Content of the article
6 techniques to make money with a blog
- Use your blog to promote your freelance activity
- Put advertising on your blog
- Do sponsored articles or "advertorials
- Do affiliate marketing
- Create and sell your products (physical or digital)
- Doing coaching
How to launch your blog (to monetize it later)?
If you're reading this article, it's probably because you're interested in the idea of starting your own blog - and making money from it.
After all, it's tempting. Who wouldn't dream of writing about what they like, where they like, when they like, and getting paid for it?
In itself, it is completely possible to monetize a blog, and even in some cases to make it a full-time job.
But you have to be realistic. And probably the most important thing to know is that making money from a blog takes time.
Sometimes a lot of time. And that the success of your site is never certain.
You have to build an audience (those who will read your blog), to keep your readers loyal, but also to monetize your content. This is not an easy task.
Starting a blog and trying to turn it into a full-fledged business requires preparation and strategy.
In this article, I share with you the different ways you can make money with a blog, and the pros and cons of each method.
6 techniques to make money with a blog
1. Use your blog to promote your freelancing activity
Freelancing has become very popular in recent years. Freelancers are simply independent workers, who do not have contracts as employees in a defined company.
They will participate in missions, more or less long, with clients and companies of their choice.
And if freelancing is very interesting for those who dream of autonomy, freedom, and variety, there is still the challenge of finding clients to work with.
Creating a blog is a great way to get known. If you have the skills to offer your services as a freelancer, you must have things to share through a blog. And many freelancers go through this.
For example, if you are good at design, you can propose a blog related to this subject, and offer in parallel design services that you can put forward on your site.
It's also a nice element of your portfolio to have if you intend to proposer your services on freelancing platforms like Freelancer or Fiverr.
The benefits
- You can make money quite quickly with your freelancing activity, while other methods require much more patience before you get results
- You use the skills you already have
The disadvantages
- Difficult to do part-time, as you'll have to run a blog + a freelance business on the side
- It's not a passive income, as other methods to monetize your blog can be
2. Advertising on your blog
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This is probably the most common idea when you wonder how to make money with your blog.
And for good reason: you are probably very familiar with online advertising. Especially banners, those ads/images you see displayed everywhere on websites (we call it to display).
In general, these banners work via a CPC (Cost per Click - you get paid every time someone clicks on the ad) or CPM (Cost per Thousand impressions - you get paid a certain amount for 1000 ad displays) system.
But contrary to what you might think, the remuneration is very low, usually around a few cents per click.
It is, therefore, necessary to have a large enough audience for the advertising to be interesting to set up.
Here are the most popular systems to place ads on your blog.
Google AdSense
It is nowadays the most popular network to place display ads on your site.
This is large because it is very easy to set up, which allows you to start making money with your blog without having to be a professional coder or web designer.
The concept is the same as presented above: Google AdSense places ads on your site (depending on the locations you choose), and then you get paid on a cost-per-click basis.
All you have to do is copy and paste some code provided to you by Google into the places where you want the ads to appear on your website. Google will then serve ads according to its catalog of advertisers.
You have the possibility to exclude certain categories that you do not want to appear on your site, keeping in mind that this can impact your advertising results.
Direct partnerships
Even if it will simplify your task, especially at the beginning of your blog, you don't have to go through ad networks like Google AdSense to put ads on your site.
If you generate enough traffic and your blog starts to become known, advertisers can contact you directly to ask you to place their ads on your site.
You can also contact advertisers yourself that you would like to showcase. Here, you will have to do the implementation yourself, set your rates, and negotiate directly with them. This of course requires more time.
You can either be paid simply for the purchase of space (X dollars/month), at CPC or CPM or via an affiliation system (which we present in more detail below).
The advantages
- Almost exclusively passive income
- Very easy to set up and not very time consuming
The disadvantages
- Revenues are often (very) low, especially when using an ad network like AdSense
- Can take away from the professionalism, or impact the seriousness and/or aesthetics of your blog, especially when you don't choose which ads are displayed. Ads can also seriously slow down your site and therefore impact your performance
3. Make sponsored articles or "adverts
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With your blog, you have the possibility to put forward sponsored articles.
They can take two forms:
- Articles that you write yourself, and in which you talk about the brand that pays you (sponsored articles)
- Articles are written by the brand, which you publish on its behalf on your blog after validation (what I call editorial articles)
It is essential here that you only work with brands that are directly related to the theme of your blog, and that will bring value to your readers.
Putting forward a brand of dog food on a blog about web development is very likely to damage your credibility.
The rates you can offer will depend on the performance of your blog (number of page views, trust flow, etc.).
Attention: you must systematically indicate on your articles when your contents are sponsored or written by brands with financial counterpart.
The advantages
- You can be paid quite easily (your rates will increase with the popularity of your blog)
- There are now many platforms to establish this kind of partnership with brands simply
- Allows you to expand your content with sponsored articles
- Allows you to connect with influential brands in your field
The disadvantages
- Here again, the tasks are difficult to automate, so the income is not passive
- You have to do a lot of sorting to make partnerships that will be useful for your site and your audience
4. Doing affiliate marketing
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Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money with a blog... as long as you use it well.
It works quite simply.
