6 Great Ways to Make Money with a Blog for Beginners

Do you want to make money blogging? Are blogs worth making money? Both answers are yes. Blogging isn’t just an idea, it’s real. Anyone that can learn to blog can begin a blogging enterprise. What’s more a blog is a great way to augment your income. Blogging is also a terrific way to help drive traffic for your existing business. Blogging is more than just a hobby – It’s a way to make money. Want to know how to leverage blogs for money? Then, let’s just dive right into it…

Sell a Course.

Blogging can be a great way to make money. You can also use a blog to drive traffic to your other businesses (even another blogging business).

But did you know that you can also sell online courses? An online course is a great way to make money, and your target audience, who pays for it, benefits from your courses’ great content.

Why is this relevant?

The essential point is that if you publish an article about a certain subject, in a profitable niche, that your readers enjoy, they will perceive you as an authority on the topic – Which helps lend credence to each online course you launch.

As an expert, if you have something of genuine value to teach, and there is a demand for your topic, then selling courses is a shoo-in.

Some things you must cover when selling a course on your blog include the following:

• The basics of the topic you’re teaching.
• How to get started with the topic.
• What to expect along the way.
• The different types of courses you can offer.
• Your unique selling proposition (USP).
• How to market your courses.

These are just a few examples, but you get the idea.

If you want to sell courses on your blog, then you need to make sure that you have a firm understanding of the topic yourself and that you’re able to communicate this information clearly to your audience. Plainly put… If you don’t, you won’t make money (while this may sound discouraging it’s important to be aware and avoid the potentials for failure).

Including free courses on your blog is a great way to attract more attention to it. Not only do people love getting things for free, but they also tend to trust content that’s offered for free more than content that’s not.

Think of it this way… Offering a free course as an introduction, most often helps you make money later (when free clients convert to paid clients).

On the emotional spectrum, this is because people often figure if you’re giving something away for free, then you must believe in it enough to want others to have it too.

When you offer free courses on your blog, you’re also providing tremendous value to your readers. This can help to establish trust and credibility with them, which can ultimately lead to more sales, helping you make more money down the road.

Plus, free courses are a great way to attract new visitors to your blog who may not have otherwise known about it.

Similarly, free courses allow people to see what and how you provide effective learning (this is your moment to shine). Do this well, and you’ll have a higher likelihood of people converting to your paid courses.

How Can I Start Selling Online Courses?

Ensure your course subject matches your blog content. For example, I usually talk about blogging, and email marketing, so creating a course about one of those subjects is an effective way to promote them.

What’s more, when you’re marketing your course, your blog is better situated to promote the course, as search engines like Google, can provide searchers with better results (because your course and blog subjects are related).

To start selling online courses using your blog, you’ll need to create a landing page for your course. This is a special page on your website that’s dedicated to promoting and selling your course.

Additionally you’ll need to create an online store.

Using a self hosted WordPress blog gives you an advantage, because you can use the WordPress plugin WooCommerce to create your own online store.

WooCommerce works with the LearnDash plugin (more on that below). It’s an easier way to provide clients a way of ordering and paying for each online course, so in the long term, you’ll end up with a profitable blog.

The landing page should include the following:

• A brief description of the course.
• The benefits of taking the course.
• The cost of the course.
• The date the course begins and ends.
• How to sign up for the course.
• A testimonial or two from previous students who have taken the course.

In addition, be sure to include links to your course landing page from several of your related blog posts, so readers can easily find it and learn more about it.

It pays to write a blog post or blog content series, to sell digital products – Which is something that should be part of a digital marketing campaign.

You can also promote your course on social media, in email newsletters, and in other online venues – And this is what most successful bloggers already do!

Naturally you’ll need a delivery method. In the past I used a WordPress plugin named LearnDash.

One feature that was valuable was the distraction free learning screen (for course students), and the ridiculously easy way it was to create courses (and get paid).

Another fantastic benefit is that you can include YouTube videos in courses.

Arguable this is critical as most of your blog’s audience are going to expect video content in courses.

In just a few months your blog monetization strategy can grow into a steady passive income.

Display Ads.

When I started blogging, this was a simple thing to include in my blog monetization strategy. To make money from display ads, your blog needs to have a lot of traffic.

In order to get traffic, your blog needs to be interesting and provide valuable content to your readers.

Additionally, your blog should be well-promoted so that as many people as possible know about it. You’ll need loyal readers who will also share your content with others.

Display ads, are a good way to earn passive income, even more so if your blog tends to focus on evergreen content.

