So many of us want to make money blogging.
As a matter of fact, I’m one of those making money with their blogs and if you are reading this post this moment, you are certainly interested in generating some earnings as a blogger.
Yes, blogging is still relevant, and there are almost uncountable ways to make money as a blogger. In this post, I discussed 15 different ways bloggers (including me) make money. If you haven’t read that resourceful article, I recommend you check it out.
Recently, I published another post on 5 options to monetize your blog. A pretty nice summary to get you going.
I’m still on the look out for more ways to make money as a blogger. So I stepped out and contacted some top bloggers in the industry to share their secrets with us. The good news is that most of them responded, sharing their most cherished secrets.
I asked everyone on the list just one question and here it is;
What are your two most effective ways to make money as a blogger?
You can just click the blogger’s name here below and move straight to his/her contribution. However, I encourage going through what each one of them has shared.
They individually came up and shared their minds with no reservations. Take note that this post has tips and secrets that will surely change the way you struggle to make money online. These bloggers are very successful in doing what they are sharing with us so take your time and go through this article word after word.
John Chow Adam Connell Zac Johnson John Paul
Tracy Raftl Neil Patel Jacob Gube Brian Dean
Yaro Starak Chris Guthrie Matt Smith Lisa Irby
Nick Loper Kevin Muldoon Timo Kiander Ben Johnson
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NB: I have listed these awesome bloggers in no specific order.
1 – John Chow (How I make money blogging)
1 – Think life-time value of your readers. Most bloggers make the mistake by monetizing their blogs with advertising from third party networks. That gives the reader a short life-time value. They click the ad, you make 25 cents, and never see the reader again. This is especially true if that reader came from a search engine and don’t know who you are.
2 – Your blog’s goal should be to capture the readers coming to it. The best way to do this is by getting them to opt into your Email list. By capturing their email, you have now have the ability to form a relationship with the reader, establish your brand, and recommend products and services to them that will help solve their problems, and make you money. That increases the reader life-time value way higher than any third party ad network. https://johnchow.com
2 -Tracy Raftl (How I make money blogging)
I make money blogging by helping people get rid of acne naturally, returning to them their sense of confidence and self worth. My two most effective ways to do this are from selling ebooks I wrote on the topic, and commissions from the Amazon affiliate program. You can find my blog at https://www.thelovevitamin.com.
3 – Jacob Gube (How I make money blogging)
Making money as a blogger is all about site traffic. And it’s not just about the number of pageviews, but also the type of readers the blog draws in.
A blog that’s appealing/influential within a niche readership consisting of people who have disposable incomes or available funding to spend on relevant products/services, say a blog for professionals like lawyers, doctors or software engineers, will generate more advertising income than a blog three times times its size, but whose readers aren’t engaged and in a position to make any sort of purchase.
So if you agree with me that making money as a blog owner directly correlates to your site’s ability to generate the right type of traffic, then what follows are two ways that will help you do that.
The first way — and I would argue the only way — to get good site traffic is to consistently produce great content. That’s easier said than done, though. It’s taken me 6 years to learn how to produce decent Web content, and I still feel there are a lot of ways we can improve and that I still have a lot to learn. What makes a piece of content great will largely depend on your audience, so it will take a bit of time and faith in yourself to figure it all out. Read and — more importantly — respond to comments.
Ask your readers to have conversations through email and social media. Learn about the things that interest them. Continually analyze and gain insights about past blog posts to see what makes one better over the other. Then, test your theories.
The second most effective way is to invest money, time, and resources into a solid marketing campaign to get a jump-start in building your community. I have no first-hand experience in this, we didn’t put any funds into starting up Six Revisions or Design Instruct because they were all allocated to content production, development, and our technology infrastructure, but I personally know a few bloggers that have invested in online advertising like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc. and it really shortened the time it required for them to get serious site traffic compared to others (like us) who chose not to invest in getting that initial boost in site traffic.
But, before you do this, you should already have great content in your blog. A blog without substance will not convert visitors into long-term readers. I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting up another web property in the near future and I’d like to test my theory about this by earmarking funds into a solid launch campaign.
