Make Money Blogging: Everything Beginners Need to Know to Launch a Successful Blog

Make Money Blogging

When a person plans to start blogging on a regular basis, they can easily become overwhelmed with all of the decisions that need to be made in such a short amount of time.

Aside from creating high quality articles that are sought out and well received by its intended audience, bloggers also have to think up domain names, web hosts, themes, plugins -- and that's just barely scratching the surface.

The very last thing on most bloggers' minds is making money.

As a matter of fact, according to a 2012 survey of 1,000 bloggers performed by Blogging.com, 81% never even make $100 from their blogging.

Just so you know, if you're in it for a quick way to make cash, you're definitely in the wrong field.

But just because the vast majority don't turn a large profit doesn't mean that it's physically impossible to make money blogging, either.

According to that same survey, 17% are able to sustain their lifestyle and/or support their family solely from their blog's income.

It just takes time, effort, a lot of patience, and a solid plan.

To save you the headache of searching the internet tirelessly for answers to all of your questions, we've compiled what we hope will be a general overview on how you can make money for your blog.

Interested? Great. Let's get started.

How much money do people actually make from blogging?

If there was a solid answer to this question, the lives of bloggers everywhere would be so much easier. The most important thing that you need to realize is that your income is highly dependent on you and how much you are willing to put into it.

Some bloggers, like travel blogger Will Tang, earn around $625 a month. In his most recent income report, which was actually a four month combination of January, February, March, and April of 2016,

Will announced that he'd earned $2,484.73 during that time after expenses.

It's certainly nothing to turn your nose up at, but this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making money from blogging.

Bloggers can make more than that -- a lot more, in fact.

Let's take a look at someone like Lindsay Ostrom, the woman behind Pinch Of Yum. She and her husband, who also works full time on the blog to handle the finances, make more money in 1 month than some people do in an entire year.

In the month of March this year, she and her website earned just over $58,000 while implementing various monetization methods!

Earnings

Scary right?, however, there is an entirely different class of bloggers out there. These bloggers earn double -- sometimes TRIPLE -- the profit that a successful blogger like Lindsay does.

These bloggers are the "elite" top percent.

For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on that top percentage of bloggers -- the ones who not only make enough money to sustain their respective lifestyles, but to live quite glamorously if they so choose.

Their results may not be typical of every blogger, but they are proof that it is possible.

Just ask John Lee Dumas, one of the most popular bloggers on the web right now, whose entrepreneurial-niche podcast website,Entrepreneur On Fire, consistently earns him nearly 1,000,000 monthly podcast listens and over $100,000 of monthly revenue.

John's Earnings

I know what you're probably thinking: It's a fluke. No one else actually makes that kind of money from BLOGGING.

Pat Flynn, the man behind the extremely successful internet marketing blog, Smart Passive Income managed to find his own secret recipe for blogging success.

How much success has he found a blogger?

The kind that raked in over $166,000 of profit last month alone.

And those numbers are pretty typical of what Pat earns on a monthly basis, too.

So wish that I could say with confidence that you could start your blog and be pulling out numbers like this within days, but that's simply not the case.

I can say, however, that it IS possible to make good money as long as you have a plan and set goals for yourself.

Before we go any further, let's start discussing various ways bloggers are currently monetizing their sites, and how you can mimic these strategies to start earning money for yourself as well.

How are these bloggers making their money? Once you have set up your blog and chosen a niche (we will discuss that a bit more in depth soon), it's time to start looking into means of monetization.
One of the most popular ways that bloggers make money is through affiliate income.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, a blogger will team up with a company to promote a product on their blog. For every person who signs up for the product under the blogger's advice, the blogger will receive a predetermined compensation from the company.

Few companies do affiliate marketing more effectively than Bluehost.

Bluehost, a popular blog hosting company, offers their affiliates $65 for every person who signs up under the affiliate's specific code.

The best part is that it's entirely passive income. All you have to do is sign up and wait for the money to start coming in via audience subscriptions.

