Make money from a blog in 5 Strategic ways

When people talk about blogging, I know the first thing that comes to your mind is those people who sit behind the computer to write.

But most people don’t know how blogging works, talk more of how to make money from a blog.

Some people don’t even believe that bloggers make real money, they imagine that perhaps they make a little money but not so much.

To such people, I say you are right and you are also wrong.

Why do I say so?

You can make money from a blog in a little way and you can also make it big, just depends on your strategy for monetizing your blog.

Why is a strategy important?

Because if you do not figure out the strategy on how to make money from a blog, you will be flailing.

Your blog will not be a real business but a hobby.

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You may have read all sorts of posts on how I made 6 figures from my blog and think maybe I should try that.

The difference is that the peculiarities may be different for your blogs and thus yours may fail.

In this post, I will share with you 5 simple strategic ways to make money from a blog.

I will also share with you critical success factors that need to be in place for your money-making strategy to succeed.

But before I start sharing my 5 ways, do you have a blog? do you desire to start one?

If you desire to start a blog but don’t know how to, you need to read my article on how to start a blog when you are not techy

In that post, I outlined how to start a blog even when you feel that you are not techy like me when I started this blog.

Now if you are just about starting your blog, you are probably thinking about how to buy your hosting plan right?

That is one of the first decisions you have to make before you start a blog.

To buy or not to buy? which hosting plan is the best?

Here is my answer, a hosting plan will make your blogging journey easy or tough.

So, it is important that you buy the right hosting plan.

When you have a good hosting company, any issue you have with your blog is easily resolved and you keep sailing.

If you have a bad one, you will be stuck with dealing with issue after issue.

Which no one wants because the reason you decided to blog is to express your passion not to deal with technical issues.

Want my recommendation on what hosting plan to buy?

Here is my recommendation.

You want a cheap hosting plan that easily meets your needs and takes little money out of your pocket.

Bluehost is the answer, they provide you with the cheapest of plans to start your blog with.

For 2.95 USD you can start a blog today.

They often require that you pay for a year or more than a year for you to get the price they offer.

But it’s okay because once you pay you don’t have to bother about hosting costs for another 2 years.

If you want to go easy and not make long term commitments, then pay by month option is what you want.

My recommendation will be JvHost, for just 8 dollars a month, not up to the amount you spend on burgers and fries, you could start your blog right now.

Get your Jvzoo Hosting Plan here.

Now that you have your hosting plan sorted out, let’s get to 5 ways you can make money from a blog.

5 ways to make money from a blog

1. Freelance writing

Freelance writing is one of the simplest ways you can use to start monetizing your blog right from scratch.

Why? because with freelance writing you already have a sample post which is your blog.

In a blog post on how to start a freelance writing business, I explained how people always require you to have a published work before you are considered.

Guess what? with your blog already online, you have samples to direct your clients to.

If you want to learn how to get clients for your freelance writing, read my post.

Freelance writing is a simple way to monetize your blog from the beginning even if you have no readership.

Critical success factors

• Free samples.
• Apply often to your niche positions.
• Make sure your own blog posts are well written.

Freelance writing can earn you up to 1600 dollars per month if you know how to get and retain your clients.

2. Sponsored Posts

A sponsored post is when a brand pays you to write a blog post about their product and share it on your blog with your audience.

Most small brands who cannot afford high marketing budgets choose this way to reach their audience.

They often pay you the blogger to write the post, recommend it to your audience and then share it with your social media followers.

Sponsored posts can work so well when you have an engaged audience.

The more engaged your audience is, the more you can get paid a higher amount.

Same goes for the number of your follwership.

Some bloggers earn up to 1000 dollars per post, while some can also earn on the lower side of 200 dollars per post.

Some companies that offer opportunities for sponsored posts include IZEA and ACORN.

Critical Success Factors

An engaged audience and followership both on your social media accounts and on your email list.

Some brands will not work with you except you reach or exceed the threshold of the numbers they are willing to work with.