You’ll want to consider which areas of your blog you want to devote to ad space. So be sure to visit the layout of your blog and each blog post template.

For most of us, this means carefully evaluating various WordPress themes, so that you can easily dedicate ad space for blog articles.

One theme I often use, because of it’s speed and versatility is GeneratePress. The support for it is stellar, and in my opinion it’s a much better theme to create blog content.

In the early stages, there are a couple options to consider:

1. Google Adsense.
2. Media.net

Most people (I’m assuming) would initially go with Google’s Adsense.

Sometimes the review process can be a bit sticky, in that when temporarily refused, it can be hard to figure out what needs to be done to comply (and get accepted into Adsense).

Obviously, to be able to engage Google Adsense, you need to comply with the Eligibility Requirements for Adsense.

To be accepted for Google Adsense, you must have a website that meets the following requirements:

• The website must be live and accessible to the public.
• Comply with the Google Webmaster Quality Guidelines.
• The website must comply with the Google Adsense program policies.
• Ensure your website is content rich.
• The website must not contain any content that is illegal, sexually explicit, or promotes violence.
• Make sure the following pages are live: About, Contact, and Privacy.
• The website must be at least 6 months old (this is only for some regions).
• Avoid using copyrighted images.
• Use clear, intuitive navigation.

If you’re not accepted into Google Adsense, don’t worry. You can reapply again (just make sure you address any issues that were raised during the review process).

Additionally (as mentioned above), there are other ad networks that you can look into, such as Media.net.

How Do I Display Ads Using Google AdSense and Other Advertising Networks?

For several different blogs I use a WordPress plugin called: Advanced Ads.

I recommend joining Adsense for your own blog. Many people can also benefit from using Ezoic (so explore that option too), but Ezoic was not a good option for me because they require control of your domain’s DNS records (via Cloudflare).

I needed access to edit DNS records for my own blog, as there are specific records I need to add from time to time, as well as other DNS related things. I also have some custom configurations in place that would be broken otherwise.

If managing your own blog DNS records is not a requirement for you, then Ezoic might be an option.

Once your blog is busy and you’re making money with a steady stream of traffic, you can even consider selling ads directly on your blog. I have a client doing just this and they’re steadily making some real money blogging. They key is to building your blog into a popular go-to site for content.

Become a Freelance Writer.

Blogging can be a great way to become a freelance writer. When you have your own blog, you can provide potential clients with examples of your writing, as well as information about your areas of expertise.

You can also use your own blog to build relationships with other bloggers and editors, which can lead to opportunities for making money with paid writing assignments.

Building relationships should be included as part of your digital marketing.

One way to use your blog to attract writing gigs is to post about your areas of expertise. This helps you more productively make money because you’ll already have “weeded out” writing requests that are not in your scope of expertise.

Also ensure there’s a good outreach program, to help you secure opportunities for guest blogging on other sites.

Reaching out to other bloggers and editors, offering to write guest posts for them helps your own business as you get more exposure. Over time this helps you make money as your posts slowly build to provide more exposure on their own.

You can also use your blog to build relationships with potential clients. Do your keyword research to find out what people are looking for, and what topics are in demand.

Those that clearly fall in your blog topics are the ones that will best compliment your blogging efforts.

Treat your blog like a resume, and pitch it to specific niches. You might face some challenges if you’re placed in ever closer competition with one or more of your competitors.

If this is the case… What do you do?

Focus on creating shoulder niches for your blog.

A shoulder niche is a market or topic that is related to, but not the same as, your main topic.

This is something that will help reinforce your blog topics, and better help your blog content be found by your audience in a Google search.

For example, if you blog about parenting, a shoulder niche might be child development.

This gives you an opportunity to expand your reach and attract new readers by providing information on a topic that is related to your main topic, but not the same.

This helps to show potential clients your versatility, and over time, you’ll find your blog covers multiple niches, attracting multiple potential clients.

How Can I Become a Freelance Writer and Make Money?

There are a few things you can do to become a profitable freelance writer:

1. Reach out to other bloggers and editors and offer to write guest posts for them.
2. Use your blog to build relationships with potential clients.
3. Treat your blog like a resume, and pitch it to specific niches.
4. If you’re facing competition from other writers, focus on becoming a specialist in a particular (shoulder) niche.
5. Join a professional organization, such as the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE).
6. Have a way of getting paid and a system where you and your clients can easily communicate to manage writing gigs.

