Have you ever opened Facebook, just to resurface 5 hours later and wonder where your day went? Yeah, me too.
But social media doesn’t have to just be a place to look at cat memes and waste time. You can actually make a lot of money by growing and leveraging social media to your advantage.
If you’re a blogger who has wondered how the heck to make money online you will love the ideas in this post.
No matter what your niche is, you can make money with your blog and social media. Read on to find out how.
Many websites, brands, and companies offer their followers and customers frequent opportunities to share sponsored posts that promote their products and services. This is a great place to begin earning money using social media because you don’t have to have your own products or services to sell.
Your first step to getting sponsored posts is to grow your follower base on one or more social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You will also want to get a good amount of blog traffic if you want companies to pay you for sponsored blog posts. Most require that you have at least 5,000 pageviews a month or more.
Once you have a good number of followers and readers, you can begin making money with sponsored posts. It’s key to strike a good balance between sponsored posts and your own organic content. If you share too many sponsored posts on social media, your followers may lose trust in you and your brand, which is exactly what you don’t want. Instead, share sponsored posts strategically – the best way to do this is to schedule posts at regular (but not too frequent) intervals.
One of my favorite ways to make money from my blog is to promote affiliate products like Bluehost and OptinMonster. I only promote products I've used and that I know will genuinely serve my audience.If you’re looking to promote affiliate products, start by researching companies whose products you use and see if they have affiliate opportunities. You will be the most successful if you focus on products that your audience already needs and wants.
You can also become an Amazon Associate and make money by promoting products you use to your readers and followers
I suggest promoting these products on Twitter and Instagram by writing short blurbs about them and sharing them along with your affiliate link. Also, write honest reviews of them on your blog. When you do this, you serve your audience by sharing the best products with them, and you also make money when you get an affiliate sale.
Another great place to promote affiliate products is your Resources page. In mine, I offer a comprehensive list of everything I use to run my blogging business. Go check it out for an example of how to create a great Resources page to promote affiliate products that you believe in.
Social media management is becoming a great job and business because so many small and large companies are using social media to grow their brands.
The best way to get a job as a social media manager (apart from starting your own business) is to subscribe to career websites and keep an eye out for job postings and freelancing opportunities .
If you see something you might be interested in, take a minute to check it out and apply. You never know when you’ll find the social media services job of your dreams. These jobs often let you work from home, which means that you can make money in your pajamas (something I am a big fan of).
If you are a coach like me, a teacher, or run any sort of consulting business, social media is a great place to promote your services to your ideal audience.
I primarily use my blog and social media platforms to promote my one on one coaching, and because of my blog, I have a steady stream of clients coming in all the time. Let me tell you, it is fantastic to wake up every day to emails from people who are excited to work with me.
I conduct all of my coaching calls online, and doing so lets me work with people all over the world. When you grow your blog audience, you can work with anyone in the world while working at home and setting your own schedule. And remember to not sell yourself short - set your prices high to attract your ideal clients.
If you’re an artist or create any kind of handmade products, like crafts, hand dyed yarn, jewelry, furnishings, and even bath and body products, you can showcase your products on social media platforms and create a well-paying business for yourself.
Over the last few years, creative businesses have begun to take off, and artists who know how to blog and use social media are doing extremely well and making a lot of money. By using social media, you may even get noticed by gallery owners and art critics, which could lead to invitations to open at high-end places.
Growing your audience on Instagram and Pinterest will help you build trust in your brand and sell your products online. The reason these 2 platforms are so great for creative business is that they are very visual and allow your potential customers to get excited about what you have to offer.
Etsy is another terrific website to showcase and sell your products in front of a large audience. Another plus: Etsy lets you ship your products all over the world.
If you are a musician, comedian, marketer, or fashion blogger (or really, anyone who likes to be on video), you can also get noticed by jumping on YouTube or SoundCloud and creating videos and/or podcasts for your audience.
When your audience sees you or hears you live, they will feel like they know you, which builds trust and leads to sales.
Do sponsored posts
Sell affiliate products
Become a social media manager
Sell your own services
Sell your own products
Join websites like YouTube and SoundCloud
Have you used blogging or social media to make money? What worked for you? Share in the comments below.
