How to Make Money Blogging in 2023 ($40,000 per Month)

The most popular question experienced bloggers get from beginners is how to make money blogging and what are the most effective strategies to start earning as soon as possible.

Well, one thing I can tell you: if you asked yourself this question before starting your blog, you are on the right track! Why I’m so sure that you have to think through monetization at the earliest stages of blogging?

Because money will become the fuel that keeps you motivated and happy with what you are doing. Blogging is not like any regular job you were doing.

It takes a lot of time and dedication before you understand how to make money blogging, but in many many cases, it doesn’t bring immediate results and income in particular.

So, if your traffic is still small, if you have something like 500 subscribers, is that the time to start monetizing your blog? Nope, you should have started earlier!

Start thinking about what and how you can earn from your WordPress blog from day one and every day after that. When you see a little $100 payout from your first or second month blogging, does it motivate you?

Hell, yeah! Much better than having an absolute zero of monetary reward for your enormous beginner efforts!

If you are looking for an affordable hosting company to start a blog, I recommend you Bluehost which I use for this blog. When you use my link to Bluehost, I receive a commission, and you get hosting + free domain name + free SSL certificate (https) with a 50% discounted price. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Now that we all agreed that making money blogging is a great motivator, let’s look at the many ways you can earn a living from your blog.

This is part 4 of 4 of the Starting a Blog series.
1. How to Start a Blog in 10 Minutes
2. How to Choose a Domain Name 
3. Checklist for Starting a WordPress blog (10 essential details most newbies forget!)
4. How to Make Money Blogging

What is a blog?

The first thing you want to do is don’t believe everything you hear. If this is your first time getting into this journey or you are starting a new blog, then I am here to tell you that no, blogging is not dead and it will probably never be even after a few years from now.

Actually, there is no better moment to begin blogging than now, especially because we live in a digitally-paced world.

You may have arrived here because you want to establish a blog or because you currently want to monetize a blog.

And you’d be right to want that because blogging has always been a terrific source of a passive income!

If you enjoy writing, that’s even better since you can make money by writing a blog post and doing what you enjoy!

Short for a “weblog”, a blog is considered to be an online journal or a source of online information that can be updated anytime.

A blog is the best platform for writers to share their works or for small business owners to promote their business and/or products through a blog post.

The content of a blog typically includes texts (a blog post), photos, videos (or Youtube videos), animated GIFs, illustrations, infographics, and more! 

A blog is a perfect medium wherein you can talk about everything and anything you want – be it controversial major issues, or make it serve as a personal log of your daily life.

The length range of a post highly depends on the owner—it may be short and informal or long and professional but never forget to do your keyword research as it can help reach your target audience easier and quicker through a single Google search.

Since 2019, there are over 600 million blogs from around the world and over 31 million active bloggers posting at least once a month.

So this means that blogging is still a very competitive activity out there and no, it is not too late to start blogging!

You should also know that this includes individuals and small business owners alike! So it is worth knowing that blogging is also beneficial for businesses. 

Why should you start a blog?

There are many reasons I could give you as to why you should start a blog. But my number one reason would always be that if you want a passive income stream, then you should start a blog right now.

Blogging opens new opportunities to making money while just working from home and doing what you love.

And if you are a business, then this is also a great way to establish your personal brand and gain brand awareness as well as potential customers.

If you are someone who loves writing and helping someone solve their problems, then writing blog posts would be perfect for you. 

Now, you may ask this: “How could writing several blog posts bring me money?”.

Well, a profitable blog can earn money through ads, promotions, website visits, sales, and more!

Trust me, blogging is just the first step in establishing your online presence as a business owner. 

Can you make a living through blogging?

This is related to my first point but if you are still second guessing about how you can monetize your blog, then I am here to confidently say that yes, you can make a living off of a blog.

There is no limit when it comes to generating passive income or earning money in blogging.

You can earn money through affiliate programs and links in your blog posts, sell products or your own online courses or ebook after you have established a community and a great number of site visitors, gain money through website banner ads, and work with other companies and get sponsorships. 

If you are a small business owner or you run an eCommerce store, your blog can help you gain site visitors, email leads, or sales to your online store. 

You can even offer consulting services about your expertise.

