These days, a second stream of income is wanted or needed for various reasons. You may want to pay off bills, save for a vacation or a bigger purchase such as a new piece of furniture or a new car. Maybe you have a child about to go off to college. You have to determine what it is what you want or need with your second stream of income and go from there. Thousands of people start new blogs each year. Mostly it is something they want to do to try and bring in supplemental income. There are many ways you can make money with your blog. The ways vary from passive income to freelance writing for companies.
One thing to know. This is not a get rich quick scheme. You must build up and nurture your blog. Gain readers and interaction. Nurture your social media platforms. Determine which platform your blog is going to be on and who your host is going to be. Bluehost is one of the better hosting options out there. Their customer service is fantastic and minimal downtime if any. I haven’t seen or heard many issues with people using Bluehost.
Right now they are offering a promotion for their monthly hosting fees starting at $3.95 per month. This introductory rate is determined based on your blog needs. Their plans are tiered fees. You can click the link above to sign up for Bluehost’s services.
You will determine the best blog theme for your blog niche. There are WordPress themes or the ever popular StudioPress Themes for WordPress. Which, by the way, for a short time, between July 10th through July 14th, they are offering a special of Free Migration for StudioPress Sites.
Some aspects to make money with your blog will take work. You have to have content ideas ready for possible sponsored posts. You will need to research said content or companies you want to submit affiliate applications for. If you are accepting advertising banners from companies, what companies fit well with your brand?
You can reach out to companies at any time in your blog lifespan. There are companies who don’t mind working with blogs that don’t have a high readership. Never hesitate if you feel the moment is right for you and the company.
Sponsored Posts:
This option is you reaching out to companies to submit your content proposal for their consideration. Research companies that fit with your blog brand, but when you pitch the company, let them know what they will get from their collaboration with you.
CPC/CPM Placed Ads:
These ads are placed throughout your blog or within blog posts. The most popular is Google AdSense. This is monetized based on how many people click on the ads placed on your blog. With this program, you are not always in direct contact with advertisers. You place the banner on your site, and Google chooses ads relevant to your content, and your viewers click on the ads. There are many other programs available if you find that AdSense doesn’t work for you, such as Chitika, Infolinks, and Media.net.
Private Ads:
When your stats start to increase, you may start to receive requests from companies to place ads on your site. These are usually placed in the sidebar of your blog. They can be whichever size you choose. However, two of the common sizes are 125×125 and 250×250. You can either do the scripting yourself or have the company provide it for you.
Affiliate Programs:
For this option, there are MANY options for you. Look at companies that you like and see if they have affiliate programs. All you have to do is link products within your blog post to companies that you have an affiliate account with. Your readers click those links, which contain your affiliate link, they then purchase the items if interested and you earn a commission. It’s really not as easy as that, but that is the breakdown of how it works. You can also link banners in the sidebars of your blog or in the footers. Amazon Affiliates is a huge program that most, if not all bloggers are part of.
You can see in my sidebar the banners of companies that I am an affiliate with. If people are interested in what you offer, then they will click the banners. Your affiliate code is embedded within the banner and you will get credit if they purchase something.
Market your own Products:
If you have a physical product that you produce, you can use your blog platform to market to your readers. Present it in a way that is attractive to them. You do not want to be overly pushy and turn your blog into a storefront. But you can put your product out there so your readers see what you do when you aren’t blogging. You just introduced them to your product and they are happy to have found a new vendor to shop from. For example. I have an online shop on Etsy that I design jewelry for. There are also printable products. So, I did a post on the value of teaching yourself new ways of earning money and provided images and links to the products that I offer.
If you are a blogger, what other ways would you add to this list of ways to make money with your blog for newer bloggers? Comment below or share on my Facebook page!
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links included in this post. If you click on any of these links and make a purchase, I will earn a commission. After the government joyfully takes their portion, the remaining amount will go towards my bills :). Being laid off is no fun, am I right?
This is a very helpful guide for the bloggers. Nice suggestions.
Sapana V recently posted…Why Honey Should Not be Given to Babies?
Great tips, ones that I teach at my workshops.
Thanks for pointing out that is still work — there are many that make it look like magic. It took me 6 months to make that 20 bucks!