How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners
In this post, I will show you how you can actually make money through blogging. At first, I didn’t believe it either. I really thought it was a scam.
How in the world will you be able to get money only from blogging? When I saw so many income reports from reputable bloggers out there, I was in shock! They make thousands every month!
In this post, I will be referring to one person that also made me believe that I can truly make money blogging with affiliate marketing. Keep reading this post and you’ll receive lots of information on how to make a profitable blog.
This page may contain affiliate links, which means I earn a commission when you sign up through my link (at no additional cost to you). I only promote products or services that I personally love or from companies I trust. Read my full Disclosure Policy.
Why Blogging?
If you are just like me… A proud introvert, who loves to write and help other people, this means blogging could be your thing.
As a stay at home wife in a foreign country and far from my family, blogging really helps me a lot going through those hard times. You can be yourself… No one will judge you or try to push you out of your limit.
You can speak your mind in a positive way. I choose to blog also because I am not a talkative person and so, I don’t usually speak my mind. Writing helps me to free all my thoughts and the best thing is that I can help other people too!
Okay, so I want to build a blog. Now, what should I have to build a profitable blog?
First things first..
Setting up a blog is easy, making it be a profitable blog is another thing. It’s the same as building a business.
Imagine it… To build a business you need a solid foundation that will be able to hold strong even during the difficult times.
This also applies to blogging. I’m telling you this from the beginning, so you will be able to know what to expect on your blogging journey. You will definitely need to have these to help you survive through your blogging’s journey.
You need to have Determination
A successful blog can be seen from how determined is the author/ creator. If you are not determined enough to make your blog a success, then it is time to rethink again what is your purpose for building a blog.
For me, it’s because I want to have my own business that I passionate about.
Building a blog is the same as building a business. Your blog is your business. And definitely, your determination is what you need first as a foundation to make a successful blog. I believe when you do your best, your blog will grow and will be a money generator for you in the long term.
Have patience all the time
Not everything will go your way when you build a blog. That’s what you need to keep in mind.
For example, you create a post and you hope that it will become viral as soon as possible. But turns out no one reads it. You become discouraged and you want to quit. The thing is maybe there is something wrong with the post. You need to read it again and try changing some things up and then see the progress. It does take time to write a great blog post.
It’s not like writing one post and suddenly you become the best writer. Everyone in the blogging world knows this. We learn from our mistakes and learn to grow by trying something new that could possibly help the blog move forward.
When that happens, it is best just to take your time to reassess your blog and see which has worked and which has not. Be patient with all the process and give time to your blog to grow.
Start Investing
To make your business grow, you will need to invest. Investing your time and money on courses and blogging tools can help in growing your blog.
Probably you say that you don’t have the money for that. You can also rely on free sources that other bloggers provide for you. But having to pay for a course is different than the free courses out there.
You will get the knowledge but it’s not the same knowledge. I do have the same problem with you. I don’t have a lot of money, to begin with. But I want to have my own business. I want to work from home and have a lifestyle that I want.
To achieve that, I need to have the right knowledge and community that would help me in building my own blogging business. Having the tools that I know would help me grow my blog the right way. Which I will discuss more a little bit later.
If you don’t have a lot of money to invest, try to check my 20 ways you can make money online that have helped me earn money for my blog investment.
And now the foundations have set…
What do I need to build a profitable blog?
Find a Profitable Niche
You have to choose a niche that can provide information or solve problems for your audience. But it doesn’t mean it will be a niche that you are not passionate about.
You can choose one or more niche based on what you love to talk about which can provide solutions to others. People always want to improve their lives and so, if your blog will be able to help those people, this will be a great niche for you to make money out of it.
A great post that I read about this is 7 Blog Niches That Get Good Traffic and Make Good Money.
Choose a Reliable Web Hosting
To make a profitable blog, you’ll need a paid web hosting. Why not a free one? Here is some reason why free web hosting is a bad idea:
- You do not own your website so you have no power to design it as it’s yours.
- Free web hosting won’t allow you to put advertising. As a newbie blogger, it is important to set a couple of ads on your blog. This is how you will be able to earn money.
- No support and reliability. You have to solve your problem alone. Instead, a paid one can give your 24 hours support like the web hosting that I’ll recommend.
If you want to make a profitable blog from day one, the one thing you will rely on as an income is Ads. To have a good ad income, you need to have traffic. So traffic equals money.
To get more traffic, you need a fast-loading website that would not turn away your readers. I don’t know about you but my website loads fast enough, so people won’t be clicking away because they are tired of waiting.
Plus if you are not a tech-savvy person like me, then you need a great customer service that could help you when your site is having a problem. You can check out Siteground for a reliable customer service and fast-loading website. They are hands up my favorite web hosting!
If you don’t know how to start, check out my step by step guide on How to Start a Blog for Beginners with Siteground.
How to make money on your blog?
As a newbie, there are 3 definite ways for you to make money from your blog. I will go through each one of them and give you tips from my experience on how you can earn your income from day one.
Apply to Ads Network
Before telling you which ad network you need to choose, you need to understand how ad network works. To make money from an ad network, you need to have traffic coming to your blog. Again, like I said before. Traffic equals money.
It can be quite hard for a newbie blogger because you won’t get a lot of page views at the beginning. The only way for you to get massive traffic to your website is by using social media like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Which definitely can drive traffic to your blog from day one.
My number one traffic source is Pinterest. As you may read from other bloggers out there. Pinterest is a great source of traffic when you just starting a blog. While as for me, the biggest traffic source my blog have is from Pinterest.
While we know that having to rely on one source is not good. You can also join some Facebook groups that would help your blog receive more views.