By taking these steps, you can demonstrate your skills and build relationships with potential clients, which will help you to secure paid writing work.

Additionally, joining a professional organization can provide you with access to resources and networking opportunities.

There are also some valuable platforms you should consider, before you begin using your blog to market your freelance writing services.

A few (of the many) are:

• WritersWork.
• Freelance Writing.
• Freelancer.
• Writer Access.

Scale Your Blog Content Creation and Stop Writing so Much.

In order to help make money blogging, it’s important find a balance between writing blog posts vs scaling your blog.

What does this mean?

Produce more content without having to put in the extra hours. You’ll do this by by carefully planning your content, using templates and outlines, and finding ways to reuse or re-purpose your existing content.

This will help you to focus on creating higher quality content, rather than just churning out blog posts for the sake of it.

By taking the time to scale your content creation, you’ll be able to make more money with your blog by working less, and producing higher quality content that will attract clients who are willing to pay for your services.

Here are a few ways to scale your blog content:

• Create an editorial calendar and plan your content in advance. This will help you to batch create content, so that you’re not always starting from scratch.
• Use templates and outlines to quickly produce new content. This can be anything from a simple template for a blog post structure, to a more complex outline for an eBook or course.
• Repurpose your existing content into new formats. For example, you can turn a blog post into an infographic, or an audio recording.
• Hire writers to help with the creation of new content. This can (initially) be done through sites like Upwork or Fiverr.

Key strategy: Site like Fiverr, etc. can help a tthe beginning, but in my opinion, you’ll increase your ability to make money if you transition to other platforms; as you grow.

Relationships Are Your Foundation.

Having good relationships with other bloggers is important because it can help you get work. People might be more likely to give you a chance if they know you and know that your work is good.

The best way to build relationships is to be active in the blogging community.

Read and comment on other people’s blog posts, reach out and guest post for other bloggers, and participate in online and offline blogging events.

Being an active member of the blogging community will help you to build relationships with other bloggers, which can lead to opportunities for paid work.

To build effective relationships, it’s important to understand that each blog page is worthwhile and provides value to people.

This is a mindset that will help you when pitching and writing guest posts (to help build your blogging business).

As I allude to above, guest blogging can help improve relationships with other bloggers by providing them with high-quality content, building trust, and helping to build relationships that can lead to opportunities for paid work.

What You Need to Pitch Guest Posts.

When pitching guest posts, it’s important to provide other blogs with information about your post, including the following:

• The topic of your guest post.
• The angle or perspective you’ll be taking on the topic.
• How your guest post will be of value to their blog’s audience.
• An outline of your guest post.
• Links to some of your previous work.

It’s also helpful to have a brief biography ready, so that the blogger can learn more about you and your blogging credentials, as well as your blog’s niche content.

By providing all of this information up front, you’ll be more likely to get your guest post accepted, and you’ll make it easier for the blog owners of those other blogs to publish your post.

How Much Should Your Blogging Business Charge?

As a beginner freelance writer, it can be tough to know how much to charge for your services. You want to make money, but don’t want to devalue your work, right?

If undercharge, you miss out on potential earnings, but you also don’t want to charge too much and scare away potential clients.

One way to figure out how much to charge is to look at what other writers in your blog’s niche are charging.

This will give you a good starting point for pricing your own services.

You can also use an online tool like PayScale to research average freelance writing rates.

Once you have an idea of what most bloggers are charging, it’s important to consider your own experience and expertise when setting your rates.

From experience, only purchase the tools (and services) that you “must” use. This way you’ll make a bit more money as your expenditures are minimized.

If you’re just starting out, you may want to charge slightly less than others in your niche. As you gain more experience and build up a strong portfolio of work, you can start to charge more.

It’s also important to consider the type of project when setting your rates. For example, you may want to charge more for an ebook than for a blog post.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how much to charge for your services. Just don’t undervalue your work.

But, by research what others are charging and considering your own experience and expertise, you can come up with a fair rate that will help you earn the income you want from your blog monetization.

Similarly don’t engage in spec work.

Spec work is when you do a job for free in the hopes of getting future paid work from the client. It’s often used in the design and creative industries, but can be used in other fields as well.

Many people view spec work as a way to get started in a new industry, or to build their portfolio. However, there are many risks associated with doing spec work, including the following:

• You may not get paid for the job, even if you do a stellar job.
• The client may take your idea and use it themselves without giving you credit or paying you.
• Your time may be wasted if the client decides not to hire you after all.
• The quality of your work may suffer if you’re trying to do a job for free.

