Making money from blogging may sound like a strange concept; it may even sound fanciful, but believe me when I tell you that it is not only possible, but also very profitable if done correctly. Whether you are looking for an extra bit of revenue, or perhaps thinking of pursing blogging as a career, serious cash can be made if you just know the best ways. Very few bloggers know these ways, and even fewer still capitalise on all of them. The question is, are you willing to be one of the lucky few that does?
Before I begin, however, I feel it is only right that I bring a bit of realism to this article. Is it possible to make bucket loads of cash from blogging? Most definitely yes. Does every blogger who tries to become rich from blogging succeed? Definitely not. It does take graft and dedication, but, then again, so do most things! If you are willing to put the time and effort into the avenues that I am about to show you then YOU WILL make money through blogging. The amount of money made depends entirely on you.
In no particular order, here are my 10 best ways to make money from blogging:
Publishing Posts and Reviews For Payment
There are many companies and marketers out there who would only be too happy to pay good money so that their products and services could be reviewed and/or discussed online. This is a simple enough way of cashing in on your blog. Of course, in saying that, you need to know what you are talking about if you chose to go down this path. Reviewing or discussing a topic that you clearly know nothing about is a dangerous undertaking as it will most certainly harm the traffic to your own blog if readers cop on that you’re talking tripe.
Advertising Programs
By utilising such tools as pay-per-click text, display and video advertising that are available once you join one of the numerous advertising programs available online today, easy money can be swiftly made in no time. Personally, I find that Google AdSense is the best advertising program as it is by far the easiest to set up on your blog. Again, with a little hard work and experimenting, it’s a real possibility to make some cash through such an avenue as Google AdSense.
Utilising Your Own Ad Space To Its Full Potential
By this I mean selling the ad space that you possess directly to advertisers. This is a slightly more difficult avenue to follow as it requires that you have a large following on your blog in order to be successful. If you are struggling to sell your ad space for whatever reason, then I suggest you visit BuySellAds.com where bloggers can find online advertisers who are looking to buy ad space. Of course, it’s important that you choose carefully who buys your ad space and what it is that they intend on filling it with. Remember, everyone who reads your blog will see the ad so take care that it is not something that certain people might take offence to.
Sponsored Events
Hosting events on your blog is a very profitable way of generating more traffic and revenue. The key is to attract a company who will sponsor your chosen event. Examples of such an event are numerous – contests, featured stories, freebies, blogathons, specialised webinars etc. If done right, a sponsored event can generate a boat load of cash for you as well as increasing your traffic!
E-Book Sales
Another handy and potentially profitable avenue to make some money from your blog. E-books are generally very simple and cheap to create and can be based on anything. Focus in on what you are knowledgeable about, take the time and effort to construct this knowledge into written content, and then sell it on your blog. Simple! You could even outsource the actual creation process of your E-book if you are not too sure about the process. Even though E-books generally sell for cheap enough, there’s no cost in reproducing them so everything earned after the initial cost will be a profit.
Amazon Associates
Amazon – probably the biggest online retailer on the planet – has a superb affiliate program. By becoming an affiliate with such a trustworthy company, it is very doable to entice a fraction of your traffic to click on your affiliate links and send them onto Amazon where you will be entitled to a percentage of whatever they spend. Amazon is home to thousands of products from hundreds of niches and so it’s just a case of what product you think your readers might be interested in. Once you have decided on your product, then simply write an honest review and the followers of your blog will trust you and Amazon enough to make a purchase.
Selling Themes Or Templates
A small bit of knowledge in the area of website design is needed to perfect this blog money-making endeavour. When I say small, I mean the very learnable skills that are involved in creating a nifty website theme or template. Or, if you don’t fancy this creative side, then it’s just as simple to outsource the designing element for a cost that will be a mere fraction of what you could sell a good theme or template on your blog. I see themes being sold and bought on a regular basis in the price range of $20 – $200.
Selling Plug-Ins
Very much like selling themes or templates, either a certain skillset or willingness to pay to get paid mind-set is needed for this particular method to work. If you don’t have the knowhow to create a plug-in yourself, then there are people out there who manufacture these useful tools just so they can sell them on. Again, the price of purchasing a plug-in is relatively small compared to the profits that can be made by selling it on your blog. All it takes is the right plugin – preferably something that can help your fellow bloggers improve their everyday blogging.
Selling/Renting One Of Your Blog Pages
As you can imagine, in order for this tactic to be profitable then your blog must have good traffic so as it is valuable enough to attract a potential buyer. If indeed you do get your blog up to this kind of standard, then it is fairly straightforward to auction off some of your internal pages/posts for a handsome fee. This is one of the more difficult ways to make money by blogging as it requires your blog to have a high page rank.
Design a Training Course
A training course can be based on anything – whatever you think that you could teach someone to do – and can consist of video tutorials, written content, worksheets, articles, research pieces etc. Once all the material is authentic and helps potential buyers get the best learning experience possible, then selling a training course on your blog can be very profitable. Training course are, in fact, the most profitable kind of digital product that you could sell and I have seen people splash out to up to the amount of $600 for a training course. Of courses, it goes without saying that the course has to be top quality. If it’s not, then the backlash from the followers of your blog might be quite unpleasant.
That concludes my article on what I think are the 10 best ways to cash in on your blogging. It’s important to remember, however, that these are just my top choices – there are many other options to exploit and plenty of opportunity to make money blogging. The best advice that I can give you is to try the ten that I have mentioned above and also any other methods that you might come across as you browse the web. There’s no harm in experimenting; the harm comes when there’s a refusal to try something new. You’ll also find as you try different methods that what might work for your blog, might have little to no effect on someone else’s, and vice versa. It all depends on the blog in question.
Hopefully this article has been informative and helpful to you in your attempts to make money from your blogging. As I said in the beginning of this piece, if you are willing to put the work in and try new avenues, then there’s really not much stopping you cashing in on your blog. So, therefore, blog yourself all the way to the bank, my friend!