For example, even though I do not have an online store, I do consulting services in blogging and Pinterest marketing which helps me establish my name as an expert in the field.

I also sell products and a bunch of online courses that add to my monthly income.

But how much money can you make in blogging? In my case, I make $40,000 per month (through online courses, display ads, and more) and that still has the opportunity to grow even more! 

Factors to consider when starting a blog

1. Ask yourself: Why do I want to blog? 

You may be here because you have asked yourself: “How much money can you make by starting a blog?”

If you want IMMEDIATE money like, let’s say, within a week or a month, then you might want to rethink this one.

Successful bloggers do not appear overnight. Blogging takes time and energy. Treat this as your business – and in every business, you need to give it an ample amount of time and effort to boom. 

But unlike most businesses, you do not need a lot of money to start blogging.

And no, you do not need to have products and services ready to make money.

So with that said, if you want to write and make money while readying yourself to put in that needed enthusiasm, then I suggest you make a blog right away.

2. Think of Long-Term Plans

Do you want to sell your product or services on your website?

Do you want to quit your 9-5 job and make this your full-time job?

Do you want to get sponsored by travel agencies or your favorite beauty brands?

Do you want it to be a motivational platform? 

Planning out future goals for your blog is a great factor to keep you motivated to really work on your blog.

3. Pick a profitable blog niche

Avoid draining your creative juices because you hate what you are writing.

Pick a blog niche or blog topics that you have expertise in or at least passion for. Think about what you want your blog to revolve around in. You’re gonna be doing this for most of your time so might as well focus on something you enjoy.

There are countless of blog topics you can dabble into but some of the most profitable blogging niches are:

• Lifestyle & Travel
• Beauty and Fashion
• Career
• Finance / Budgeting 
• Food 
• Health & Fitness
• Tech

You can cover a multi-blogging niche like me (lifestyle, career, self-help, blogging) or opt for a more focused blogging niche like budget-friendly travel, organic recipe blog, DIY home decors, pet care, and more. The sky’s the limit! 

Write about things you love and believe in and your loyal readers will stay engaged and will continue placing trust in your words.

If you are wondering which blogging niches are more profitable than the others, I recommend you to check this study on RankIQ, according to which food and personal finance are the best niches for 2023.

4. Come up with your business (domain) name

Here’s the time when you think about your blog identity.

What do you want to portray? Make sure your readers know what they will expect on your blog the second they go on it.

Your domain name can either be a play of your real name.

Heck, it can even just be your name, plain and simple. Thinking of a domain name will be fairly easy if you already have a profitable niche or goal in mind. 

5. Choose a reliable web hosting

If there’s one thing you should invest in, it’s web hosting. Getting a hosting account or self-hosted WordPress blog means you have all the freedom and rights to your content and earnings. 

To explain it more clearly, there are hosted and there are self-hosted blogging platforms.

Hosted blogging platforms include free domain blogging websites such as Blogger, Wix, etc., meaning that that platform handles all the updates for you while giving you restrictions and guidelines you should follow.

Oh, and the revenue from the ads you see on your blog won’t be yours – it will be theirs.

On the other hand, getting self-hosted means you get to have full freedom to design and create all the content and visuals you desire; you just need a web hosting company to help you store and take care of all your hard work. 

I used Bluehost to start my blog, and I think it’s the best and most affordable option for starters.

I still do recommend WordPress though because you can have access to a bunch of free WordPress plugins that can help you start.

6. Create a content plan and start writing 

It is now time to start the work. Usually, it is recommended to post content for at least 10 posts before you officially “launch” your blog to the public and start promoting it.

Having a certain amount of published posts can help you retain loyal readers as they have more stuff and articles they can go through. 

For topic ideas, I do suggest you have a content plan to keep your ideas organized.

I use Google Sheets which is free and easy to use. 

7. Market and promote

Well-known, successful bloggers suggest you follow the 80/20 rule. This means you spend 20% of your time and energy creating content, and 80% promoting it. Because honestly, what’s the point of writing all this amazing content if no one will read and appreciate it?

As a first-time blogger, Pinterest is going to be your best friend. It’s free and serves as a search engine for potential site visitors on the web. 

Bloggers gain almost 100,000+ monthly views from promoting their blog posts on Pinterest alone!

