How to Start a Blog and Make Money Online

Starting a blog is no simple feat. Add “making money” to that blog goal and you are in for some work. While many people think being successful off their blog happens practically overnight, they are in for a rude awakening. Blogging takes time, effort, work, and also perseverance. For some, making money off their blogs happens two, three years down the road. Are you ready to make that commitment on a longterm level? If you said yes, then we have good news for you…you can start a blog AND make money AND have fun doing it. With just a few simple steps and loads of commitment, you can accomplish your blog-creatin’, money-makin’ goals in no time.

Start the Blog

Seems like a no brainer first step, right? Starting the blog is a crucial first step though, because well, how the heck can you make money from a blog without a blog?! By starting a blog, this usually means you have an idea churning away in your brain, or a passion that you want to explore. This may be one of the most fun parts of blogging–building your own platform to create content. There are tons of websites and hosting opportunities out there for you to build content, and create a website that you are proud of. WordPress, Weebly, and Squarespace are just a few to start, but make sure you find one that caters to your needs and that you think can help you in a longterm way.

Create Content

The most important part of any blog is the content. People tend to assume that content is the last of your worries with a blog, but believe it or not, the more content you have, the better off your blog with be. We’re talking high quality content, too. Content that is relevant to your blog, and isn’t just littered with keywords for no reason. Google will crawl your blog and verify whether or not it should be searchable for their users. The more relevant content that you blog holds, the higher Google will place your blog in their rankings. So this means–get to writing!

Find a Community

Finding a blog community is an important segue for the next step of the process, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. It is important to find a community for your blog where you can find likeminded creators, garner ideas for new content, share your content, and support one another. Blogging isn’t necessarily a solo-venture, although many people feel that is the case. Blogging itself is a community-driven experience, but when you niche-down and find similar blogs and information like yours, it will help you in a variety of ways. Commenting on other bloggers posts is a great way to not only get your name out there, but show people that you are an “expert” in this area.

Engage

Beyond just engaging in a community, you should also engage with everyone that comes to your blog and comments. Comments are pretty huge in the blogging world, and when you engage, you build a rapport with that person. Think about how many times you took the time to actually comment on a blog or article after you read it. Seldom, right? That means that when someone takes the time to comment on your blog, they not only found something of value, but they also went out of their way to share that acknowledgement. Thanking them and responding is a great way to show your respect.

Outreach

You can’t expect that once you immediately post a blog, thousands of people can find it and start reading. Such is not the case. Once you publish a blog, it shoots out into the inter webs, and you’ll be lucky if someone stumbles across it without any sort of outreach on your part. Outreach is crucial in letting people know you have great content available that is worth checking out. Sending out newsletters each week, starting a social media page, joining forums, and things of that nature are great ways to get start sharing your content with readers.

Start Making Money

So, you built a foundation, you have some great content up, and you’re engaging on a regular basis. What’s next? Time to start making money. This, my friends, may be the hardest part about blogging yet. Making money from your bog isn’t just a one, two, three process. You may have a few different ways that your blog brings in money. Affiliates are one of the most common ways to make money with your blog, as you can write content and link to outside sources, which in turn can help you generate revenue. Affiliate marketing for say, Amazon, can let you link to their products from your content, and if you readers purchase through those links, you will get a percentage of the profits.

Another way to make money from your blog is through advertising and sponsorship opportunities. If your blog is generating decent traffic, then businesses and companies will want to put a banner or ad up on your site for their own benefit. Companies will potentially pay you for ad space or banner space, similar to that of a magazine spread or newspaper. It is important to make sure though, that you have significant enough traffic to offer to the advertiser.

You can also make money from your blog through sponsorship opportunities. There are plenty of companies who are looking for unique, well-read blogs to showcase their products to their readers. Obvious establishing yourself as an expert would be the first step of this process, but it can yield some really big results. People trust an expert, as do companies. And repping their brand on your blog is a great way to garner some extra income.