Everything you need to make money from blogging

   Profiting from blogging is everything you need to make a profit from blogging

 Do you think blogging is just a hobby? Think again - they can actually make you very good money. Here's how to get started, find your niche and turn your blog into a source of income.

We'll be honest: blogging isn't the easiest way to make money. But the great thing is that anyone can do it, and it looks great on your resume. All you need is something interesting to say and enough patience and dedication to build traffic and a following. But how do successful bloggers make their money? 

We interviewed two of them to reveal their monetization secrets. Our guide gives you a concrete action plan to launch your blog and grow it into a profitable small home-based business.

• What's in this blogging guide?
• How to start blogger
• What are you blogging about?
• How to increase your blog traffic
• How to make money from blogging
• The biggest challenges of generating income

You have two main options when it comes to actually setting up a blog – you can use a free blogging platform, or you can create your own website. We'll take you through both, outlining the pros and cons of each.

1 Free Blogging Platforms

Best for: Casual bloggers and those who are not interested in making money from their blogs. Pros: Easy to set up and completely free. Cons: Limitations on customization and video/image uploads, you often can't place ads or use affiliate links, you can't create a custom URL and the platform reserves the right to delete your blog. A lot of platforms will let you create a blog for free, and they're very easy to use. If you just want to blog casually at first, this may suit you well. But free blogging platforms can be very limited. You'll only be able to customize it to a limited extent, and your blog will have a storage limit which can make it difficult to upload large videos and images. Another drawback is that your blog URL will be something like “www.sillweb.wordpress.com” with platform branding. Most free blogging platforms also don't allow you to place banner ads or affiliate links on your site, which are major sources of income for most bloggers. However, if those things don't bother you, here's a quick summary of the best free online blogging platforms.

Best blogging sites

• WordPress.com – This is a basic blog hosting service that is free and easy to use. You'll have to put up with WordPress ads and branding unless you pay a monthly fee, and you can't place ads on your site. There are also limited options for customization and expansion.

• Blogger 

- Google's free blog hosting service, Blogger, is really easy to use. But the customization and design options are very limited, and there aren't a lot of options if you want to add new features.
Medium – With Medium, the focus is on writing rather than design. It's used by a lot of journalists, writers, and experts and is a great way to share your work with a specific community. You can't run any ads and it's difficult to create your personal brand.

• 2 Create your website

Best for:  Dedicated bloggers and those looking to make money from their blogs Pros:  Full design and customization control, your own custom URL and the ability to use ads and affiliate links the way you want Cons:  You will have to pay - first for your own domain name (URL) Then hosting, but we have tips on cheap web hosting. If you're not particularly tech-savvy, the thought of creating your own website may seem quite intimidating – but it's very easy to do, and you can create one in just 20 minutes. Owen, founder of Save the Student, has written an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide to show you how to start a website. With your own website, you'll be able to create a unique personal brand (using your own URL), and there's no risk of your blog being taken down by the platform – you'll own the site and be in full control. WordPress has an insane amount of templates or “themes” for you to choose from – take your time to decide on one that suits your personality and the theme of your blog.

Choose something clear and simple, with room for large images and easy-to-read fonts (Comic Sans and Courier fonts are not). Create your own website "

3 How to choose a blog topic

This can be the easiest or hardest part of starting your blog. The most important thing at this stage is to choose a niche where you can call yourself an authority - the biggest mistake new bloggers make in this crowded blogging world is starting a blog without trying to do something surprising or different. For example, if fashion is your thing, instead of combining general fashion content, could you combine your love of clothes with your keen interest in the environment by blogging about environmentally conscious designers instead?

• These are the best ways to find a topic for your new blog:

Look at other blogs – this should be your first port of call. What actually worked? More importantly, what are we missing? Look for gaps in the market.
Use Google - What are people searching for? Use Google's suggested searches and autocomplete to discover what people are searching for - if they're looking for it, it shows there's demand.
Search Forums for Frequently Asked Questions – When people can't find answers to their questions, they turn to forums. What are they asking? What do they need advice about? This will show what people are interested in and what there is a lack of information available about.
Track current trends –  What topics are in the media now? It's good to choose a topic that is long-lasting, but if you can get back into the trend early on, you can quickly establish yourself as an expert on that topic before anyone else. Searching #journorequest on Twitter shows what kind of topics journalists are currently reporting on.
Think about different types of content – ​​can you do tutorials/how-to guides? Opinions? Interviews? Lists? It may not be what you write about, but how you write that sets you apart.
Identify your interests and passions – While all of the above are important, there is no point in blogging about something you have absolutely no interest in. You will get bored quickly and people will discover your lack of enthusiasm. Write about something you really care about.
Check out our extensive list of small business ideas – get the entrepreneurial flow and bring in some cash!