A company is looking to sell a product or service, and they agree to pay you a commission on each sale if the buyer comes from your site.
To find out if this is the case, the company (or the affiliate platform) gives you a unique link that will show who is coming from your blog, and who is buying from that link.
You can either place the link in your content, inside your articles, or via banners placed on your site, for example.
If a reader clicks on your link or banner and buys the product you recommended, you get a percentage of the sale or a defined amount in dollars.
Example
You have a website that gives advice on how to train your dog.
The company Chien Royal offers low-calorie treats specially designed for training.
You place a special link on your blog to the Chien Royal online store and will be paid every time a user makes a purchase through your link.
Choose trustworthy and quality companies or risk losing credibility with your readers.
You can either go through affiliate platforms, via advertising networks like Amazon Partner or create direct partnerships with advertisers.
Affiliate platforms
A great way to find brands offering affiliate partnerships is to go through a specialized platform.
The goal of these platforms is to connect advertisers (brands) and publishers (you). This makes it much easier to find, manage and integrate these partnerships on your blog.
Among the most popular (and my favorite) is AWIN, which has a huge catalog of advertisers.
Amazon Partner
As the name suggests, Amazon Partner is simply the affiliate program offered by Amazon.
It offers bloggers the possibility to earn commissions by advertising products sold by Amazon on your site.
Again, you can get a tracking link for any product sold by Amazon.
If someone clicks on the link on your blog, goes to Amazon and buys the item (or even other items during the same session), the sale is credited to you and you get a commission.
For example, you can promote Amazon products by including a product catalog on your site, by adding links to the products in your blog posts, by creating "reviews" of different products.
The commissions are still quite low compared to what other advertisers can offer.
The advantages
- Allows you to generate revenue passively (apart from adding or removing programs)
- Allows your audience to discover products or services that solve some of their problems
The disadvantages
- Here again, you need a large enough audience to make money
- You are dependent on the different programs. If they decide to close the program or lower the conditions, there is usually nothing you can do about it, which can impact your income overnight
5. Create and sell your products (physical or digital)
- Various products (clothes, accessories, books, ... there are many things to sell in eCommerce)
- eBooks
- Online courses/training
- Photos or other digital products
- ...
eBooks
Online Courses
The advantages
- You have complete control over the products you promote
- You are not dependent on an external brand and its decisions in your business
- You don't necessarily need to have a large audience: it is enough if it is committed enough
- You are less limited in your income possibilities
The disadvantages
- You have to make sure you offer quality products or you risk losing credibility with your audience
- The time spent creating products is much more important than via affiliation or simply by placing advertisements on your site
6. Coaching
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Coaching is a quick and easy way to put your expertise to good use. And just like freelancing, your blog is one of the showcases that will allow you to promote yourself.
Just having a quality blog can position you as an expert in a specific field. And some people are willing to pay to get personalized advice directly from you.
Of course, the prerequisite will be to have real skills in the area you want to coach. But you will also need to work on your coaching skills themselves.
The goal is to help and accompany people to the best of their ability, and that what they gain from your coaching is well worth the price spent.
To highlight your coaching offer, you can simply create a sales page on your blog with your offers, and mention for example that you offer these services at the bottom of your articles.
And it does not just sport coaches out there - you can offer coaching services in many areas!
Of course, finding clients will be more difficult at first. Demonstrating your expertise takes time. Don't hesitate to showcase your skills on social networks as well, which can also help you find new readers.
The benefits
- You can offer your coaching services even with a small audience (as long as they are engaged enough)
- You develop your skills at the same time as your services, which can be an advantage professionally
The disadvantages
- You will need to take the time to develop your expertise so that your audience trusts you
- You need to be an expert in your field, as your decisions can potentially impact the lives of your clients depending on the topic
How to launch your blog (to monetize it later)?
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The hardest part of starting a blog is often getting started.
Especially because we are easily overwhelmed with doubts and the fear of not doing "good enough".
The trick is to get started because in any case, the only way to learn quickly enough is to make mistakes. That's really the lesson I've learned the most in my adventure of creating my first blog.
As for the blog creation strategy itself, I advise you to read dedicated articles, but here is an overview of the essential steps:
- Choose the right niche for your blog, not too broad ("lifestyle") nor too niche
- Find a platform to create your blog (I especially recommend WordPress or Squarespace )
- Write your blog! And don't be afraid to publish articles that might not be "perfect", because they will never really be perfect
- Focus on one particular source of traffic (social networks, Google search, etc.)
- Build an email list as soon as possible
- Share with other bloggers in your field, and don't be afraid to put yourself out there
I also advise you to treat your blog as professionally as possible (for example, create a secure HTTPS site, integrate the mandatory legal pages, etc.).
As soon as you start earning money with your blog, it will of course be mandatory to declare it.
You can create a micro-entrepreneur status, which is a 100% free and simplified form of business.
There is a "professional blogger" category that you can choose.
In summary: remember to earn money with your blog
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Blogging is a very rewarding experience and can be personally and financially rewarding... as long as you are patient.
If you listen to what your audience wants, create quality content and monetize your blog with the ideas above, you may one day be able to blog full time.
However, keep in mind that this is far from being the case for most bloggers.
The key is to hang in there and to know how to constantly adapt and improve.
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