How to Make Money Blogging in 2021
We are HALFWAY through 2020! How crazy is that?? If you had your heart set on finally making some money off your blog this year— it is definitely not too late! You can 100% start to make some money as long as you put in the effort and follow the steps I’ve listed below! (yay!)
Whenever someone finds out I have a blog, the first question I get is, well how do you even make money doing that? And it’s not a simple answer! And if you’re totally new to blogging or don’t have a blog at all, it’s sort of a long one! Most people find it unbelievable that you can make money blogging! If you were my Great Aunt Miriam I would definitely not go over this answer in great detail. BUT given that you landed on this page, I assume you either already have a blog or plan on starting one soon and are interested in making money blogging! So I will give you my lengthy, detailed answer!
Step 1- EDUCATE YOURSELF
If you want to seriously make money blogging, I cannot stress this enough! Think about it—for any other job, typically you would have to go to college or trade school or do an internship or SOMETHING before someone felt like you were qualified enough to do the job they were hiring your for! If you’re trying to make money off of you blog, you need to treat it like a job! And honestly, educating yourself is going to save you SO MANY headaches! It’s basically a short cut to your success. By learning best practices in blogging, you are setting yourself up to monetize quicker and easier instead of fumbling along yourself!
Step 2- Start Using Affiliate Links
Affiliate links are one of the best ways to make money as a blogger. Personally, I am super against just loading a post up with links of things you don’t love or even care about. First of all you look spammy AF. And second of all— you’re not going to get many clicks that way! No matter what your niche is, you need to provide VALUE to your reader! That should be your number one priority! If they feel like they’ve gained something from reading your post— now you’ve helped them! Which is a win in itself! Most of us start blogging because we want to connect with and help people like us! But (added bonus!) I will also tell you that someone who you have helped is way more likely to trust you! And therefore, more likely to purchase something you recommend through your affiliate links! It’s a win-win / mutually beneficial relationship this way!
Step 3- Pitch Brands
So affiliate links are definitely a quicker and easier way to start making money from your blog, but you can also pitch brands for sponsored content! Basically you can shoot them an e-mail (search their website to see if they have an e-mail or way to contact them for collabs!) and pitch your blog and what you can offer them ! Again, this goes back to helping others. Show them how working with you will HELP THEM, and you are far more likely to get a positive response! If you are just starting out and don’t have much content or many followers/traffic to your blog, you may struggle to land collaborations with brands. But if you want to start pitching now it can’t hurt to try and that way if they say no you’ll be on their radar in the future!
Step 4- Place Ads on Your Site
Ok so this step is not exactly rocket science. But it’s also not exactly going to make you the big bucks unless you have a high number of monthly pageviews! You can start with Google Adsense even if the only person who is visiting your site is your Grandma! (Hi Grandma! — mine is the best and has been reading since the beginning!) Once you’re consistently hitting 50,000 blog sessions or more per month you can apply for MediaVine where the payout is much higher! So definitely focus on driving more traffic to your site if you’d like to monetize this way!
Step 5- Sell Your Own Products and/or Services
As a blogger you can totally sell your own products and services related to your niche! This is probably the most lucrative way to make money blogging. But there are many different types of products and services you could potentially provide! For example, if you’re a wellness blogger, you can coach people on their health and wellness (service) or sell an Ebook Wellness Guide (digital product) or start your own line of water bottles (physical product)—the possibilities are endless! Each type of product/service has it’s own pros/cons but a digital product will be the least amount of time and money invested! It’s probably the best way to make passive income online. So definitely something to consider!
Happy blogging!