How to become a Bluehost affiliate:

Become An Affiliate

STEP ONE: Head over to Bluehost's affiliate page and sign up to become an partner with them.

STEP TWO: Either write a post or make a detailed Youtube video which teaches your readers how to start a blog of their own. The post should include several steps, and in it you should promote Bluehost as the blog hosting company.

STEP THREE: Somewhere in the post, include your Bluehost affiliate link so your readers can check it out. For every person who signs up, you will receive compensation!

The money doesn't stop there, either. That post is going to generate money every time someone signs up for Bluehost because of you, whether it's a day after you put up the link or a year.

And remember: Bluehost isn't the only affiliate program out there. There are plenty of others to choose from, but you should always remember to only promote products that you are personally invested in.

After all, it's your reputation on the line.

A few other great affiliate options are:

But if you want to do more than affiliate yourself with products, you may want to consider gettin involved in another source of income. For example, a highly misunderstood way to make some money on your blog is through ads.

Don't worry, before you gasp and shun the idea altogether because of the negative connotation that usually follows ads, let me explain.

How to add display ads to your blog

Displaying The Right Ads

Display ad networks are all the rage for bloggers, and the good news is that there are plenty of options out there that cater to whatever your blog's niche is.

Of course ads come with their own set of issues, however, that should also be considered. For example, many computers now have pop-up blockers installed, which can interfere with ads and make them virtually pointless. Furthermore, mobile devices tend to remove ads in order to provide a more easily navigable website.

Strictly from an aesthetic point of view, cluttering your website with too many ads is unattractive. That being said, they are ridiculously easy to set up and extremely low maintenance once you have integrated them into your blog.

All you have to do is become acquainted with the ad site that works best for you and your blog.

Below, you will find a list of some of the most popular display ad networks for bloggers:

How do I start a blog so I can begin making money?

Using WordPress

Now that you know how to make money with your blog, it's time to figure out how exactly to start your blog.

As we explained earlier, a lot of decisions go into starting a blog. First and foremost, you need to find a niche. There are blogs about pretty much everything these days -- fashion, finance, and everything inbetween. Your job, before you go any further, is to find a niche that already has an established fanbase.

If you can easily find 5 blogs that write about the topic you're interested in, you may be on the right track to finding the purpose of your own blog.

Next comes the daunting task of actually STARTING your blog. Although there are many tedious steps to it, don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed. If you choose to do 1 or 2 of these steps each day, it may slow down the process a bit, but it will keep you sane.

In the easiest way possible, we have tried to write out the proper steps to starting your own blog:

Step #1: Pick your blog platform. Most bloggers choose Wordpress.org, as it comes highly recommended as is used by bloggers and serious businesses alike.

Step #2: Get a domain name. Choosing the name for your site can be a pretty big deal, but you shouldn't overthink it. Whatever you decide to name your site will be fine -- as long as the domain isn't already taken, of course.

Step #3: Choose a web host. Before you decide on a web host, you need to know what one is. It's basically the place that stores all of your website's files, so you need them to be in a place you trust. There are so many to choose from, ranging from Bluehost, to Godaddy, to Hostgator, and beyond. Do a little research and choose the host that offers exactly what you need.

After that comes choosing a theme, installing plugins, and all that creative stuff. This is probably the funnest part of starting your blog, so make sure you take your time and really think things through.

When you start to think about actually writing for your blog, keep a few important things in the back of your mind at all times:

Your readers want solutions: Chances are that they found your blog during a Google search because they have a question and they are looking for you to answer that question.

Your readers want information: Even if they aren't seeking out the answer to one particular question, they have found you because they want to learn more about a designated topic.

Your readers want entertainment: It doesn't matter if your tone is funny or extremely serious -- your blog must be entertaining.

If you continue to remind yourself of these 3 facts, everything else will be a breeze.

Remember, in order to make money blogging, you must have a stable audience of readers. In order to have that, you must have quality content. At the end of the day, that is what matters most.