Blogging is still very much seen as a hobby by those who aren’t in the blogging world. I know from personal experience that people are very surprised when I inform them that this actually is my job… which is often received with a confused look. I can understand in some respects, as I had no idea what a blog even was around 4 years ago, yet nowadays I would have thought it would be more of a well-known choice of career. Blogging can be a very rewarding career choice and if you are very successful it can enrich your entire lifestyle.
So, if you are thinking about starting out or if you already have a blog and are stumped on how to monetise it, here are some of the most popular ways to turn your writing into your full-time job.
Work with Brands
You may often see bloggers reviewing items or days’ out and wonder how this has come about. Once your blog becomes established enough (you have your own content on your site, you have social media accounts, decent traffic, your own DA etc) you will begin to feel confident enough to either approach brands in order to collaborate with them or they may contact you themselves directly. Brand work tends to be a product in exchange for a review but once you have a large social media following and large page views, you may begin to see a fee being offered alongside those items too.
Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are a very easy way to monetise your blog. This is where a company/brand will pay a blogger to write about their product/service and host it on their own site. Sometimes this will require the blogger to write the content themselves or pre-written content will be provided. You should always charge more for anything you write yourself due to the time that goes in to the blog post. Please do not think that you cannot charge for pre-written material. You are running a business and a website so even though you haven’t written the article yourself, the company is paying for your time spent in checking, editing, adding photos, publishing and hosting it.
Affiliate Links
Affiliate income is such an easy way to make money without doing very much at all! Sites such as Amazon, offer an affiliate programme where you sign up and are then free to select items to include within your blog post. Once a reader clicks on these and makes a purchase, you will receive a % of the sales. There are a variety of affiliate programmes available, so it is a case of choosing one which will fit in the best with your topics and will have the most impact.
Adverts
There are several ways to host adverts on your site. You may be approached by companies to add a banner for them or you may want to try and approach a company yourself. You can also sign up to certain ad sites as soon as you have your own domain, such as Google Adsense. Other ad sites will have particular requirements such as a high volume of traffic before you can apply. Do your research and work out which will best suit your own blog and which will make you the most passive income.
eBook
Writing an eBook will not only bring you another source of income, it will also show that you are an expert in your industry. There are very simple ways of self-publishing with Amazon being one of the most popular ones. You can link to your book via blog posts, in your weekly newsletter, in your about page or advertise it in your sidebar. Don’t forget to use Amazon affiliate links so those click-throughs count as another income!
Once you become well-established you may also begin to delve into offering online courses, training resources, memberships, 1 on 1 coaching and public speaking. There really are plenty of avenues to explore in order to make a decent living from blogging.
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