4 How to increase your blog traffic

Once you've created your website, come up with a kick-ass blog topic and published your first posts, the big question is – where are all the readers? You can't just expect people to magically find your blog and start reading it. You have to promote it! Here are the best and easiest ways to get more readers for your blog: Promote your blog on social media. As with any business nowadays, you're unlikely to get noticed if you don't have social media accounts. We recommend setting up pages/accounts for your blog on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, tiktok and even LinkedIn (you're basically your own business anyway, right?). Design these accounts with a similar color scheme/theme to your blog so your branding is consistent and easily recognizable. Use them to share new posts and tag fellow bloggers/influencers/businesses who might share your content and help it reach a larger audience. You can also participate in some paid advertising to help your blog reach a wider audience, or run a contest to get more likes. Once you get followers, get them interested by posting regularly (not just new blog posts).

5 Connect with other bloggers

Make yourself known to other people who blog about similar topics. Despite the fact that you are technically a competitor, you will likely be pleasantly surprised by how supportive the blogger community is. Many bloggers even have a “links” page on their sites that they use to link to a large number of their friends within the community in exchange for a link on your own blog. This will greatly help with your SEO (that's search engine optimization - how likely your blog is to appear in Google searches). If you interact with other bloggers and share their content, they'll likely return the favor – you could even work on some collaborations!

• Respond to news stories on your blog

If something happens in the news related to your niche, share. This is what we refer to as “news hijacking” and it can be useful for getting a great exposure for you. For example, if you blog about cheap student cooking, look for things like the latest Student Money Survey revelations. Students may spend an average of £101 a month on groceries, but you can tell them how to spend less (while eating better!). You can take to social media to voice your opinion with relevant hashtags, participate in discussions, and even reach out to journalists to say you're available to comment. If you're really great at owning your niche, journalists might come to you.

6 Create viral content

Creating viral content will help you reach a new market, thus increasing your readership. This may be easier said than done, but the key to creating viral content is to capitalize on controversial or highly discussed topics related to your blogging niche – as you can imagine, this often involves stealing news, as mentioned above. Since this is your niche, you will be passionate, opinionated, and knowledgable about it, so you will be able to post an opinion that people will want to read, share, and talk about.

 7 How to make money from blogging

Once your blog is up and running, you can (finally!) start looking for ways to make a profit from it. These are the best and easiest ways to make money as a blogger: Use affiliate marketing on your blog Affiliate marketing works by adding tracked affiliate links in the text of your blog. You can make a small commission every time a reader clicks on a site you recommend and makes a purchase. The links will lead readers to a brand's website, and the money you receive is to say "thank you" for sending some great readers to their site. Almost all online e-commerce sites have an affiliate program of some kind, such as Amazon, ASOS, and Apple. Sign up for Affiliate Window - a huge affiliate network where you can promote thousands of well-known brands and services from all over the world. We mainly use affiliate marketing as our main source of revenue, although Google AdSense is there for a few extra dollars each month. Affiliate marketing is a natural fit for many bloggers. As suggested by writer Siri Jones: As a blogger, you are always recommending products and services to your readers. A lot of companies offer affiliate programs so it's really easy to find relevant programs to join and start earning commission. The key is to be authentic and honest with affiliate marketing. Write reviews and articles with your honest opinions and only encourage readers to buy something if you think it is a good product or service for them.

