A couple of years back, I set out on a quest. A quest to
make money blogging and make hundreds of thousands of dollars every single
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.
C'mon man! What? People didn't just rush to my blog after
the first post. They didn't even come and give me their money after my 9th,
10th, 11th, and so on...
What the heck?
Did I have my hopes too high? You bet I did. No one is going
to be the next Tymothy Sykes or Cute Girls Hairstyles guru overnight.
This career field is relatively new with the advent of the
Internet (and No, I will not give Al Gore props on his claimed invention).
Thousands of people have jumped on the so called band wagon. According to
DazInfo.com, a technology blog, there were over 111 million bloggers online by
the end of 2011 (Old data, for sure, but I didn't want to waste time from
writing this article to do more research, so I will stick with the outdated
data).
You see my point here. I'm not even going to try and speculate
how many bloggers that where out there as of 2013. You get it - too many to count.
Nonetheless, there are thousands of bloggers that are making a nice living
online.
So what do these bloggers do to make money? The answers are
pretty simple. So simple, in fact, that you'll say to yourself, "Darn-it,
self, why didn't I think of that?"
Admit it, we all do this when an invention is put out into
the market place that we thought of years ago, or one that is so effortless we
should have thought of it, like the Tricycle Lawnmower (that would be the best
gift ever).
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.
10 Ways to Make Money Blogging Countdown..!!
Here we go...
The Number 10 Way to Make Money Blogging- Dress Like Your
Favorite Superhero and Act Like a Moron in Front of the Camera.
There are a lot of creative individuals on the web that are
dressing up like their favorite super-hero and then throwing away any
self-dignity they act to act silly in front of the camera.
The Pros:
- Some
of these individuals have over 1,000,000 views on YouTube, enough said.
The Cons:
- If
your not comfortable running around your house in your PJ's and totally
acting like and overgrown ADHD child who had 100 Pixie Stix's 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 are
probably making a nice passive income each month from YouTube. It's just
not my style. But if it's yours, go for it.
The Number 9 Method to Make Money Blogging - Placing Ads
on Your Blog with Google AdSense.
Google AdSense is a program in which you can place ads on
your blog through Google. You get paid when visitors click on an ad on your
site.
The Pros:
- You
make a little bit of money.
The Cons:
- You
make a little bit of money.
- Google
AdSense is a nice way to earn pocket change, but you will never earn a
full-time income off of AdSense if this is the only way to generate income
on your site.
- Moreover,
AdSense ads on your site takes the traffic that you worked so hard to
attract and points them to another seller.
The Number 8 Practice to Make Money Blogging - Become an
Associate of Amazon and Sell Their Products.
This program works much like AdSense, only you are selling
products for Amazon. I use this program to promote my books and others that I
feel will be of use to my visitors. But again, there are some pitfalls with
just depending upon Amazon's Associates Program.
The Pros:
- You
can create your own Amazon store on your website and sell every single one
of Amazon's products.
- You
get paid monthly.
The Cons:
- You
only earn 4% commissions on the purchase price.
- Consequently,
you will need to sell an unheard of amount 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?
The Number 7 Strategy to Make Money Blogging - Sell Your
Own Ad Space
A creative way to make money blogging is to sell your own
advertising space on your website. I've seen this done on many blogs with
success. Just remember that the ad space you sell should be related to the
niche your blog falls into. I wouldn't recommend selling ad space to a candle
collector blogger if your blog is about new and upcoming technology.
The Pros:
- Selling
ad space on your blog can generate a nice monthly income.
- You can
also build your search engine rankings by stipulating that the bloggers
who buy ad space on your blog link back to your blog somehow.
The Cons:
- If
you are a brand new blogger, I wouldn't advise that you try to sell ad
space. If you're only getting 50 to 500 visitors per day, bloggers won't
be enticed to buy space from you because you aren't getting enough traffic
to your website. I suggest that you start considering to sell advertising
space on your blog when it is 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.
The Number 6 Way to Make Money Blogging - Write Reviews
for Money.
This is a pretty straight forward way to make money
blogging. It is also an excellent way to create content, which is a must for
all bloggers... Content. Content. Content. You will have to do your research,
however, to find companies that will pay you to write reviews, such as
PayPerPost and ReviewMe.
The Pros:
- Like
I stated before, reviewing products is a great way to generate content
ideas for your blog.
- Customers,
when faced with purchasing decisions, are using 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 stringent
requirements. You will need to do your research to find out which ones
will best meet your needs and skill-set.
- Also,
they don't pay very much per post. I have seen, however, some that will
offer up to $200 per post, but they will limit you to how many you can
write each month.
The Number 5 Strategy to Make Money Blogging - Ask for
Donations
Now, I don't personally ask for donations on my blogs, but I
have seen it on others. I usually see donation buttons on personal blogs where
the blogger isn't trying to sell their visitors products. This is perfectly
suitable for these kinds of blogs. But, in my opinion, if you are trying to
sell products on your blog and you are still asking for donations, you look a
little needy. Moreover, this tells your visitors that no one is buying from you
because you're asking for money.
The Pros:
- Free
Money. That's about all I can think of.
The Cons:
- Not
very many people donate to blogs unless their is a cause attached to it.
For example, if your blog is about helping find a cure for child's cancer,
then - by all means - slap a donation button on your blog. If that doesn't
fall into your blog niche, don't do it.
The Number 4 Method to Make Money Blogging - Sell Other
Peoples' Products as an Affiliate
I have already mentioned one 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 of the major
retailers now offer affiliate services to help them sell their products.
The Pros:
- You
don't need to create your own products, which save a lot of time.
- You
can earn a steady income each month.
The Cons:
- To make
money blogging just as an affiliate, you will need to sell a lot
of products just to produce the kind of income you want. For instance, you
only earn 4% with Amazon.
- I
have seen other companies on the web, however, that do 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% commissions on sales from their products.
The Number 3 Strategy to Make Money Blogging - Offer a
Membership to Your Website with a Monthly Fee to Access Exclusive Content
Many writers are now offering memberships to exclusive
content on their blogs in order to make money blogging. These memberships range
anywhere from a small monthly fee to a large one time fee. For example, ESPN
offers a monthly access fee to their premium content on ESPN Insider.
The Pros:
- You
can charge as much as you like for access to your exclusive content, just
be sure it is reasonable.
- This
will also create a nice 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 somehow different from your free content on your blog.
- This
premium content must also offer some kind of value that your visitor
cannot find anywhere else for free. In addition, I suggest that you only
offer memberships for exclusive content when you are receiving an average
of 1,000 visitors per day.
The Number 2 Method to Make Money Blogging - Create and
Sell Your Own Products
Now, I would normally put it this way to make money blogging at
number 1 because it is by far the best way to make money from your blog. Plus,
your own products also give you authority in your own niche and make you look
like an expert.
The Pros:
- Visitors
see you as an expert in your niche.
- Allows
for full creativity of what you want to sell.
- You
control the price of your products.
The Cons:
- Creating
your own products takes a tremendous amount of time; time that should be
spent attracting a following for your blog.
- Overhead
and cost, if you are mailing products.
The Number 1 Way to Make Money Blogging - Find a Company
that Will Give You the Resell Rights to All of Their Products at 100%
Commissions.
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 resell rights at 100% commissions.
This may sound too good to be true. But there is one company
out there that practices this.
The Pros:
The Cons:
- Not
doing anything will earn you $0
All in all, all of these are good ways to make money
blogging. In fact, you can employ every single one 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 a loyal
readership. It won't happen after just 10, so keep going and good luck to you.
Until Next Time - Keep Blogging and Making Money,
Williams I. Benedict.
