The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money Off Your Blog

Making money off your writing is a dream come true for most creators. Who wouldn’t want to get paid for doing something they love? Monetizing your blog can be a huge success for people looking to focus all of their time and energy on creating good content and getting paid actual cash as a result. However, it can be hard to start the process of bringing in steady income based solely on your writing. Monetizing content isn’t by any means a get-rich-quick scheme, but with steady and hard work you can easily scale your blog into a source of supporting income for yourself or your business. Check out our best tips and tricks for making money off your writing below.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing uses personal recommendations and commissions to earn you some cash. Affiliates recommend a product or service to their audience using special tracking links, and then get a referral commission for every time someone buys after clicking your personal link. For bloggers, that often looks like writing an article about your favorite items and then including Amazon links where they can purchase (and then give you a commission) right away. Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money off your blog because you can promote a wide variety of products personalized to the general topic and tone of your blog. Just about every popular store like Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon, and others have an affiliate program, so it won’t be hard to find a store and affiliate program that fits your needs.

1. Google AdSense

Google AdSense has become very popular with YouTubers and other social media influencers, but its benefits are not limited just to video media. Many bloggers can use AdSense to their advantage as well. All you need to do is add a script from Google to your website and start displaying ads. You will get paid a set fee every time a user clicks on the ad, making it a good way to earn some consistent cash over the duration of your blog. As your blog audience grows, you can also switch to ads that pay per “impression,” meaning that every time someone watches your ad you get paid. The fees per impression or click are often small, but they quickly add up into larger and larger payouts that grow as your readership does. Be careful not to overwhelm your audience, though. Too many ads can make it hard to access the actual content on your website. Try to strike a balance between revenue-generating ads and authentic writing so readers can still enjoy your content while you earn money from the advertising.

1. Sell Sponsored Posts

If you’re not interested in selling ads on your site, there are still ways to monetize without blowing up with pop-up ads. An alternative way to monetize a blog is through sponsorships. Just as in sports or television commercials, sponsorships involve one person acting as a spokesperson or promoter of a product or brand. You can review certain items, promote specific brand lines, and more, all from the comfort of your own blog homepage. To get started, put together a short media kit that details your traffic statistics to your website, social media following, audience demographics, and any other data that will make your site more appealing to advertisers. Kit in hand, you can approach brands you’re interested in working with and begin selling a collaboration.

1. Offer Premium Content

A model popularized by influencers and other modern artists, premium subscriptions can be an easy way to make money off your writing and engage with your audience. Your most loyal readers are huge fans and may be willing to pay to read more of your work. Sites like Patreon offer a members-only area for you to share more in-depth blog posts, downloads, videos, audio content, and more, but more and more blog hosting platforms are also creating areas for you to make members-only content. Membership sites are a large investment because it requires additional premium content creation at higher rates than normal, but the pay-off can be huge because your readers are paying a recurring subscription fee to read your work. Not only are you getting paid even more for your writing, but you’re also forging a community with your readers and creating a space where your work is even more valuable and celebrated.

Making money off your blog is never easy at first, but with hard work and perseverance, you can build your writing into a lucrative and long-lasting career. Keep brainstorming and creating- your future awaits!

 

[Nomad]

I make money from my blog mainly through Adsense. I also use Amazon ads on some of my blogs. I do not generate a lot of affiliate sales, but once in a while I make money through affiliate marketing on my blog. I have never received any sponsorships on my blog, I have not been able to sell ad space through buy sell ads. However, I have sold ebooks, merch, as well as mini-tutorials (premium content).