How do bloggers make money, just imagine a life getting out of your bed, make your coffee, get comfortable on your couch and start your work? Have you been craving for this work as blogging and make through it
Would you buy me if I said people don’t just make a living out of it, but they actually live comfortably doing this? Yes, they do!
You heard me right! Bloggers do make money. And here, I am going to run you through about the ways you can do it best!
Can you start a Blog for free?
This is the most common question that knocks on the mind of every new blogger! The answer for this is, YES, you can. But the caution would be that initially, you would not have much control over your blog. If you rely only on your blog for income, then this is not advisable. For obvious reasons, free services have their limitations.
Do Bloggers really make money?
“How do bloggers make money” is a cliché, the world around me, still are at times going bizarre when I tell I’m a blogger and it renders income to me. Most of the time, I come across this question “how bloggers make money from blogging” and Is it a better occupation to hit on, India, how much money do bloggers make in India, the query list goes on… Thought to provoke topic though!!
Here I am with the answers for how to become a blogger and make money and its subset questions. I would first share my experience and viewpoint. To my knowledge, I would call it as lifetime friendly business. when you have decided to start as a blogger, believe you’re halfway through as an entrepreneur, you get to work from home, so-called business sectors and else wherever you feel.
First of all, keeping it clear and simple, to get hired as a professional blogger is much easier than starting from scratch. Setting up and monetizing your own blog is similar to setting up an own business. It takes its own time, minus the risk. But if the former is your situation then you can earn a good living right off the bat.
And I confess, if you want to make money through blogging, that too if you expect a quick rich income through blogging then blogging isn’t your best choice, I’m not against the sign of luck, happy if it happens! To settle as a blogger and make money through blogging takes some time. But, definitely, it will make you feel good in your relationship with writing and to get a healthy pay (what else you need when you get paid and recognized for your words).
I assure you would vouch for your experience to educate others about how to become a blogger and make money through blogging.
If you have started blogging, since you thought that it is the easy way to make money or if you have blogs and don’t know how to make money through blogging, possibly. Walk along, I’ll let you know how to make money through blogging.
Before getting into the basics, let’s get educated about this occupation and who is getting benefited (the various profession I refer).
When we look at who is getting benefited, as we all know blogging is in its vogue, if you have the passion with some good communication and writing skills, you’re all set as a beginner. So it benefits everyone as a journal blogger, fashion blogger, food blogger or a common blogger. Let’s see a few examples, say, fashion blogger. How fashion bloggers make money through blogging. Hopefully, it’s been ages since personal blogging sites into action, so do the fashion blogging.
The Common Kinds of Bloggers
How Do Bloggers Make Money as a Fashion Bloggers
This Is among the most common type of bloggers you’d come across over time. Part of your day-to-day life and everyone knows or has some sort of an idea about the fashion and trends. So they would be able to relate to what you write, and since the topic will always be trending, the possibilities of you getting a high traffic to your blog page is also more likely.
Fashion could relate to many genres of clothing and accessories. Remember to pick a unique, fun and a memorable name for your blog and note that fashion is all about appearance. So it is absolutely necessary for you to make your blog look amazing. Followed by this comes, writing a good content or a compelling content for your fashion blog and then creating a marketing strategy on how to take it forward to the market.
If you ever wondered how fashion bloggers make money. You should consider paid advertisements from designers and boutiques and you could also charge them specifically for blogging about their clothes and accessories. Of course adding Google Adsense is an option, a common option! These are some ways to get your blog to be financially lucrative. If you are the beginner in fashion blogging, you could spare a few minutes to take a glance at “The Sartorialist” and “Fashion Toast” two of the most looked up on blogs by people who start up their own blogs. Having a high benchmark is always good!
How Do Bloggers Make Money as a Food Bloggers
Are you a foodie? Ok, I am asking this because sometimes the pure and unconditional love for food can bring out the blogger in you. And the best part about being a food blogger is that it costs you nothing extra because eventually, you serve your stomach. Oh, and no constraints! You can write about any kind of food, from road side shop to a 7 star hotel, because food covers every age group and every demographic group you can think of. Just to side my point, let me pull out a random stat for you. 47% of the readers in the United States consult a blog to keep tabs on trends and ideas.
