How to Make Money by Blogging (for Beginners)
Did you know how much money some blogs make? I’m talking huge numbers, even 6-figures a month! You’re probably aware of the blogging opportunities since you’re reading this how to make money by blogging for beginners guide.
The thing is – we’ve all been blogging at least one occasion in our life.
But now when you’ve found out that you can make money by blogging, and you’ve found this post – nothing is going to stop you now, right?
I know that feeling. But if you don’t know what blogging really is or you know a very little about blogging – let’s start at the beginning!
But believe me, if you keep on reading – you’ll find actionable tips that will help you start your own blog today and most importantly, learn what are the next steps you should take after creating your blog.
What is Blogging?
A blog is best described as an informational site that can also be a discussion-type website that’s published on the internet.
Sometimes, blogs can include even discrete or intimate moments of someone’s life. However, nowadays, modern blogs can include almost anything there is.
From informational guides, how-to help articles, to personal experiences or reviews written by the owners of the blog or authors for certain blogs.
But how do you actually make money with a blog? Since the blog is published on the internet and there are more than 4 billion internet users in the world – there are plenty of ways to monetize a blog as long as you have an audience (or the following).
How Much Money Can You Make by Blogging?
This is the part that everyone is looking for – whether to motivate you to get started or to help you create a plan that will help you get out of 9-5.
Yes, blogging isn’t just a side hustle or a secondary income stream for some people. It’s actually a full-time gig for most bloggers.
So how much money can you actually make by blogging?
Some of the top blogs make up to a million a month! Here are some examples of the blogs you’ve most likely visited at one point:
- Techcrunch – $800,000/month
- Mashable – $600,000/month
- Perez Hilton – $450,000/month
- Smart Passive Income – $153,000/month
- Life Hacker – $110,000/month
- ProBlogger – $40,000/month
- PC Mech – $16,000/month
However, the top blog called the Huffington Post makes stunning. $2,330,000 per month!
Of course, these blogs have been around for at least a decade and they look like a magazine or a news platform rather than a simple blog.
Therefore, even though these numbers are possible, don’t forget that you’ll start with a blank blog and it will take a lot of time and work to get it visited by others – and even then to monetize it in the most efficient way.
I should also mention that there are thousands, if not millions of blogs that make at least $100/month so it’s up to your blog, knowledge, and persistence to see how much can you grow a blog.
Are you ready to learn how to start your own blog and how to grow it to the phase that it can actually generate an income? Keep on reading!
How to Make Money by Blogging (For Beginners)
Would you believe if I told you that there are over 600 million blogs in the world today?
It might seem like internet blogs are over-saturated industry – but that’s not right. There are millions of possible niches you can create your blog around and I like to apply the following rule to blogging: “There’s always room for one more”.
So should we get started!?
1. Choose your Niche
It’s important that you choose a niche right from the start. You don’t want a general blog where you’ll be sharing something that might not interest anyone. You want to know that there is an audience out there who would love to read and follow your blog.
Niche is a simple topic of interest and you will use it to create a blog around that specific topic of interest.
I wrote a full guide on how to choose your niche so I recommend reading it!
However, I highly recommend you to choose a niche you’re very familiar with, you have a lot of knowledge in that niche, or you’re very passionate about it.
This will help you come up with hundreds of topics you could write about, share knowledge and personal experience, but also teach others and share your advice on certain things.
2. Create a Blog
When you choose your niche, the next thing you have to do is create a blog.
Yes, that’s right. We jump straight into it and if you follow the guide I wrote on how to start your own blog – you’ll be able to have your blog online within 10 minutes!
We live in a modern age where it’s all about technology so you shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that you can create a completely new blog in just 10 minutes.
Even if you don’t have a lot of technical experience, this doesn’t mean you aren’t a good fit to be a blogger. With tools available on the internet – you won’t even have to write a single line of code to get your blog ready.
3. Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines
Now when you have your own blog created and published online – don’t let the blank homepage frighten you.
Every successful blog was once a blank page and everyone started at the same point. Instead of being scared of a blank blog – think of it as a canvas where you will be able to create anything you like out of your own blog.
The next step you have to do is search engine optimization (SEO). I know that this step might scare many of you away – but don’t go anywhere yet!
SEO is a simple way of optimizing your website so that it’s visible by search engines such as Google. This will help you, later on, to rank content you write and have it visited by real people who will read your blog posts.
The good thing about this process is that it’s not complicated and there are also free plugins you can use within your blog that can help optimize your website for you.
