How to make money on your blog!

Blogging is my business. It’s what I do. When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I’m a professional blogger, they tend to look somewhat confused. So I started saying I’m a writer. Everybody understands that.

But the thing is, blogging is my primary job. I write books as well and I do public speaking but my blog (my Danish blog and this one) is the heart of my business. And it pays my salary every month and has done for a few years now. My Danish blog has between 250.000-300.000 unique visitors and 1 mio page views each month and has a Facebook page with more than 80.000 fans. This has taken me about 4 years to build.

In this blog post, I’ll share with you how I took my hobby blog and turned it into a business. The tips are applicable for you if you’re new to blogging or if you’re already blogging but want to take your blog to the next level and start making money on it.

GET STARTED

Start your blog and begin blogging!
That’s the obvious first step, right? There are plenty of free blog platforms making it super easy to set up your blog. I use and prefer WordPress.

Try to be creative when you come up with the name for your blog. Keep in mind that the name will also be the name of your business if you reach that stage and having a stupid business name is just… stupid. I’m saying this because my Danish blog (and my business) carries a rather stupid name but it’s my business now and I live with it.

Create some good and unique content and do it often
For your blog to attract readers, you need some good content. Unless you’re really famous when you start your blog, no one will read it except maybe your mom but just carry on making that great content. The competition on the internet is huge but who says that your content won’t make it! So blog away, and the readers will come!

If you have great photo skills, beautiful photos are a great way to create an inviting atmosphere.

Share your passion!
Write about something you’re really passionate about. It’s always interesting to read what passionate people have to say. Almost no matter of what they’re passionate about. So choose to blog about something that really interests you, something you know a lot about or something you want to know a lot about.

When I started my Danish blog back in 2011, no one had ever heard of LCHF. Today, we have a completely different situation. So don’t be afraid to write even if your topic is a niche.

Show your readers who you are 
Most people like to know who’s talking (writing) so tell them a little bit about yourself, tell them who you are, what your life is like, show them your hobby, write about your thoughts or anything you fell passionate about. Also consider having a profile photo so your readers can see your face. Personally, I prefer to see the face of the person blogging but there can be many legitimate reason to blog anonymously.

Contact and dialogue
A blog is a social media and not a one-way communication, if you ask me. I find it very important to prioritize the dialogue with my readers. So I try to answer all comments on the blog or on Facebook or Instagram. I don’t always succeed as there are so many but I try.

Keeping a nice and polite tone is also very important to show that all kinds of comments are welcome and that no questions are too small or too stupid. So even if I’m answering the same question (like: may I eat fruit on LCHF?) for the 800th time, I do it with patience and respect for the person who asked the question.

PROMOTING YOUR BLOG
Having a blog with no readers is boring so now it’s time for you to promote your blog posts and spred the word about your new and exciting blog. Social media platforms are a great place to start.

Make a Facebook page
Make a Facebook page and invite your friends to like it. Or just invite the friends for whom your blog may be relevant. You want engaged followers to your Facebook page and not just a certain number of likes. You can also share your content in different Facebook groups or you can promote your posts through your personal Facebook profile.

How aggressively, you choose to do this is an individual choice. Personally, I’ve only promoted my blog posts on the Facebook page I made for the blog and never in groups or through my own profile. My (private) time on social media is very limited so if I see the same blog post 3 or 4 times in my feed, I usually unfollow that blogger on some of the channels so I only see it once or twice. But that’s just me!

Use other social platforms
Never place all you bets in one place. Also use other social platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or Youtube to promote your posts. You don’t have to be present on all platforms but you can pick the ones that suit you and your content better. Different types of blogs perform well on different platforms.

Don’t forget to start a news letter
You also want to set up a news letter. You might think that that’s a waste of time but it’s not, so just do it! You don’t have to send any news letters at this point (but feel free to do so) but you need to start collecting email adresses from your readers.

The thing is, relying on social media platforms for traffic is a very vulnerable foundation for you business. Facebook changes their algorithm like normal people change their underwear and you never ever know how many people they’re going to show your posts to. One day they can completely abandon showing it to anyone at all unless you pay them for the exposure. And the same goes for the other social platforms. Consider them only for loan.

The email adresses you collect from your readers are your insurance and your safety net and they allow you to reach out to your readers if things go wrong for you. Bad things happen to good people too. What would you do if your blog was hacked (mine was in January and it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever tried!) or if your blog became unaccessible for some reason? With their email adresses, you will be able to reach out to your readers directly in their inbox.

I use Mailchimp for my news letter. It’s free to use until you reach a certain number of recipients.

START MAKING MONEY ON YOU BLOG
Ads, sponsored posts and affiliate marketing are some of the ways you can make money blogging. You can use some or all, it’s up to you. I’ve chosen to make my money on affiliate marketing and ads.

Advertising
Placing ads on your site won’t make your blog prettier, let’s be honest here. Generally speaking, you can say that you make more money on large ads than you do on little ads and the more they bother your readers, the more money you make on them. So you constantly balance not wanting to bother your readers too much against wanting to make money. There is no easy answer for this one.

Google Ads are a fine place to start. They show ads on your site based on the sites your reader has visited before yours combined with the content on your site. Sometimes they’re super relevant, sometimes they give you scam sites with dating, gambling or weight loss products. But there is money to be made there. In the best of all worlds, we would all only have beautiful ads for real foods or organic produce but it’s not a perfect world. I’m sorry.

