As the internet continues to grow, so does the amount of content that becomes available on the web. There seems to be an audience and a blog about almost any topic you can imagine or think of. The internet has truly opened new doors and allowed people to have a voice and find their audience. There are many people who have turned blogging into additional supplemental income and in some cases a full time job as blog owners.
Make no mistake, blogging has revolutionized how writers earn. Based on reports, bloggers make around $500 to $2,000 monthly within their first year blogging. And reaching as high as six figures for bloggers who have been at it for a few years and have built loyal readership.
Blogging has become a lucrative career for those who want to break away from the traditional 9-5 and have an entrepreneurial mindset with a knack for writing. Everyday there are people scouring the internet to find relevant information they need to find and most find that info on a blog or from a blogger that gives it in an interesting and useful manner.
Although to become very successful in blogging and to make a full time income out of it will take hard work, anyone with an internet connection and a story or resource to share, can become a blogger and have their own blog. Gone are the days when only media companies had the power to earn from sharing content.
As of 2020, there are 31.7 million active bloggers in the United States alone, many of which are successful bloggers. And about 92% of content marketers use blogging in their marketing strategy. As the internet continues to grow, blogging will continue to provide opportunities for those looking to make money online, be it additional supplemental income or striving to make a full time income out of it.
How Much are Successful Bloggers Making?
A lot of bloggers started it as just a hobby, blogging only to have a voice to a hungry audience, sometimes the money came as a byproduct for creating good content with a loyal audience. Others may have created a blog to have as a side hustle while having a traditional job.
For those that have become Full Time bloggers, there are stories and testimonials out there you can find in simple Google search, in which a blogger makes more than six figures a year just by blogging. There are bloggers in the six figure range that make around $100k all the way up to $500k.
One popular blogger, Grant Sabatier, made a whopping $401,681 in blog income from his blog, Millennial Money Blog, in 2017. His blog wasn’t always popular but he stayed consistent with his posting and tried to provide as much useful information as possible and once his blog became a hit, he started attracting even more opportunities that gave him financial independence.
How Can I Get Started in Making Money Blogging?
Everyone has to start somewhere. You may feel when reading those numbers above that it might be too late or that there are too many bloggers already on the internet. That is not the case and all it takes is the right motivation to get started and a few tips to help you make sure you’re using your time wisely and productively. Here are some tips to help jumpstart your blog.
Choose a Topic That You Are Interested In
First, thinking about all of the topics you are personally interested and involved in. Make a list of all of your interests and topics you have any experience or expertise with. This is an important first step as blogging will involve creating useful and interesting content for a specific blog niche. In order to do so, your content will have to jump out of the screen displaying your passion for this topic. You want to create content that you yourself would find interesting and worth your time and by picking a topic that interests you, you will know if your content is actually interesting to read.
If you are knowledgeable about this topic, that will only help you that much more as you’ll be able to start to share your knowledge with your audience as soon as you start your blog.
Make Sure There is an Audience and it is a Profitable Niche
After you’ve found a few topics you’re passionate about or have a lot of knowledge to share in, you’ll want to do some research to see if there is an audience for that topic and if it is a profitable niche.
Ways to do so is a quick Google search of related questions within that topic to see what kind of results show up, if there are a lot of search results showing up and many of the top ranked pages are blogs, you know that this niche is one that many bloggers are competing for. Sometimes a little competition is a good thing, especially if you know you are passionate about your blog and it’s content.
Another way to see if it is a profitable niche is to do some keyword and AdWords research to see if any companies are paying for certain keywords within your niche. If so, this will indicate that people are paying to get people to their site for that topic, which again equates to a profitable niche.
Lastly, Know Your Audience
If you have chosen the niche and topic to write about, think about the possible audience that you might attract. Always write with the audience in mind.
Then identify the type of problem or issue that your target audience might be facing. Your role here is to offer solutions to these problems through your blog.
How to Create a Successful Blog that People Want to Read and Share
The most important thing about starting a blog is to create engaging content that people actually want to read. If you can connect with your audience and issue a solution or solid advice to a problem or question they are facing then you are on your way to being a successful blogger. It cannot be emphasized enough to write in a style that is engaging and easy to read.
Give Importance to the Headlines
Pay attention to the headlines and titles. It’s very important to craft headlines that capture the attention of your readers. Everything begins in the headline. If your readers aren’t familiar with or not interested in the headline, they are most likely to skip it. Your headline should spark interest so that your target audience is going to stay longer and share your blog.
It’s also important that your headline contains your target keyword. This makes it easy for the audience to find your content by helping it’s on-page SEO.
Solve a Problem or Issue
Does your blog offer solutions to the problems that your readers might be experiencing? Make it as informative as possible and make sure it’s well researched. Use as many resources and references as possible to give the most complete, well rounded package. You want to be the only source of information needed to solve their problem.
