Can you STILL make money from blogging?
Can you still make money from blogging or what? AND what is blogging anyway and what is the difference between a blog and a website and since you asked I will tell you!
A website can be a site that connects to bricks and mortar shop and extra marketing.
It can be an online shop to buy goods and it can also be a blog.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Websites can be lots of different things but aren’t just a blog.” quote=”Websites can be lots of different things but aren’t just a blog.” theme=”style3″]
Blogs what are they?
Basically websites with content written by the website designer that answers questions people are searching for.
Or in some cases, they can be an online diary of your life.
They are basically a collection of articles written by the website designer and may or may not be monetized.
Can you make money with a blog – absolutely just have a look at my post on
21 bloggers income and see how much these bloggers make PER MONTH!
TOP bloggers reveal how to make MONEY blogging: 21 Bloggers Income reports
Can you still make money from blogging? and Will I have to work my BUTT off?
There are some top bloggers out there claiming to only blog a few hours a week and started off blogging a few hours a week – BUT I can tell you I only work on average 15 hours a week on my blog post once weekly and it is NOT enough!
Yep, there is no getting around it if you want to be successful you have to put the time in so at least double the hours I am doing ( I don’t slack off the rest of the time – I work part time too in a job I actually really enjoy).
That gives you a better idea of exactly the amount of time when you FIRST start off you need to put into this blogging thing!
I would love to work on my blog full time! But until it replaces my income its definitely a NO go!
Of course, this is for blogs that aim to make money if that is not your plan then you can take your time with it all.
If you want to know where I am 6 months – eck nearly 7 months in then check out my post by clicking the link below
Can you start a blog for free?
Wouldn’t that be great? The answer is a definite NO!
You can pair down to the very minimum hosting fees plus a few other bits and bobs but no it’s NOT free unless you don’t bother with your own domain and go with wordpress.com
PLEASE don’t!
Yes, you can start a lovely blog in a few minutes once you have figured out WordPress and everything else you need to do and of course bought hosting.
So yes it’s possible to start off with Siteground.
It’s $3.95 a month at the moment.
Once you have paid for hosting and set up WordPress you still have to look at your theme- paid or free yep you know what that means more money!
On top of that, you have your email service provider if you go with the one most bloggers talk about Convertkit then you are looking at $29 per month – my recommendation is to go with Mailerlite as they are free up to 1000 subscribers and they are easy to use too.
What next?
Well if you are going to use Pinterest as a social media then you need to pay for scheduling unless you want to Pin manually.
If you want to try Pinning manually then Carly’s Pinteresting strategies will help you out at only $32.00 it has tonnes of helpful hints on Pinterest in general as well as how to Pin manually.
I use Tailwindapp to schedule my pins on Pinterest and the most economical plan is to pay for a full years plan.
So you can see how costs can add up.
How come I started?- make sure your reasons are motivating
I started in 2000 – really?
I hear you ask really – my first two yes two blogs (I had NO idea! ) were called Dexterdog and Boatfirstaid on Google sites and no you won’t find them.
So like man,y I got started on Google sites, in fact, my mother’s art website up until a few months ago was still on there.
You get such minuscule space that adding just one pin imagine wiped her entry website space out!
I have since migrated her over to largsart.com on Siteground.
But at the moment I haven’t touched it. This comes back to what a website vs blog is her website is to showcase her art and sell it with a little blogging added in.
Where was I oh yeh my own reasons for starting so in 2000 with no idea I started two blogs with the aim to add lots of affiliate links to Amazon on them and make money.
If only I had done more research and actually looked at other websites and started off correctly I could be sitting pretty now!
Looking back is great, isn’t it!
Anyways I have followed lots of bloggers since then and finally decided if I really want to try again then do it properly go full on in!
For me, that means LEARNING about blogging.
So its definitely not free if I say I have spent upwards of $2000 it wouldn’t be a lie!
So no its definitely not free but for me its a challenge and I want to prove to myself I can actually do it this time and also I want to live a location independent life!
Why do you want to blog?
Is it to make Money?
How do you make money Anyway?
Ads and sponsorship – is there still money to be made yes – look at the income report from Billionaire blog club – It helps you to understand how you can make money and what different niches are successful.
https://billionaireblogclub.com/blog/february-2018-income-report/
Which niches should you choose?
Folks still earn some money from sponsorship and it’s up to you if you want to go down this route. BUT don’t forget it’s all about pageviews when it comes to ads.
Yes, big bloggers tell you that page views don’t matter when you are first starting they DO matter until you reach a certain level. When your email list matters more!
Adthrive requires 100,000 page views per month
And Mediavine requires 25,000 page views per month
So you need traffic to make that happen and in the beginning, it’s nice to have that extra income.
Some of the top bloggers make money from ads just have a look at my
TOP bloggers reveal how to make MONEY blogging: 21 Bloggers Income reports
People like Michelle of Makingsenseofcents makes good money from ads as does the Busybudgter and Paul from Daretoconquer smaller blogs also make money too like Mommyonpurpose.
Other bloggers have different views of ad’s and sponsorship and feel that it can dilute your brand and there are other ways to make money but I think its different for each person and website what they want to do in terms of monetization.
Can you still make money from blogging? Let’s look at Affiliate marketing.
There are thousands of products that you can become affiliates for anything you use every day that you love you can look at programs to join.
Make sure they are for products you have used and love because you want to make sure what you’re recommending will help people out.
What else should you consider
- Definitely, have your own products this is a no-brainer – create and grow if its what people want. Make sure you ASK people first – if you have a small list then email them and ask them, no list ask in Facebook groups if they think its viable the more folks you can get to ask the better you will know if it’s going to work. Worried about copycats well don’t you are you and only you have your voice – makes sense??
- The list to create your own products are endless – ebooks, courses, resource library via paid membership site.
To monetize your websites you need to be self-hosted especially if you want to have ad’s or sponsorship or affiliate programs as you would not be considered unless you have your own website.
So what are you waiting for chop chop -start your website today.
If you want to know what you need to do before you buy hosting and also how to start then check out my post.
This post is the beginning of a series of articles on how to start a blog for the complete beginner.