Missing out on something? Got you! You can also write about your recipes and how they turned out along with a picture or two would help – This is actually growing in the market recently – People writing about their recipes. Because just like me, there several people out there looking for the authentic way of making their food and if you can cover that niche, you’ve got a handful, I can tell you!
So actually, how to make money as a food blogger? Well, how many times have you taken to Zomato or Dineout to check for a review or a rating for a restaurant that you are just about to go for a dinner or lunch? An influencer (A popular food blogger) takes this place with ease. I would rather check on a blog page to get legit reviews about the restaurant than on a third-party app or website!
How Do Bloggers Make Money as a Travel Bloggers
Sometimes, to write about food, your tastes need to match a few people and for you to write fashion blogs, you have to be in trend and follow the changes in trend to keep pace with the people. But when it comes to travel blogging, it makes your life much easier. Any place that you go, maybe even on a regular basis, is considered an alien territory for someone at another part of the same country or sometimes other parts of the world. You never know the number of people who get inspired by reading travel blogs and plan a trip there!
If you are a backpacker, you can just start writing straight away because there millions ready to go out there exploring, but just figuring out where to go! If you’re writing about solo travelling and a wanderlust, it is ideal for you to mention about the cost-effective travel and warmth of the midday sun and the camping in the wilderness. Similarly, when you write high-end vacation blogs, remember that it is a dream for so many out there who would love a holiday but can’t afford. The key for you would be your vocab and your descriptive skills coupled with powerful visuals. You want to make the reader feel like they are actually stargazing in New Zealand, from where they are!
Writing about family trips – Kids friendly places, the road trips in Europe or Australia and Scotland, on how you can just travel in peace with just greenery on all sides and maybe a few kangaroos here and there watching you, Zoom! Do consider blogging about the RV’s if you’re targeting a niche, because not many are aware of such travels yet!
So, if you are a beginner, and looking to start off somewhere, I have given you the three best ways to start your blogging career! Make sure to take a look at the best blogging sites with high traffic based on your niche and set that as the benchmark for your post to help you get better and look presentable from the very beginning!
How Do Bloggers Make Money?
Money is obviously the ultimate aim behind any work. Is it any different for bloggers? Surely not! Don’t you want to make money out of what you do? When we talk about bloggers making money, I refer to the new bloggers and also existing ones figuring out a way to monetize their existing blogs and websites.
Blogging could be your hobby or might be your business. Either could fetch you a decent sum for a comfortable living based on the standards of your blogging. It is at the same time, important to keep in mind the fact that it could take a few months before you actually start earning money if you’re just starting your career as a blogger.
With the previously read information, I hope you can reset your thoughts that bloggers must work for free, unfortunately, I came across people telling, bloggers just put some, should we pay for this job? Denial!, authors refer to writing is equal to storytellers, motivational speakers or any other speakers, need keen heart and mind with greater intuition about what they’re about to blog and make money through blogging. I can estimate tell running traffic full blogs takes around 30-40 hours per week to sit with it.
Being a blogger myself, I would tell you that putting up a blog or writing one isn’t ideally your business – It is rather a platform for various other streams. Affiliate marketing to earn from the click that your page receives, getting advertisers to advertise on your page and selling services like consulting or speaking are a few recommended ways to help you earn good money through your blogs.
Now, fix your long way search for how to become a blogger and make money through blogging, for it definitely guarantees you a good return while you being at home.
Must Read: Top 12 bloggers in India.
Mapping your Blogging Path
Got your spark!! Inspired by other bloggers, through word-of-mouth or have you started chasing your spark ( blogging and how to make money through blogging), I can guide along.
If you’re passionate about blogging with some basic decent writing skills, you can experience this achievement. But I should make a point clear. What type of blogging have you decided to do? Just as a hobby blogging or professional blogging. If it is your hobby blogging, it never dealt with get rich quicker fact and hobby blogging is interesting. So, you can hold up your patience and grow and can make money through blogging.
As a professional blogger, there come two approaches for you as the freelancer or employed blogger, either of it you can do it from home or from your workspace. You can make a choice over it. Sounds better! And can make money by blogging from your free space.
Freelancing or getting employed would be a better option than setting your own platform and working from the scratch with your speedy notion of making money through blogging.
