How to make money blogging

A mistake that many bloggers make is trying to earn money with their blog without having a defined topic area. You should decide on a theme that is exciting and interesting. When you start creating your blog, you should already have ideas in mind about the topic of the blog. If you find a niche theme, you will speak to a more defined target group and build a true readership. And this is the exact type of target group that is lucrative for advertisers who may want to place an advertising banner on a blog, for example. Targeting a specific group is hugely important for a business’s success. Affiliate marketing (see below) only works in the right environment.

When it comes to traditional print advertising, the circulation figures determine how successful an advert is. For blogging, the deciding factor is the amount of traffic generated with each article. As such, a blog that only receives a few hundred visitors a day isn’t very appealing for advertisers. However, this isn’t always the case, as some companies may be interested in a smaller readership of experts.

In either case, traffic remains a very important factor when it comes to pay-per-click advertising and affiliate marketing. However, relevant readers don’t automatically flock to a blogger; you need a lot of persistence and engagement to ‘earn’ your readers and retain them by keeping your content relevant and up to date. Only when you have many loyal readers can you start to make money by blogging. In this context, you should research about hosting possibilities: if you have commercial ambitions, you should consider hosting your own blog.

What are the possibilities for those wanting to make money by blogging? With this question as a starting point, the classical methods of how to monetize your blog will be explained, then how to earn money by blogging without having to place ads on your site.

Direct marketing is when a blogger rents out the free advertising space on their site directly to an advertiser. In contrast to AdSense or comparable online services, independently managing advertising space can be very lucrative, since all the income generated goes straight to the blogger. Managing the space yourself, however, does translate into more work, especially when it comes to acquiring new advertising partners. Blogs generally indicate free advertising space on their site and provide all the necessary information (media data, advertising rates, etc.) on a subpage.

Sponsored posts (also known as advertorials) make it possible to earn money with editorial posts rather than advertisements. With this form of advertising, you write articles on a certain product or a topic or you’re given a pre-written text (that has already been adapted to the target group) from the company or agency. The scope of the blog, the amount of effort, and the topic relevance also determine the compensation for the article. Cooperating with blogs is now common practice for many marketing agencies. Many bloggers find it difficult to strike the right balance between sponsored posts and believable content.

Affiliate marketing relates to referral marketing. Registering for relevant partner programs is usually free for bloggers. Writers receive a commission if they recommend a product or a service in their articles and a reader then follows the recommendation (i.e. the link). The appropriate commission (around 3-10%) is only awarded when a contract has been finalized. Amazon Associates and zanox, are two very well-known affiliate programs.

Pay per click advertising is an uncomplicated way of placing adverts on your website so you can make money by blogging. Google AdSense is by far the most well-known online advertising service. The type of pay per click ads that are shown depends on the content of the blog. Profit is made with each click, so the more traffic a blog has, the more profitable the pay-per-click adverts are.

Direct and eye-catching advertising has proven successful for bloggers in recent years and is undoubtedly one of the easiest sources of income to regulate. However, there are other ways to profit from your blog. Here we introduce some alternative solutions.

Your own blog can also be funded by donations. By integrating a donation button on the site, readers are invited to support the blog financially – voluntarily, of course. In contrast to the paywall model, all content remains free even if the reader decides not to donate anything. Specialized providers such as Flattr enable uncomplicated donation processing. However, the service requires the reader to be registered with Flattr and have credit in their account. Alternatively, you could enable a direct donation option by providing your bank details on your site.

An additional, seemingly lucrative way to make money by blogging is to sell links that are not marked as paid advertising. Text link sales like these can be organized through websites like BackLinks. However, you have a significant disadvantage compared to links in sponsored posts: purchased links that aren’t marked as such, violate Google’s guidelines. The blogger could therefore end up being penalized. The consequences may be a decrease in PageRank and a loss in ranking in the search engine results, which will deter many advertisers.

Commercial blogging won’t work if you don’t play by the rules. There are regulations concerning tax declarations and trade registration. Here is an overview of the most important facts:

1. A commercial blog must be registered as a business: the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) considers your blog more of a business, rather than a hobby, if you make money from it and especially if you are running it for the sole purpose of making a profit. If you are filing as self-employed, you are also expected to pay self-employment taxes quarterly rather than annually.
   
   
2. Bloggers need to pay tax on their earnings: they have to declare anything that has value such as review items, sponsored posts, etc. You must file an income tax return if net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more. Even if you make less than this, you still have to file an income tax return if you meet any other filing requirements listed in the Form 1040 instructions.
   