Hello Sue!
You are right on point. Social media is such a great platform to make a lot of money online. Unfortunately, most internet freaks don't know about this. They just surf and surf yet they don't make a cent.
I'm a big fan of social media. Social media has made me rich. I run lots of adverts on my social media page. I also promote my books through social media and my blog.
From day one, any new blogger who reads this blog post must surely get useful tips to start earning immediately.
Thanks for choosing to share.
Emenike Emmanuel
And thanks so much for your comment, Emineke!
Sue
Hey Sue,
Social media has a major impact on everything. To build a blog, promote it, making money can be done through social media platforms.
You can leverage social media if you have a good strength of followers.
Writing the sponsored posts is a great idea. People are making a ton of money with that.
Promoting others products can be really tricky. You require the social media skills.
I have met many social media managers who are promoting the product of any company with their thousands of followers.
Thanks for sharing this informative article with us.
~Ravi
And thanks for your thoughtful comment, Ravi!
Sue
I like the idea of being a social media manager. With good tools like HootSuite, social media management has become so easy.
And they do very well financially.
I appreciate your comment, Isaac!
Sue
Great Post Sue,
I am also doing affiliate marketing with my blog. Its really a great experience for me. Social Media Management is a great way to promote my blog online. Social media is a great place to increase user engagement.
Thanks for sharing that with me and my readers, Vishwajeet!
Sue
Hi Sue,
Thanks for writing this amazing blog post on leveraging social media to make money online.
I liked the first twos:
1. Write Sponsored Posts
2. Promote Affiliate Products
Anyway, in order to leverage social media to make money online, it's quite important to have strong following on your social media profiles too, isn't it?
And I am on it - growing my social media profiles 😉
Thanks for writing this post.
It polished my experience a little bit! 🙂
~Shakir Hassan
Hi Shakir,
Doing guest posting and roundup posts are still key to grow your traffic. Then social media next.
Thanks,
Sue
Hi,
Thanks for suggesting, Soe 🙂
~Shakir Hassan
Thank you so much for this awesome article. I have a blog and I always share my posts in various social media sites but the output is not good. Why it is happening, can you tell me please?
Hi Sadhan,
You may need to get more followers first. Follow other people in your niche and 30%-40% will follow you back.
Thanks for your comment and question!
Sue
Thanks a lot for your kind reply. I'll complete my task and later I'll inform you the result.
Thanks
Sadhan
Reading your blog was a pleasant surprise, Sue.
As social media can be a huge time-killer with low monetary benefits - your suggestions are unexpected and made sense (cents).
After contributing endless free tips, memes and responses to your social community -you've earned a few promotional affiliate products or services links.
I felt like you were reading my mind, Sue when I noticed 'sponsored posts' at the top of your blog. Their potential for generating revenue is intriguing!
~Keri
Thanks so much for commenting, Keri. You'll need a decent amount of traffic to start making money on sponsored posts. That's why I prefer my readers and clients start with a service or affiliate product. But check it out 🙂
Sue
You're always thinking about your audience and from their point of view, Sue!
Wise words for when to recommend sponsored posts.
As a related FYI... Dave from NinjaOutreach wrote a recent blog on blogger outreach. He brings up monetized ways that companies have collaborated with influential bloggers.
Appreciate how you both 'think outside the box'.
~Keri
Dave has guest posted for Successful Blogging and I've been in a roundup or two at NinjaOutreach!
Appreciate your comment, Keri.
Sue
Hi
Nicely narrated. I was thinking you would be telling how to influence more people on social media and earn more money. because this is the material one will look after having a good fan base on social media.
But
It's a nice post about making a lot of money using social media.
It is always worth making efforts when you focus on a single social media channel and make a great fan base by influencing real people doing and sharing good stuff.
Well. Sponsored posts are more focused on link building these days and sponsors are hardly willing to get a sponsored post on a website without any backlink. It harms your website definitely. if not now, maybe in future.
But social media is totally risk free in case of sponsored posts. You just post the picture and link it to the sponsor's website. This works even if you don't have a blog or website.
I thought this after reading your writeup. thanks for writing this.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Vashishtha. You are right - social media sponsors are great and it's easy to do the work.
