Can Blogging Make You Money? Only if You're a Freak Like Me!
Can blogging make you money? Sure... but, ho' much money we talking about?
I've made US$2,683.95 from blogging...
That's from one product, over a 2 year time period or so.
Beginners luck?
Maybe.
More about tenacity, daily grind, doing it day in day out.
I'm not saying you can't go watch Youtubes for an hour or so.
Or have nada productivity days.
But I'm (mostly) consistent.
I 'stick to the plan' and revert back to producing content.
But you know what is the most amazing thing about online business?
The amount of income you can earn from blogging is unlimited...
The challenge is just getting there.
Most give up, but...
Maybe I can persuade you to give it a shot! 🙂
You need grit and determination
Lets say we wanted to earn $1000 a month, right.
$1000 a month, that's kind of achievable, right?
To hit that goal I'd say you need these things:
- Get in the right niche (there's a gazillion!)
- Familiarise yourself with the right marketing tools
- Model success / invest in ongoing study
- Aim to produce 100 or so blog posts
You also need to figure out which type of blogging will work for you! (And how you're going to monetise it, and all).
But first, let's figure out which type of blogging will work for you...
What type of blogging will work for you?
Grab a pen, we're about to warm up some doorbells.
You've got to figure out what you want to blog about.
Ask yourself, who do I want to help? What am I really kind of good at? There's millions of ways you can go here, so it pays to figure this out.
Are you keen to blog about your own experience? Are you always providing unwanted advice or a running commentary on current events? (And do people ever say "you'd be good at that?") 🙂
Do you just want to share photos and videos with others who have similar interests?
Or would you rather create some form of product review site, where readers can purchase items from links on your page?
Figuring this out can seem daunting at first, but once it's done, everything else becomes easier. You can then choose a topic or niche based on what feels right for you.
I included a great video below about choosing your niche.
After you've decided on your niche, it's all home sailing! All you need to do is build a blog, produce content and everything will be hunky dory! (I wish!)
Get into the right niche
I'll reiterate this because it's sooo important.
If you're looking to make money blogging, it's important to find a niche that you can do well in. That means finding a topic that you know a lot about (or can learn about) and can write about often.
It also means finding a topic that has a lot of potential for advertising and affiliate marketing opportunities. So, before you start your blog, do some research to find the right niche for you.
A good place to start is Amazon.com. If your planned blog niche involves products then use Amazon to see if there are higher priced products available (equals higher commissions) and heaps of reviews.
For example, if you were planning to create a blog about automatic coffee machines for home because you freakin' love decaf oat milk lattes every morning then you might look at coffee machines like this...
I know, right.
People buy these things.
But they are not just buying a coffee machine...
They are buying a one-of-a-kind experience of using a stainless steel Jura 6 automatic coffee machine every morning for the perfect latte to kick start the day.
Now, can you see the price of the Jura Giga 6?
It's US$5979.00!!
Could you (or someone for you) write a great review about the Jura Giga 6 Automatic Coffee Machine?
Yes? Then the question "can blogging make you money?" should be easy to answer! (Because you'd earn a quite good commission on a price like that!)
But anyhoo...
You need to do some soul searching... it's ok, everyone has to do it when they start an online business!
Just ask yourself what makes you different or what creative angle can you bring to the table? You really need to answer that question with confidence, otherwise it may not a good idea to start blogging about your topic of choice.
If you can't find a niche that suits your blogging needs, then you can come up with one for yourself. It can be as simple as saying something like, "I'm going to blog about what it means to be a blogger" or "I'm going to blog about being frustrated with the lack of productivity found in today's society."
Those ideas might sound weird but sometimes the 'out there' blogs are the ones that develop a huge following...
Case in point: look at ThisIsWhyImBroke.com It's not exactly a blog, but boy is it a fun website! (And we all can relate!)
Think about how you can make your blog stand out from everyone else.
Invest in the right marketing tools
If you're looking to make money online from your blog, it's important to invest in the right marketing tools.
You'll need marketing tools to help you. You can do it 'free' but I'd recommend you invest in yourself and treat this thing like a business.
Here's some of the best marketing tools I recommend. There's both free and paid resources on that page. You also need to track your results because otherwise how will you know how your blog is performing?
Remember the question we started with... can blogging make you money? It can make you money especially if you start with the right tools (from the get-go) and track your performance over time.
Research is a necessary evil for your blogging empire, grasshopper 🙂
Let the soul searching questions continue...
Ask yourself what kind of results you want to achieve and how much money you're willing to spend. (Some of the marketing tools below might help with that).
There's a gazillion marketing tools available on the market, so here's a few that I actually use and recommend to help you start your blogging empire.
