Introduction
Make money from blogging? Is it possible? During the early days of blogging in the 2000s, blogging was primarily used as a tool to write personal diary: what they did or what they liked to do. After 20 years, as with the internet, blogging has evolved and matured substantially.
It has become a platform for many people to share opinions, knowledge, and experiences while generating significant income: a few hundred dollars per month to as high as few thousand dollars per month. Top earners make even more. Take a look at this earning report from Mediavine: https://www.mediavine.com/mediavine-income-reports/
It seems daunting, but with the right strategies and determination, it’s possible to earn a living or side income from blogging. In this comprehensive blog post, I will explore various ways to monetize your blog, the steps to take and tips to build a successful blog.
What is blogging about?
Before we get into how to make money with a blog (monetization strategies), it’s important to understand the background of blogging. What is blogging about? It’s more than just writing posts. It involves creating content that resonates with your audience so they find the content valuable. You also need to optimize your content for search engines and promote your blog across various social media platforms such as: instagram, Pinterest, Twitter(X), Facebook etc.
The first step is choosing a niche. A niche is a narrow area of interest that you will focus on in your blog. Let’s be honest, we have limited time and can’t write about everything. The niche could range from food recipes, travel, fashion, finance, technology, or personal finance. It’s important to choose a niche you are passionate about. Otherwise, you will get sick of writing. Choosing the right niche will not only make it more enjoyable but will also help connect with your audience on a deeper level.
The internet is big, and the blogging industry is huge and competitive, but it also offers countless opportunities. Take a look around; there are many successful food recipe blogs! That’s because one single blog is not going to capture all audiences on the planet. Some people will go to food blog A, and some people will visit food blog B etc.
The key to success is finding your own unique perspective and create unique content. If you decide to embark on the blogging journey with the hope of monetization eventually, keep in mind that building a successful blog is like building a business. It takes consistent time and effort over several years. I notice successful blogs only find success after 2 to 3 years of consistently producing high-quality contents. However, the potential financial rewards are well worth it, as we can see from various income reports on blogs.
Setting up the blog
Once you’ve decided on your niche as we discussed above, the next step is to set up the blog. There are so many choices on the internet, and It’s very confusing. Among them, WordPress is the most popular. The reason is that it’s both simple to use and powerful. You can let WordPress host the website for you, or you can self-host on other hosting companies, which will be cheaper.
There are several things to consider when setting up your blog:
Domain name:
The domain name is the address of your blogging website on the internet. Choose a name that’s short and easy to remember. All domain name providers are the same; simply choose one with the lowest price. Personally, I am using NameCheap for the domain name.
Web hosting:
Hosting is where you install WordPress and store all the blog posts. I recommend and personally use: Hostinger.(Link) It’s cheaper to buy for 4 years instead of 1 year, both in terms of average cost per month and the price on renewal. You can install WordPress with few mouse clicks, Hostinger will do it for you. No need to upload the WordPress installation files.
WordPress theme and design:
If you know web coding, you can install your own theme and customize. If you don’t know, you should choose a free one or buy a paid theme. For themes, we get what we paid for. That’s paid theme looks a lot better than free theme.
Content creation:
For blogging, content is king. For all successful blogs, there’s one common trait: all of them create lots of high-quality content consistently over years of effort. Start by writing original, engaging content that provides real value to readers.
Consistency is key. Aim to write new posts every week. Writing new posts every week is hard…It’s like trying to wake up with an alarm clock every morning. I find the trick is to have some potential topics ready every week. By weekend, we should force ourselves to write something. One bit at a time—don’t try to write a whole post in one go. We will finish new posts in 2-3 days. Writing one post per week is the absolute minimum to gain traction. Search engines love consistent, new and original content.
Building traffic
Once your get domain name, hosting, and WordPress ready and start producing content, it’s time to build an audience. Attracting readers to your blogs can be accomplished through several methods.
Search engine:
A substantial percentage of overall traffic will come from search engines, mostly Google. So, it helps to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While it’s helpful to know about keywords research, page optimization, backlinks etc., it’s important to know how Google search engine ranks pages and what kinds of content Google likes. Most importantly, the content has to be helpful to readers, not just find tricks to rank higher in search engines.