Because of these risks, I recommend avoiding spec work whenever possible. There are plenty of other ways to build your portfolio or gain experience in a new industry without risking not getting paid for your hard work.

Start a Relationship & Pitch Guest Posts at the Same Time.

Naturally, using your blog to make money with freelance writing can take a fair bit of time.

One common issue I often run into, is making money blogging in an efficient manner. Earlier I described how it’s important to build relationships using guest blogging as a venue. This can be fairly time consuming (which can be frustrating for new bloggers).

When building your own business, I’d argue there’s a better way to do it, that many bloggers can benefit from.

How can this be more efficient?

By using the following nine, really simple, step by step guide :

1. Do a Google search to find a new blog that you want to contribute guest posts to.
2. Ensure that the blog is open to accept guest posts (usually there’s a note somewhere on their blog).
3. Go through their archives and read some of their most popular posts.
4. Identify a gap in their content.
5. Write a guest post that fills that gap.
6. Reach out to the blogger and pitch them your ideas for new blog posts.
7. Send them your guest posts.
8. If they like, they’ll be more likely publish your blog articles and you’ll get exposure to their audience.
9. Rinse and repeat with other blogs (and successful bloggers).

Key strategy: Focus on finding a successful blog each time you follow this step by step guide.

This is because a successful blog will already have an audience (who will also be more likely to click though and visit your own blog) – And therefore better able to make money faster.

This is a great way to improve your relationship skills because you’ll be forced to interact with other bloggers on a regular basis.

The Importance of Guest Posting.

To recap… Guest blogging is one of the best ways to build relationships with other bloggers.

When you contribute a guest post to another blogger’s blog, you’re providing them with high-quality content, and you’re also introducing your blog to their audience.

This can help you increase traffic to your blog, and it can also help you establish yourself as an expert in your niche. In turn eases some of the process of making money (as a result of the traffic, and extra exposure).

Guest blogging can help you with making money in a few different ways.

First, when you contribute a guest post to another blogger’s blog, you’re providing them with high-quality content, and you’re also introducing your blog to their audience.

This can help you increase traffic to your own blog, and it can also help you establish yourself as an expert in your niche.

Second, guest blogging can help you earn money blogging by opening up opportunities to sell your services as a freelance writer.

When you contribute a guest post to a successful blog, you’re exposing your work to a larger audience, and this can lead to more opportunities, helping you with making money selling your services.

Finally, guest blogging can help you make money through affiliate marketing (as some permit you to use an affiliate link – Just ask first).

When you include links to products or services in your guest posts, you may be able to earn passive income on sales that result from those links.

Virtual Consulting Services

Many bloggers make money blogging by selling their services as a consultant. In my opinion this is not always something for new bloggers to engage in.

Having said that… There are expert consultants that become new bloggers, so they can improve their digital marketing initiatives.

You should clearly be aware if you have the skills and can provide your clients with enough value to make money online, then this may be an option for you.

Online (virtual) consulting can be a significantly profitable way to make money blogging, as there is a high demand for consulting services – Especially if you’re in a profitable niche.

However, it’s important to remember that you need to have a lot of experience and expertise in order to offer consulting services.

Creating a new blog in the hopes of supporting a consulting service is (in my opinion) not the best approach.

Instead you’ll make more money blogging when your topic is already well covered and supported by your content (including your guest posts on other sites).

Otherwise, you may not be able to deliver the level of quality that your clients expect.

If you’re interested in selling your consulting services, I recommend reading this post by Steli Efti on “How to sell consulting services: 12 methods you can start using today“.

He covers everything you need to know about getting started, including how to price your services and find clients.

As virtual consulting can be a very competitive market, you may benefit from outsourcing someone with effective digital marketing skills.

The one key suggestion I think I can make here…

When considering making money blogging for consulting, it’s imperative that each blog post and blog niche included in your digital marketing plan all coordinate to support the central message (and offerings) of your consulting services.

Finally, consider marrying your consulting services provide through your blog, with your blog’s online courses. In my opinion this is a terrific way to help build a profitable blog – Because consulting often requires client education.

How can I start consulting?

To recap…

First, you’ll need to ensure your blog niche content is devoted to your consulting business.

This blog should be used to share your experience and expertise with potential clients, and it should also include case studies and client testimonials.

Second, you’ll need to develop a strong online presence by guest blogging on other high-quality blogs in your industry.

When you contribute a guest post to another blogger’s blog, you’re providing them with high-quality content, and you’re also introducing your blog to their audience.

