Making money from blogging

 

If your first question is, ‘How will my blog make money?’, my honest answer is that your blog will not make money until you get your priorities right. In my last two articles, I explained that before you begin to talk about making money from your blog or any other form of online presence, you must first build content and then move on to build traffic.

A successful completion of these two processes will qualify you to make money from your blog. It is instructive to note that if you blog just for money, you’ll never be successful. But if you love what you’re doing and you always put your audience first, success will be yours.

One of the truly great things about blogging or any other form of online presence is that it is means of self-expression. In a world where it can be difficult to be heard, your online presence provides a convenient way to air your opinions and spreading your ideas.

There is nothing more rewarding than sharing your passions and interests with people from all over the world. If the content you have uploaded is able to rake in a sizeable amount of traffic, then you can start making money. In the next few paragraphs, I would share some of the strategies I have successfully used and how you can implement them too.

Paid post

One way to make money from your blog is by posting for payment. In this case, the post you make is being sponsored. For instance, if you blog about cars, you could write a post stating the various benefits of buying a certain type of engine oil.

 If you have been able to build a loyal followership, your post would influence their buying pattern and this would be paid for by the dealers of the engine oil.

If you blog about entertainment and lifestyle, you could write a post about a forthcoming concert, discuss the expected artistes and why it would be worth the time for anybody that decided to attend the event. This effort would definitely be rewarded by a form of payment from the organisers of the event.

Paid advertisement

Another way to generate some revenue from your blog is to put adverts on your website. The amount of traffic you are able to generate within a period of time would make your blog attractive to advertisers. For example, if you blog about baby care and you have a strong followership of an active audience, your blog would be a great place for producers of baby care products to advertise.

You could decide to manage the adverts directly, in this case, you approach potential advertisers and explain the benefits they stand to gain from the exposure you are offering. You reach an agreement on price and you have their advert placed on your blog for an agreed period of time.

Alternatively, you may decide to register for a Pay-per-click programme. This programme is structured such that you get paid each time a person clicks on an advert placed on your blog. A very popular PPC programme is Google AdSense.

 Solicit contributions

Not every blog-related income opportunity involves hawking goods or services. If you are faithful enough to update your blog regularly and provide your readers with useful information consistently, you shouldn’t feel shy to ask for some form of contribution. Have you ever seen a “Donate” button on a website? You can also place one on your blog and make some money by requesting that your audience support the blog by making a donation. Programs such as PayPal make it easy to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button. You should also consider interswitch and direct bank deposit as a way of receiving such donation.

Sell yourself

I am not implying that you get involved in human trafficking but rather that you use your blog, and the things you write about, to sell your services    – for example as a photographer, a graphic designer, a public speaker etc. Don’t just tell people what you do, show them what you do. Your blog and your social profiles are the most perfect platform imaginable to do this.

As a graphics designer, you could offer advice about design as well as showcasing your design projects in a way that’s helpful to your readers. As a public speaker or teacher, you could write posts covering the topics you like to speak about. Don’t just tell people you’re a photographer, designer, speaker or automobile engineer, show them how good you are at your job. If it’s done beautifully and with integrity, you would be selling yourself, just don’t sell yourself cheap.

There is no magical money tree and neither is there a pot of gold at the end of the blogging rainbow. Simply having a blog is not a means to an end and there is no quick trick you can employ to rake a fortune for yourself overnight.

The better your blog content, the better your results will be, so make your blog interesting. My personal opinion is that finding ways to make money from your blog is a great idea, however, it should never be first on your mind. Implement the strategies mentioned above and you will be surprised with the results that come. 

I look forward to reading your feedback and questions.