8 Add banner advertising to your website

As a more visible way to advertise, you can sell ad space on your blog page to brands that relate to your readers. Ads can be placed anywhere, but are most commonly found at the top of blog pages or in the sidebar. You can earn income in one of two ways. CPC (cost per click) means that you will get a set payment for each reader who clicks on the ad, while CPM means that you will negotiate a set payment for every 1,000 “impressions” the ad gets. As AdBlocker plugins grow, CPC and CPM can be low, but it depends on your industry, and there's little harm in trying them. Write Ads and Sponsored Content According to the bloggers we spoke to, one of the best ways to monetize a blog is by offering sponsored content (or ads) opportunities. These are advertisements in the form of a paid article or blog post. For example, if Adidas debuts a new swimwear line and you have a blog about women's sportswear, they might offer to pay you to write an article about their collection. You may also be able to add some affiliate links at the top. This monetization method usually works best when you have a strong niche audience. Once your readership increases, brands will often reach out to you to discuss sponsored posts. I've only gotten sponsored content opportunities through PR companies, either directly or through apps like Takumi's Instagram agency. Responsible for sponsored social media posts If you have a strong social media presence, you will be very attractive to brands. Some people actually make their entire income from blogging through sponsored posts on social media. You can charge per post/repost and the fees can be surprisingly high. You'll just have to work hard on building your following first – brands see your “social proof” (or the number of people who follow you on social media) as evidence that readers will like what you post about them too. Sometimes, members of the press (or even brands that have their own blog) will reach out to you if you're an expert on a particular topic, and ask you to appear on their website. If you're particularly knowledgeable about cooking on a limited budget, for example, a newspaper might call and ask you to contribute some budget-friendly recipes to their cooking magazine. Don't be shy about pitching ideas to posts, too — if editors don't know who you are, a quick email introduction is a great way to get your blog's name out there. Work with an Agency to Build Your Blog Believe it or not, blogging has become so popular in the advertising world that there are now agencies that are exclusively interested in promoting bloggers for big brands.Working with an agency can be very profitable and offer you security, but you will need to have a pretty decent following to be amassed in the first place.

Agency fees are also incredibly high, meaning that only big brands will be able to afford to work with you, and smaller, independent brands will be afraid.

Depending on the type of blogging business you're aiming for, this may or may not work in your favor – to use the ethical fashion blogging example again, agency fees may prevent you from working with the small independent designers you really want to promote.

• Sell ​​digital products on your blog

If you have skills or advice you can offer, another option is to charge for access to e-books, video lessons, courses, or workshops. For this option to work, you need to be able to show that you're extremely good at what you do, or that your content has proven to be incredibly valuable. This is not easy. It can be very difficult to convince online communities to pay, as there is a tendency for people to believe that everything on the Internet should be free. Worth a try, right?

• Sell ​​newsletter space on your blog

It's also an option to charge a brand for advertising space or a mention in your weekly/monthly newsletter (if you have one!). It won't take long to do this, and you can get a reasonable amount for it. However, you will need to build an appropriately sized mailing list for brands to be considered for this.

• Grab the attention of employers as a blogger

Using your blog to promote your own business or even get yourself a job is another (albeit indirect) way to make more money with your blog. If you're one of the many students who sell things online, your blog is the perfect platform to promote what you have to offer (although don't do it too heavily, or you'll turn off readers). You can also use your blog as a kind of online profile - you can build your credibility there, show off your skills and hopefully get a good job from it. Think of it this way: Your blog is like your own small business, and by showing potential employers that you can do it successfully, you're showing that you have an entrepreneurial mind, and know how to achieve success with it. For more ideas on how to put your website to good use, check out these 20 ways to make money from a website.

• The biggest challenges when monetizing a blog

Nothing worthwhile comes without hard work and a few challenges. Don't be under the illusion that blog monetization takes time. Many bloggers only make pennies monetizing their blogs each month – and that's after working on their blogs for a while. To have the opportunity to make a full-time income through blogging, again, you must have multiple income streams from a selection of sources. Monetizing a blog takes time and depends on having some traffic. The more readers you have, the more attractive you are to advertisers. Many bloggers decide to monetize very early in their blogging journey. Blogger Ursula  Makowska explained: I started blogging […] when I was in college. I decided to monetize my blog because I was spending a lot of time and effort creating posts, paying photographers for photography, and I also wanted to become a full-time blogger. I love blogging and wanted to follow my passion into blogging full time. It brought me happiness. Another big challenge that bloggers face is competition. suggested Kelle, from the lifestyle website Kelle's Space. It's a challenge that competes with many bloggers in the same niche as me for opportunities; Work for bloggers is very rare. The blogging market is filled with a lot of aspiring bloggers fighting for their visibility. However, if you work with dedication and consistency, it is possible. Siri Jones added: Blogging is definitely a challenge because it requires a lot of commitment and consistency to be able to monetize it properly. The only thing I regret is that it didn't start sooner. I was able to make my first $500 in my first month of monetization, and this month I made just over $2,000. I've now started to be informed by companies for sponsored posts, so I hope my monthly income will continue to increase!

• Can you really make money from blogging?

As we have seen, the answer is yes! But the amount of money you can make from blogging is variable. This is the nature of blog monetization in the beginning, but over time bloggers can do very well. Monetizing a blog takes time and depends on having some traffic. The more readers you have, the more attractive you are to advertisers. To make a decent income from blogging, consider having multiple streams of income that come from different sources and through different means.