Third, you’ll need to start selling your services to make money online, by creating a profile on freelance marketplaces like Upwork or Freelancer.

When you create a profile on these platforms, you’ll be able to showcase your skills and experience to potential clients.

Finally, remember that the best way to make money blogging through consulting is by delivering high-quality services that exceed your clients’ expectations.

So make sure that you put a lot of thought into your offerings and be prepared to offer value beyond what other consultants are offering – And blog about that!

Create a membership community

One great way to make money blogging is to create a membership site. This is a site where people pay a monthly or annual fee in order to gain access to exclusive content, tools, and services that offer real value.

There are several things you can include in your membership site to make money, in order to make it valuable for your members:

• Exclusive content: This could be anything from articles and blog posts, to videos and podcasts, or even ebooks and whitepapers. The key is to make sure that the content is high quality and not available anywhere else.
• Exclusive tools and resources: This could be anything from templates and checklists, to calculators and assessment tools. Again, the key is to make sure that these are not available anywhere else.
• Exclusive services: This could be anything from consulting services, to webinars, courses, and live events. The key is to make sure that the services are high quality and again… not available anywhere else.

How to Start a Membership Website.

Of all the blogging platforms, I favor using self hosted WordPress, and there are great plugins that can help you build a profitable blog:

• MemberPress.
• LearnDash (Remember this? – It’s also community based).
• Paid Memberships Pro.
• Restrict Content Pro.
• S2Member.

The first step is to come up with a topic or topic area for your membership site. This could be anything from business and marketing, to personal development and self-help.

Once you’ve chosen a topic, the next step is to create new blog content that will attract people to your site. This could be anything from articles and blog posts, to videos and podcasts, or even ebooks and whitepapers.

The key is to make sure that the content is high quality and that’s it’s unique.

The third step is to set up a payment gateway so that people can sign up for your membership community. There are several options available, such as Stripe or PayPal.

The fourth step is to promote your membership blog online, in order to attract new members. You can do this by guest blogging on other high-quality blogs in your industry, or by promoting it on social media.

You can even purchase ad space on successful blogging platforms (those well known in your niche community), or engage the services of ad networks like Google Adwords, or Facebook ads.

This way when people complete a Google search, over time, your site will start to appear in their search results.

The reason I said “…over time…” is that your blogging efforts need to be long term in order to make money blogging.

Search engines take time to include and rank your new blog posts – And match them to the intent of the person doing the Google search. So don’t become discouraged if your membership is not getting enough visitors from search engines.

Just make sure you continue to regularly provide a new blog post that’s packed with quality, helpful content.

It’ll help if you do some keyword research so that you know what potential members are looking for.

Then create each new blog post to appeal to the content they are looking for. If you keep a regular posting schedule, over time you’ll start to make more money blogging.

You might want to offer incentives for membership, as well as rewards for members that refer new sign ups.

As long as you provide valuable content and services that members will find useful, your membership blog will grow and you’ll make money.

To reiterate, each new blog post could be anything from consulting services, to webinars, courses, and live events.

How Much Should I Charge for My Membership Blog?

The amount you charge for your membership blog will depend on the quality and exclusivity of the content and services you offer.

Generally, the more exclusive and high-quality the content and services are, the more you can charge.

You may want to consider starting with a lower price and then increasing it as your blog becomes more successful.

This will help you attract new members while also ensuring that you maintain a high level of quality.

This way your blogging efforts won’t seem so much like an uphill battle.

Whatever price you decide to charge, make sure that it’s reasonable and provides good value for the money. After all, you want people to be happy with their decision to join your membership blog!

If you’re not sure what to charge, a good place to start is by looking at other membership blogs in your niche and seeing what they charge.

You can also look at the prices of similar products and services, such as online courses or ebooks.

Once you have an idea of what to charge, it’s time to start promoting your membership blog, so that you can grow your passive income!

How to Promote Your Membership Blog.

There are several ways that you can promote your membership blog.

The key is to find the method or methods that work best for you and your blog.

One way to promote your membership blog is by guest blogging on other high-quality blogs in your industry.

This is a great way to reach a new audience and get your name out there.

Another way to promote your blog is by participating in online communities related to your niche. This can help you build relationships with potential members and get valuable feedback.

You can also promote your membership blog on social media. This is an effective way to connect with potential members and give them a taste of what your blog has to offer.

Finally, you can also promote your blog offline, through word-of-mouth or print materials.

