I started my blog back in May 2016 with no thought that I’d ever make money blogging. It was a hobby. Something that I enjoyed! Sharing personal finance content is something that I’m passionate about, and I thought that all my blog would ever be is just a hobby.
As I started putting more time into my blog, I heard more and more about people making money blogging and was utterly confused. Maybe this is you. I thought that whatever these people were doing to make money was probably just a scam. But then I started to see that making money was in fact possible and definitely not a scam!
There are a few different outlets you can use to make money blogging. I recently took the class Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and it has been a total game changer in how I view blogging income. Since taking this course, I have been researching additional methods I could use to make money off of my blog. And while I’m thankful I know about them now, I wish I would have learned sooner!
So if you’re a new blogger wanting to learn how to make money blogging, here are four ways to do so.
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Ad Revenue
The first and easy way to make money blogging is through ads. You simply sign up with an ad company and pick the ad sizes that you wish to place on your blog. You can insert them in different areas of your page and get paid! It’s that easy.
I use Sovrn as my ad company. It was easy to sign up with them and I enjoy the service I have received so far! Once I signed up, I chose the different kinds of ad sizes I wish to place on my blog. You don’t need to do anything too fancy. Start with a couple simple sizes to try out on your site and add more as you go.
I downloaded the WordPress plugin Ad Inserter which helps me place ads in the desired areas on my site. I have placed some on the sidebar, some in the footer, and some in the actual text of my blog posts. It’s pretty easy to do!
Now you won’t get rich off of putting ads on your site. But it will bring you some sort of income! Don’t leave any income on the table. If you have any views on your site, I recommend maximizing it with putting ads on your site.
Don’t put too many ads on your site that your readers will be turned away from. But you can put a fair amount of ads without any reader complaints. The truth is, we’re so used to seeing ads all the time on the internet that it isn’t something that will turn your readers away!
Sponsored Posts
Now this is something that I’ve been looking into more recently. I am not a pro on sponsored posts because I’ve never actually done one before! But I’m looking into seeing how I can utilize this income stream down the road!
Basically, you receive money from sponsored posts when you write content on your site about a product or company. This, of course, is an agreed upon post that you work out with the company. The awesome part of this is that you get to recommend things to your readers that you think are awesome, and in turn get paid for it!
I am excited to try out this income outlet in coming months. But if you are interested in learning more about sponsored posts and how to find them, I recommend reading this article that I have found helpful!
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Affiliate Marketing
This income stream has been a game changer for me and the blog over the last couple months! Six months ago, I had no idea what affiliate marketing was. Now, I spend my time thinking about how I can maximize this income stream to its full potential for my blog and readers.
I learned about Affiliate Marketing through Michelle at Making Sense of Cents. I am all about listening and learning from people who are steps ahead of me and know what they’re doing. And this is definitely Michelle. She makes over $100,000 a month from her blog and over $50,000 of that is affiliate marketing alone.
Michelle instructs a course called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing where she shares all her tips and expertise when it comes to make money blogging through affiliate marketing. I took Michelle’s course last month and am so thankful I did. In fact, I wish I would have taken it earlier! I learned so much about what affiliate marketing is and how to use it as a great income stream on my site.
Last month I shared my first blog income report about money that I have received through affiliate marketing. Within two months of taking her class, I have already made more in affiliate marketing income than I paid for the cost of the class.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course
In this course, there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, over 20 worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful exclusive Facebook group, and more, and she goes through everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, such as:
- What affiliate marketing is and how it works
- Why affiliate marketing is great
- The exact steps she’s taken to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post
- How to pick the right affiliate products to promote
- Required disclosures that you need to know about
- Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products
All this to say, if you are a blogger (or looking to become one) I can’t recommend this course enough! Many bloggers end up leaving money on the table by not taking advantage of affiliate marketing, and you’ll learn all about how to do that in this course.
You can learn more and sign up for the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing class here.
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Create and Sell a Product
The last method you can use to make money blogging is by creating your own product to sell. This is an awesome way to create income on your site because of the larger profit margins you’ll receive. I haven’t created a product of my own yet. But you can bet that I’ve been dreaming about what I could sell.
If you write a fashion blog, you could create your own online store where you sell the clothing and brands that you enjoy. If you are a travel photography blogger, you could create a course where you give others tips on how to take great photos. There are so many opportunities out there!
Now, I don’t want to share my product idea too early because I’m still cultivating it and putting it all together. But I am hoping to launch it within the next 6 months, so stay tuned!
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You Can Make Money Blogging
I write this post for you to show you that it totally is possible to make money blogging. And I wish I would have known this earlier. In the last couple months, I have learned the outlets that you can use to make money blogging and really wanted to simplify it. Through ads, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing (and the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course) and creating your own product for sale, you truly can turn a hobby into an income.
I hope that this will encourage you to start a blog of your own. Or get you working on one that you currently have. I had my blog for a year and a half before I actually took it seriously as a business. But I wish I would have sooner! So learn from my mistakes and start to make money blogging right now! 🙂