Just sign up for a Pinterest business account, make visually appealing, vertical pins for your blogs with catchy titles, upload it on Pinterest, and wait for your website traffic to grow.

And no, you do not need any digital marketing skills to start!

HOW I USE PINTEREST FOR MY OWN ONLINE BUSINESS AND MY RESULTS

When my site was just a little over 1 year old, I reached 172,000 monthly pageviews to my blog, with about 90% of website traffic coming from Pinterest. Just for the record, I started with 0 followers on my Pinterest account!

I started my second blog in Feb 2018, and the new blog momshealth.co hit 74,000 monthly pageviews in less than 90 days! And again, almost all the traffic comes from Pinterest and doing keyword research.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Advertising – the most basic way to make money blogging 

For many beginners advertising (such as Google Adsense, for example) seems like a fast and easy solution.

Just need to apply for the network, add ad spaces to the site and make money. Actually, it is in most cases as simple as, unfortunately, inefficient waste of space on your site.

The worst thing you can do to generate income on ads is to fill your blog with ad blocks all over and lose the trust of your audience.

Keep things balanced and respectful. Treat your readers as you’d like to be treated yourself.

Don’t assume that your audience is idiots who don’t notice that your blog has 10 ad spaces per post.

And don’t expect them to click on ads on your blog when they are already irritated enough to close the page and forget your blog forever.

Enough of moralizing, let’s move to the practical side of ways to make money blogging with ads. Which are the ad networks you could use?

The lowest entry requirements for beginners are in Google Adsense and Media.net, so that’s what you could start with.

I have to be honest with you guys, Adsense can bring decent money to bloggers with high traffic volumes, of course, getting a lot of blog traffic is something tough for new blogs and new bloggers.

To make it shorter, I wouldn’t rely on this type of advertising heavily.

When your blog starts generating organic traffic at least 50,000 sessions per month, you might be very interested in joining ad networks like MediaVine Publisher Network, because they help bloggers make much money from each visitor than if you run Google ads on your own.

They optimize your positions, run your ad server, and manage your advertiser relationships, and they require exclusivity.

If you reach 100k+ pageviews a month, one way you could do is to apply to join Adthrive as they also help bloggers increase ad income and affiliate income from the same amount of ads served on their sites.

They promise that on average sites earn 3 times more per page view with AdThrive.

Well, get to 100,000 pageviews a month, and when you are there, let me know if it really works. Here are some monetization methods you can follow:

Sponsored Posts or Direct Ad Sales

Doing a sponsored post is a great way to earn a huge amount of money since you will be working with brands and other companies.

The ads sold directly look almost the same on your site as display ads served by Google or other networks. The only difference is that you sell the ad placements directly to advertisers, and so you define the prices.

Advertisers can be companies, small businesses or even your colleagues – solo entrepreneurs. They will contact you through your site contact form or via your site’s social media accounts.

And by the time they reach you, a good idea would be to check what prices other bloggers in your niche offer. This information can usually be found on pages called Media Kit or Advertise.

You could wait for advertisers to contact you, but if you are confident in your sales pitch, check other bloggers who target a similar audience and analyze their advertisers.

Prepare a convincing presentation of your blog and audience, and make your offer.

To get great sponsored opportunities as a beginner blogger, you can’t just wait and hope that brands will find you and make an offer.

At this stage, you will need to actively search for brands that resonate with your niche, topic, and your audience. You can start your research from the brands that you yourself are a fan of.

Also, check carefully what are the brands’ other bloggers in your niche worked with.

Once you have a list of brands, find their contact info on their official websites. Start with sending and pitching each brand via email – explain why your audience is such a great fit for them and include a bit of information about your journey as a blogger.

Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Marketing

Joining affiliate programs is one of the easiest things to get started with. You just have to make product recommendations and product reviews directly in your blog posts. And yes, you can do this even if you have a brand new blog.

These can be your own products or something you’re an affiliate for. Probably one of the easiest affiliate programs you can get into is Amazon Associates.

The easiest post to make wherein you can easily include your affiliate link is to make roundup posts like “Top 10 skincare recommendations for dry skin”.

If you want something really simple to try, sign up for the Amazon affiliate program and as you blog about things, work in a product here or there. 

As you blog about things, work on a product here or there.