The important thing is to start promoting your membership blog as soon as possible, so that you can start growing your passive income stream!

If you follow these simple tips, you’ll be well on your way to make money blogging with a membership blog.

Just remember to focus on providing high-quality content and services, so that you can attract and retain members.

With a little effort and dedication, you can build a successful membership blog that will provide you with a passive income for years to come.

Affiliate Income.

Affiliate income is a type of passive revenue that is earned by bloggers who are making money online by promoting other people’s products or services.

In my opinion, if this is the first time you start a blog, wait until you have more visitor traffic, as well as more search engines visibility before working to make money with affiliate programs.

When someone clicks on a link to an affiliate product or service and then makes a purchase, the website owner or blogger earns a commission.

This commission can be anywhere from a few percent to 30% or more of the sale price (it depends on the affiliate terms).

Another way to promote affiliate products is by including banner ads or text links in their blog posts. This allows readers to easily click through to the products they are interested in.

Some bloggers create entire websites devoted to promoting affiliate products or services.

This allows them to provide in-depth information about the products and services they are promoting.

Affiliate marketing is an in-depth blog monetization process that encompasses several tools:

• Search engine optimization.
• Digital marketing.
• Affiliate program selection.
• Guest posting.
• Sponsored posts.

What are the Benefits of Using Affiliate Links as Passive Income?

There are several benefits to using affiliate links as a form of passive income to make money blogging:

1. Increased Revenue.

Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative way to make money online. When you promote someone else’s products or services, you earn a commission on every sale that you generate. This can add up to a lot of extra revenue over time.

2. Increased Traffic.

When you include affiliate links in your blog posts, you provide your readers with easy access to the products and services they are interested in.

This can help you increase traffic to your blog, as well as the number of sales that you make.

3. Increased Brand Awareness.

When you promote other people’s products or services in each blog post, you become known as an expert in your field.

This can help you build trust with your readers, and it can also help you attract new readership to your blog.

4. Increased Customer Satisfaction.

When readers find what they are looking for on your blog, they are likely to be happy with their experience.

This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. And can often result in requests for sponsored posts.

5. Increased Search Engine Rankings.

When you include affiliate links in your blog posts, you are providing valuable backlinks to the products and services that you are promoting.

This can help increase your search engine rankings, which can lead to even more traffic and help you make more money blogging.

6. Increased Passive Income.

One of the best things about affiliate marketing is that it can provide you with a passive earnings stream. This means that you can earn money even when you’re not actively blogging.

7. Easy to Set Up and Maintain.

Affiliate marketing is relatively easy to set up and maintain. You don’t need to create your own products or services, and you can start promoting affiliate products as soon as you join an affiliate program.

What’s more using a blogging platform like a WordPress blog, makes things even easier, as WordPress is simple to maintain and already has all the features you need.

8. Low Cost of Entry.

Another great thing about affiliate marketing is that it has a low cost of entry. You don’t need to invest any money into developing your own products or services.

All you need is a web hosting account, a blog, a bit of keyword research, and some time to promote the products or services that you think are best positioned to help you make money.

9. No Inventory to Manage.

When you’re promoting affiliate products, you don’t need to worry about managing inventory or shipping products.

This is all taken care of by the product owner. All you need to do is create a new blog post for each affiliate product.

10. scalability.

Affiliate marketing is a scalable business model. This means that you can grow your business as big as you want.

There is no limit to the amount of money that you can make with affiliate marketing. It’s a business model that naturally lends itself to making money online.

11. Flexibility.

Affiliate marketing is a flexible business model. You can promote affiliate products in a variety of ways, and you can work from anywhere in the world.

In fact, if there is enough information that you can sustain, you can even start a blog exclusively dedicated to a specific affiliate product.

12. Access to a Global Market.

When you promote affiliate products, you have the potential to reach a global audience. This is due to the fact that affiliate products can be sold anywhere in the world. It’s advisable to carefully evaluate each affiliate program to determine the viability.

If products are only shipped in one country, and your WordPress blog appeals mainly to visitors from another, that would not be a good fit.

13. Increased Expertise.

As you promote more affiliate products, you will become more knowledgeable about the products and services that you are promoting.

This will allow you to provide better support to your readers, which will also help you make money blogging.

14. Improved Time Management.

Affiliate marketing can help you improve your time management skills. This is because you can automate many of the tasks associated with promoting affiliate products.

For example, you can set up automated email campaigns to promote new products to your list.