1. DropFunnels (all in one blog / website tool)
DropFunnels is an all-in-one marketing solution to get you online with a website in minutes. Build a home site, create an authority blog, and build high-converting sales funnels, all with the ease of a drag and drop editor that requires no coding or tech skills.
I use DropFunnels for this blog. It allows me to focus on producing content without too many distractions (like what sort of plugins do I need?) You might want to use something completely different. Either way, I got your back.
Note: using DropFunnels will not stop you clicking over to Youtube!
Ask not why DropFunnels exists - ask why you're not using it! 🙂
2. Google Analytics (know your stats)
Google Analytics is one of the most widely used statistics packages, which can be integrated with all major browsers and platforms. (I've hooked it up to this blog).
It'll help you track your website's backlinks, traffic sources, demographics and even mobile app usage, and a million other things that have funny technical names. All free to use.
More details about Google Analytics here.
3. Google Workspace
You may not need Google Workspace at this stage. But having some sort of email list type thing can be good for future business.
Otherwise you might be forced to rely on Facebook, or Instagram, and so on. What a thought! It's much better to own your own list. 🙂
If you're ready to jump in with Google Workspace then have a peek here.
Google Workspace has a bunch of great features and it's affordable, offers great value, excellent storage needs, ease of use, accessibility and collaboration tools, especially if you need to corodinate with team members.
But yep, one step at a time. 🙂
4. Jasper AI tool (Easy to produce content)
Did you know that the 'foundation' of this blog post was created by Jasper, an AI rewriting tool / writing tool?
Hard to believe eh! But, yep, I really did ask Jasper to go out into the wilds of the internets and bring back some of the best content he could...
It seems like something from the future but it sure does speed up the process of publishing content!
For me to put a job up on a writer's website, respond to different writers, hire the right writer, work out the price, then wait for the content (2-7 days plus), forget-about-it!
Jasper had the bulk of this blog post done within minutes. I just have to add in my own voice, a few emojis and shape and tickle the post a little.
If becoming efficient about producing good content is the name of the blogging game then ol' Jasper will help you get good at it...
Now you can make your dream of owning a real life AI tool a reality!
Model success / self study
Blogging can be a great way to learn new things and improve your skills. But if you want to make money blogging, you need to make sure to invest in self-study and - importantly - model success.
But what does modelling success mean?
Well, whatever your goal may be, it's important to study the blogs that have achieved a level of success that you're aiming at, and figure out what makes them successful.
Modelling success can also be about finding people who are doing what you want to do and learning from them. For example, I am a big fan of Miles Beckler, and his 600+ Youtube videos will give you an insightful course on affiliate marketing in mere days.
Want to model success? Do this...
- Make a list of the blogs that have the level of success you'd like to achieve.
- Visit the blogs regularly to see how they work, study their design and content.
- Study any case studies or resources that can teach you how they can make money blogging.
- Get started! It's easy to procrastinate, but it can be even easier to do something about your plan and start putting it into action.
So yeah...
It probably doesn't hurt to learn about the latest marketing tools and techniques, (ie; Jasper AI!) and study the best ways to use them.
As well as learning about how to write better content, how to increase traffic and how to convert that traffic into customers.
Sounds like a lot of work, eh? 🙂
It is a lot of work!
But remember our question... can blogging make you money? Right at the start I said you need tenacity and hustle to make it work.
You also need to be committed to it.
Otherwise you could always outsource most of it!
I guess that's why we use some of the marketing tools that we do...
You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.
- Zig Ziglar
Produce 100 blog posts first
It can be tough producing at least 100 blog posts before you see any dollars come in. (I haven't even hit that point yet, so you can ignore what I say here!)
Producing the 100 posts is an idea I got from watching Miles Beckler's videos.
It's a good way to think, and gets you committed to the long haul.
Using an AI tool like Jasper can definitely make it easier.
I think what Miles is saying is be prepared to agonise over not earning a penny in the first 12 months or so.
I know what you're thinking. How could he be so hurtful?
But a bit of honest truth don't hurt that much, eh?
It's somewhat easy to overcome...
Just knuckle down and start producing content! You might even start making a full time income from blogging before you know it!
So, can blogging make you money?
I'm sure blogging can make you money but it probably helps if you are committed and crazy enough to go into it.
Step by step.
Find your niche, start a simple blog, produce one piece of content.
You might not even need to dive too deep into SEO (search engine optimisation) and keyword research just yet (although it is super important!)
Just focus on producing that first piece of content.
Model success and you'll achieve success even faster.
Over time you'll get better at writing (or teach Jasper to do it for you).
Eventually you'll be publishing great content and those pennies will be rolling in.