Day 5 – Start A Money Making Blog

Are you ready to make some money? Isn’t that why you are here in the first place? A blog is a business, and can also be a money making machine if you put the work into it and set it up properly.

 

Before we start, I need to make sure you have the following done. If you don’t have any of these steps done, go back and get them done now:

Join The Facebook group

Setup a WordPress Site

Setup Your Email List

Pick a Theme

Get your logo started

Write your About Me page

Write your First Post

Create your Social Media profiles

So, how much money can you make with your blog?

Our blog, It’s A Lovely Life, has been averaging about $30,000/mo. in monthly income. This figure has grown over the years to a very substantial level. I wish it happened overnight, but it was a process that took a lot of hard work and dedication.

This amount is great, but we aren’t satisfied yet! There are bloggers that are making more than this, and we are on track to expand our income substantially in 2017.

As a new blogger, you will have to take some specific steps in order to start making money with your blog.

The first thing you need to do is to have your site completed with enough content that will make it look respectable. I always say that you should have 10-20 posts written on a site for it to be considered complete. Until you have this many posts, I would refrain from sharing all your posts. It is still important to publish your posts as soon as they’re completed. You just won’t start actively sharing about them yet on social media.

This may mean some long nights, but if you focus, you can get these posts done so your site looks like it is complete.

Many bloggers will write 10-20 new posts a month or more. These days it is about quality rather than quantity, but to really stand out, you will need both….at least at first. When you have an expansive library of posts already completed on your site, you can begin scaling back the quantity of new posts each month.

So how do bloggers make money? Here are the top ways bloggers make money:

Sponsored Posts: These are posts that are paid for by a company so that you will promote their product or service. Our blog currently makes most of it’s money from sponsored posts

Affiliate Income: This is when companies pay you to sell their product or service. This is done with “affiliate links”. A company will give you a unique link to post on your site. If a visitor of your site clicks that link, and then purchases the product or service, you will then be given a commission. The link they click is unique and the company can tell that the buyer came from your site. Right now, we make very little income from Affliate Links at Its A Lovely Life. We have made it a focus to change that this year….we are leaving a tremendous amount of money on the table by not including this. Some bloggers are making up to $100,000/mo on affiliate income alone.

-Sponsored Social Posts: A company will pay you to promote their product or service on your social media accounts. The larger your social media following, the more you can make. This is becoming a larger source of income for many bloggers each year.

-Content Creation on Other Sites: As soon as you establish yourself as a quality writer or video producer, some companies will be willing to pay you to create content for their sites. This can be significant income, but you have to be a good writer or video producer. Each month we are paid to create content for other sites and normally film at least a couple video projects.

Probably the easiest way to begin monetitzing your blog is to begin with sponsored content. When you have your site established, and a track record of some traffic, you will need to sign up for various networks that specialize in working with bloggers. These companies act as a liason between the brands and the bloggers. They will approach you with various campaigns that talk about what they would like you to write about and what the pay is that they are offering.

Keep in mind, you need quality content on your blog, traffic, and social accounts that are active in order to get sponsored assignments. I know there is the urge to jump into this step right away, but it is very important to build your base before immediately applying to these networks. Because, if your site is not complete and you don’t have any traffic yet, your application will be rejected.

As a new blogger, you will not have much leverage in negotiating a larger fee. Sponsored blog posts for new bloggers will pay anywhere from $100 to $250. The networks will have a say in the form of revisions in what the final post will look like. You will then be paid after the successful completion of the campaign per the terms of your agreement.

As you get established and increase your following, you can get paid $1,000+ per blog post. But for now, baby steps!

Affiliate marketing is an area that you can begin to look at right away after your site is complete. There are many different Affliliate Networks out there. They all have different specialties and depending on your niche, that will probably determine which ones you may want to sign up for.

One popular way to monetize your blog with affiliate links is to join the Amazon Associates Program. The concept is simple….you write a blog post about something that can be found on Amazon and link to it. If a reader clicks through to Amazon and buys that product, or anything else for that matter, Amazon will pay you a commission.

I just want to take a quick moment to recap how blogging has impacted my life. Income from It’s A Lovely Life was well into the 6 figures. This has been the case for 4 years now, and the money coming in is still growing a rapid rate. So far in 2017, we are bringing in around $30,000/mo from the blog. So, the money is great!

Also, blogging affords us opportunities as a family that simply would not have been possible without it. A few years ago we began blogging extensively about travel as this is something we really love to do as a family.

We traveled over 150 days last year as a family. These destinations included: Turks & Caicos, Cancun (twice), Hawaii, A 19 Day Tour of Florida, A Dude Ranch in Tucson, Aruba, Jamaica, Virginia, Maryland, Austin, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Dells, Colorado Springs, Park City Utah, all over California, and more. We were “hosted” on all of these trips and were even paid to take many of these trips in exchange for coverage on the site.

Last year, we attended many special events for the blog: World Premier of Lethal Weapon in Hollywood, Numerous special events at Disneyland and Disney World, and KIA events in Lake Tahoe and San Diego.

Most importantly, I am able to be there for my family all of the time. I work on my own schedule….I never have to miss a game, a school event, or stress about missing work when they are sick or need me. I am my own boss, and I decide everything about my business.

And I’m sure you have joined the Facebook group by now, but if for some reason you haven’t, the time is now! We’d love to see you there. You’ll pickup some great information and hopefully meet some other like minded bloggers that will be able to help you along in your journey.

When your blog is ready to present to the world, post to the group with the #newblog hashtag. I’m sure you will find a lot of your first readers from our supportive group!

I hope you truly enjoyed the Start A Money Making Blog. We will stay in touch as we have new information to share.

For now, good luck on your new blog. Remember, work hard and be persistent, and you WILL be successful! We have another new course that will be released soon with more information on making money now that your blog is set up. Be on the lookout for an email about it as soon as it is released. Since you signed up for this course you will be getting early access to the new one.

Ready to keep the progress going? Sign up the Monthly 10k Challenge that we run in the Facebook Group.

Or, are you ready to take things to the next level? Enroll in our 30 Day Blogging Fast Track program to supercharge your results…making money, traffic, social media….you name it, it’s in there!

Best Regards,

Heather & Pete