How to make money from blogging in seven steps
I have worked online for over seven years, and a lot of my time and effort goes into creating blogposts. The subject matter changes- one day I’m reviewing the latest mobile phone, next time it’s a beauty product, but the format is pretty similar and writing online has its own rules and regulations. I’m an online writer, a web journalist, an editor, a social media consultant, a presenter and a blogger. It’s the blogger part of this equation that often produces the most interest and there’s one question I get over and over again.
How do you make money from blogging?
I’ve been explaining the intricate answer to this question for a number of years now and thought it might help if I put it down in steps for you to follow. First of all, I’m going to address the money/blogging issue from the perspective of a home based NON journalist blogger. If you have writing experience, that’s great, that will definitely help, but if you’re asking this question it suggests you’re not being paid to blog- you’re not on the staff of Handbag/ Beauty and the Dirt/ Sugar etc (great blogging business companies) so you’re looking to find out for personal use.
First of all, you should never EVER start blogging as a way to make money. For one, the passion will be lacking in your writing and you won’t get the followers, and secondly only a few few people ever make serious cash from their blog. Blogging superstars like Sussanah Lau of Style Bubble have revealed that most of the money they make is from side projects off the back of their blog- the blog alone does not garner a full wage. If you’re going to blog do it because you like it, you love it- it’s fun. Got it? Ok, now lets see how we can go about helping you get back your hosting fee.
Step One: Choose your Blog Platform Wisely
The platform you choose to blog on will actually help or hinder you in terms of money making. I get that you might not want to invest cash if you’re starting out, but if you’re using a free WordPress.com site, when you look to put ads you’ll be restricted as they don’t allows this in their terms and conditions. So choose wisely if you’re serious. Blogger- which is free on Google, is commonly used because of the flexibility if offers, but it can look a bit clunky and is hard to customise completely. WordPress.com is free to use- but- as already mentioned, restricts you. WordPress.org is also free to use and doesn’t restrict what you can do, but you’ll need to pay to host it (from £5 a month as a guide) and it’s not as easy to set up. There’s also Typepad as another option, but this is lacking popularity nowadays. I love WordPress.org and strongly recommend you start here- don’t think, ‘oh, when I get big I’ll move platforms‘ as you can lose lots of pageviews that way, and it’s a risky strategy.
Step Two: Adverts and Affiliate Links on the blog
The simplest way to make cash from your blog is to place adverts on it. One of the most commonly used platforms for adverts is Google Adsense simply because of how simple it is to install. You choose the areas you want the adverts to run (leaderboard/sidebar/skyscraper etc), identify specify category exclusions and then voila, you’re good to go. Not all ads will be relevant as they often scan the text of the blog to pick a related one, so you may find yourself with gambling ads if you ever talk about the ‘competitive world’ (hence the excluding option). It’s easy to install, but a little clunky to play with at the back-end and the returns are pretty low money wise. You generally make money here via clicks per impression (amount can can vary) and unless you have high volume traffic you probably won’t make very much (Think around £1 a month if you have below 5000 unique visitors a month). Read more…
