When you say that you have a blog or that you are a blogger, usually the first question after that is when are you getting a real job. The family hopes that “it’s just a phase” while friends think it’s just a hobby.
Because who still reads, right?
Or
Today everyone writes, surely they will read you…
And you try to explain that it’s not really like that, how your writing is good, you have X readers a month, they share your work on other networks… But no, they don’t give up on their conclusions.
Sounds familiar?
If you have just started blogging, know that there is still hope, despite such prejudices. But, also note that the habits of the readers have changed, so you have to adjust your creative habits as well.
How Did We End Up in a Situation Where Blogging is not a “Real Job”?
A lot has changed over the years, from the amount of information available to the habits of readers.
1. Everyone started blogging and at one point there was a saturation. Today there are 570 million blogs. Everyone has become a “content creator” and there is a need to create alternative formats.
2. (The situation is no different today, except that today there is something called content marketing which, if well implemented, does not care about saturation and penetrates the noise like a hot knife through cheese.)
3. People’s habits have changed. People today e.g. write 500 million tweets. Daily. There is too much content on all sides, on a zillion different topics, and not all of us absorb information in the same way.
Some of us read while others listen, or watch. In recent years, video and podcasts are quite popular as well.
So How do I Make a Living Writing a Blog Today?
Reading everything so far, that is the first logical question.
If people are fed up with reading and if podcasts and videos are popular now, should I even start blogging?
The short answer is: Yes. But you need to know what you are doing.
1. “Just having a blog” is no longer enough. It never was, but when there was less competition, you could possibly overlook the incomplete/bad/unattractive… content. But not today.
2. You need to know a lot besides writing:
a) SEO techniques
b) Storytelling techniques
c) Market research
d) Advertising techniques
e) Marketing on social networks…
And a bunch of other things to get enough readers in general.
So, blogging is a serious business. Because a lot of people don’t see it that way, is why we have a lot of “failed” bloggers, and it seems that writing a blog is no longer profitable.
Ways you can make money from your blog
If you approach this business seriously, and if we assume you learned something about SEO, advertising, gathering audiences, market research…
There are many ways. Of course, what is always profitable is writing a company blog. Companies are increasingly realizing the importance of blogging. But our topic is making money from our own blog, in a chosen field.
We are talking about building our own business, not someone else’s.
We have collected the 6 most profitable ways to earn money from your own blog, and we invite you to share with us if you know any other way as well.
Affiliate Marketing
Simply put, you are promoting someone’s product on your blog. You leave links to the products, someone clicks, makes a purchase, and you get a percentage for each purchase.
Many businesses have affiliate programs (we do too). The commission rate depends on the program, and you also have a lot of platforms that bring together businesses that need affiliate marketers.
One of the most popular affiliate programs is the Amazon program.
We recommend you also check out this list of 100+ affiliate programs.
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this model because there are many affiliate marketers. However, if you:
1. Gather enough audiences with quality and regular content
2. Choose a good niche
3. Regularly measure your results and optimize your website
4. Advertise well
You can expect exceptional passive income. One text can bring you sales for months, even years.
And if we take into account that the investments in this type of marketing are growing by 10.1% per year in the U.S. alone… This is an opportunity worth looking at.
Friendly tip: Emphasize that the text has affiliate links. It is fair, and the laws require it.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is an affiliate network that connects you with advertisers who need media space.
When you join this affiliate network, Google publishes ads from other online advertisers on your website, and for each click on those ads, you receive a certain percentage of the money invested in the ads.
You can learn more from this Google video:
The more visitors to your blog and the longer they stay, the greater the chance of a click on the ad.
Depending on the quality of the ad, the click rate can range from 0.5% to 10%. Take care of the quality of the ads that are shown to your audience and everyone will be fine.
Also, keep in mind that Google pays nearly $10 billion each year to AdSense network partners.
Writing Paid PR Texts
When you gain a large number of readers and visitors on a daily and monthly basis, you will start receiving offers to present a specific product, service, or company to your target audience.
The bigger the audience, the bigger the earnings. Models are different – from one-time payment to price + percentage.
Media portals earn the most from this model, but as everyone is a mini-media portal today, you can also grab a piece of the pie. Especially if you choose a good niche
Selling Space for Banners
This is also a very cost-effective model for sites with a large number of visitors. You are practically renting digital advertising space. It’s as if someone put up a billboard on your site and it stays there for a fee.
The price of a banner depends on its position and size. A banner in the page header will not be worth the same as a small banner in a corner of a website.
Here is an example of a banner offer from Creatopy.
Of course, we note again, for this to work:
1. You need a large audience
2. And you should only choose advertisers that are relevant to your audience
So, it’s okay to put up a banner for a company that sells dog collars if you blog about pets. But you won’t get much use if you advertise dog collars on a website dedicated to people who love hamsters.
Guest Blogging
For the sake of SEO, higher visibility, better reputation – guest blogging is a very good solution and can go both ways, and prices can be extremely high.
They depend on the authority of your domain and the size of your audience, that is, depending on your personal authority and the goals of the people who invite you to do a guest blog.
1. If you have a highly visited website, that is well-optimized for search engines, people from your niche will pay you to publish a text with you and thus get a backlink to their website.
2. If you are recognized as an expert in a certain field, the owners of websites in your field will offer you to write a text for them and thus “borrow” a little of your authority.
Work on building your online reputation and invest in connecting with professionals from the same industry. Such social capital pays off, and the mutual “exchange” of the audience can lead to a huge increase in relevant traffic.
And more relevant traffic = more reputation, more clicks, and better earnings.
Paid (Premium) Content vs. Free Content
If you are a very, very, very good writer, then you can also make a membership on your blog. You give certain content for free, and with a certain monthly fee, you deliver your premium articles to people.
One of the writers who used this perfectly is Mark Manson, author of the famous book Everything Is F*cked.
Mark shares a large number of articles for free, and for a few dollars a month, you can also access his premium texts.
After all, one of the networks that make a living from this model is the popular Medium.
To Blog or Not to Blog – That is the Question
As in any business, there is a certain risk that it will not succeed no matter what you try. A low criterion for entering the world of blogging (you only need an email address and an account on a popular blogging platform) has led to too much irrelevant content that has flooded the internet.
Thus, it has created an image of a blogger writing only out of a hobby or because he doesn’t have a “real job”. But as you can see, blogging can be a great way to make money.
Of course, as we said if you know what you are doing and why you are doing it. And if you realize that writing is a serious business that requires a lot of additional skills, from SEO to advertising.
