How to Make Money Blogging

Blogging has become my biggest side hustle having recently taken over from Matched Betting. I’ve been blogging properly for almost 18 months now but a lot of that time the blog was neglected due to family illness and a general lack of time. Since I started to take my blog seriously over the last six months or so, I’ve seen my income increase steadily. Blogging is a great way to make extra money, so I thought I’d share some tips on how to make money blogging.

Make Money Blogging

If you’re thinking of starting a blog, then you need to be aware that it isn’t a quick and easy way to make money. Long-term though, the financial rewards can be huge. I’ve been blogging for a number of years now, in fact I run a number of websites and they’re regularly making more money for me than my actual job.

If you’re prepared to put in the work, then blogging can be extremely lucrative. You’ll need to write regularly to keep your readers interested in what you have to say! Check out these 101 Blog Post Ideas for inspiration!

Growing a social media following is crucial if you want to attract readers who will come back to your blog again and again.

So once you’ve started your blog, you’ll need to figure out how you’re going to make money from it. There are actually lots of ways to monetise your blog!

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is where you make money from people clicking through your link and making a purchase. Depending on your blog niche, there are lots of different ways you can make money from affiliate marketing.

Amazon affiliate program – The Amazon affiliate program is a great one to sign up to. It’s really easy to use and Amazon has an enormous range of products that you can link to.

Awin – Formally known as Affiliate Window, Awin is a large affiliate network where you can sign up to 100s of affiliate programs. You’ll want to spend some time searching through the companies available and select those that you feel your blog fits well with. For example, a beauty blogger may want to sign up to the Boots affiliate program, whilst a parenting blogger may sign up to Mamas and Papas. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive regular emails with offers and you can use the handy link builder to build a direct affiliate link to a specific product.

Max Bounty – There are over 1,500 campaigns to advertise across all traffic types like surveys, freebies, financial, insurance, dating, diet, etc. So there are a wide range of things you can promote!

These are just a few ways to earn money as an affiliate, lots of companies offer their own affiliate programs such as Profit Accumulator – you can usually find these with a search on Google. If you use a site or a company regularly, and it fits in with what your readers would use, then it’s worth searching for their affiliate program.

Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are where a brand or a company pay you to write a blog post. Usually, they’ll have certain links they’ll want you to include. I actually got my first sponsored post very early on and have had a steady number since then. As your blog becomes more established, you’ll be able to increase how much you charge per post.

There are a number of places you can find sponsored post work, depending on your niche and location:

• Blogger Opportunities Facebook Group.
• UK Blogger Opportunities Facebook Group.
• Blogger Assignments & Opportunities Facebook Group.
• Sign up to The Bloglancer weekly newsletter to receive blogger opportunities.
• Search #bloggerswanted #bloggersrequired on Twitter.

Also, sign up to relevant Facebook groups for your niche, you’ll often find opportunities shared there too.

Adverts

You’ll probably notice that lots of blogs have adverts in various places on their site. On My Money Cottage, I use a mixture of affiliate adverts and Google Adsense. With the affiliate adverts, I’ll only receive a payment if somebody clicks through and makes a purchase. However, Google Adsense pays me every single time somebody clicks on an advert. It’s a great way to make a passive income from your blog. I’m currently working towards installing MediaVine adverts on my blog – they pay far more money than Google Adsense but you need to have achieved 25,000 sessions per month – a session is one user’s interactions on your site. So if one user visits and clicks through 20 pages, it still only counts as one session.

SEO Posts

Some bloggers from upon SEO work, but if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to make money from your blog, then you might want to consider it. There are lots of SEO companies out there. They’ll usually ask for a follow link and will pay pretty low amounts compared to sponsored posts. However, the work can be frequent and it can really help to improve your income.

Product Reviews

One of the very first things I was able to do was to receive free products in return for reviews. Whilst I’ve never charged for reviews, I’ve always been able to keep the products. The type of products you might receive will depend on the niche of your blog.

Freelance Work

Once you’ve established your blog, you’ll have a whole portfolio of work available to show potential freelance clients. This is a great way to bring in an additional income. Yasmin from The Wallet Moth shared how she now makes a full-time income as a freelance writer in her guest post.

You can join agencies such as People Per Hour and pitch for work. You might even find that you’re approached directly too.