For example, if you’re in the parenting niche and are working on a blog post about a fun park in your area that you went to, you could mention the stroller you used and how well it did or didn’t perform in the park.

Or if you’re a photographer who also blogs, share your latest pictures and mention what camera, filter, flash etc. you used for each picture along with links to those products. 

For many newbie bloggers starting with selling their own products or services is too complicated. You have to first become an expert in some topic or master a skill you want to sell, and only then you can offer services to your audience.

Selling affiliate products allows you to skip the step of creating your own ones and go directly to the money-making part.

When I started this blog, affiliate marketing or using an affiliate link became one of my primary income streams for me.

I currently make most of my income from the iGain network and from Flexoffers. You can see here in detail how I made $3178 with my new blog, most of the income comes from affiliate networks.

Another good thing about affiliate programs and affiliate sales is that almost in every profitable niche today you can find advertisers looking for affiliates. You can sell virtually every product available on Amazon and get a commission for it. Other popular affiliate networks that have thousands of advertisers are CJ, Shareasale.

Affiliate marketing is the preferred blog monetization strategy for many bloggers, myself included (at least currently). Top bloggers mastering affiliate marketing make $100+K per month!

How to Make Money Blogging – The Fast Way – Sell your products

You can start selling physical products or digital products. A blog is a great platform to sell digital products and physical products because your main selling pitch is already done and the relationship of trust with your audience is built on your content.

You already own their attention. Now all you have to do – is just offer your followers something relevant to their interests.

Various types of handmade products are usually sold on Etsy or Handmade Amazon. Meanwhile, your blog is a great platform for showing your products to people and demonstrating your skills.

Offline training, conferences, and seminars could also be included in the category of products.

They are also close to services though. Your personal blog is the best way to present yourself as an expert and thus promote such products.

I know bloggers who started writing about their hobbies, such as a healthy lifestyle, and found amazing ways to monetize their new blog by selling on it real products related to diets and fitness, which they produce locally and sell online with delivery to any part of the world.

Digital products changed the way many of us would answer the question of how to make money blogging. About 5-10 years ago bloggers were relying mainly on ads in terms of blog monetization.

Today we see that many professionals from various fields start their blogs as a way to present and advertise their products, such as:

•     themes, plugins;
•     graphic design elements;
•     foto/video/audio;
•     ebooks/webinars/ courses.

Sell your Services

Bloggers have a great opportunity to establish themselves as experts in a certain field. This is an indirect way to advertise their services. The types of services that can be offered online nowadays are almost infinite.

So, how to make money blogging about your services? And which are the most profitable blog niches that allow you to sell your services?

You can be an online English teacher, a coach, a web developer or a graphic designer. A flexible virtual assistant, a video editor, a digital marketer, project manager, transcriptionist, voiceovers creator, translator, writer, etc.

Basically, every job that is offered on freelance sites can better be sold on your blog.

On your territory, it is you who defines the prices and makes the rules!  You also avoid the commissions that freelance platforms apply to your earnings.

Basically, every job that is offered on freelance sites can better be sold on your blog.

Work With Brands 

Working with brands is another great option. Make connections via social media or use one of the large networks that connect bloggers and brands. They will often pay you to write a blog post that mentions one of their products.

Don’t be surprised to work for free products or low pay in the beginning—we all have to start somewhere, right?

Once your audience grows, you can expect to get paid better and even be a brand ambassador. 

There are tons of influencer network programs out there you can be a part of.

Basically, their main role is to connect bloggers to brands and let them collaborate with each other.

Aside from these, you can also directly contact brands to collaborate—just remember to not sound demanding or arrogant when sending them an email. 

How to Make Money Blogging Working With Other Bloggers

Your fellow bloggers can help you earn money through your blog by making you a part of their course affiliate program. These can be in the form of buying their course and asking them to have you become an affiliate.

Most course already gives you the option to become an affiliate once you finish the course. Another is to keep promoting your blog and introducing what your blogging niche is and what you mainly post about.

Through this, other bloggers can contact you directly to collaborate and be an affiliate of their courses or products. 

Paid Subscription/ Membership models

In some niches, for example, in coaching, money-making, and professional topics, bloggers can earn very well by offering paid VIP access to information or to individual communication/consultations with the blog owner.

