5+ Ways To Make Money From Your Blog

You blog because you have a passion for pets. You blog because you have a message to share. You blog because you're a writer at heart. You blog because you want to make money, right? After all, your passion won't keep your pet in holiday clothing and new toys.

There are bloggers and writers out there who say they feel "icky" when they consider monetizing their blog. They feel they are exploiting their pet and their lives with their pets. Unless you want to continue to keep your blog at "hobby blog" level, you need to look at ways in which to monetize your blog so you can afford to share your passion, your message and your love of the written word. Let today be the day you become part of the "gig economy."

Whether you want to quit your full-time job and make a living from your blog, or if you want to keep your blog as your side hustle to help pay for "extras," here are five (plus some bonus tips!) for making money from your blog to help you turn it from hobby blog to money-maker.

Create your own products

Are you crafty? Sell products that you make. Do people come to you for help and advice in a particular area? Write an eBook (it doesn't have to be long, it just has to be useful). Put together an eCourse. Are you a whiz at social media? Write a course that shows others how to benefit from your talents. Are you a writer who offers editing services? Put together a course on "how to edit your own work." Are you a time management and productivity guru? Create a course to teach others how to get a handle on their time. Write an eBook that provides tried-and-true time management tips.

Be an affiliate

Yes, you need to be up front about the fact that you are using affiliate links and that you will benefit monetarily if someone makes a purchase through your link, but if you are passionate about a product and use it regularly, why not benefit from sales of it? Be judicious in the amount of affiliate links you use. Just as you don't want to keyword stuff your posts, neither do you want to have every other sentence be one that has a "buy me" mentality.

Sell ad space

If your blog has the traffic, sell ad space. You may need to pick up the phone and reach out to brands you'd like to see featured on your site, but if you want to be in business for yourself and turn your blog from a hobby to a money-maker, you need to know how to sell yourself, your blog and its benefits to a brand. If you have a large local following, reach out to local businesses that make sense for you. Put together your press kit with the numbers and potential benefits the business would reap and why. Run a banner ad on your site. Be aware though, that your readers come to your site for the content, so don't make them wade through too many ads before they get to what they really want from you. Use ads judiciously.

Write a sponsored post

If you're part of the BlogPaws Influencer network, you may have the opportunity to apply for, and perhaps get chosen, to write sponsored posts. The money paid for these posts vary, but it is a way to bring in additional income from the work you're putting into your blog.  You can also reach out and ask another blogger or a brand or even a local business if they'd like to post on your site, and pay you a fee for the privilege. You will need to have traffic and numbers to show why there is a benefit for them to post with you, but if you have the numbers on your blog and/or social media, people may pay you to post on your site. If you're blogging about business-related topics, perhaps a Chamber of Commerce would want to write a business-centric post for your site. If you blog about traveling with your pets, there might be travel accessories for pets businesses that would benefit from paying to guest post on your site. Before you take on guest bloggers make sure you have a se t of writer's guidelines in place as well as a list of the types of businesses you will take posts from and those that you won't. You don't want to dilute the mission and vision of your blog simply to make money, nor do you want to publish a guest blog that goes against your ethics and morals.

Email marketing

Are you "growing your list"? What does this mean? When people come to your blog, what are you doing to capture their names and email address so you can keep in touch with them if they don't come back to your blog? Put together a "lead magnet" or "ethical bribe" that entices a reader to want to give you their name and email address and access to their inbox. Your lead magnet should be related to your blog topic. For example, if you're passionate about cats, offer a one-page lead magnet entitled, "Fun Games For Your Cat" or "How To Introduce A New Kitten To The Family." Give them a one- or two-page downloadable product in exchange for their email address. Email marketing is a long game when it comes to making money from your blog, but if you keep in front of readers, aka potential customers, they will think of you when they're ready to buy what you're selling.

Sell your services

What do you do that you could teach others? What is your area of expertise? In which niche do you focus? Are you great at coming up with business taglines? Offer coaching services for that. Do you have enough time and knowledge to write blog posts for pay for others? If so, offer that as a "Blogger for hire!" service. Are you fabulous at DIY projects? Instead of, or in addition to, making and selling products why not teach others how to make their own DIYs? Teach a class focused on your area of expertise.

Take any one of these ideas and see if you can find a way to make money with it. If it works, great! If it doesn't try another. If you get more than one of these ideas to boost your income from your blog, congratulations! I'd love to know what works, what you've tried that didn't and where you're getting stuck.

Robbi Hess is an award-winning author,  full-time writer, newspaper columnist, writing coach and time-management guru. She works with bloggers and solopreneurs and blogs at All Words Matter. I spoke at BlogPaws on: Overworked & Overwhelmed? The Four-Step Process for Reinventing Your Writing. If you couldn't attend, email me for free a copy of the e-book I offered. (Robbi AT AllWordsMatter DOT COM)

Source: 5+ Ways To Make Money From Your Blog