Can You Make Money With A Blog? You Absolutely Can!
Many people wonder Can You Make Money With A Blog?
I can honestly tell you from experience that becoming a proficient blogger is not as easy as people think.
Many aspiring bloggers struggle with how to make money blogging online.
Does this sound like you?
Well, if it is, then guess what?
You’re not alone!
What happens is many well-meaning “newbie” bloggers start writing but eventually run into a wall.
They find out that blogging without a structured platform to guide them is very difficult.
They quickly see that without some type of structure, their efforts fall flat.
before they think about how their hard work will pay off.
However, while you’ve been struggling to master the basics of blogging, there are others who have NOT been struggling.
Wealthy Affiliate has been helping thousands of people just like you build a profitable online business from day one.
Can You Make Money With A Blog? Begin With The End In Mind
When considering Making Money Blogging From Home here is a point you must keep in mind:
When you start your blog, you should have a plan from day one to make money from it.
If you want to make “quit your day job” amounts of money, here’s what you have to do:
You MUST plan for success right from the very beginning.
Your blog must be seen as credible and authentic.
In other words, you have to approach your blog as a genuine home-based business.
If you are going to approach your blog as a part-time gig, then you have a hobby, a distraction, not a business.
Similarly, when YOU view your blog as a genuine business, then your visitors will view your blog the same way.
Unless it’s viewed as an actual business, folks won’t click your affiliate links and buy your stuff.
Ultimately, you want people to buy your stuff!
Let’s take a closer look at how successful bloggers make money from their sites and how you can too.
How Do Bloggers Make Money?
There are a variety of ways bloggers can make a part-time or full-time living with a multitude of strategies.
They fall into two categories:
Passive monetization, or income, and active monetization.
Passive income is the type most talked about among “newbie” bloggers.
It’s the type of monetization connected to the “set it & forget it” mindset.
You set up your sales funnel once and let it work for you 24/7 generating “passive” income.
Similarly, you are responsible for periodic maintenance and tracking campaigns to see which ones get you the best results.
For example, bloggers can make passive income by:
- selling ebooks that address a particular need
- joining affiliate marketing programs that are in alignment with your “niche”.
- displaying ads on your blog – Google AdSense is the go-to choice for bloggers displaying ads for the first time.
Again, think of passive monetization as setting up your “system” once, and allow the sales funnel to do its job.
Active monetization means you’re going to personally do something to earn money while using your blog to attract customers.
The following are examples of active monetization:
- offering monthly coaching services
- selling physical products through Amazon Associates or Ali Express
- providing professional consulting services
Which Should You Choose?
So, between the two, which method should you choose: passive income or active monetization?
Most “newbie” bloggers start with passive monetization.
The reason they do this is that it’s not very difficult to set up.
Part-time bloggers like passive monetization because it does not require a lot of ongoing work.
It’s an easy way to earn income while your blog continues to attract new readers.
But Wait! I Already Have a Blog and It’s Not Making Money
If you already have a blog and it’s not making money, then there’s one thing you need to look at.
You need to look at your traffic statistics.
Are your page views along with your daily visitors are less than 1,000?
If so, that’s probably the reason why you’re not earning money.
Here’s a fact that cannot be disputed: Higher traffic = Higher chances of making money.
Is your blog getting less than 100 visitors a day?
Then your chances of making money are way lower than a blog with 10,000 visitors.
Growing your audience must be the primary, ongoing focus of your blog for the foreseeable future.
Therefore, I’ve included below 4 ways you can increase traffic to your blog or website for FREE:
4 Ways You Can Increase Traffic To Your Blog Or Website For Free
1) Add Easily Assessable Social Sharing Buttons
This is very important. Make sure you add clearly marked social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your blog posts.
The five social media sites I would focus on are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Linkedin.
The point is you want to make it easy for people to spread the word about your content.
Social media sharing is an excellent source of free traffic once enough people start sharing your content.
2) Try To Include Photos Appropriate To Your Article
There have been a number of studies that have shown how photos in blog posts increase readership.
Similarly, a well-placed photo will make the post more visually appealing.
Another tactic that can improve traffic is including your keywords in the Alt Image tag on the photo.
When you do this you will increase search engine optimization (SEO) for your site.
However, keep in mind never to just randomly pull images from Google.
Doing so puts you at risk of violating copyright laws.
What I appreciate about the platform I use, Wealthy Affiliate, is they provide royalty-free images.
The royalty-free images are part of Site Content, the writing tool that’s built into the Wealthy Affiliate platform.
Personally, I find Site Content worth the price of the Wealthy Affiliate Membership alone! It’s just that powerful!
Likewise, since we’re talking about writing…
3) Write More To Get More Traffic
Ladies and gentlemen here is an indisputable fact: Google gives higher priority to websites with fresh content.
The more often you update your blog, the more traffic it will eventually receive.
Updating your blog at least two to three times a week will attract more attention from Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
What does “update your blog at least twice a week” actually mean?
It means adding a few extra sentences that add clarity to an older topic.
Adding a relevant photo or two.
Adding a brief video giving further explanation of the subject discussed.
Providing any additional information about your niche or subject that was previously unavailable.
4) Write. Better. Titles.
Promises and Solutions.
That’s what people want!
Promises and Solutions.
The titles of your blog posts MUST entice readers with promises and solutions.
It is a FACT that the titles for your blog posts are just as important, if not more important, than the content itself.
When you do the same, your readership will increase.
Why is this true?
Titles help your potential readers decide if they should click and read more or leave.
Website visitors scan, they rarely read. The first thing they scan is your titles.