As the Internet becomes more and more flooded with the free best content, the quality of it, unfortunately, goes down, and a lot of people now value their time the most.

They don’t want to spend it on learning and reading some useless free info products. These users are willing to pay extra to get access to a better filtered and high-quality information source.

Make offers on your email list 

The most effective way to make money from your blog is to focus on getting your blog readers on your email list first thing. This gives you a chance to build a stronger relationship with your audience, get them back to your blog, and of course make offers to them directly in your emails.

You can also promote your own products on online courses to your email subscribers.

Do remember not to spam your email list with merely offers and links. Keep your email messages entertaining and helpful with some recommendations thrown in, and you’ll do well.

Keep growing your list as your blog grows and your income will follow right along. 

You may have noticed that I did not include having ads put up on your site. You can do that as well if you would like. However, unless you already have high traffic coming in on your website, you will be gaining 0 to a couple cents from ads. 

As I have mentioned, these are just some of the top ways to earn money from your blog posts. I am sure there are more resources but these are just the methods that I use, have found effective for beginners, and are less time-consuming.

How to make money from your blog consistently

1. Keep monetization in your mind while working on every post

Some bloggers in their effort to keep updating the blog daily completely miss their monetization objectives. They start posting just for the fact of posting. If you want to make money from your blog, then you have to stop that mindset.

If you are seriously thinking about how to make money blogging, look at every post as an opportunity to make extra cash. Even if your new post is totally outside of the selling scope, you can still use it to give links to some of your products.

You can also mention your older posts, in which you had affiliate links or other selling opportunities.

It’s better to post 1-max 3 posts per week and make it comprehensive and capable of attracting significant traffic. Better have 10 posts driving traffic than 100 posts that don’t make any difference in your pageview numbers.

2. Don’t ignore the power of Emails

Your email subscribers are your best audience – they are the most loyal to you, they trust you, and they are the best prepared to spend money on anything that you offer.

Every subscriber is a treasure because he or she already clicked on your call to action and filled the forms. They are the people who return to your blog many times and increase page views. Attract more subscribers by offering useful freebies, giveaways, and valuable info available only to subscribers.

Use Mailchimp or Moosend for automated email marketing campaigns.

Make follow-ups to your users to keep your relationship with the readers longer and offer them more of your paid options.

I know that many bloggers are thinking about how to make money blogging and still make the mistake of neglecting email campaigns. And I don’t want you to be amongst them!

When you run a new blog, the main focus goes on content creation. Spending time on email campaigns seems such a waste of time when you have a small audience.

This is wrong! I recommend you to invest time and learn about email marking tools. Make some opt-in forms on your site, and do so as soon as possible for a new blogger.

3. Don’t rely only on ads

When your site is relatively young and doesn’t have enough page views to make a lot of ad dollars, you shouldn’t be focused on advertising. Especially on display ads from networks like Google Adsense.

You will just earn too little and annoy your audience with too many ad blocks.

Instead, try to monetize your audience in the highest-paid ways, such as selling your products/services, online courses, or using affiliate marketing.

How to write a profitable blog post

Are you having a hard time getting started and coming up with blog topics? Do you want to provide value to your readers? Are you still looking for the best content strategy to follow?

If you want to start blogging and write blog posts that are interesting and engaging to your readers, then I have some tips and strategies that work well.

Blog title

The headline of your blog article is the most significant part of your blog. Nothing you write inside the post will provide value if you don’t attract your reader’s attention with the title and get them to read it.

It makes no difference how good or useful your material is. It makes no difference what offers or affiliate links you include in your piece, or who sponsored you to create it.

If you can’t convince people to read it, the blog post is practically useless.

Your title is very significant when it comes to gaining free search engine traffic. It is the most crucial component in getting your content ranked.

Yes, there are many other aspects to consider, but a strong title with the correct keywords (through keyword research) will do more good than anything else.

So make sure to use blog titles that answer a question, triggers curiosity, and is not boring. Shorter titles tend to do better both with click-throughs on your blog and social media networks. 

Make sure to answer a question

Now that you have the blog title ready, it is now time to write what users visited your blog for – the content or the answer to their question.

If they searched “How do I make money on Pinterest” then you have to explain in detail exactly how you can make money on Pinterest. If they read your blog post and gained nothing from it, they will feel like they just wasted their time and probably won’t come back to your blog ever again. 

