Make money blogging

How to make money blogging? That is the beginner concern. Let’s face it, you heard about amazing stories of people making a ton of money with their blog. Indeed successful bloggers take home a good paycheck every month. It is a good passive income. Typically you will be advised to start with running advertisements then follow by the other income streams. In this article I will explain why starting with ads is the wrong strategy to start monetizing your blog.

How to start a blog

1. Choose your domain name.

Frankly speaking, the domain name doesn’t even matter. So don’t spend hours reflecting, brainstorming on a name. When it comes to naming, the way you build your brand is more important. Validates your desire name by checking on Godaddy for example if it is available. Simply input the name in the search bar. Indeed, it is a very simple trick.

Yet, if you really want to pick the perfect domain, I recommend these domain name generators: domainwheel, Nameboy, Wordoid, and Panabee.

2. Hosting

Great blogging platforms such as WordPress are seamless because they always provide hosting. But you can find great hosting options. Such as Blue host, and SiteGround are definitely another popular option to check out. Just make sure you validate this list :

• Budget

Probably, you want to make sure the solution you are choosing meets your budget.

• Speed

Certainly, it needs to help you load your blog fast.

• Reliability

Obviously, you want to make sure that it is not a sketchy hosting platform that will break as soon as you pay or you load you with me issues.

• Scalability

Definitely, you want to be secured with that option. Lets say your traffic grows fast or with a growth hacking strategy you traffic skyrocks, can the service still function without any breakdowns ? Sure you will have to upgrade your plan but can it be done smoothly?

 3. Blogging platform.

It is essential to choose the right blogging platform. They are multiple platforms in the market place. Choose the right one will help you set things right. More it will provide you with a seamless experience. Here is a list of top blogging platforms.

• WordPress.org
• Constant Contact Builder
• Gator Website Builder
• WordPress.com
• Squarespace
• Blogger
• Weebly
• Tumblr
• LiveJournal
• Medium
• Ghost
• Drupal
• Wix

WordPress is undeniable the best blogging platform with more than 80 million users. Million of people use the platform for blogging and website.

But, before you choose a blogging platform, it’s important to make sure you ask yourself these 3 questions:

• Is it easy to set up? You may not be very technical yet (or may not ever be), so you want to look for a blogging platform that’s super user-friendly. Perhaps, code free.

• Does it have the option for me to make money with my website? That is because not all hosting solutions come with built-in capabilities for website monetization. Even Though, if it might not be your main goal.

• Is it flexible so it can grow with my site? Basically, means can you scale it as your traffic increases.

4. Design your blog with a theme.

Good, feel, simple, and look help your blog stand out. You want it to look a specific way. You want it to feel exactly how you picture it without necessarily writing a line of code. We recommend investing money and time to get the right theme. Then you will own it for life and benefit from good after-sales support. There is something for anyone.

You can find valuable theme here themeforest.

Once you’ve selected your theme, continue turning it. Till you get the look you are looking for. Set up google analytics to monitor your evolution.

5. Select the best plugins for your blog.

Google Analytics for WordPress and Yoast SEO for start. If you really want to play around with some cool plugins, you can find them at wb beginners.

6. Content.

I will recommend before starting with your blog setting. Once you’ve identified the domain name. Prepare on the side some few contents. Compelling contents you want to talk about. Then start publishing immediately.

Some great blog topics that are known to be profitable are:

• Health and Fitness
• Recipes
• Travel
• Parenting
• Specific Diets (Keto, Vegan, Etc)
• Lifestyle
• Finance
• Home Decor
• Beauty and Fashion
• Making Money Online
• Education
• Relationship Advice
• Tech

7. Promotion

Promote on social media, ask your family and friends to share your contents.

Why running ads might not work for you?

When I started blogging, I quickly ran into a roadblock. Despite my efforts, I made only $6 in total after 8 months in ads revenue. Granted, my traffic was not great. Probably this can be a possible explanation. But I was frustrated and angry. I followed all the instructions and the step by step manual on how to create a blog. Later, a step by step guide on how to create contents. Finally, in the manual how to make money blogging, the first step is to run ads. Usually, I was told the first 6 months you can expect at least $100.

Faced with the fact that it would take me forever to make a decent amount of money with my blog. At least enough money to pay for my blog expenses. I decided to embark on an exploration phase.

• Exploration phase

I started looking around the web to see how many blogs actually run ads. First observation almost all the authority blogs I visited have a store or sell some sort of product. Whether it is by affiliate marketing or owned branded products. Some don’t even run ads and those who run ads have a premium version.

• Analysis phase

After those observations, my next question was simple. More of an arithmetic appreciation.

• What is the average conversion rate on a typical blog? 2% to 5% according to WordStream in this article.
• So if you have 20 visitors per month chances are 2% could buy a product from you. That is 1 person.
• I look at the revenue generated in 6 months and the number of total visitors approximately 3100 visitors. That is 62 customers that I didn’t capture. An average of 6 per month.