Add Visuals such as images, infographics, and videos
Support your blog with images, statistics, and infographics. Blogs with images help break the content making it easier to digest. Without any images, your readers might lose interest in an internet nowadays that is more visual than not.
Add videos to make your blog more lively and engaging. It’s a fact that a blog with a video has more views and attracts more traffic than those that don’t have. Videos are powerful because they have the ability to retain longer in the audience’s mind than text alone.
Monetization Options for Bloggers
When one starts blogging, they may or may not think about monetizing their blog. Though, when starting your blog, make sure to first focus on engaging content, but in the back of your mind give some thought on how you intend to make money from your blog.
If you are new to blogging, here are some ways bloggers make money:
Advertising/Selling Ad Space
Keep in mind, you need to reach at least 25,0000 page views monthly to begin earning with an advertising network. Ad networks or publisher networks are the ones managing the display ads on your website. Its goal is to ensure that you’re making the most money possible from the advertisements. These networks charge about 20% to 40% of the ads revenue of your site.
Some of the more successful blogs are making about $20,000+ a month by selling Ad Space.
Google Adsense
Beginner bloggers can make money with Google Adsense. It’s been known to be the most convenient and quickest method to monetize your blog through google ads.
It’s a great way to start monetizing your blog and once your blog traffic grows and becomes more consistent, you can move to an advertising network to get a higher cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for additional streams of income.
Sponsored Posts
As your blog becomes more popular, more bloggers and writers are going to pay you for posting content on your website. Depending on how popular your blog gets, bloggers get offers ranging from $50 and $1,000 to post their content on your blog.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is one way for bloggers to earn a passive income by promoting someone else’s products. You earn a commission each time you make a sale or someone signs up by accessing the link through affiliate marketing. You can earn $1 to $3 for every click. When someone signs up through your link, you can make an affiliate revenue of $5 to $500 per click.
Social Media Promotion
If you’re a blogger and also an influencer, you can earn money through social media posts. By simply posting or tweeting a brand’s content on social media, those are those who have earned $500 to $3,0000 per post depending how popular of a blogger you’ve become.
The most successful bloggers and big influencers on Instagram can make at least $5,000 per month by promoting products relevant to their niche. This is why building your audience on social media can help you earn money big time.
Tips for Growing your Blog Audience and Blogging Income
Your ability to make money blogging depends on many factors but ultimately lies in how much traffic your blog gets and how you are monetizing that traffic. One tip is to ensure you are obtaining and building an email list for anyone who visits your site as this can help in the long run as you can market to your relevant audience.
What it comes down to is increasing the traffic to your blog. Here are ways to maximize your blog potential to your grow your blog in both traffic and monetization:
Use social media to share content
Searching for ways to keep your readers coming back to your website? Keep in mind that having your own website and reaching your target audience isn’t enough. You have to keep them interested and engaged.
The easiest way to build your audience and blogging income is to promote your blog on various social media channels. Social media marketing is something to not be overlooked to help your blog.
Don’t just focus on one social media platform. Share it on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Use hashtags to make it easier for your blog to be found. Using these strategies will boost the number of followers as well as your blogging income.
Diversify your income source streams
Use Google Adsense, affiliate marketing programs, advertising, and sponsored content to boost your passive income and make more money opportunities.
Connect with other bloggers and collaborate by guest blogging
To boost your potential income in blogging, connect with other bloggers and successful influencers who have a big fan base. Invite them to do guest posts on your website for free. This way, you have the possibility of getting more shares and followers as your blog gets more exposure.
You can also do guest blogging on other bloggers’ websites. It’s an instant way to bring your content closer to your audience. Successful bloggers tend to connect with other bloggers to collaborate and reach a wider audience.
Can Blogging Be a Successful Online Business Model for Making Money?
Blogging is one of the most popular online business models. With the right execution and dedication, it can be a successful way to make money. By creating valuable content, utilizing SEO strategies, and monetizing through ads or affiliate marketing, individuals can achieve success in blogging as an online business model.
There’s No Better Time to Start Your Own Blog
It’s really rewarding to create successful blogs that don’t only attract traffic but help change people’s lifestyles for the better. Blogging as an online business is a dream that has become a reality for many new bloggers who put in the work and time. To be able to generate passive income from blogging only starts with an idea. Sure the blogging world has become more competitive, however, having the right blogging tools and monetization strategies with a solid blog business plan can help new bloggers compete.
Are you inspired to start your own blog and become a professional blogger?
OnlineBusiness.com created this guide for you to give you ideas to getting started. This guide discusses various types of blogs you can get started with, sharing the most profitable blogging categories.
If you want to accelerate the process, OnlineBusiness.com also sells profitable blogs as a turn key solution to help you get started today. These are ready-made blogs for sale that are already generating traffic and have initial content in the blogging niche they were created for. Visit OnlineBusiness.com to learn more about these starter sites.