Join a network
If you join a blogging network, they help you place ads on your site. One good thing about being in a network is that you have technical assistance and you can focus your time on creating good content. The disadvantage is that you give them a share of the income from your ads. I was in a network in the beginning of my blogging career but left them after a while to be independent and because I had a feeling I could make more money this way.

Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way of making commission on sales generated via your blog. You place a tracking code in your links that tells a third party that you should get commission from the sales. You don’t make a lot of money on each sale but if you have many readers, it all ads up.

You start by joining different affiliate networks. I’m not so familiar with non-Danish affiliate networks yet but on this blog I’ve joined the Amazon affiliate program and I’ve signed up with Webgains. After signing up, you join the campaigns that are relevant for your blog and for your readers.

Affiliate marketing is a form of advertising and you”re obligated to clearly mark your posts or affiliate links so your reader knows before clicking on them.

Sponsored posts
When you write a sponsored post, you have a company paying you for showing their product on your blog. Sometimes the payment is merely the product, other times you get a payment as well. No matter what kind of payment your getting, your blog post should be clearly marked with “sponsored post” as it is equal to advertising.

I don’t have any experience writing sponsored posts. It’s one of the money generating things I’ve chosen not to do. I don’t do product placement, product testing or give aways which are just another form of product placement.

I don’t work for free or for product samples. I’m running a business here! I try to keep my editorial content free of advertising but in the end, everything is a matter of price and I haven’t been offered a high enough price for me to lower my standards here.

I’m not interested in reading sponsored posts either so I prefer when the blogger clearly states “sponsored post” in the beginning of the post, so I can move on and come back another day instead.

TRAFFIC AND CREDIBILITY
As a blogger, your traffic and your credibility are your two most important assets and you want to work on keeping and developing both of them. The competition on the internet is hard and the next blog or the unfollow button is just one click away. So always keep your readers in mind when you choose what kind of content you want to expose to them.

Traffic is money
The more visitors your blog has, the more money you make. Your ads will get more views, your affiliate links more clicks and you can charge more money for your sponsored post if you can document that the client gets massive exposure for their product. So traffic is money. Remember that.

Be kind to your readers
As a blogger, your existence is in the hands of your readers. You want them to bear with you when you place ugly ads on your site and you want them to still come back the next day so at other times you’ll want to spoil them a bit to make them happy. Maybe you do that by making a free guide for something you know they’ll like or you offer them whatever content you can create that’ll make their lives easier.

Think of your readers as guests in your home. You want them to feel welcome and comfortable. Listen to what they have to say and respond respectfully. If they feel that they’ve been treated nicely, they’ll be more inclined to recommend your blog to their friends.

Also remember, that only a very limited number of your readers are actually commenting on your blog. Most readers never comment but you should still keep them in mind. Your comments may be all postive and supportive but you can still push people away from you by writing posts that speak badly about other people or other lifestyles. Making posts that criticize other people or their way of living is therefore rarely a good idea.

Credibility is money
You credibility is another important asset as a blogger. Sure, you can feel flattered when a company contacts you and says nice things about your blog and offer you free products or to become an “ambassador” for their product or invite you to participate in an event they’re throwing. It can seem like a little thing to write a blog post or two about them but always keep your reader and your credibility in mind. How relevant is that post for your reader, does it bring them any value and also consider your own credibility when you agree to these things. Imagine what you would think of me, a real food advocate, if I suddenly wrote a blog post about these “amazing (and chemical laden) meal replacement bars” someone sent me. If I were a reader of this blog, I would consider that a complete sell out and never return.

Always ask yourself this question: What’s in it for me and what’s in it for them or who benefits more from this when companies contact you. Companies profit from your credibility that you’ve built through posting all those good blog posts and if you are to compromise that credibility by putting yourself in relation with their product or brand, they should pay you for it. That’s how I work and think. Placing an ad in a traditional magazine is far from free, why should advertising on a blog come for free? A personal recommendation from a blogger you have faith in,we is worth much, much more than an ad in a magazine. So blogger, don’t forget your worth!!

CONSIDER ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS
It’a a good idea to consider additional products or services that can help strengthen your brand or give you additional exposure. There are many ways to do that. I’ve chosen the following:

Write a book
Publishing a book is a great way to expand your reach. Books get more attention in traditional media and they put you on the agenda in a way that’s difficult to obtain from a blog alone. There’s great synergy effect between a blog and a book. The book will drive more visitors to your blog and the blog will help sell more books.

If you have difficulty in getting a contract with a publisher, make an e-book and publish it yourself. It’ll give you the opportunity to test some things off.

Public speaking
I do public speaking as well and find that to be a great way to meet my readers in real life. Meeting each other face to face is a great way to create more loyalty and sense of belonging.

If public speaking is not really your thing, you can do workshops or webinars instead.

REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN!
If there were one bulletproof way to become a professional blogger, everybody would do it! It’s a great job! But to succeed requires both talent and good luck. So to begin with focus on enjoying what you do and have fun doing it. You won’t make money from day one. Most professional bloggers have been blogging for years without making any money. But if you continue to create quality content, you will start making money eventually.

Happy blogging!