Do your research

There are tons of fake news out there and if you want your name to be established in your certain blogging niche or topic, then you have to do your research thoroughly.

Using the word “I guess” or “I think” in your posts does not sound very convincing, does it? If you can cite your sources, even better! This is a sure way for your readers to trust you and your expertise. 

Add affiliate links 

I have mentioned this several times already but a good way to monetize your posts is by promoting a product or service with affiliate marketing.

There’s nothing wrong about doing sponsored posts or adding affiliate links on your post as long as you put a disclaimer that you do gain a commission from it.

Especially if you are a lifestyle blog, this is a great content strategy since there could be some several products you would want to recommend to your readers, and might as well gain some extra money while doing it, right?

Just be sure to add affiliate links that go well with the flow of your blog post and don’t spam your readers with links upon links. 

How do you make your readers share your posts?

We live in a social world where we get a lot of our news and information from places like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

And yes, getting your posts to show up on top of search engines can be quite hard.

So, to increase your readership and ensure that your blog posts or guest posts receive the attention they deserve, encourage your readers to share what you’ve written on their favorite social networking platforms. Here’s how.

Make sure you have quality content

Of course, it all begins with creating high-quality blog content that your readers will want to read and share. And yes, your readers will know if you only copy and paste your content. Nobody is going to share a bad social media post.

Begin by producing the greatest blog entries you can within your blog’s niche and conducting research on what your target audience wants and needs.

In other words, if you serve your market well, you would want to write quality and informative posts to your readers.

Make it easy to share

A great way to make people share your blog article on social media, you should make it as simple as possible. Make sure you have one-click buttons in one place for sharing the blog content on all of those sites.

If you use WordPress for your blog, you should be able to locate WordPress plugins to aid you with this.

A WordPress plugin like this that I can recommend for this is MonsterInsights.

There are also tons of free tools you can install on your website to make it shareable.

Make your page pretty

It’s now time to polish your blog content. Make your information easier to read by breaking it up into little bite-sized bits.

Add some subheadings and formatting to help readers skim the information.

Don’t forget to include a beautiful photograph that expresses the essence of your message.

And more importantly, make sure you have one of the nicest and most appealing WordPress themes installed on your blog page.

You may also want to avoid adding too many ad pop-ups to your pages as these pop-ups can annoy your readers and prevent them from sharing your website. 

Directly ask your readers to share your work

Social media buttons and WordPress plugins do their job, but sometimes a little additional push is required to persuade your readers to take action.

Do not be hesitant to request a social media share.

End your articles and blog posts with a phrase or two asking people to share the piece on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media platforms if they loved it.

Remember to tell them how much you appreciate it when they share the love just as how most people say “thanks for sharing” at the end of their posts.

How do bloggers make money?

There is no single right answer to this question because every successful blogger has different types or his own recipe to make money blogging.

What I know for sure is that certain monetization strategies just can’t work together efficiently, and so bloggers need to create blog content according to the chosen monetization strategy.

For example, I wouldn’t recommend you to keep many advertising blocks on your site if you are trying to sell your own products or services because you are driving people away from your products to advertisers’ sites.

And usually, you can make much more from your own products than from an average ad click.

How to build a community or network as beginner bloggers?

As new bloggers, you may feel lonely and overwhelmed, wondering if you’ll ever gain a large following or even just a few regular readers.

Don’t give up!

Bloggers can make money within a few months if they work on it consistently, it requires time and persistent work.

And in the future, you can even offer services of your own!

However, there are several actions you may do to advance in your search for an audience for your blog.

Networking with other bloggers can be a fun, instructive, and sociable strategy that may also help you achieve your objectives faster than going it alone.

Follow these network-building suggestions for beginner bloggers, and you’ll quickly feel more assured in your efforts.

Don’t be afraid to make new friends

Because the purpose of developing your network should be to establish relationships, the rules of making friends apply pretty well to networking. Too often, people view networking as solely a means to an end.

They seek for well-known influencers to assist them in some way without returning anything of value. That is not how you build friends. Instead, search for points of commonality and engage in meaningful conversations.

Look for bloggers in your field, as well as those with the same blogs as yours and even well-known bloggers.

