If you started blogging as a hobby, or you’re thinking about it, and wishing it could become a reasonable source of income – it probably could. A blog doesn’t have to just be your online journal. Here are a few ways to turn your blog into a reasonable source of extra income, or possibly even a full-time income.
Sell Ads
If you write good content, and your blog is popular, you’ll likely have a fair amount of traffic to your site. Google’s Adsense will take care of getting the ads and dealing with companies, and you get a payout for advertising on your site, all you need to do is add a script to your page to display the ads. These are usually pay per click, meaning you get a commission for every person that clicks on the ad. If you’re happy to, or would prefer to, sell ads directly, WordPress has ad plugins that will let you do just that.
Affiliate Marketing
Not necessarily a review, but you do at least need to mention or recommend a product or service to your audience in a post. You’ll be given a link that tracks back to you so that referrals – anyone who clicks your link – can be credited to you. Like adsense, they’re usually pay per click.
Product Reviews
Company’s looking for a product review will send you a product to test, and usually keep. Depending on the company, you’ll also get paid to write a review and post it on your site. In most cases, this is a flat fee, rather than commission based, though you may still be required to link to the company site in your post.
SEO
Optimizing your own content will boost your site’s traffic, helping with other forms of income. You could also offer your services to other companies and websites. There are always people looking for good writers who know what they’re doing to help them with search engine optimization. If you want to find out more, watch SEO: The Movie.
Sell through your Site
If you have a following, some of your fans may be interested in what you have to offer. If you know your way around graphic design, sell some digital content – wallpapers, t-shirt designs, whatever works. If you’ve got another hobby, aside from blogging, add a store to your site. You might find to your surprise that people really do want to buy your knitted hats and crazy phone covers. There’s always the option to sell other people’s product for a commission, if you have a friend or family member in the craft business.
Sell Your Skills
So you’re a good writer, we’ve established that. If you’re having a hard time getting your own blog up and running, or just don’t have the time and energy to maintain it – freelance. The downside here is that you don’t always have much say in the content, but there are positives too. Freelance writing doesn’t leave your income dependant on how popular your blog is – you get paid for your content no matter what. Rates and requirements will vary quite a bit, but you can find freelance jobs on sites like upwork.com.
So outside of the questionable integrity of selling your subscribers’ email addresses to a marketing company, these are just some of the ways to make money off a blog. Keep in touch with your readers by reading and answering comments, it’ll keep them engaged. You can keep to your personal social media accounts, or set up accounts for your blog, but post and share to keep your site popular.
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