Some brands, for instance, will not engage with you if you don’t have Instagram followership of up to 10,000.

So, if you want to use this strategy, you have to first build up your social media followership on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and also your email list.

3. Affiliate Income

You earn affiliate income when your readers buy a product that you recommend because they trust you.

It is one of the most popular ways to make money from a blog.

However, it has some heavy requirements that might not work for you if you are just a beginner blogger.

If affiliate income is your main strategy, you have to be sure you have built up your readership.

You need to have the requisite number of page views that will bring in the income that you need.

For example, I earn affiliate income from my blog posts but it’s not my main strategy for monetizing my blog.

I chose not to focus on it because I know that my blog has not started attracting the type of traffic that will support it.

Therefore I figured its best I build on other strategies first.

But I did not know this when I first started to blog, I poured my efforts into adding affiliate links and I wondered why they were not working.

It was simple, I did not have the numbers

Once in a while I make a sale, but its ramdom and its not dependable.

Critical Success Factors

• High page views- From 50,000 upwards.
• Join high commission affiliates only, so that when you make a sale it will be worth it.
• Continuous investment in building your blog traffic
• Robust email list readership and engaged social media accounts

4. Create Products

This is one way that you can use to monetize your blog even if you are a beginner blogger as long as you have expertise with verifiable proofs to show.

Creating products mean creating solutions to the problems of your readership or niche.

For you to make money from a blog using this method, you must have previous expertise which solves your reader’s problem.

I know a lot of people wait until they have built up their blogs to start creating products.

Which is wonderful, because then people can trust you enough to release their money to you.

For example, I make Printable products like this home business owner printable binder.

I only made this binder, after I noticed an influx of readership on my blog.

I created this printable binder because I realized that a lot of people lack a structured way to start their home business.

My binder provides you with step by step prompts on starting your home business from Ideation to product delivery.

My binder will help you keep all your detailed steps in one place until you start up your business.

To get this product, go here.

But where you already acquired expertise from your previous work life.

You can replicate it via product creation.

The only difference is that you have to market it well for people to buy from you.

You can also choose to put your product on a general platform that already has an engaged buying population.

For example Etsy for printables and Udemy for online courses.

Types of products you can create as a blogger

Courses– You create a course that shows how you solved a particular type of problem and how they can too.

Printables– You create digital products that help to solve a need in your niche.

You can check out my course on how to create printables that you will sell

Memberships– People sign up for a subscription to your secluded group where you get to share your knowledge with them.

Critical success factors.

• Expertise and proofs on a particular problem you are solving
• Engaged email readership
• Ability to market your product.

5. Blog Coaching/ Consulting

This is another favorite of mine on how to make money from a blog.

This usually works when you have acquired years of experience in blogging.

You can then offer your services for a fee to new beginners or to companies that do not know how to start a blog.

The beautiful thing about this method is that you can just take what you are doing and replicate it somewhere else.

For example, I have been contacted by someone who was just starting an ecommnerce store that needed to set up a blog.

I just simply put together the outline of the services I can offer to that small company.

All my consulting practice comes from the experience I have garnered in starting and running a blog and also ecommerce shops.

So it was basically a no brainer for me.

You can indicate your ability to consult for people who visit your page by putting up work with me page as I did.

That way if someone is a beginner and loves what you do, they can contact you for either blog mentoring or consulting.

Critical success factors

• Know your stuff on what you are consulting and be ready to defend it.
• Share your page with your would-be customers.

Conclusion

A lot of people embark on their blogging journey without really figuring how to make money from a blog.

They often start out by trying all sorts of advice they get on the net.

I also did that, but it never worked until I began to figure out that the key to monetizing any blog is first understanding my niche.

Then, using a blog monetizing strategy that ties in with where you are in your blogging journey and works with your niche.

Key Takeaways

✔First understand your niche and what makes money in your niche.

✔Understand where you are in your blogging journey.

✔Reach for the lowest hanging fruit in making money for your blog.

✔Reinvest into your blog business, then try other options.

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