4 – Brian Dean (How I make money blogging)
Considering the other seasoned veterans you have contributing to this roundup, I’m sure I won’t be the only one talking about the power of an email list.
Here’s the thing about the expression “the money’s in the list“: it’s TRUE. Tony Robbins said it best, “If you don’t have a list, you don’t have a business”. So the #1, #2 and #3 way to make money from your blog is to build your email list.
Once you have that, the next best strategy is to sell your own product, whether it’s an information product, consulting, client work or software. Selling affiliate products has its place in a blog’s monetization, but you’re not fully in the driver’s seat.
The offer that’s pulling in 25% of your revenue could suddenly go under or pull it’s affiliate program without warning. But when you have your own products and services, not only do you get 100% of the revenue, but you’re fully in control. https://backlinko.com
5 – Neil Patel (How I make money as a blogger)
The two most effective ways to make money as a blogger is to create your own products and sell them to your audience, or become an affiliate for other people’s products.
Think of it this way, if people are willing to pay for ads on your site, they are usually make more money than they are spending. So by being an affiliate your payouts is usually higher assuming you are picking products that are of interest to your readers.
And in an ideal world you would create your own products as that will provide the highest profit margins in the long run. It takes more work, but it is worth it. quicksprout.com
6 – Yaro Starak (How I make money blogging)
The most effective way I have ever made money as a blogger is to sell high priced items. The most money I have ever made is selling in-depth courses that offer a lot of support, for around the $500 to $1,000 pricing point.
These courses do take a little longer to create in order to deliver value to justify the price, but when you get good members it’s a great way to make a living as a blogger.
I’ve also done well selling higher priced affiliate products. During one campaign when I promoted a $3,000 training program I sold 18 copies, which I earned 50% commission from. That’s not that many sales, however it means I received $27,000 from just one promotion.
The second most effective way I have made money as a blogger is to sell subscription products. Although these products might only cost $25 per month, if you can sign up a number of people and it’s the kind of service or product people keep paying for (like an email autoresponder service), you keep making money.
One program I began promoting back in 2007 and ever since then I’ve received a cheque in the mail for $500 or more month after month. That’s more than eight years of steady commissions!
My advice to bloggers who want to make good money but not work so hard to get lots of traffic is to sell your own products and subscription products. That way you only need a few customers to make good money. https://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com
7 – Chris Guthrie (How I make money blogging)
2. Create an audience that is interested in buying what you’re selling
Specifically build an email list from any and all traffic you get to your website. UpFuel
8 – Matt Smith (How I make money blogging)
One of the reasons why I love running a website and blogging so much is the fact that there are so many ways to monetise a site. For that simple reason alone, it is difficult to select only two. If you had to twist my arm though mine would be;
- Affiliate Marketing
- Selling your own Products/Services
Affiliate marketing can be such an effective way to monetise a site. Of course, the key to this working is to carefully select which products to promote. Some sites fall into the trap of promoting anything and everything that they can find online, which only serves to dilute what you are saying. If instead you can promote affiliate products that you use, you can better explain and demonstrate to your readers why they themselves would benefit from it as well. People are much more willing to trust product reviews when they can see that the reviewer is actually using it.
The added benefit of affiliate marketing is the higher margins that you can earn from them. For example, say a site wanted to display an advert. They could choose to display AdSense ads, which would earn a few cents every time someone clicked on it OR you could display an ad that links to an affiliate product that you were promoting. You only (usually) get paid when a sale is made on that product that comes via your site, though that can be 10%, 40%, 80% of the value of the product. Depending on what that product is, you would only need one sale to make the same amount as you would with hundreds of AdSense clicks.
Whatever your site focuses on, you should be striving to create/offer some sort of product or service for your visitors. After all, what is better than making 50% commission on an affiliate product? Well, 100% of your own product/service of course!