It is usually a good idea to broaden your network. Remember that developing genuine connections takes time.

Reply whenever you can

Even if you are a new blogger, a person or two might still be able to come across your blog posts and leave a comment here and there. Make sure to reply to it whenever you can.

This can establish a relationship with your readers and gain a genuine connection online. They will feel appreciated that you take the time to read and reply to their comments and feedback. 

Embrace being in a community

There are online forums for bloggers on diverse topics. A Google search should help you identify a group that matches your personality, niche, and interests.

You can find several results for these groups in search engines.

Blogging communities may be found on websites that offer instructive content, specific interest groups, educational opportunities, requests for sponsored posts, and other services.

Some websites have forums where users may ask questions and engage with one another. You’ll also come across communities that encourage users to produce articles and often feature members.

Get Social

Social media sites are excellent venues and a great place for advertising your content and for networking.

Conduct some research to find out where other bloggers in your field and similar topics, as well as their audience, hang together.

If you attempt to be everywhere, you’ll burn out soon, so pick a social media platform that will work best for you and your content.

Twitter is an ideal social media site for sharing information and conducting brief, real-time dialogues. It can also be beneficial if you intend to throw events with sponsors and prizes, or if you want to engage your audience in a themed conversation.

Pinterest is a great place for sharing images. It’s ideal for crafts, DIYers, educational niches, and lifestyle blogs, among other things.

Facebook is a great social media platform to create a page or a group for your blog, as well as communicate with people directly from your personal profile. Youtube videos are also a good way to plug in your blog once in a while.

Put Yourself Out There

You must not be afraid in marketing yourself in able to find your tribe and target audience and build a network. No, you don’t have to go out and meet people in person, though it doesn’t hurt.

Blogging conferences, whether in your specialty or in general, may be an excellent opportunity to acquire new skills, build momentum toward your objectives, and meet new people.

Other bloggers, digital marketing experts, and corporate reps may all be found at conferences, and some people find it easier to establish acquaintances in person than online.

And if you just do not have the time to attend conferences, then feel free to join blogging Facebook groups. These Facebook groups are usually hosted by bloggers for bloggers.

You can start introducing yourself in these Facebook groups and reach out by commenting on other bloggers’ posts.

Forums are also a great area to connect with colleagues or potential readers. Reach out to other bloggers with your ideas and offer to write guest posts for them.

Guest posts are basically the act of writing content for another blog or website.

Guest posts are also a great way for putting your work out there since you will be reaching a larger set of audience.

I personally have done guest posts for other blogs as well which helped me gain site visitors when I was just starting.

Why should you NOT start a blog?

There are many resources and posts out there encouraging you to start a blog right now.

And yes, I still encourage you to do so right now. But, to have a successful blog, you have to have the discipline and drive to maintain your blog.

With that, I have listed several reasons why blogging is NOT for you in the long run. This post is not to discourage you; this is just to help you avoid wasting your time and energy on something that might not be your calling.

You are impatient

Blogging takes time. And by time, I mean months and even years to even see your first $5 or receive your first sponsorship offer.

Especially now that there are also a lot of new bloggers, ranking your website can take some time unless you post consistent high-quality content, do research, and make the right investments (which are the next points).

Blogging can and will bring you money, don’t get me wrong, but you really have to be patient if you want to see the results you want from your blog. 

You hate writing

A blog is a website or a great place where you write your thoughts and share them with the world. A blog is where you share your knowledge, tips, and hacks to people who most need it – either be it in an informational or conversational form of writing.

A blogger’s audience is those who would rather browse through the internet and read information or tutorials. Blogging is writing and reading. Now, if you hate writing, then maybe you have to rethink your decision about blogging. 

An important note, though: You do not need to have experience in writing.

You do not have to be an editor or an established writer for people to read your posts.

If you can craft your thoughts and knowledge in written form, then that is already more than enough.

On the other hand, there are several platforms and alternatives which are very much like blogging.

There is Youtube for videos or vlogging, and there are other websites for graphic novels and storytelling.

I personally have my own Youtube channel for this reason exactly.

You do not like doing your research (specifically keyword research)

Making and managing a blog especially if you are just starting out is a one-man team job.

You will do the content writing, graphic design and layout, marketing and advertising, and even web development (if you are not yet ready to hire a developer). Hence, you really need to do some research. 

