I've spoken to many bloggers recently about why they chose to start a blog. A lot of the time they come back to me with “I needed an outlet for my thoughts”, or “I wanted a place to share my knowledge”. One of the most common reasons I've heard is, “because I want to make money”.
It’s an ideal many of us have – to earn a real income from our blogs, or at the very least enough to take the pressure off. Many parents are now choosing this option as a way to work around their families, while still contributing to the financial costs of running a home.
Whatever your reason for wanting to make money online, you need to go into it with your eyes open. Earning a living online isn’t easy. It takes hard work, a lot of patience and plenty of determination. Let’s look at some money management tips, as well as ways you can make money online and explore each one in detail.
Making Money Through Advertising
This is probably the most popular form of monetizing a website. Services like Google Adsense and other ad networks allow you place various sized banner and text ads throughout your blog or website.
Depending on the network, you’re paid every time a user clicks your ad, or by the number of impressions your banner ads receive. How much you’re paid again depends on the network, however with each click or impression you can expect to earn pennies.
While monetizing in this way seems pretty easy, it won’t make you a decent living on its own. To really get any benefit from these ads, you need a substantial inflow of traffic to your site. The more traffic you have, the more likely it is that people will click your ads. If your traffic is on the low side, it’s probably worth exploring a different monetization method you can use instead, or alongside your ads.
Making Money Through Sponsored Posts
This form of site monetization is popular among many bloggers. It works via a brand approaching you and offering to pay you to write about their products or services on your own blog. The catch is usually the inclusion of a link back to a page on their website.
Essentially it’s another form of advertising, however, you have greater control over what content appears on your website. If you have an approach to a brand that’s not relevant to your audience, you’re free to turn the offer down.
You can expect to earn anywhere from $50 to $500+ per sponsored post. However, this will likely depend on your site's metrics including traffic volume, domain authority and your level of influence on Social Media. It’s also difficult to land these opportunities when you’re just starting out. You won’t be on anyone’s radar just yet, so will need to work on publishing great content before you start getting any offers.
The biggest downside of relying on Sponsored Posts for making money online is that they’re not a regular occurrence. I've found that they’re a bit like buses – you’ll go for weeks without hearing a thing and then they all turn up at once.
Another thing you’ll need to consider is how you’ll disclose your relationship with a brand to your readers. To stay within FTC regulations about advertising, you’ll need to clearly state on any sponsored post that you’ve been paid to write it. Along with this, it’s good practice according to Google to “no-follow” any paid links so as not to hurt your page rankings.
Making Money Through By Selling Your Own Products
One way to really start getting serious about making money online is to create and sell your own products. Savvy bloggers have done this for years by selling online courses, webinars, eBooks, and videos, with a great deal of success.
First, though, you’ll need a product. This is the part where many become unstuck. What should you sell? How will people buy it?
My suggestion is to start small. Make your first product an eBook or something similar, like my friend Ryan Biddulph. Base your book on something you know a good deal about, perhaps a topic you cover on your blog for example. Then set an affordable price and market the pants off your product, before analyzing your results.
When the momentum dies down you can see how well you’ve done, what you could have done better and where you need to improve. This will make your next product better, more successful and will improve how much money you make.
This method again takes time. You need to put a lot of hard work in at the beginning, to get the results you want at the end. So don’t be frustrated if you don’t do so well the first time around, dust yourself off and try again better than before.
Making Money By Selling Your Services
Many people overlook this monetization method because it all sounds like too much hard work. However, this is likely the most lucrative way to make money online fast.
While it’s not a passive way to make a living, offering your services to other bloggers puts you in a position to earn a substantial amount of money. This can then fuel other projects you might be considering on the side, such as a product you wish to create.
The best way to start doing this is to show your skills. Put a page up on your website directing people to your services. Tell them what you do, examples of where you’ve done it and most importantly, how they will benefit.
A few examples of services you could offer include:
- Freelance writing
- Ghost blogging
- Graphic design
- Web design
- Virtual assistance
As more and more people take their businesses online, people offering services such as these, at a reasonable price are in short supply. They’re either overrun with work or are snapped up by entrepreneurs with an eye for a self-starter. Therefore its an excellent way to start earning money in a relatively short amount of time.
Final Thoughts
While this isn't an exhaustive list of ways to make money online, they are some of the most popular. The key with all of them is to stay patient and remember that things won’t happen overnight. You won’t suddenly wake up able to retire to a life of luxury, but it will open doors and paths you can expand upon in the future.
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