Fix whether which one to opt, every platform is unique, it is unique for every kind of people. Struggling in the first phase is common, thriving to focus makes sense, it goes cent per cent with the vogue field of blogging and to make money through blogging.
Either it is a hobby pastime or a professional work, overnight income expectation is not reasonable. I have come across statistics and bloggers sayings like, it takes around 3-6 months to get set as a blogger with part-time income and 1-2 years to become a more consistent one
The profession visions you an enticing modern lifestyle in front, but just writing and posting it some paid ads, won’t be paying you for a long time. ( believe it or not!)
Identifying your Topic for the Blog
All set decided whether to be a hobby writer or a professional blogger and wisely make money through blogging. Have your gun be loaded enough and ready for the hunt event. So make your own blog, if you already have one good to go.
Start with a blog of your favourite topic if you’re a hobby blogger. When it comes for a profession stick up to the stream you’re going to focus and make money through it.
Bring up a simple and an engaging topic to commence with.
Draft your content, sincerely note that it could be any random, a niche topic or even the most discussed topic around the globe, but make sure the content you write is unique and you own the content. It is always good to keep tabs on your competitors and make sure you’re on the same lines and in trend to keep with the best in business. Set up your content and keep an eye on your competitor’s blogs or get to know about others to be on the track.
Continuous presence is a step for higher achievement, make a small move with continuous blogging and reach out to people also make money through blogging.
How to Create a Separate Page for Blog Posts in WordPress
Never think it is just writing and posting, it is a gateway for your successful revenue. Whenever I mention writing, it is not just “writing, writing”, it is steady “ quality writing”. Amidst the competitive world, uniqueness only prevails, find your niche and focus on it with a hard bang of practice. If you practice, then that is your profit equation to be successfully sustaining, promoting and make money through blogging.
Picking your Target Audience
The audience decides your life value, to make you feel the limelight or to make you as one among the millions. Try to catch their attention and entice them with what they love, this will help you make money through blogging. When you provide good quality content with personalized engagement by reaching their queries and comments, I bet you can seed your brand and make it through as a successful blogger. And try to focus on their pulse and prolong their longevity.
Never fall back on ‘niche’ because you failed to define your audience in the first place! It is important for you to notice that you have to target the people buying from you rather than the blog subject because the customer at the end of the day is the main character when it comes to a blog writer. Your target audience can also be on the basis of demography. Their age? Geographical location? Gender and education? Constantly asking yourself these questions could just give you a better understanding of how to approach your readers.
Let me get a third dimension to this! You might also at times, need to know what other blogs your audience is interested in or currently reading. All the more, if you are a newbie at this. So once you have finalised your topic, give a glance at the best blogs available on the internet for the topic you’ve chosen. That would certainly give a clear picture of how the best in business looks like and helps you set your standards somewhere close to them.
Sometimes there is a good chance that when you don’t define the target audience, you might actually be reaching out for your competitors. In the sense, you might be teaching another painter how to paint better! And there are cases when you might have an existing loyal audience for your blogs. And if you’re not aware of this yet, keeping hold of existing customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. If you are someone looking for your posts to be shared and promoted on social networks, then I shall stress the importance of a loyal audience to you! KEEP HOLD OF THEM!
So, what about having readers outside your target audience for your blogs? Sounds good right? Absolutely! Not everyone who pays a visit to your blog needs to be among your targeted audience, so it is advisable for you to keep that in mind while writing your blog.
Competitor Analysis
First and foremost a thorough competitor analysis would help in to exploit any weaknesses from them. Your strengths and shortcomings could also be analysed and your strategies for your blog could be put into place thereby! Apart from giving you the reasons for the success or the failure of them, competitor analysis also helps you in identifying the biggest threats and challenges that your competitors bring to the eco-system.
A little bit of an extra effort from your side could also bring to your table, statistics and data relating to the annual reports, articles and press releases.
The steady focus on your competitors is relatively meant to make yourself on track, not to outstrip them all at once. Blogging sometimes would make you feel detached from the environment, that isolation can be changed when you converse with other bloggers in your environment, or to the one who blogs like you.
To make money through blogging it’s a twofold bonus for both of you. Wonder how? Well, firstly you get to know about what is happening, secondly, you both can cross-promote each other and finally, by promoting virtually you are earning through it! That’s what you was looking for.
