Step-by-Step: How To Make Money Blogging Online
Making money by blogging online has become very popular… But, only a handful of these bloggers actually make any money!
Some bloggers don’t want to make money and blog just to express themselves.
But, other bloggers create their blogs with the purpose of making money from it.
They usually start very enthusiastically and blog daily. Their blog grows with good content, they insert a few ads or affiliate products, hoping to make the sales to justify their blogging.
Each day they check their stats… And they see… Sales $0.00
After weeks of consistent blogging and seeing no sales, the hope turns to disappointment and they abandon their blogs.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say that they have 1, 10, 100 blogs and they have not made more than $10 a month!
Crikey… That was me for 3 years of my blogging career and then in 2010 I figured it out and made over $82,000 in that year and went on to increase the profit even further since then.
So, if you are in the same boat that I used to be in, I understand exactly what you are going through, and I’ll give you the tips that will help you change this.
And if you are brand new to blogging, you’re reading this article just at the right time!
How To Make Money Blogging Online
Here’s how to create a profitable blog fast…
STEP #1 – Own Your Blog
It is important that from day 1 you have full ownership and control of your blog.
So, don’t put it on a third-party site (like blogger.com). You must get your own domain name and hosting.
Go to HostGator.com which will allow you to buy your domain and host your website for you.
STEP #2 – Install your WordPress blog
If you’re using a quality hosting company like HostGator.com, it is very easy and will only take a few minutes.
Just log into your control panel (also known as cPanel), scroll down to “Fantastico DeLuxe,” and follow the links and prompts to install a WordPress blog.
STEP #3 – Make Your Blog Look Good
First impressions count so make your blog look professional with a premium theme.
You can search “WordPress theme” in Google to find something, but I suggest spending some money to buy a theme that is search optimized and looks good.
I use Thrive Themes as it is very easily customised. It also allows you to create sales pages, optin pages, launch pages and a membership site with the one theme. Other themes are usually just a blog theme and cannot be used for any other uses. Thrive Themes gives it all to you in one very neat package.
STEP #4 – Post quality content to your blog
You will need at least 6 quality blog posts initially and then commit to blogging regularly (at least once per week).
It is essential that these posts are well written, because you only get one chance to impress your reader.
The way you write your post determines if the reader will click to read another post, click your affiliate link, click your ad or just exit and never come back.
Quality blog posts are a great tool to pre-sell readers. So take the time and effort to do it properly. Do it right the first time and that post will continue to make money for you year after year after year.
Tip: Variety is essential to keep the reader coming back. So, post different types of content such as top 10 lists, how to posts, tips and even posts that are keyword phrase optimized for the search engines.
STEP #5 – Monetize your blog
There are numerous ways to monetize your blog – AdSense, affiliate products, your own products, selling advertising space and much more.
The secret is to find which monetization method (or methods) are most profitable for your blog.
Don’t make the mistake of picking an affiliate product that pays you a huge commission and only promote that.
You should test Adsense for 500 unique visits and make a note of the results. Then test 1 affiliate product for the next 500 unique visits and swap it with another one and test that.
Once you have tested all the monetization methods you then analyse your results and pick the most profitable monetization method for your blog.
Every blog is unique and it is incredibly important that you test your monetization methods. Different seasons, global audience versus a local audience all impact the way your blog should be monetized.
STEP #6 – Get targeted traffic to your blog
Great content and optimized monetization strategies won’t put money in your pocket if you are not getting any visitors to your blog.
So, how do you find this targeted traffic?
Well, you can do this in many different ways. Here are a few to get you started:
- Forum signature links – Search Google for the forums in your niche. If your niche is model trains, you would search “model train forum”. Join the forum and create a signature that links back to your blog. As you add to the conversations, people will recognise that you know what you are talking about and click the link in your signature.
. - Guest blogging – Search Google for the blogs in your niche. If your niche is scrapbooking, you would search “scrapbooking blog”. By visiting the blogs and looking at the content and comments you will quickly be able to tell if it is a quality blog with a good readership. If it is, use the contact page on the blog to ask if the blog owner would like some help creating content for their blog. Most blog owners would love the extra help and will gladly give you credit at the end of the post with a link to your website.
. - Article marketing – Is a very effective method, as it is similar to guest blogging where people can take your articles and place them on their websites and blogs. You would write a quality article on your niche and submit it to an article directory like ezinearticles.com. Your article is reviewed and if accepted is made available to other members for use on their website provided that they include your bio and link to your blog.
. - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – There are WordPress plugins available that will help you to write your post so that it is keyword phrase optimized for the search engines.If this is done properly, your post will appear in the search engines for that keyword phrase and invite organic traffic.
. - Social Media – Social sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ make it very easy for you to mention your blog and encourage the click across to your blog.
There are many other ways to get targeted traffic to your blog, but that gives you a good overview and a great start.
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