   
3. Image rights: When you use images on your blog, you have to make sure they aren’t copyrighted otherwise you could find yourself with a big fine. You’ll find more information in our article on image copyright online.

In previous sections in the guide, it explained how you earn money with a blog in the first place. So far, the question of how much a blogger earns on average each month has remained unanswered. This is because there is no set answer, since blogs not only have different possible sources of income, but are also paid completely differently when it comes to sponsored posts, advertisements, etc. In addition to the popularity and number of visitors, the topic of the blog plays a decisive role. For example, it is possible to make more money with a professional fashion or travel blog than with a blog about exotic animal species such as the Mexican Axolotl (simply because the target group is so small).

In the US, it’s possible to supplement your income if not get all your income, from a well-run blog. It can be a tedious process, taking months or even years to make even a little profit. Only once your blog is becoming more popular, does it start to look attractive for advertising companies, which is why donations and selling your own products are often the only sources of income at the start. Once various partnerships have been concluded and the financial basis has been created, there is no limit to how much you can earn. Some of the most successful US bloggers earn as much as six figures per month!

Blogs cover the widest variety of topics: fashion, sports, lifestyle, music, etc. Every industry has its top blogs, which all have their own success stories. There’s often more to these successful blogs than just blog posts.

Popular bloggers are known as influencers in social networks or as experts at conferences and events, and they sometimes even operate their own product chains. The project 'The Blonde Salad' was launched as a fashion blog by Chiara Ferragni in 2009 and is a prime example of this. Today, the Italian boss has a multi-headed crew and doesn’t just deal with making sure the fashion blog runs smoothly, but also the social media channels, photo shoots, and sales from the shoe collection ('Chiara Ferragni Collection'). It’s estimated that Ferragni earns more than $12 million per year. 

The following bloggers are some of the most successful and best paid in the world:

Source: bloggerspassion.com/bloggers-income-report-how-much-money-do-top-bloggers-make-and-how/

If you plan to make money with your blog, it is time to start taking steps to commercialize it. However, with all your efforts you’ve made to specialize in your topic, finding the appropriate hosting solution, getting more traffic, and building on your relationship with other bloggers, you’ll notice it’s a lengthy process that often requires a lot of patience. There are some tricks, however, that can help increase your success rate.

1. Optimize loading time: Blogs are accessible to anyone via the World Wide Web. Potential readers expect the same level of user experience as other web projects. In addition to the intuitive usability and good structuring, a quick loading time is also required. The latter is mainly influenced by the choice of blog or content management system as well as the hosting environment. If you use a CMS, you can often improve the loading time with plugins, for example, with LazyLoad for WordPress sites. The plugin ensures that images are only loaded when they come into the user’s field of vision.
   
   
2. Provide more content: Many bloggers only show a couple of posts on their homepage and sometimes there is no editorial content at all. If there’s more choice of reading material, it increases the chance of attracting visitors and gaining loyal readers. The increasing length of stay also has a positive effect on search engine marketing. It is important, however, that you also keep the aforementioned loading time in the back of your mind.
   
   
3. Use teasers: With an interesting preview picture and an exciting teaser, you increase the probability of your articles being read. It’s best for you to write the blurb yourself, explaining what the reader can expect from the article. However, many content management systems also offer features that automatically generate the preview text from the first few lines of the main text. This is handy if you don’t have enough time to think of something yourself or you’re not feeling particularly creative.
   
   
4. Emphasize the call to action: You should make it clear to your readers if you offer newsletters, products, or services on top of your editorial content in order to make money with your blog. Buttons and forms should be made obvious and prominent so that readers see them. If you want to integrate several different action prompts into your blog, don’t give them the same importance as each other. Highlight the most important thing so that visitors don’t become overwhelmed with too much choice.
   
   
5. Analyze user behavior: When you customize your blog to reach new visitors, increase retention time, or improve conversion rate, you should always analyze the impact of these adjustments. Using web analytics software like Google Analytics, you can see what has caused the increase in traffic or what had encouraged more readers to convert. You shouldn’t perform all the optimization steps at once, otherwise you won’t be able to tell which of the adjustments has had the positive effect on your blog’s success.

Our guide has explained that there are a lot of things to consider and that a lot of time needs to be invested before you can make money with a blog. Only when a project has enough traffic does it become interesting enough for advertising companies. You’re also more likely to profit from any pioneering partnerships that present themselves.

To conclude, we have summarized the different sources of income: