I don’t know about you but lately I’ve been seeing lots of posts and social media updates about the various different ‘side hustles’ that people are doing to make themselves some extra money. I love reading these posts, especially the ones where the writer shares information about how to get started and how much money you can expect to make but if I’m honest, I’m always a bit skeptical about them unless they’re from someone I know or a blogger I respect.
I’m guessing that lots of people feel the same way and maybe our uncertainly might be stopping us from doing something that could be making us money which is something we can all do with, right? So, rather than me simply writing a list for you of all of the different ways you can make money, I’m going to split each idea into a post of its own and share one each week* telling you how to get started with it, what you can expect and how much money you could be making.
* I may need a little help from my blogging friends for this so be prepared for some lovely guest posts from blogging friends who have more experience in some side hustles than me.
I’m going to start today with a post on how to make money blogging because blogging is something that I personally feel that anyone can do and even if you put the making money aspect aside, it’s a very enjoyable hobby that can grow with you as a person and as a family.
How to make money blogging
The first thing you need if you want to make money blogging is a blog. 😉 I’ve already shared a post about how to set up a blog of your own so I won’t bore you with the details again but do pop over and have a read if you’re thinking about setting up your blog.
One you have your blog, the most important thing that you can do is to create useful, engaging and interesting content. Without great content, nothing else you do will mean a thing so expect to focus on building your blog and filling it with things people will want to read at least for the first few months.
Once you have the content, you need to let people know that you have something they want to read and to me, social media promotion is the best way to go about this. I’ve written about a few of the tools I use to promote my blog content if you want to make life as easy as possible and I’ve also written about the impact that sites like Pinterest can have on your blog traffic if you have a great social media strategy.
And seeing as we’re talking about social media, you don’t have to be amazing with a gazillion followers on every network but it does help to have a few where you’re doing well so you can showcase to interested brands what you can offer them. I’m choosing to focus on Instagram and my new Facebook group and the moment simply because they’re the channels that I enjoy the most right now but in the past I’ve really tried hard with my Facebook page and with Twitter to try and build up a following on there.
So you’ve got your blog, your content is awesome, you’re building up a good little social media following and your page views are increasing steadily as more and more people are discovering your corner of the internet. Here’s where you can start to make money blogging….
Advertising – You can install Google Adsense from the start but it’s probably not worth it until you have a reasonable amount of page views. I’m not a fan of ads personally so it took me years before I took the plunge and joined an ad network (Mediavine) and I’ve not looked back since. Ideally I’d love to have a blog with no ads so it can look all pretty but I can’t deny that it does make me money which has definitely come in handy.
Sponsored posts – You’ll find that you’ll probably get approached for sponsored posts without having to do a thing if you’re doing all of the things above (great content, social media etc) and the only thing I’ll say here is that you should never undervalue yourself. I get so many approaches every day that I now have an email template that I reply back with along with my media pack detailing my charges and my ‘rules’.
Affiliate marketing – I’m not really an expert here but this post from Emma over at Emmadrew.info explains everything you need to know to get started.
Creating and selling your own products – You can use your blog as a starting point for selling an e-book you’ve written, a printable you’ve made or anything else you can think of. My Financial Planner did really well at the start of the year as did my personalised poster maker but they’re quite seasonal so I’ve taken them off sale for now as the plug in I needed to use to allow me to take payments was slowing down my site load speed.
Selling services – You might find a whole new skill-set you didn’t know you had when you start blogging. Services like techie help, site design, VA services and all sorts of other blog related jobs are in demand from bloggers who don’t have enough hours in the day to get everything done.
There are plenty of bloggers who make make money blogging – whether it’s something they’ve turned into a full time job or just a way to make a little extra money on the side. If you want to make some extra money and have some time on your hands then this could be a great way to start.
And if you do start a blog of your own, do let me know in the comments so I can come and say hi….
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