Other than your quality content earning, we have options!
A boon for blogging! Isn’t it, believe my words, we have other beneficial factors which can bring in ideas to make money through blogging.
Advertising on your Blog
If there’s anything that could create a huge wave or a buzz about a certain thing among a group of people, you’ve got no better place than a blog post with like-minded people reading it. It could sometimes even take you by surprise, how big an impact it can create. It is probably the perfect platform for the advertiser to get to know about the interests of the people or his target, and the potential the product could reach through discussions. And this straight away is the best answer to your question of how to make money as a blogger.
Whenever you ask an expert or an average blogger whose income is through blogging, they will always ask you to go for advertisement to make money through blogging. The implementation is simple so you may ask like how to make money from google blogging? It is simple by signing in Google AdSense or a number of alternatives that have come up like the Infolinks, Adversal and Skimlinks to name a few.
The procedure is easy like once you set it and forget it, it pays back continuously throughout your contract. Many companies may be wanting their products to get promoted through quality blogs. It is acceptable that ads earn you money and bring in more clients may be, but make sure that you work for your own progress and not for ad companies to quickly make money through blogging.
- Two types of ads
- CPC: cost per clicks like banners in your content and when a user clicks, you will be paid.
- CPM: cost per impression, are fixed payments for your ads and user views. The advertisement can be done through
- Displaying Ads
- Providing giveaways and
- Reviews posts.
OK! Now it is right only if I show the other side, the cons of advertising on your blogs. Let me tell you, options are good! But the ultimate choice should be yours about advertising on your blog page.
A lot of bloggers out there believe that having WordPress they could just show up some ads on the sidebar and learn a few traffic tricks and watch the money flow. Oh, let me tell you! It does not work that way. I shall show you a few reasons as to why getting Ads on your blog is not a good idea.
First, they pay you peanuts. Let me be blunt about it!
You might have actually put in a lot of time and effort to have written the blog and give it to the readers, you obviously would not want them to be distracted that easily right? That’s exactly what you intend to do with an advertisement.
Finally, your aim as a blogger would surely be to build an audience base, yeah? In that case, you’d want to be providing value to them. Ads definitely dent your aims and goals because most of the time they annoy the readers!
Affiliate Marketing on your Blog Site
If you have been in the e-commerce field even for a little while now, the affiliate marketing would be a familiar term for you. For the rest, it is nothing but a performance-based marketing model that rewards for driving the desired action. Affiliate marketing being cost-effective, there are obviously a number of advertisers you could find in the market if your website or the blog page has a decent traffic.
When you look for a quick hand-full payment, affiliate marketing is your right strategy. You doubt it? It is like you promote other product’s links in your blog through affiliate clicks, get endorsed with that product and make money through blogging. In simpler terms, whenever someone visits the advertised site form one of your links and makes a purchase, you a earn a commission on that sale.
It is also important to note that the Ads the publishers place on their sites are going to bring more traffic to the website, although only a percentage of that will be converted into sales, it is a win-win situation for the publisher at the end of the day!
This outsourced marketing plan is now used by several major players in the market/industry. You can earn by joining with
- Amazon associates
- Genesis
- Bluehost
- Amazon influencer program
- Target
- Content Marketing as a Catalyst
Have you ever thought of building credibility and using the blog as a content marketing tool, confusing? Though your initial intention is to make money through your blogs, why let go of an opportunity to sell physical products on your blog page to make more money and also to increase viewers simultaneously. So, now you’re being promoted to a business blog, you can sell all products like books, for apparels, appliances and a lot more on your blog page. It brings in money and also people will get to know about the product, which can be a key to change them into loyal customers.
Alright! So, before the dawn of social media and display Ads – SEO was the only way a business could be found online. And content is indeed the backbone of SEO. If this does not emphasise the importance of content, then I’m not sure anything else will. So now, imagine selling a product on a page with sound content. Think about it now!
The kind of content that you should use to sell online product depends on the industry and the target audience again. One such thing would be to have a “Compelling Headline”. First thing first, you grab the attention of the right here, and not just that, it is with your headline that your blog appears in search engines. Consider having guest blogs attached to your blog. Refer to the leading blog pages relating to your niches so that would divert some traffic to your page as well.