A lot depends on what niche your site is aimed at, but it is easier than ever to create your own; eBook, video tutorial course, membership site, audio downloads, etc. or setup payment options for people to hire you to do; design work, writing work, teach them a language, consultation work, etc. Factor in the fact that you can then submit your product/service to an affiliate marketplace to get other people to help promote it for you online, and you begin to see the potential it has. OnlineIncomeTeacher.com
9 – Lisa Irby (How I make money blogging)
My two most effective ways of making money as a blogger are through affiliate marketing and advertising. I’m in a niche that fortunately has a good amount of high paying and residual income programs and the ads pay well too. So that’s how I earn the majority of income from my blog.
10 – Nick Loper (How I make money blogging)
I believe the most effective ways for me to make money as a blogger ironically haven’t been blogging-related at all.
The first step was having a product or service to sell – in my case that’s a private mastermind and side hustle coaching. For the first several months of my blog, I didn’t have anything to sell, so I had little hope of making any money.
It takes a massive following, massive engagement, or massive search engine rankings to make money from affiliate sales as a blogger. We all see Pat’s five-figure Bluehost earnings each month but that’s a special case; not one that’s easily emulated.
The second tactic that’s worked for me has actually been my podcast, The Side Hustle Show. I don’t believe I’ve had any mastermind or coaching customers who’ve come in “cold,” without listening to the podcast first. It’s a powerful medium to reach a really broad audience, connect with some awesome and inspiring people, and develop a deeper connection with your listeners than you ever could from a blog post.
If you can get people spending 30-40 minutes per week with you in their earbuds, you’ll build a much higher level of trust than if that person spent 3-4 minutes reading your blog. The voice connection is definitely a strong one, and even though it takes a lot of time and energy to produce, the podcast is probably my most effective sales channel.
Now combine the podcast with your email list and it’s a deadly combination! https://sidehustlenation.com
11 – Zac Johnson (How I make money blogging)
1.) Growing my personal brand. There is no better way to monetize your blog and your audience than by growing out your personal brand. Google can throw you out of the search engines, social networks can disappear and your advertisers budget may dry out… but at the end of the day, if you have a brand and a loyal following, people will always find you and you will always have something of value.
2.) Creating your own products and content. Just as important as your blog brand, what you decide to do with your content and audience is also important. By this I mean you shouldn’t sell out and instead focus on creating quality products and services that you can offer to your audience. Remember, this all goes back to your brand power and what you decide to do with it. https://zacjohnson.com
12 – Adam Connell (How I make money blogging)
There are plenty that come to mind, but my top two would be:
Affiliate marketing – While this is one of the most popular ways to make money online, a lot of people definitely struggle. You need an engaged audience to make this work, but you can make it work.
Don’t just promote any product; get behind products that you really believe in.
As a blogger you need to be authentic and you can’t do that if you’re promoting rubbish. Start off by focusing your content around some key products and then expand.
The great thing about this is that you can earn a passive income, but don’t let that stop you from continuing – keep working at it and keep growing your income.
Offer a retainer based service – Offering a service is a great way to earn money but you can add another dimension by offering a retainer based service where you charge a monthly amount.
You could still offer one off services, but encouraging clients to engage your services on a regular basis is the way to go.
In order to do this, you need to find a problem people in your niche are facing that you can help them with.
You also need to minimize risk to yourself too, so offering a service to help someone with a third platform can work, and work great but it’s worth diversifying.
If there is enough demand and you’re good at what you do, this can be a big earner.
As time goes on, you will become better known in your niche and that’s when the real magic starts to happen. https://www.bloggingwizard.com
13 – John Paul (How I make money blogging)
From my experience the best way to make money with a blog is to SELL YOUSELF! I like to call it “The Self Selling Strategy” and this is what I have used and have taught my clients to do for over 5 years.
You can sell YOU 2 ways:
- Sell a service
- Sell products you create
This works so well because the people coming to your blog, like reading what YOU have to say, they want to learn from YOU.
It makes sense that since they are already enjoying YOU, that selling your own services and products will be a natural progression and will have a higher conversion rate.
The trick to success with my “Self Selling Strategy” is you FIRST have to build up your blog with loyal readers that frequently visit, read and share your content over time.
“This is Not a quick flip option, but it’s the option that will have you making money with your blog long into the future if you take the time to lay the foundation right from the beginning.”