• The awakening

Then I asked myself if I was selling any product online. I could have sold already 62 at a 20% margin. In any circumstances that could be higher than my meager $6.

• Redirection

I decided to add a product to my blog and stop running ads. Moreover, running ads ruin sometimes the reader’s experience.

Conclusion: How to make money blogging

I spent so many months working on building and developing great contents and improving my blog. While I could have spread my effort on building contents, focusing on selling a product or service as well. Those are lessons learned.

Definitely, nowadays a blog that builds its monetization strategy solely around advertisements will simply find it extremely challenging to make it happen.

The way forward: How to make money blogging

If you are thinking of starting a blog, or you have a blog but don’t make any money. Consider selling a product or joining an affiliate program or any other income stream away from ads on your blog.

Do that from day one.

You need to make money to keep your blog running and keep you going. Waiting will not help you. Moreover, when you have a product online, it motivates you to drive more visitors to your site. Consequently, as you start thinking about creating a blog also put in efforts and time to come up with a monetization strategy. The sooner the better. The only exception here is a news blog. Even then it is important to have a monetization strategy away from ads revenue.

Recommended source of income to consider from day 1:

• Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money because you can promote a wide variety of products. Popular online marketplaces like Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon, and others have an affiliate program.

• Sponsored advertisement

Basically, a company pays you to represent their product, talk about it, and promote it to your readers.

• Sell a digital product such as e-books, online courses, images, video, or music. Apps, plugins, or themes.

Selling your own digital products may be a good choice after it’s created your work is very much done.

• Speaking, coaching, and workshops.

Many bloggers make a lot of money by speaking at conferences. Speaking at events whether you are paid or not helps you promote your blog and your personal brand

• Sell memberships on your website

A popular method is by having your audience pay to access certain content or areas of your site (Restricted Members Only Content,Private Forum,questions and answers community)

• Request for donations

One way you can make money from your WordPress blog is simply to ask for it. But this should be your last resort. Because it is inconsistent and depends on your reader’s generosity. Many platforms offer this service like Patreon, Paypal or Stripe,

• Make your own products

This also a great way to monetize your blog. Indeed, you can set up an online store to sell custom made products. Even better, set up a store on a marketplace like Amazon, Etsy or eBay then promote it on your blog.

• Get pay to write reviews

Instead, you get to try out products related to your niche. In addition, you will want to make sure your audience would be interested in.

In the nutshell be creative about your source of income and start planing that as you build your blog. Running ads on your blog should not be the only income stream that comes into mind. It should be a starting point. Your WordPress blog is a springboard for other products and services, like tutorials, speaking gigs, consultations, ebooks, courses, and more. Monetize in a way that makes sense for your audience and content.

Here is how you can start.

Monetize with CPC or CPM Ads. The most popular ads types are cost per click and cost per 1000 impressions. All you have to do is just put the banner on your website. The most popular networks are: Google Adsense, Chitika, Infolinks, and Media.net

Private Ads by either in the form of banners,buttons,links or writing sponsored posts

5 extra tips to improve your income

1. Use as many income streams you can reasonably manage. Diversification is key.
2. Excellent content is the key to long-term success. There’s no way around it.
3. Each blogger has a different combination of income streams. There is no “right” way and that’s the beauty of it. There are endless possibilities. Find a combination that works for you.
4. Don’t be a clone of another blogger. Find a unique angle.
5. Successful bloggers don’t start a blog just to make money. Instead, they blog about a topic they truly enjoy and can write about for years. They let the money grow out of that topic organically.
6. Resource page. It tells your audience what tools, products, or services you use and/or recommend.

Extra tips for improving your ranking

1. Run ads on social media platforms. Personally, I will recommend Facebook for a start, then you add different channels gradually. But, you should focus on 2 channels only. Finally, this strategy will help you save cost and time.
2. Be consistent, Keep a routine posting. Either daily, per week, or per month. You will keep your audience engage.
3. Email marketing. This is hands down the most effective by far strategy in terms of ROI. For each email sent your return on investment beat any other platform. But it has to be done right. So built your list.
4. Guest post. Eventually, if you can. But it is not absolutely necessary.
5. Be patient, blogging takes time and getting a return even more. Transforming your blog from hobby to cash cow could take a year or more of the hustle and hard work. Give yourself time to learn your audience, tune your voice, and perfect the product. Don’t be afraid to try something new — or to start over. 
6. Build a process with the following steps: outreach, guest post, outsource, and backlinks.

Traffic source

There are many traffic sources available. But, the most popular by far is Google and Facebook. As a beginner, you should choose one source. Then, once you reach a threshold you can move on to the next source. Consequently, the graph below illustrates pretty well which source you can choose.