But always remember, it is predominantly the quality of your content at the end of the day that gives you sustainability. Because a good content has several e-commerce brands leveraging the power of content to boost their search results and build their brands.
Buying in Email Subscribers
Having an email subscriber list is, without the doubt the quickest way to enhance you’re your traffic for your blog page. You have numerous viewers in your blogging platform initially and you’re making money through it. Smart work has to be done as a baseline for future recognition and income. Converting your users into email subscribers.
The strategies are very essential for food and fashion bloggers, when your viewers get converted into email subscribers it is based on trust and they are turning into your long-term loyal customers, you can make money through blogging and also by sending email letters for your audience
Ok, so let’s take a look into why bloggers, both beginners and experienced have been overlooking email subscribers.
First, people tend to neglect email because they don’t consider it to be very exciting, or they believe that they have come out of the age for emails and have entered the era of social media like Facebook and Twitter. But I’m here to tell you that all the hype about the social media sites have just overshadowed the fact the best way to reach out for your readers is through their email inbox, and there are no two ways to it!
Now, what are the benefits of an Email list?
Good to know your audience? Of course! One thing I can tell you is that if they opt-in to receive emails from you, they are sure to be interested in hearing from your and reading your blogs. At this juncture, you can easily turn them into your customers. You could add a snippet of the product and add links to it and to make it look better, you could even add testimonials and raving reviews! Apart from this, any new initiative you take or any changes you bring about on your website or blog page can be reached to your audience through your emails personally.
Create Quality Content
Above, we have spoken about how do bloggers make money from blogging and creating content on their page. But let’s get this right, the main purpose for the people to visit your blog is your actual content. So let me put in front of you some interesting facts about what makes people lose interest in your blog.
People generally dislike too many contributing authors or guest posts. They are here to read your blog, not somebody else’s! Some people tend to be put off by bad vocab and quality of content language. Descriptive skill and bridging them with the visuals is also important. Because when I read, for example, a travel blog, I see myself in the place and I expect to be there just by reading the article. So the blogger has me or loses me right there with this descriptive skills coupled with quality visuals.
So, what could you do to make your post more presentable? Well, you can make your posts more scan-able. Online readers are of two kinds, skimmers and scanners. The later are more, so it is important you use short paragraphs, Headings in bold and italics and so on. Sometimes you have to put yourself in the shoes of the reader and ask yourself the questions a reader would pose? It will help you to reach them a little easier.
Try using cliff-hangers at the end of each post if you chose to write a series instead of a single long post. You could even use this as an opportunity to make them sign up for your emails. Know the importance of keywords and use them appropriately, wherever necessary.
In a nutshell, a blog with a quality content will get its traffic irrespective of the Ads and promotions on social media sites.
Find a cost-effective and reliable Web Hosting Solution
Finding a good web host company that offers cheap and reliable solution is a little hard to find. Although, if you are willing to pay big money, you have it sorted then… But the real challenge is meeting reliability with affordability.
Consider the server uptime and the server response time to be extremely important for you to do any business through a website, because your business ultimately depends on your traffic and you do not want your site to be down, and lose a few customers for that, although temporarily. Most web hosting companies guarantee a 99% server uptime but they legit don’t live up to it.
Let me list out some of the cheap, affordable, reliable and good Web Hosting companies that might come in handy for you. You can check the reviews, customer testimonials various offers including black friday deals and other discounts provided by these hosting companies across the year.
- A2 Hosting Offers
- Bluehost Hosting Offers
- HostGator Web hosting offers
- DreamHost Black friday deals
- iPage Web Hostong
- TSO hosting offers
- TMD Hosting offers
- WPX Web hosting offers
Also you can check the comparison of Bluehost vs Hostgator: Which one is Good and Why?.
Once you have your website ready and your blog is written well, it is equally important for you to protect your blog. You could use strong passwords for your entry points, adding a simple captcha to your WordPress login page could also minimize the chances of a brute force attack on your site. Constantly keep updating your WordPress with new bug fixes, as they tend to be very vulnerable against security bugs.
