You might have started off blogging for fun because you wanted a voice online to talk about a hobby or interest.
Or have you realised from day one that there is the possibility to make a living, working from home or even whilst travelling… as a blogger?
In this post, I want to explain 5 of the easiest and best ways to earn blogging for a living.
Sell a Digital Product
The absolute key to understanding the beauty of selling digital products as a blogger is to appreciate the terms ‘scalable’ and ‘passive’.
Create an eBook that you can sell online. You make it once but you can sell the same eBook dozens, hundreds or even thousands of times. Because it is digital, you can sell the same item as many times. Offline, of course! You can only sell a printed book once and then you have to print another book.
Furthermore, with digital products, you can sell them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means you can sell passively, i.e. sell them even when you are sleeping or on a beach in Hawaii. Digital sales are indeed easy to automate.
Anything that can sell passively and that is scalable is great to include in your business model as a blogger.
In addition to eBooks, you can sell digital products such as PowerPoint lesson plans, PDF schedulers, templates and so on.
The chances are that, whatever your niche, there is some kind of digital product that you can make and sell.
Auto-Generated Ads
Gone are the days when you could make extremely good money by having Google AdSense automated ads on your site. Having said that, I do know of some bloggers who are still actually doing very well from Google AdSense.
Nowadays, many bloggers use companies such as MediaVine as a platform for placing automated ads in their blog content, to generate passive income from the ads. Although the requirement of being accepted in MediaVine is low. The NEW minimum traffic requirement is 50,000 sessions per month (it used to be 25,000 sessions).
Do a Google search and you will find quite a few companies offering ad services. This is certainly a good way of blogging for a living as a beginner writer to cover your start-up and ongoing basic costs.
But you have to start off somewhere, right?! To start building an automated ad income, you will need the traffic to your site.
Promote Services You Offer
Another option blogging for a living as a writer is to use content marketing (the interest you generate from your blog posts) to push services that you offer.
These services might be offline such as an Uber/Uber eats driver, social media marketer, virtual assistant, a cooking delivery service, or someone providing sewing services.
In order to build your audience, the trick is to use your blog to write interesting and useful posts related to your business niche. Develop a following that relates to your business, providing them with solutions and help solve their problems, in addition to building trust.
As you build trust and a solid following in your niche, your followers will be much more perceptible to the services you offer. This is really helpful when you want to earn income blogging for a living.
Making Money as an Affiliate
A lot of bloggers actually make a very comfortable living online selling not their own products and services, but those of other people and companies.
Some bloggers, in fact, have made some seriously good money from reselling!
To find affiliate opportunities you can look directly on some sites. A popular one, for example, with many bloggers, is ConvertKit. This type of company offer reoccurring affiliate income and this is a great way to go. So you not only make a commission when the person signs up but if they renew each year, you get paid again.
So, look for affiliate opportunities that offer repeat commissions and you can build a decent income as you build your blog.
You can also, if you wish, use an affiliate portal such as ShareaSale or TradeDoubler. Amazon Associates (Affiliates) is also a great option.
Becoming an Influencer as a Super-Blogger
Getting to the point where you become an influencer takes time and you will have to build a solid and strong following over a year or more.
Choose the right niche to blog about and write extremely useful, informative blog posts on a regular basis can lead you to build a strong fan-base.
When you reach a certain level of influence (i.e. a specific level of traffic and followers), it is possible to promote some well-known and popular brands. Several bloggers have, for example, achieved this in the make-up and beauty sector, making money from cosmetic brands.
There are certain rules you need to follow from a legal standpoint:
- disclose that you are being paid to recommend certain products
- provide genuine and honest recommendations though for products that you have genuinely tried and like
Conclusion
With that, you can create a strong following and earn passive income blogging for a living.
It’s not easy to get to this point, but it does not mean you shouldn’t try!
Author
Written by Paul of Promarketingonline.com and whom you can also find on Pinterest. Paul blogs about education and online marketing. His hobbies include travelling and playing football.
Remember to check him out for more tips on business and marketing!
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