If your titles don’t immediately grab their attention, then it’s Bye-Bye!
They’re GONE…
When you entice readers with titles that make them want to stay, you will get more traffic and your readership will increase.
Make Money From Your Blog Through Affiliate Marketing
The easiest and fastest way to begin making money is from your blog is through affiliate marketing.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or if your blog is already successful.
How exactly does affiliate marketing work?
You, the “affiliate”, recommend products to your audience by means of an affiliate link.
If members of your audience buy your stuff through your affiliate links, you receive a commission.
Affiliate marketing can be quite profitable.
It can be very lucrative only if you find the best affiliate program that meets the needs of your audience.
Using Display Ads – Is It A Good Idea?
When it comes to displaying ads, Google AdSense is often the route bloggers take when starting out.
Thousands of bloggers made their first few dollars using Google AdSense.
However, in the last decade, more ad networks, like Ezoic or Mediavine, have become popular as well.
These newer ad networks pay more than AdSense which is why they have become more popular.
Likewise, for bloggers using ad networks can be profitable and easy to implement.
The Pros of Display Ads
- Display ads are truly a passive income source — set it up and forget it.
- Some ad programs are easy to join if you are a beginner
- Pays a lot, but only if you have high traffic.
The Cons of Display Ads
- If you don’t have a lot of traffic, your earnings will be low until your traffic increases.
- Blogs that are overrun with display ads can turn off readers.
Also, you want to be careful that the positioning of the ads doesn’t interfere with the reader’s “user experience” while visiting your website.
in other words, sometimes the display ads are crammed on the website in such a way that it’s difficult to read or comprehend the content.
The content is what the reader is there for – not the ads.
Therefore, be very careful that the positioning of the ads doesn’t interfere with the ability of the reader to consume your content!
Can You Make Money With A Blog? Yes – If You Use Wealthy Affiliate
People ask me “Why do you primarily promote Wealthy Affiliate? Aren’t there other platforms out there that work just as well?
My answer to those questions is: I promote Wealthy Affiliate because it flat-out works.
Yes, there are other platforms that teach how to build an affiliate marketing business you can sign up for, but in MY OPINION, Wealthy Affiliate is the best of the bunch.”
Notice I said that I thought Wealthy Affiliate was the best IN MY OPINION.
Therefore, here are the steps I would take to start my blog with the intent of eventually making money with it:
- You have to find a platform that will allow you to set up a blog. Wealthy Affiliate is perfect for starting a blog
- Decide to get the Free Starter account or go straight to the Premium Account
- Decide what your blog is going to focus on. This is called your “niche” or subject of interest
- Choose a WordPress theme, or webpage, that you feel comfortable with
- Just follow the lesson modules in Wealthy Affiliate. It’s all laid out for you! All you have to do is Follow Instructions
- Consistently complete the assignments! DON’T “do your own thing.” Follow instructions!
- In 8 to 12 months your blog will start making money!
If you actually do what I just outlined above, you WILL learn how to make money online with your blog!
Additional Resources
- The Pros And Cons Of Affiliate Marketing – You Need To Know
- How To Be A Successful Affiliate Marketer
I’m Sorry To Disappoint You But There Is No Magic Bullet
You will only make money from your blog once it starts to have a large amount of traffic.
However, the problem for most bloggers is making money doesn’t happen overnight.
There is no “magic bullet”, no “secret method” to making money online.
Getting your blog posts found on the search engines takes a lot of hard work.
Also, creating enough engaging content that gets ranked well requires commitment and focus.
And it takes even more work to gain the trust of your readers.
Learn How To Build Trust With Wealthy Affiliate
There’s a remarkable thing about trust:
Once you have your reader’s trust, earning consistent income on a daily basis is easier to accomplish.
Likewise, for all of the above reasons, I recommend Wealthy Affiliate as an outstanding blogging platform.
What’s So Outstanding About Wealthy Affiliate?
If you’re a beginner, you get to learn to blog and how to build an online business completely from scratch.
You’re not left to wonder if you are going in the right direction.
What is noticeable about the training is you are taught early on that you must build out your website so that you can engage and build trust with your readers.
The honest truth is most people when starting an online business do not know how to build trust.
Why is that the case?
It’s because sadly, people today are far more concerned with what they can get for themselves.
It’s all about “How do I benefit? What do I get out of this?”
Very few people are concerned with adding value to people’s lives and helping them solve their problems.
Just Throw Up A Website and See What Sticks
Now, this subtitle may seem somewhat ridiculous, but in actuality, this is the mindset of the majority of people who try to start an online business.
Similarly, even some experienced marketers have this attitude.
This attitude is the reason why Google weeds out websites and blogs that don’t offer genuine value to people and don’t help people solve problems.
Therefore, you can try to put up a so-called “online business” that fails to deliver value.
I guarantee you the search engines will reject it.
You may make a few insignificant bucks before the search engines catch up with you…
I promise you, they will catch up and kill your website.
Do Yourself A Favor
Create a FREE account at Wealthy Affiliate and give it a go.
See for yourself if Wealthy Affiliate is the right platform for you to build your online business.
Remember, the search engines, particularly Google, love content.
You need content in order to attract organic traffic to your website.
Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to do this.
Therefore, you don’t have to guess.
You don’t have to worry.
Wealthy Affiliate has excellent support if you get stuck because we all get stuck from time to time.
Check out my thorough Wealthy Affiliate review, where I show how ordinary people like you and I are making extraordinary incomes.
Learn how to build an online business NOW, the right way!
You will not regret this!
Talk Soon,
Howard