: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/creating-expert-co...

I have been branching out of Wealthy Affiliate and seeing what else is out there. No, no. Not because I am going anywhere, but because I want to gain different perspectives and learn from others who are in this space. And boy have I been learning!

Seriously, get out there and see what the top people in your niche are up to! You will gain new understanding, strategies, insights and knowledge. Then you can apply that knowledge and use your own voice to create meaningful, EXPERT content, just like Kyle said. He's so smart! lol

Now, on to the show!

Make Money Blogging Way #1 - Ads

I'm sure many of you know all about ads. You see them everywhere out there on websites. The benefits of ads are they they are a source of passive income. You put them on your site, and you get money! What's better than that?

I'll admit that's a good benefit. But it only works if you have enough traffic coming to your site, and if you're new, you probably don't have a ton of traffic yet. I know in the training Kyle has us setting up an Adsense account, but I personally feel it's better to wait until you have enough traffic to make it worthwhile.

The thing with ads is that they are sometimes used SO much and they slow down your site and can make your content look kind of bad. So really think about throwing them up there right away.

Make Money Blogging Way #2 - Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are when a company contacts you and asks you to write a blog post about their brand or product and they pay you for it.

Sometimes they pay you by offering you their product or service. One of our members here, LynneHuy wrote about this when she was offered a free night on a cruise ship!

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/lynnehuy/blog/free-night-on-...

Again, you're going to need to have a good amount of traffic and be known in your industry. (Lynne is considered an influencer, I believe, so it's no wonder she gets these amazing offers!) Again, this isn't something that's likely to happen right away, but it could happen down the line from time to time.

It sounds like a fun way to make money, but it's probably not the most consistent way, unless you're huge like the Huffington Post.

Make Money Blogging Way #3 - Sell Your Own Product

Selling your own product or service definitely has some benefits! For one, you get to set your own price point. AND you can add your product to an affiliate network and have people sell your product for you. Which means you probably can make more money than with other methods.

But, there are some things to consider:

1. Again, you need traffic before you can do this. No traffic = no people to buy your product.
2. You want to create a high-quality product. I've seen so many junk products, and you don't want to do that! Trust me!
   
3. Because you want a high-quality product, you will need to spend a lot of time working on your product. You will need to write it (and / or make videos), test it, get testimonials, make graphics, promote it.

If you're new to blogging, I recommend to just completely shut this out of your brain for a while. (Unless you're already an expert in your niche.) You need to know what you're doing first before you will be able to create a high-quality product. It's going to take time putting all the pieces together.

Make Money Blogging Way #4 - Affiliate Marketing

I always save the best for last! To me, affiliate marketing has the most benefits with the least downsides. Plus, that's why we're all here, right? To learn about affiliate marketing and how to make money from it.

Even though it seems like you should be able to make more money by creating your own product (and I'm sure some bloggers do), I saw a comment on a blog post somewhere where someone looked at a bunch of successful bloggers and the MOST successful ones made their money through affiliate marketing only.

I think affiliate marketing is great due to the fact that you just write about and promote things that you enjoy and leave all the customer service and other hard stuff to the big guys.

The #1 Most Important Thing You Need for All of These

You probably guessed it by now, but the most important thing that you need for ANY of these methods to work is TRAFFIC. How can you get sales if people don't know you exist?

How do you get traffic?

Follow the training here at Wealthy Affiliate! The training is designed to step you through the entire process of getting your website set up properly and then learning how to write content that search engines and people both love.

Just please realize that this process takes time.

Sometimes it takes a LOT of time.

But, time is going to pass anyway, so why not work on something great while it passes? You'll get better and better at blogging, and you'll start to see your traffic pick up.

I have seen some jaw-dropping blog income reports out there. A couple I follow just posted theirs for November and they made over $162,000. That's in one month. I'm sure there are bloggers who do WAY better than that. Think about what's possible and let that keep you motivated until you start to bring in traffic.

All the most successful bloggers started exactly where you are today. They started with no traffic and no sales. But they pushed through and kept going until the ball started rolling.

It ain't easy, but I think it's pretty fun! (And better than sitting in a gray cubicle somewhere.)

One More Thing

I bookmarked this post because I knew I was going to need it. Read this important message from our member, JerryHuang.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/jerryhuang/blog/a-very-impor...

Those of you who have been around for a while, what's your favorite way to make money blogging? What are some other methods that you know about? Leave me comments.

Thanks for reading!

- Christina