How to Make Money Blogging For Beginners (Easiest Guide)

The Internet is big and opportunities are vast. Warren Buffet once said – “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” Blogging is one of those kinds of ways. It earns you money even when you are sleeping.

A writer creates an article, sells it, and receives payment once, but a blogger creates an article that benefits him indefinitely. That is what makes blogging a lucrative passive income venture. Are you sick of completing surveys and other small tasks? Let’s take one step forward and do something big.

Most of my income comes from blogging.  I started this blog on 21st March 2015 and did not make any money for the first 5 months. But as I always say patience is the key if you want to make money online. Even though it takes some time, it is totally worthwhile. I never imagined that blogging would become my full-time job.

How to Make Money Blogging?

A new blog or website is like a new Indian TV channel. They show movies without commercial breaks in the beginning phase to attract viewers. Once they have a sufficient number of viewers, they begin to run advertisements and earn money. More people who watch the channel means more revenue. The same is true in the case of blogging. Here are some basic steps every blogger follows-

1. Setup Your Blog
2. Start Writing Useful Articles
3. Promote Your Content
4. Engage with Your Readers
5. Turn Traffic Into Money

Every step above includes various small steps but you need not worry about them. I would explain every step in detail in the next few posts.

1. Set Up Your Blog

Obviously, you need a blog or website before you can earn money from blogging. Now you don’t know how to start a blog. No worries. I was in the same boat 7 years ago. It is not as difficult as you might imagine. Here are a few essential steps for starting a blog:

• Choose a blogging Platform
• Choose web hosting and blog name(domain name)
• Design your blog
• Keep reading useful blogging resources

The very first thing you have to do is choose where you want your blog built. There are various blogging platforms. WordPress, Drupal, Blogger, and Tumblr are a few popular names to list. Statistics show that WordPress is used to power more than 40% of blogs. The reason is simple. A website with WordPress is super easy to set up with thousands of free themes and layouts available. Incomopedia.com is also powered by WordPress.org.

After selecting a blogging platform, you must now choose between a free and a paid blog. Yes, you can start a blog without spending any money, but you won’t have as much control over it. In fact, I created my first, free blog on Blogspot. WordPress.com and Blogspot are two recommended free blogging options if you want to try them out. You can pick up the basics for free, but if you want to get paid for your blogging, use a paid platform like WordPress.org (self-hosted). Choosing a unique blog name (domain name) is the next step, which you can do by using a name generator.

There are some popular hosting companies like Godaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator, Namecheap, etc which are offering hosting with a free domain name at very cheap rates. Start with the least expensive hosting plan. The last step is to design your blog the way you’ve always imagined. Thanks to the abundance of themes and plugins on the market today, designing becomes simple.

2. Start Writing Useful Articles

Content is the king. Search anything on google and you will find hundreds of articles on the same topic. People are likely to read the articles from the first few results. Therefore, you must provide something that is distinct, intriguing, and useful all at once and hasn’t been covered in great detail on the internet. You just have to keep on writing regularly. At first, you might not receive a lot of visitors, but if your articles are compelling, readers will eventually find them.

• How To Write Catchy Content for Lead Generating Blog Post

3. Promote Your Content

As a blogger, you must perform various tasks other than just writing articles all the time. You must make time in between to promote your blog on various social media platforms. Find people who are looking for the information you have provided in your posts. Be active on social media, participate in groups, and leave comments on other blogs and forums. Create a Facebook and Twitter Page for your blog.

4. Build Engagement with Readers

Now that you are consistently writing and promoting your content, you will observe that readers are coming to your blog and engaging with it. By interacting with them and responding to their comments, you must work to win over those readers and convert them into devoted visitors. Respond to anyone who contacts you via your contact form to make them feel valued. Do everything you can to entice readers to return time and time again.

5. Turn Your Traffic Into Money

You’ve now established a blog and are regularly receiving visitors. Time to earn your first dollar. There are several ways you can use your blog to make money. Once your blog is popular, you will start getting different offers like sponsored article requests, etc. Never put all your eggs in one basket; try to generate income from multiple sources.