Key strategy: Email marketing ROI is in the area of 4200% – Without question to make money blogging it’s an effective tool to help promote your affiliate offerings. Just be sure that the email service you use for your email campaigns allows affiliate marketing (some don’t allow it) and affiliate links.

15. Get Paid to Learn.

When you choose the right affiliate products to promote, you can get paid to learn about new products and services.

This is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, and it can also help you expand your knowledge base. What’s more… You get a regular stream of knowledge that you can reflect in each new blog post.

16. Meet New People.

Affiliate marketing can help you meet new people (online and offline). When you promote affiliate products, you will interact with other bloggers and online marketers. This can help you build relationships and network with other professionals in your field.

This can result in increase requests for sponsored posts, guest posting, and open new doors to make money blogging.

17. Grow Your Business.

Affiliate marketing can help you grow your blog or website. This is because affiliate marketing can provide you with a steady stream of income, which can be used to reinvest in your business.

This helps you grow your blogging platform, engage ad networks, as well as obtain better tools for search engine optimization.

18. Help Others.

When you promote affiliate products, you have the opportunity to help others. For example, if you promote a product that helps people save money, you will be helping your readers save money.

This can lead to a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

The gist?

Look for products that help others solve problems. These will be the most successful, most in demand and better help you make money blogging.

19. Make a Difference.

Affiliate marketing can help you make a difference in the world. For example, if you promote a product that helps people in developing countries, you will be making a difference in their lives.

When you can market affiliate items that make such a difference, this enhances your request for guest posting, and being able to make an increasing difference to people.

This is not something that’s going to happen overnight. It’s something that comes over time, when your roots are deep and you have a lot of connections.

20. It’s Fun!

Last but not least, affiliate marketing is a lot of fun. It’s a great way to make money blogging, and it’s also a great way to learn about new products and services. Plus, you can meet new people and build relationships with other bloggers and online marketers.

The better your content and the higher the quality of each blog post, the more often you’ll show up in search engines.

Where Can I Find Affiliate Programs to Make Money?

Before I dive into an overview of finding affiliate programs I should direct you to what in my opinion, is one of the best blogs in that regard: AuthorityHacker. They regularly list the best affiliate (and influencer) programs in every niche you could possibly think of.

They do all the research and provide you with the information. In my opinion, this is a must-use blog when you’re considering affiliate income when you want to make money blogging.

The above resource (AuthorityHacker) will provide you with some targeted affiliate programs for your niche.

How can you make money blogging by using an affiliate network? Let’s examine several other options, three of which could be:

• Commission Junction.
• Impact Radius.
• ShareASale.

Commission Junction (CJ) is an affiliate marketing network. They connect you with offers. When someone clicks through a link and buys the product, you earn a commission.

Some of the benefits unique to Commission Junction include:

1. They have a more stringent approval process, which ensures that you only work with the best and most reputable brands.
2. They offer more exclusive offers than some other affiliate networks.

Impact is also an affiliate marketing network, similar in many ways to the others. Some of the benefits of joining the Impact affiliate network are:

1. Exclusive offers. Impact has a rigorous approval process, which means that you only work with the best and most reputable brands.
2. Large selection of offers. Impact has a large selection of offers, so you can find the perfect fit for your blog or website.
3. Quick payout. You can receive your commissions quickly and easily through Impact.
4. Dedicated support team. Impact’s support team is available 24/7 to help you with any questions or problems you may have.
5. Advanced tracking tools. Impact’s advanced tracking tools make it easy to track your performance and find your best-performing offers.

ShareASale, another affiliate marketing platform, is different from Commission Junction and Impact in that they have a lower approval process, making it easier to join. Similar to other affiliates, they also:

1. Provide a wide variety of products and services.
2. Pays out commissions quickly and easily.
3. Has a dedicated support team available 24/7.
4. Offer advanced tracking tools to help you track your performance.

Sign Up for Affiliate Programs.

When signing up for affiliate programs, you will likely be asked to provide some information about your website or blog. This could include:

• The URL of your website or blog.
• The type of content you publish on your blog.
• The audience you are targeting with your website blog.
• How long you have been publishing content online.
• Your contact information (name, email address, phone number).
• Your social media profiles (Twitter handle, Facebook profile, etc).

This information will help the affiliate program to determine if your website or blog is a good fit for their products or services.

From experience, you’ll do better if your blogging platform is a WordPress blog. This is because there are some productive plugins you can use to manage affiliate links across each blog post you publish.

In addition to managing affiliate links, you’ll also want to cloak them.