This will leave you with only a couple of things to do – and once you do this, you won’t ever have to re-do it again!
I wrote a full post explaining how to optimize your website for search engines so I highly recommend you reading it before you continue to the next step!
4. Research Keywords in Your Niche
Now when you have a well-optimized blog in a niche you’re very comfortable and confident about – it’s time to make sure that you get plenty of ideas for your blog posts.
Keyword research is a process of finding more information on the topics and keywords that are often searched for in search engines such as Google.
Why is this important?
If you rely on organic traffic and organic exposure (which is free), along with optimizing your website for search engines, you will also have to use keywords in your posts.
By using certain keywords in your posts, you’ll be able to know how many people you can reach if your blog post ranks well, but also how much competition is there for this specific topic.
It’s not impossible to rank a new blog, but it takes time and it certainly requires you to choose less-competitive keywords. You can’t expect to make a big breakthrough overnight (or in just a couple of weeks) or even compete with the top blogs that have been there for a decade.
I wrote a guide on how to research keywords for free – so give it a read as it won’t only help you ensure that your posts rank and your blog gets visited by people who will be interested in reading your blog post. But it will also help you get more ideas for future blog posts.
5. Start Writing Valuable Blog Posts
Your blog is still empty at this point – but not for long!
Once you did keyword research and you have at least a couple of topics you could write about – it’s time to write!
Every blog post you read online is written by a writer. And now it’s the time for you to be the writer. Don’t worry if you didn’t write in a long time or if you don’t know how to get started.
As always, I have prepared a guide for you on how to get started writing blog posts – so give it a read as there are many tips and techniques that will help save you tons of time.
Blog posts are required to grow your blog and they’ll be a sign to search engines whether you’re actively working on your blog (or whether they can forget about your blog).
It’s okay to start writing smaller blog posts, but ideally, you’d want at least 800+ word blog posts and post them at least a couple of times a week.
Even though quantity will help you rank for more keywords and have the ability to gain better exposure – quality is as important so don’t cut corners!
Monetizing Your Blog
You did all the steps, you took action and you’re persistent, and you’re staying consistent with content creation – but how do you monetize your blog?
And the second question is – when do you monetize your blog?
Some people tend to monetize their blogs from the day they make it. However, I highly recommend you to wait a bit because you don’t want search engines to see your website as promotional spam.
Also, by waiting on the monetization, you will be able to focus on the quality of your content a bit more.
And if your blog doesn’t get any traffic yet – there’s really no point in adding affiliate promotions, running ads, or using any other monetization techniques.
However, once your blog grows, you get traffic, and you even start gathering following – you can start monetizing your blog in different ways.
The most popular ways are:
- Affiliate programs – promoting physical or digital products in return for a commission on sales you help make
- Running ads – earning a revenue depending on the number of visitors that either see or click on your ads (the rules depend on the ads network you join)
- Selling digital products – It’s very easy to create quality digital products with the tools available. By knowing your audience, you can learn what would they benefit by the most and invent a product to solve a problem (mostly informational products such as eBooks)
Conclusion
Did you ever wonder what blogging is all about? How does someone become a blogger?
It’s something that anyone can start and yet not many people have a successful blogger for a friend, right?
Blogging is definitely something that takes a lot of time, dedication, and effort. But considering that it can be a type of an online business that can generate passive income in the long run – it’s definitely worth the hard work.
And this how to make money by blogging for beginners guide is the easiest to follow yet comprehensive guide you’ll need to get started.
Did you ever think of blogging? What blogs do you read?
Blogs are great tools for creating an income over time. I liked your list there. Very helpful for a beginner to use. The Basics lessons in the free trial and Alphabeth Soup technique is essential to learn. Jaaxy is the best Keyword search tool out there, How long does the free trial last? Do you think a beginner should go for SEO or ads from the start?
Hi Hilde,
you’re right, blogs are a great tool for creating an income over time because there are so many different monetization ways.
Thanks, I appreciate it!
The Basics lesson inside the Wealthy Affiliate and Alphabet Soup technique can definitely help everyone get on the right track and learn more from there.
I have a Jaaxy Lite account, but the Starter account isn’t limited by time and yet is only limited by 30 monthly searches. However, with these 30 searches, you can discover around 100s of keywords.
I believe that a beginner should definitely go for SEO first as the website building goes. It’s a very simple process that won’t only help search engines discover the website, but it will also have an advantage for the readers as well. Later on, when the website is well established, is neat and the navigation is efficient – ads can be helpful to bring some traffic quicker.