So, how do bloggers make money, anyway? This question crosses a lot of peoples minds – especially for those who enjoy writing or those who desire to work from home. The thought of being a professional blogger has a romantic feel to it, too. Images of working from the beach or working in pajamas at home on a recliner fill many people’s minds.
Well first of all, as someone who earns a full-time living online, I can tell you that working from the beach doesn’t work out very well. I’ve tried it a couple times but the sand is simply too much of an issue. The working in pajamas part? Well, that’s as good as it seems. What do you think I’m wearing right now?!
But, how do bloggers make money in the first place? Most reasonable people understand that the only real way to make money in this world is to provide a valuable product or service that people are willing to pay you for. Would anyone really be willing to pay you to be a blogger? Actually… YES! Lots of people would be happy to pay you!
Is there a catch? Of course! 🙂 So, let’s get into this. How do bloggers make money?
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You Must Provide A Product Or Service People Are Willing To Pay For
Ok, I know I already said this above, but I never actually answered what product or service you will be providing as a blogger. Fortunately, you have options. Most bloggers start off with display advertising. Once your blog begins to attract people from search engines and other sources, businesses would be happy to pay you to display their advertisements to your audience.
What about selling your own product or service? You could provide an informational based website about a topic you know and love, but also provide personal one-on-one consulting services… for a fee of course! Ever think about writing an e-book? A website or blog is a perfect platform to promote it!
One of my favorite ways to make money blogging is through affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you promote other peoples products and services in exchange for a cut of the profits. This is how I earn the majority of my income.
Many bloggers monetize their blog by creating membership areas. A good example is suspicious0bservers.org, a blog that discusses space weather. He has a premium membership area that costs less than $3 per month and earns a full-time living from his blog. Now that’s impressive! Think about it… If you charge $3 per month and get 1,000 people to sign up for a monthly subscription, you are making $3k per month. What if you charged $10 or $20?? I’ve seen memberships sell for hundreds of dollars per month PER PERSON!
This is just a small number of ways you can make money with your blog. So now, let’s get a bit more specific. How do you find people to pay you? These are some of the services and programs I recommend.
How Do Bloggers Make Money With Display Advertising?
Google is happy to pay you. Their Google Adsense advertising network was set up to help bloggers and website owners profit. All you have to do is place some pre-written code onto your site and Google handles the rest. They display the ads and pay you accordingly. Will you get rich with Google Adsense? Probably not. But it can definitely bring in some additional residual revenues you otherwise wouldn’t have. The Yahoo! and Bing advertising network is another popular way to place display ads on your site for profit.
If your blog is popular enough, you can cut out the middle-man and set up your own advertising platform by charging advertisers directly. This can greatly increase your profits.
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How Do Bloggers Make Money With Affiliate Partnerships?
There are many places you can establish affiliate partnerships. People and businesses who are selling products and services are always looking for bloggers or website owners to promote them. No matter what industry you are in, you can always find a high quality product or service to promote. I have been using the Amazon Affiliate Program for a while now as well as ClickBank.com. Simply perform a Google search for affiliate advertising networks and you will find many services.
Another trick I use is by simply searching for affiliate programs in Google. For instance, I have an affiliate website that reviews dog food (DogFoodInsider.com). If I wanted to find a dog related affiliate program, I would simply go to Google and type in [“Dog Food” Affiliate]. The search results would give me pages of affiliate programs related to dogs and dog food.
- Discover More: Why The Best Home Based Business Is Affiliate Marketing
Get Creative!
The internet is a fast changing place and it is still in its infancy. For now, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to make money with a blog. As soon as a “right way” is established, a new way is born. The trick is to simply blog about what you love, because you love to blog about what you love. If you do that, you will succeed and the money will follow.