Obtain your goal, make money through blogging
Doing all of this, do not forget that your ultimate aim was to become a professional blogger and to earn money through that. Make sure to place that ahead of anything else and never compromise on quality blogging. Don’t try to overhaul your life overnight, instead focus on making small changes, this goes well with blogging and your question of how to make money through blogging, steady pace your progression and don’t settle with your present limits, with the insights above push yourself into the limelight and brand your brand blogging.
Events, Photography & Social Media
This might not be the most common way, or it might not be suitable if you are a beginner! But if you are a professional blogger and been doing this for a while now, then organizing an event would be a good option, by inviting several bloggers year on year. You can make your money by charging the readers to attend or through sponsors for the event!
Blogging has increasingly become visual in the past few years. With no surprises. Social platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and Vine are now driving the traffic to blogs. Hence the emphasis on honing the photography skills and editing skills to go with. Given the use of smartphones and increased use of social media in different age groups have opened up doors for bloggers to easily reach more people through these social media sites.
When we talk about photography, images and the impact that they create on the minds of the readers, I would also like to stress on the importance of having a good theme for your blog page. You will have to pay good attention to the look and feel of the theme, for your visitors to feel comfortable while they read through your blog’s content. It is at the same time, important to make sure that your content goes well with the theme and either of it is not completely wayward.
Get Paid to Write Reviews
A review site with affiliate links and to get paid by writing reviews on your site by advertisers are two different things. Here, you get to try out the product you write a review, for free and get paid for reviewing it as well. Let’s take a company X for example. Any company would want a lot of good reviews and some of them even go the extra mile to pay a fee for getting some good reviews and boost their sales. Amazon reviews is the best example I could come up with, now. So if you have a flair for words, don’t put your talent to waste.
eBook
If you believe you have a useful idea to see or have to voice out your opinion on something, jolting down your words on an eBook and selling them as virtual copies is an effective, low-cost way to self-publish.
In truth eBooks are no different from any other type of book except the medium of publication. This business model has been followed by several top internet marketers. But this model can actually work wonders for bloggers like you and me! It is really easy to create an eBook by compiling it with a topic and putting it up on sale on Amazon or similar sites. An important thing to notice here is that your eBook to have a cover. It is considered a major marketing tool for any potential buyer as they notices it first.
Decide on your target audience, chose a platform for publishing, for example Amazon Kindle and a few others for beginners.
What do the Number say about Bloggers?
If you have read and scrolled down till here, let me now bombard you with some numbers dealing with bloggers. A report taken from Glassdoor in 2015 shows that salaries for bloggers ranges from a mere 19K to $79K per annum. And on a survey about people running their own blogs found that about 17% are able to sustain their lifestyle with their blogs, while 75% never make even a $100 from blogging. Staggering yeah? I felt the same! Taking you to three years later…
How Do Bloggers Make Money & Promote your Blog Online
I took this from a recent Forbes article, statistics show that Only 11% of the bloggers around the globe earned more than $30,000 while 68% earned less than $5000. 57% made less than $2500. It is believed that some bloggers earn six-figure incomes and only 6% of respondents make over a $60,000 annually. Although not all of them are full time bloggers. About 30% are, stay at home or part-time bloggers.
Keep in mind, it again depends on how much or how often do you blog, the quality of your content, competitiveness of your topic and how effective you are at building and generating a good traffic to your website or blog page. The industry though, clearly seems to be on the rise.
Final thoughts on making a career with Blogging
Before you make up your mind to make a living out of blogging, please remember that this is not your place to be if you are looking to get rich in a quick span of time! Don’t get carried away by looking at some crazy pictures of bloggers with their Mercs and other fancy cars and homes on the internet. My personal thought for you would be to not take any specific classes available on the internet, as most of them are just a waste of time and money. Your blogs are plainly your ideas and creativity put in the form of words.
Certainly yes, making money through blogging is no rocket science as we have already discussed, but is possible only over a period of time. Starting to blog as a side project and then making it a full time to make a living would be the ideal way to go about with this. Keep reading a lot of blogs on various topics, from professional bloggers to noobs. Because everything you read, teaches you something new. Take the best from the best and learn the mistakes made by noobs and make sure to be free of it in your blog.
Personally, writing is something I love and when I can get paid for doing something I love, I am not sure I would ever be left to regret doing what I do right now. To Write!
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