But If you have followed the strategy I shared above correctly, you will have already pre-sold every reader on your blog with the awesome content you have been sharing over months, years. You build a loyal following on your blog and automatically pre-sell them on any service or product you release in the future, it’s a Win-Win strategy. https://www.johnpaulaguiar.com
14 – Kevin Muldoon (How I make money blogging)
A blog can be monetised in a number of ways once it has established a readership.
For me. over the last two years my two main sources of income through blogging have been affiliate referral commissions and selling my own products and services.
I mainly generate affiliate commissions through in-depth reviews, as opposed to displaying banners on my sidebar. I have found this to be a much more effective way of generating income, and it offers great content to readers too.
As traffic to my personal blog has increased, so has the number of freelance writing gigs that have come my way. I have also seen conversions for my books and for RiseForums increase in line with this traffic.
If you have a loyal readership, you are in a good position to provide useful products and services to your readers. Therefore, it makes sense to cater to their needs and offer them something that they need. www.kevinmuldoon.com
15 – Timo Kiander (How I make money blogging)
Right now, I’m in a stage where I can’t yet give you an exact answer.
I’m just getting started with writing Kindle books, and I’m having my first live event with my friend (about stress and time management) very soon.
Although I have written one book already, I want to do more testing with Kindle publishing so that I know how well that turns out for me.
Also, live events (training and speaking) are something I want to get more involved with this year. I think this is a great way to show your expertise in front of a live audience. I’m also looking forward to using it as a way to promote my blog as well. productivesuperdad.com
16 – Ben Johnson (How I make money blogging)
I’m running multiple blogs and the 2 biggest sources of revenue are:
1. Selling digital products
2. Affiliate marketing
I also make some extra with sponsored posts.
But in my opinion, the #1 thing you should focus on in order to make money with your blog is to earn the trust of your readers. That should be your core focus before even thinking about money.
If you have the trust of your readers, you automatically have the influence over their purchase decisions. And that’s how you make money.
You can either recommend a good product which you’re an affiliate for, or you could produce and sell your own products.
And believe me. If they trust you and if your recommendations / products are something that could benefit them, they will BUY.
So, my advice for new bloggers is to focus on being of service to your readers. Create great content that solves their problem. Be responsive via emails / social channels. Always try to provide value and help your audience as much as you can.
And you’ll be surely be rewarded. https://thegreatsetup.com/
17 Ryan Biddulph
I focus mainly on creating helpful posts and building strong friendships to make money blogging. Then I add income streams like writing and selling eBooks, creating courses, selling sponsored posts, co-creating and selling audio books and offering coaching services to prosper.
The money is in the value you share and bonds you build. Opening income streams offers you channels through which you receive money.
https://bloggingfromparadise.com
Erik Emmanueli
I make money online with different methods:
- On my main website, I sell advertising in form of banner ads and sponsored posts. I get paid to review products or services, being contacted directly from online companies.
- On my niche sites, I earn with affiliate marketing and Adsense.
Also, I have a nice number of clients for my social media and writing services. - Finally, I’m in process of creating my first product, where I will share my 8 years of online experience of building successful income streams.
The best suggestion I can give to newbies is to differentiate your online activities, never put all your eggs into one basket and work always on new ways to generate traffic and income. https://nopassiveincome.com
That’s it about the list!
I hope this information shared by these to bloggers and businessmen has been help. The essence is to connect with them one-on-one. Contact those you thing can help you further. If they took time to answer my question, they will be available to work with you.
You can already start by interacting with them here by dropping comments.
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Is Affiliate Marketing the king?
One thing I noticed is these top bloggers all earn with Affiliate Marketing. That makes me think it’s the model anyone can get into. It isn’t easy though. That’s why I wrote this ebook on Affiliate marketing for bloggers. Get your copy.
If you have multi-niche blog, you are going to be able to milk it big with Affiliate Marketing. Like DotBeasts.com does, you can review products from Amazon or from different platforms and earn commissions.
And to end up, my sincere thanks to everyone on the list. I know you guys are so busy but you created time to provide the content accurately. I ever remain grateful and thanks again for taking time to reply to comments here on this post.
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