17 Great Ways To Make Money As A Blogger

By Mary Kutton

Blogging is by far the best way to make money. You can write about what you want to write about, at any time of the day, and you don’t even have to put on pants!

Unfortunately, it’s often harder than it looks. It’s a real job—one that takes dedication and skill. However, once your work pays off, you’ll be on top of the world!

Let’s explore the two parts of making money blogging:

1. building up your readership and

2. monetizing your content

Step One: Build Up Your Readership

Before you can make money blogging, you need to have a solid base of readers. Getting famous is no easy task, but if you have a solid strategy and some determination, you can be one of the blogging greats!

Choose a Niche

It might be unfortunate, but it’s true: you will never make a living blogging if your blog is just a journal of your day-to-day life. This is how many bloggers get their feet wet in the world of digital publishing, but it’s not going to make you any money.

The first step to building a blog that people will read is choosing a topic that you care about. You’ll be spending hours and hours creating content for this blog, so passion is a requirement. Ideally, this topic would also be something you’re very knowledgeable in so that you’re less likely to struggle for new blog post ideas later on down the road.

If you want to be a serious blogger, you need to find a right niche related to your topic. This means you need to solve a problem for readers or improve their lives—while also picking a subject that hasn’t been done to death. If your blog is exactly like those of big competitors, you’re never going to get anywhere.

You need to take something you care deeply about and put a spin on it that nobody else (or very few other people) has done. It’s challenging, but if you care about the subject, you’ll be able to come up with something!

For example, there are lots of arts and crafts blogs, but how many of them make articulated skeletons? It may seem weird and “out there,” but being your genuine self is the best way to get dedicated readers.

Get Better at Writing

Writing can be hard, and many people outsource the creation of their blog content. Do you get A’s on your essays? If you’re not a confident writer, try hiring a personal highly qualified essay writer to give you a helping hand and maybe a freelance blogger or two.

Blog readers want snappy, useful content that is broken up into easily-digestible chunks. This can be challenging for those of us who have a lot to say on a topic or those who aren’t used to writing for the internet. Remember that in the 21st century, nobody has a very long attention span, so engage readers by helping them skim and providing them with information that will directly impact their lives.

An eye-grabbing headline that lures readers it is also a must!

Learn Photography

Humans are visual creatures, so even if your blog is focused more on the written word, great photography will seriously up your game. Well-composed and exciting shots add a lot to a blog post.

Don’t just use stock photography if you can help it—while it can be tempting to take the easy way out, readers prefer original and focused content. Also, you can’t get stock photos of your unique arts and crafts or your original recipes!

If you’re serious about blogging, buying a quality camera might be an investment you want to make. Before you make that kind of commitment, you may wish first to try taking an online course in photography and seeing what the results look like. If you don’t like what you see even after some training, it may be best to hire a photographer to work with you.

Become a Social Media Expert

Behind creating excellent content, this is the most critical part of building up your blog’s readership.

It’s not right on the internet that “if you build it, they will come.” There are so many things competing for our attention that unless you get out there and make yourself heard, your potential readers won’t know you exist.

This is why it’s essential to have a presence on relevant social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Everyone has a favorite social media site, and you want to be able to reach the highest number of people.

When using social media, don’t neglect relating to others with your genuine personality. Forming relationships with readers will keep them coming back for more from you. Spamming will make them skip your content or unfollow you altogether!

Check this out: anyone, from beginner to expert, can benefit from this resource on social media!

Step Two: Monetize Your Blog

The steps below will teach you how to monetize your blog after you have quality content and a dedicated readership.

Remember that you can combine these strategies for maximum income!

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the practice of referring your readers to a site to buy a product you mention on your blog. When people click through to purchase that item, you get a certain amount of money.

Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation because you can help your readers find products related to your niche that you genuinely love and recommend and make income at the same time!

Google Adsense

Instead of trying to find blog sponsors as an individual, setting up Google Adsense on your blog will allow Google’s algorithms to pick ads that will most appeal to your readers. You get income when these ads are clicked.

Depending on the layout and content of the blog, this can seem “spammy” to some readers, but if it’s done tastefully it’s very beneficial.

Create a Product

The key to selling something to your readers is to give them something that will genuinely help them and make their lives better.

Here are some ideas:

Ebooks

Writing a book on the subject of your blog’s niche allows you to make use of your expertise and market yourself to people who are already interested in your topic.

Readers trust bloggers who have proven themselves to be experts in their field, and writing an ebook will help you capitalize on your unique strengths and areas of knowledge. While your blog might be a helpful introduction to your topic, your ebooks can delve deeper and provide game-changing advice that only you can give.

Online Courses

You could also structure your shared knowledge as an online course. Online courses often lead to higher retention of knowledge among attendees than a book would provide, since it’s more interactive and rich in multimedia.

Webinars

Webinars are digital live seminars that viewers can tune into. This format allows for interaction with the audience and lets your most passionate fans ask their burning questions!

Membership-Only Content

Similar to an online course but with less structure, you can provide multimedia content to your dedicated readers who are willing to pay for a premium membership.

Physical Products

Depending on your niche, you can often invent, build, or make a unique product that will solve a problem for your readers. Be creative! This is a an excellent option for arts or crafts blogs. You might be able to teach your readers basic wood-working, but none of them are experts in furniture-making like you are! Give them what they want and offer to sell them a product directly.

Offer a Service

Offering a service is another option for those who want to monetize their blogs.

You have a few options:

Consulting

If you’re an expert in something, it’s guaranteed that someone could use your advice. Market yourself as a consultant in your field and charge clients who want to pick your brain!

Writing

If you learn to write excellent blog posts, you can often offer your services to others. Sometimes you’ll get credit and sometimes you won’t, but it’s a great way to make some money if you’re a confident writer.

Catering

You can use your blog to advertise your in-person service to locals who might need it. Catering is just one example—maybe you have a home improvement blog to complement your carpentry business, or an arts and crafts blog to market your art therapy services. The possibilities are endless!