Sue
Hey Sue,
Writing sponsored post is really good opportunity to share post that promote their products and services. This help us to monetize with the help of social media and it great idea. Promoting affiliate products is also good idea to make money without investing. Social media are amazing platform which helps us to make money with several ways. Eventually, thanks for sharing your worthy information with us and these facts are really sounds beneficial for us.
With best wishes,
Amar kumar
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Amar!
Sue
I also tried the podcast thing. I enjoyed it but it was a lot more work than blogging 🙂 I so appreciate your comments, Ryan. Tell Kelli I say "Hi"!
Sue
I also agree that Social media has a major impact on everything. To build a blog, promote it, making money can be done through social media platforms.
You can leverage social media if you have a good strength of followers.
I also liked sharing posts on social media for increasing traffic of our website thus more no of leads.
Great to hear, Riya.
Thanks for commenting!
Sue
Hello ma,
here you listed the secret power of social media once more. Social media is the soul of a new blog - its the quickest way to get visitors even to a day old blog.
It also helps in making cool cash online. Lately, I joined few groups about affiliate and freelancing. Am not a big fan in freelancing world but I do sold some software to them under affiliate.
This is one more topic I will be sharing some day....
Have a nice day
Thanks so much for your comment, Joseph!
Sue
Hi Sue,
I hope you're well. 🙂
I've tried the first four suggestions you shared and have done pretty good - thank goodness for social media - it's taken blogging to a whole new level in terms of getting our content and products out there.
I wish I was crafty but I'm not and I haven't done a podcast, but I'm open to it. 🙂
Have a great day and weekend!
Cori
I'm doing well, Cori. It's actually cooling off here in Florida!
You are a rock star! Don't do a podcast unless it's a strength for you to talk instead of write.
Have a great weekend.
Sue
I believe that Combined Traffic from Social Media and Google Search would convert the best.....
But one should know how to promote their content properly
So true, so true!
Thanks for taking the time to tell the Successful Blogging Team of readers, Jimmy.
Sue
Social media can have a great impact and you can sell your own products and services too. I have been using MeetEdgar to schedule my posts and is much easier to schedule than other scheduling apps.
Periscope or Facebook Live are also great to build your own brand and promote your products or services.
Rohit I Lifeselfmastery
Hello Sue
Great post ! Social media has definitely changed the way businesses market themselves online. The rules of the game have changed. It's a huge opportunity to change your fans and followers into customers. All your tips are very helpful,I will definitely be checking into sponsored post. Thanks for sharing this value packed post.
Thanks, Darrell.
Sue
Interesting ideas. I wasn’t aware of a few of these. I should go back through my affiliate info to see what else I can add in. I will likely add e-bates into the mix. Thanks!
Hi Sue,
Helpful read there and I've been a social media enthusiast for long now. Often times, the way that social media is built, many people mistake it to be some like "media" for "sales" and forget the "social" part in it.
I've always maintained that social media isn't really for selling stuff (although sales might happen). The power of social media really lies in the strength of the network that you build.
As I tell my clients, you just can't buy your way into people's hearts on social. To succeed on social, you'd need to succeed with people first.
Great points, Ash. I appreciate your comment!
Sue
Thank you, Sue 🙂
Fantastic Post....Really... Social media always plays important role to changed the way of online businesses market. All your tips are great i will always take it but tell me only Social traffic enough ?
Never enough! Guest posting, podcasting, interviews, blog commenting all help you get traffic.
Thanks for your comment, Pratik!
Sue
Thanks for reply sue.....! Interview means can you elaborate ? And does content also matter ? or just back link ,guest post , commenting is enough
For you to get interviewed on podcasts and blogs is the best thing. Of course content matters but not as much if you don't have any traffic to your blog.
Thanks,
Sue
Great Post Sue,
I am also doing affiliate marketing with my blog. Its really a great experience for me. Social Media Management is a great way to promote my blog online. Social media is a great place to increase user engagement.
Well Best Of Luck Sue
Thanks for the ideas. I am currently trying to leave my 9-5 and be my own boss and this is one of the avenues I've been learning about.
wow this is so informative