The 3 Things You Need To Do To Make Money Blogging

Almost everyone with a blog wants to generate some income while blogging. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

As a matter of fact, you can earn a 6-figure income from blogging. But the harsh truth is a majority of bloggers who desire to make some money don’t get anywhere near $100 a month.

So sad!

There are many ways we can make money as bloggers. But in this post, I want to suggest three things to do first.

If you are just starting or you’ve been in the industry for some time, I can say with confidence that if you throw away anything else you are doing and focus on these 3 steps, you will certainly see results.

1 – Forget about making money first!

The idea of making money is driving many of us crazy. Some bloggers even get so desperate that they blow themselves out-of-the-way in the process.

Most of us are taught to start a blog to make money. Yes. Blogging is a business but the money-making aspect should not be its foundation. Generating income from your blog should be a long-term gold.

That doesn’t mean you can’t make some quick money. But we all know you need a stable business to be able to see a more consistent outcome.

A majority of those who jump into blogging to make money hopelessly fail so soon. That’s simply because of the indisputable truth that the money doesn’t really flow as soon as you start publishing content.

Now, you want to make money right? And I’m here telling you to stop focusing on the money initially. Sounds like a big irony. So what’s the way forward?

This brings us to step 2.

2 – Build a community and earn trust

There is no way you can generate income without a marketplace. That’s where the community comes in. No one wants to waste money. Everyone in the market wants to be sure of the quality of what they buy. That’s where the trust factor sets in.

You noticed I’m talking about two essential elements here:

1. Community

2. Trust

As a blogger, your community is made up of your readers, subscribers and social media followers. The bigger your community, the bigger your marketplace. Though that doesn’t translate to high conversion, it has an impact on sales volume.

Here are some ideas to help build a thriving blogging community:

First, you have to build and stabilize your blog because that’s the hub of your business. This involves getting a very reliable web host and investing in premium themes and plugins.

Many bloggers take this so lightly and that contributes heavily to their failure. There are so many cheap web hosting packages out there and sadly that’s what we buy. But if you are experiencing growth in your business, you need to upgrade or face the downside of it.

Generally, the amount you spend on something represents its value. “Cheap” will always mean a limited amount of resources. There is no way you can walk around this.

Recently, I was facing serious growth in my business but that was soon broken. My cheap hosting package couldn’t stand the traffic. That led to a series of errors, a drop in traffic and income. My quick solution was to move to Traffic Planet Hosting where service quality, speed, security and customer service are a priority.

Here are some more ideas to help you build a lucrative marketplace:

• Create and publish SEO-friendly and sticky content.
• Read more and more blogs in your niche
• Drop reasonable comments on other blogs
• Reply to comments on your own blog
• Connect with other bloggers in your niche through their blogs and on social media
• Attend live blogging events
• Submit guest articles on successful blogs
• Reasonably engage with others on social media (Facebook comments, Twitter Retweets, etc)
• Help promote others through mentions on social media, linking to their contents from yours, etc
• Start building a list. Offer something of great value to attract more subscribers

Note that I have just listed these factors to help you grow your community. Each of these points however, can be expanded into a full-blown post.

As your community grows, you need to earn trust from your members. Whether you are selling your own products, offering a service, promoting some affiliate products, etc, you need to be trusted by your readers.

Trust is the factor that completes a sale. When people trust you, they know they’ll get value from their investment. Once you earn trust from your readers, they buy from you without a second thought.

That’s why it’s absolutely important you build an active community and earn trust from your members. As you are getting this done, you will see results in your earnings.

Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value

– Albert Einstein

Value is the strongest trust magnet. There is more value in your content and recommendation, the stronger the trust your readers have in you.

There are many ways to earn trust from people around you and from your readers worldwide.

One of these ways is the third step.

3 – Solve your readers’ problems

The most glaring area where people see and appreciate your value is when you help take away their problems. That’s where their trust is strengthened and this takes them very close to a buying decision.

There are many reasons why people read your blog. One of these reasons is to get solutions to their problems.

I don’t really know your niche but I’m convinced there are problems faced by your readers and you can help provide adequate solutions.

Now, the main problem here (on your side) is when you are not even able to identify your readers’ problems. This will take you very far from the money-making point.

If you can’t identify any problems faced by your community members, you’ll eventually fail to help them. As a result, there is no money to be made.

Now, here are some tips to help you understand your readers and the problems they seek to solve:

• Pay attention to your comment section. That’s the most accessible area where readers can easily express themselves vis-à- vis your content.
• Look around for niche forums. You are going to find readers seeking solutions to so many problems.
• Run a survey on your blog. Trust me; you are going to get data-driven answers that will help your business.

How do you help your readers as a blogger?

1. Create problem-solving content like:

• how to remove a virus from your PC
• how to treat yeast at home,
• how train your dog not to go on the carpet,

2. Offer your own services to solve problems

3. Recommend products that solve problems

4. Talk to them about someone who can help solve their problems

OK, let’s combine points 1 and 3 to promote an affiliate marketing product and make money.

This is the trick I have used that works like a charm.

First, identify a problem that’s faced by your readers. Tip! A niche forum is the best place to find out about the problems your community members are facing.

Niche: Health

Problem: Yeast Infection in men

Solution 1: Do some research on how to treat yeast in men at home. I’m very sure there are lots of solutions you can write about here.

Solution 2: Recommend an affiliate product like Yestrol that will bring a quick and long lasting solution from MarketHealth.com or any other affiliate marketing platform.

Here is the thing…

This will certainly be a solid problem-solving blog post.

While you’ll get many of your readers trying to follow your home solution, a certain percentage will bounce to the recommended product and that inevitably will give you the commission.

Note that solution 2 is a recommendation within the blog post that you do in solution 1

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours

Ray Kroc

This saying by Ray Kroc drives straight to the core and summarizes these 3 points I have mentioned here:

1. First, don’t work just for the money because if you do, you will never make it.

2. Secondly, love what you are doing and work towards building a solid community and earning trust from your readers

3. Then third, put your customers first. Seek to solve their problems and they will give you their money

A recap

I hope by now you’ve understood my 3 steps if you really want to make money blogging. You have to forget about the money and focus on building an active community and earning trust from your readers. While you help them solve their problems, they will reward your efforts with money.

Let me know what you think. Share your thoughts in the comment box below.