There are a few reasons you may want to cloak your affiliate links on your blog:

• To protect your affiliate commissions. cloaking your affiliate links will ensure that you receive credit for any sales that are generated through your links. This is especially important if you are using multiple affiliate programs for the same product.
• To improve the user experience. cloaking your affiliate links can improve the user experience on your website or blog by making the links look less like ads and more like part of the content. This can help to keep your readers engaged and interested in the content you are publishing.
• To improve your website or blog’s search engine ranking. cloaking your affiliate links can improve your website or blog’s search engine ranking by helping to keep the focus on your original content rather than on the ads or affiliate links you are promoting.

There are a number of different ways you can go about cloaking your affiliate links on your blog. One popular method is to use a plugin such as PrettyLink or ThirstyAffiliates.

These plugins allow you to create custom cloaked URLs for each affiliate link you add to your blog, which makes them look like part of the content rather than advertisements.

Grow Your Blog to Begin at 25-50 Visits per Day.

To begin using affiliate programs to make money, your blog should get 25-50 visits per day. This will help you to generate enough traffic to be seen as a viable option by some potential affiliate partners.

If you are not seeing this level of traffic yet, keep publishing content and promoting your blog on social media until you do.

Once you reach this level of traffic, you can begin looking for affiliate programs that fit your niche and start promoting them on your blog to make money.

How to Find Products to Market?

When choosing products to promote on your blog, it is important to consider the following factors:

• The audience you are targeting.
• The type of content you publish.
• The niche of your blog.
• How well the product aligns with your blog’s content and audience.

When considering these factors, it is also important to remember that not every product will be a good fit for your blog. You may need to experiment with a few different products before finding one that provides good results.

With each product option, always ask yourself:

“Will this truly help me make money online?”

If the answer is “Maybe”, then place that option in the ‘No’ pile (so to speak). This way you’ll only be left with ‘Yes’ options, which streamlines part of your selection process to making money.

Some of the best ways to find products to market on your blog include:

• Researching products that are already being marketed by other blogs in your niche.
• Looking for products that are being promoted through affiliate networks such as Commission Junction and Impact Radius (as mentioned above).
• Finding products to promote through online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy.
• Checking out the “Hot Products” section on ClickBank, a popular affiliate marketing platform.
• Don’t forget to check search engines (search for solutions to problems and see what products are displayed).

Once you have a list of potential products to promote, take the time to read reviews and compare prices to find the best options for your blog that may be better positioned to help you make money online.

You should also consider whether you want to promote physical and/or digital products. Physical products tend to have higher commissions but require more work to sell, while digital products can be sold with less effort but generally have lower commissions.

It is ultimately up to you to decide which product type is best for your blog.

Affiliate Programs – Which ones should you join?

Now that you know how to find products to market on your blog, it’s time to start looking for affiliate programs to join.

If You Want to Make Money Online, Choose a Blog Niche Based on Market Factors.

Are you just starting out blogging?

Ever heard the expression “Choose to blog about something you’re passionate about”?

Let me tell you a short story…

In my previous career I was a General Manager in a popular restaurant chain, overseeing several managers and staff.

One of my assistant managers was addressing a quality control issue with a staff member. The conversation when something like this:

Manager: “The salads are too small, there is not enough lettuce in them”.

Staff: “But I though I was saving the restaurant money”.

Manager: “Of course we don’t want to waste food, but our customers need to get high quality products”.

Staff: “But I make my salads with love!”

Manager: Turns to the other people in the room and asks: “If you were dining here, do you want a salad made with love or a salad made with lettuce?”

The moral of the story, blogging about what you’re passionate in, often won’t help you with making money. If you are going to start a blog, ensure you select a niche where you can sustain enough content creation to grow it. And ensure there is an audience (keyword research can help you here). This way you’ll be better positioned to make money online, and your audience will enjoy a lot of helpful in-demand content.

Lots of us have things we’re passionate about that either don’t have a large enough audience, can’t continue to endlessly create content (or both).

FAQ.

Conclusion.

Selecting a blog niche is essential for those that want to make money in the online world. Not only do you need to conduct keyword research about the topic, but there must be an audience that can drive enough traffic for advertising. Additionally, selecting the right affiliate programs and products are key in helping you make money blogging. Remember to consider all of the factors involved before making your final decision. With these tools and tips, you’re well on your way to becoming a successful blogger!

You can learn much more about how to make money blogging, by visiting our Blogs and Blogging other posts.