You can read more here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
Social media:
Social media is another powerful source of traffic: Twitter(X), Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. I’ve heard Pinterest is very effective for certain types of blogs. Sharing your blog posts frequently on social media or engaging in discussion can help traffic grow exponentially.
Email marketing:
Email marketing is another effective tool to have consistent traffic. If you are good at producing quality content regularly, you can build up an email list by giving some incentive such as free ebook or information related to your niche. Search engine traffic may come and go but loyal readers from an email list will send traffic to your blogs reliably.
Lastly, you can also network with other bloggers by commenting or joining blogging communities such as Reddit, Quora. Engage in discussions by sharing your experience, expertise and promote your blog when possible.
Monetization
Now it’s time to talk about the most important part: monetization. How do you actually make money from a blog once you have decent traffics? I’ve studied many successful blogs. The strategies all boiled down to one of the followings:
Display ads:
The most popular way to monetize a blog or other website is display ads from search engine like Google AdSense. You earn money based on ads view count or clicks. The pay rate is not the greatest but it’s one of the most reliable and consistent source of income.
The $ per RPM (RPM stands for revenue per thousand impressions) is not that high compared to other source of income I will mention below so you need a lots of traffic to generate significant income. For low traffic, it may be better off using other monetization methods. Search engine display ads is still worth consideration because the entry requirement to start displaying ads is low. There’s no minimum traffic requirement.
While Google Adsense pay rate is low. Other display ads offer higher earning potential such a Mediavine, Adthrive but they have minimum traffic requirements.
Different bloggers use different monetization strategies. Some depends on display ads. Some depends on digital products. Some depends on sponsored posts. Some depends on affiliate program. So if you look at their income report, you will see they all have different percentage from different sources. We do what works best for us.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular monetization methods for bloggers. The way it works is they put up some product links on the blog post. Whenever someone made a purchase through that link, they get paid certain percentage of the sale as commission. Maybe it’s 10% or maybe 20%. Many companies offer affiliate program, you just need to find out. It’s better to promoting the products you’ve used or trust than random products.
Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts can be another effective monetization method for initial low traffic stage. I saw one food blogger earning $2k per month from sponsored posts with minimal traffic. The pay rate RPM is a lot higher than display ads!
Basically, brands see the website is getting some attention and are willing to send direct payment in exchange for promote their product or service. It’s more direct than affiliate marketing.
Create your own digital products
Many bloggers create their own courses and sell e-books. It creates diversified income and reduces risk from Google search algorithm changes. Creating digital products is not for everyone but the return can be lucrative.
Membership only content
Some websites offer limited free content and premium content through monthly subscription plan. This revenue stream is sticky but it requires providing high-quality content. This method is rarely used by bloggers. It’s for people with big ambitions to grow into a larger business.
Consulting and Freelancing
As some bloggers get more experience with SEO and blogging, they may offer consulting and freelancing services. It’s like creating a part-time job.
Tracking Progress
I found that tracking progress is a huge motivation booster. If we create original content consistently and we see the traffic keeps going up using Google Analytics. Or total income from blogging keeps increasing with traffic.
Currently, I make $0 from this blog as I reported in my first income report. It served as a starting point for online income. That’s $0/month. Well, I don’t expect to make money from this blog right away because I just started in mid Dec., 2024.
My goal is to at least make some money from this blog within 12 months. I am very busy taking care of my mom while working on my own projects and learning new skills. I still try to squeeze some time to write new content at least once per week. I tried a blog a few years ago but I failed because I was lazy. I gave up too early. I created a few posts then called it quits.
Now, I am very serious about increasing my income. Income from blogging is one of the most effective ways to earn online income from my research. I saw cases where someone blogged as a hobby for few years and didn’t make money. As soon as they get serious and put out consistent effort, it paid off eventually.
Conclusion
Lastly, trying to build an income with a blog is like a business. It takes time and effort. Success doesn’t come overnight. Even the best and hardest working bloggers only start producing decent income after 12 months. On average, it takes 2-3 years of consistent content creation before traffic and income start to grow significantly. Most people who fail at making money with blogging do so because either: 1. they don’t produce content consistently, such as every week. 2. They give up too early. Many people give up after seeing no traffic after just a few posts! Some successful bloggers only see growth after a few years.