31 Ways to Make Money From A Blog

5 Most Common Ways Bloggers Monetize Their Blogs

1. Advertising
2. Affiliate marketing
3. Services
4. Products(Digital and Physical)
5. Events
6. Miscellaneous

1. Advertising

Advertising was the reason I started my blog. Beginners often start blogs so that they can display Google Adsense ads and make money. There are countless advertising networks that provide you with ads to display on your blog. When visitors see or click on ads on your blog, you get money depending on various factors. To get direct advertising offers, you need decent traffic. Many ad networks like BuySellAds let bloggers run ads on their blogs and act as a middleman between advertisers and bloggers. Some of the most typical forms of advertising seen on blogs

Display Ads from Advertising Networks – Adsense is the most popular and dream ad network for a beginner. There are countless more. Some approve very small blogs, while others only approve sites with decent traffic. Sign up for an ad network. The ad network will examine your blog and decide whether it is appropriate for showing its ads. If so, they approve and you are then permitted to show their ads on your blog.

• 7 Best Ad Networks for Small Publishers
• 20 Best Ad Networks

Sponsored Articles – Once you become popular, you start getting sponsored content requests from SEO agencies and independent websites. They give you money in exchange for publishing their article on your blog. The amount per paid post usually depends on your website matrices like domain authority, page rank, etc.

Direct advertising – Go to a popular blog and search for an “advertise here” page. You will find that bloggers are charging money for private advertising slots. You can see such ads on the ESPNCricinfo score page. You can also add an “Advertise Here” page to your website and specify prices for ad banners in different locations on your website. Interested advertisers may directly contact you to discuss advertising opportunities.

Paid Reviews – Bloggers sometimes charge for writing a review about a product or service for someone.

2. Affiliate Marketing

You receive a certain percentage of commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link and purchases a service or good. Affiliate marketing is the reason why many sites are sending users to Flipkart and Amazon to buy products so that they can get a commission. Most affiliate programs are simple to sign up for, and when your commission reaches a minimum withdrawal threshold, money is transferred into your bank account.

3. Services

Everyone is born with a set of skills. You can make money by offering your skills as a service on your blog. A lot of blogs, for example, provide article writing services. They write and sell articles. You just have to find out what you enjoy doing the most. These are some common services you can offer through your blog-

• Coaching
• Audio Video Editing
• App Developing
• Freelancing
• Writing
• Speaking
• Consulting
• Project Manager
• Social Media Manager
• Designer
• Training
• Transcriptionist
• Tutor
• Web Developing

4. Selling Products (Physical or Digital Products)

You can sell products (both physical and digital) on your blog. here are some products bloggers usually use to sell –

Apps, Plugin, and themes – If you are a code writer and can write a theme/plugin then your future is bright.

Domain Names /Selling Blogs/website– There are many who flip domain names for money. You can buy an old website from a site like Flippa and after working a little on it, you can sell it for good money.

E-course/online Workshops/Webinars – Your overseas readers might not visit your live seminar. So you can host a webinar in such a case. It’s like a live workshop online. People can hear your views and you can make them pay for virtual seats.

eBooks – Some big bloggers have made big money from eBooks in the past. You can write your own eBooks and sell them on your blog like some sell on sites like Amazon.

Events -They get money either from sponsors or people who attend the events.

Membership – You must have visited blogs where you can’t read the whole article until you don’t buy their membership. You can start writing exclusive blogs and add a paywall to your content. Your visitor will pay to access your content.

Where to Get Started?

Despite how intimidating it may seem, you must begin somewhere. Start outlining your plan with a pen and a copy. There must be something you can do all day without getting bored. What do you talk about when you meet your friends? You just have to discover what you love doing. What works for one might not work for another. Take your time to think about what you can offer to your readers. Once you have an idea in mind, see if you can write 20–30 articles about it. If the answer is yes, start setting up your blog. Write some content and start promoting it. Initially, you might not receive many visitors, but if the articles are worthwhile, readers will find your blog.

Got a question? You can personally contact me through the contact form and I will be there to help you.