You need to do keyword research on trends if you want to produce top-notch content and appear on search engines. You need to research on basic graphic design and layout tutorials if you have zero skills in the field.

Even if you have been blogging for years now, you still need to do your research because the digital age and blogging platforms are constantly changing and we need to keep up. 

If you think this sounds tiring and not worth the time, then maybe you should give blogging a pass.

Too bad, though, because no one can ever have enough extra knowledge about everything! 

You don’t like taking risks 

If you do not want to step out of your comfort zone and experiment with new blogging approaches and strategies, then you will have a hard time seeing quick and positive results in your blog.

As mentioned, the innovations and updates in this digital age wait for no one so you really have to keep up and be on track with what currently works best.

You will have to try out a lot of new strategies, you might have to change your marketing plan, and you will need to update your content plan. Blogging is a trial and error process but the result is always gratifying in the end.

You are scared to invest 

Be it a hobby or a potential business, you will invest in blogging. If you’re blogging as a hobby, you will have to invest your own time and energy to make blog posts.

If you’re blogging to establish your business, you will have to invest your time, energy, and money.

Why money? Well, you can never start a business for free, right?

You need to spend at least a minimum amount to lay a foundation for your business. 

For blogging, the most important thing you need to invest in is your website.

Get a self-hosted website and not a free one. You will never go far if you do not have your own domain–if you do, it will take twice or thrice the amount of time as if you have a website you can claim your own. 

Now that you have your own website, you will need guidance on your next steps. These include marketing advice, tips on how to gain more site visitors to your website, an SEO guide, and more.

You do not need to buy an online course as there are a lot of free resources you can find on the web.

However, if you want something that is highly informative and contains original, well-researched information and measurable results, then investing on an online course or two wouldn’t hurt. 

You are scared of some feedback

Blogging just might not be for the faint of hearts. Once you publish your post, you are basically letting the whole world read and discover your words, thoughts, and beliefs—and you will get opposing feedbacks.

Unless you turn off the comments section on your posts, you will get responses. You will get constructive criticisms as well as harsh judgments.

There are really only two ways to go about this: Either you look at those feedbacks as an opportunity to improve and strengthen yourself, or you will let these comments drag you down. 

You give up too easily 

Let me just say this upfront: There is a high chance you’re going to be burnt out.

Blogging is basically a repetitive process of:

1. thinking about topics for your next post,
2. draining your creative juices to make that post,
3. spending 80% of your time to market your post,
4. make the necessary changes and updates to your website.

Now, if you don’t have the drive to finish or continue what you have started, then the foundation you built will all just go to waste.

Before you start making a successful blog, make sure you have an end goal—a goal that will push you hard enough to keep on striving. Surround yourself with people who you know will support and encourage you along the way.

Involve yourself in a community of bloggers who are just a message away if you need help. 

There will be moments when you will feel like giving up but, super cliche as it may sound, just remember why you started blogging in the first place. Blogging can be a successful side hustle or even a full time job.

If you are looking for affordable hosting companies to start a blog, I recommend you Bluehost which I use for this blog. When you use my link to Bluehost, I earn a commission, and you get hosting + free domain name + free SSL certificate (https) for just $3.95 a month. For more information, see my disclosures here.

You can use this handy Bluehost’s tool to check whether the domain you are thinking about is available:

How to create a blog and start making money on it?

Making money online is fairly easy once you have the right tools and strategies. Most of us feel extremely unconfident about the technical part of blogging. I know that a lot of people have so much to say to the world, but they just don’t know how to create a blog!

Before you start thinking about how to make money blogging, the whole thing of maintaining a site, hosting, posting content looks sooo complicated.

And it drives you away from the dream of making money blogging. This is why I created a step by step guide for beginners.

You can start your blog virtually in 10-20 min following easy steps and then start making money blogging. Imagine, in so little time you can have your blog live, and everyone can see your progress and read your new posts!

I find it very challenging and motivating at the same time. Hard work pays off!

 

How to Make Money Blogging in 2023 - Real Working Strategies

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Instructions

1. Advertising - the most basic way to make money blogging
2. Sponsored Posts or Direct Ad Sales
3. Affiliate Marketing
4. Sell your products

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