Back to the topic, there’s a lot of ad networks that you can join as a new blogger. The one that usually people recommend as a start is Google AdSense. While some people can get approve and some not, the other option is Media.net. Both are great for starters but one day you do want to earn more money and join the big league like Mediavine and AdThrive.
Those two are known as the top ad network for most bloggers. And because of all the hard work, I am so grateful to be in the big league now. Which is the best decision ever because my ad income increase by more than 900% and the crazy thing is I only run the ads for 10 days after joining in!!! Super excited for that!!
In order to join Mediavine, you need to have 25,000 sessions not page views for 30 days before applying. The great thing is you don’t have to wait for one month to apply. For example, If you already achieved 25,000 sessions from the middle of July to middle of August, you can go apply Mediavine directly! You DON’T have to wait until the end of the month.
This is one prove that you can make money with your blog through ads.
Note: You could put ads and earn money out of it as a passive income. But don’t rely on it. You need to have other income streams such as affiliate marketing, selling your own product or service. While all of this is not a must but this is the most legit ways to earn money fast.
Try Incorporate Affiliate Marketing to Your Blog from Day One
I would never stop saying that affiliate marketing could be the main part of making money on your blog. You even can make money only with low page views.
When I just started my blog, I have no idea how to make money with Affiliate Marketing. All I know is to get traffic as much as I can and rely on my ad income. This could be your choice if you want to but this will get tired by time, you need to keep on promoting your blog day and night on social media. And eventually, you need a second option that would allow you to do less work which is Affiliate Marketing.
Michelle from Making Sense of Cents, help me realize how affiliate marketing could play a big part in making money blogging. By doing affiliate marketing on her blog, she managed to earn more than $100.000 just from affiliate marketing. Now, she shared her knowledge on how to be a kickass affiliate marketer on her blog right HERE.
I am 100% recommending you to take her course to learn the basics of affiliate marketing and how to actually make money from it.
Her course is so simple and packed with so much information that you can apply to your blog from day one. Do remember that this course is not a one-night money-making magic.
What this course do is to equip you with the right knowledge on how to be a kickass affiliate marketer even when you are a newbie. It’s a perfect course for the newbie or seasoned bloggers that would want to learn the different types of affiliate marketing.
As for me, ever since I applied most of what I learned from the course. I have earned more than $500 after applying it on my blog for 6 months. I know the progress is slow but I still can’t imagine that I can actually make money from affiliate marketing. Now, I keep on trying to find ways so I can apply better affiliate marketing and earn more.
If you are not sure how the course would help you. Read my Honest Review of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. And learn how this course helps me make $500 a month just from affiliate marketing.
Related Post: Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing + Freebies
Selling Your Own Product or Services
Example of selling your own products are e-books or online courses. You can make an e-book or an online course based on your niche and experience in building your business. Or you can open an e-commerce store that linked to your blog. Providing services such as a logo or web design. Some even provide a coaching service or session.
The main point so you will be successful in selling your own products is to know your audience. That is why it’s important before selling your own product, you need to have a mailing list. You can sell your products to your mailing list because you know what they want.
My recommendation for a good email marketing app is ConvertKit. I can’t say enough how easy it is to use ConvertKit to manage my mailing list.
You can do tagging and segmenting easily to know what each of them wants to receive from you. You can set an automation for your sales funnel (automation system on how to market your product). For me, those are the two things that I love the most from ConvertKit.
There is another free option such as MailChimp that tempt me. And believe me, I’ve tried it for a week and I immediately jump right back in with ConvertKit again. Their system is so much easier for me to work with. With that being said, ConvertKit is my number one recommendation for a great email marketing app you’ll need for your blog.
If you want to sell an online course, you definitely need a platform to sell it. There are other two options for that, Teachable and SendOwl. What is the difference between those two? Teachable is more of an advanced platform for you to sell more than one e-book and their system is much better than SendOwl.
But if you want a simple and easy platform, SendOwl is good enough for that. It’s easy to work with when you offer an affiliate partner program. Again, it’s all about your preference.
When will it be able to make money?
This will be the one thing that you and I as a newbie blogger will ask ourselves every single day. I know it because I’ve been there. Each day I will ask myself when I will be able to earn money like x blogger. How I will get more page views like x blogger.
The answer to that is to give it a time.
There is not one-night making-money magic for your blog. Those x bloggers that earn 5 to 6 figures work their asses and try to improve their blog every day. I know this because I am doing that to make my blog successful now.
When you read this maybe some of you may get discouraged and start thinking to quit. Maybe you think that making a successful blog is as easy as snapping your fingers. The truth is it is not easy. I know that this will scare you.
But in the end, you will be the one that can make your blog successful. it’s a matter of your determination that would bring your blog to the next level. It’s how you improve your blog each day that’s count.
I don’t know about you but I am working my ass off for 10-12 hours a day so that I can live a lifestyle I want in the future. Which is traveling and being able to work at any place I want. To be able to achieve that, I need to do the work first. Same as you too.
And while you’re working on your blog, DON’T ever compare your progress to other bloggers. You can be inspired by them through their income reports but you also need to know your limit and their limit is different.
When I first started my blog, I dreamed to be one of the bloggers that make money blogging in less than a year and here I am.
I am one of them! So if I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
Keep working and improving your blog so it will be a long-term business that would make your dreams come true!
Check out my Blog Starter Series:
Part 1: How to Start a Blog for Beginners
Part 2: How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners
Part 3: Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing + Freebies
or my other series:
I do really hope that this post can help you!
See ya on the next post 🙂
Monica