Flexible Working Life

Some people reading this will already have a blog, but is it a blog that makes money?

I’m pretty new to the money-for-blogging arena, but I recognise that it’s simply one of the best flexible jobs out there.
You can blog about what you love, express opinions freely and if you do it the right way, you can be paid for it.

As I’m at the start of this journey, I thought I’d blog about my experiences so far and how my blog is now starting to pay for itself, as well as ways to set up a blog that will make money.

1. Get a domain name

With my other blogs, I didn’t invest in a domain name.
This meant that I was given whatever the blogging platform I chose gave me. I didn’t think it was a huge problem, but then, I never made a penny from my other blogs. Think about it, what’s easier to remember: www.myblog… or www.myblog/index/home/bloggingplatformthingie…..?

You want people to revisit your blog and a domain name will make this easier.
It’s not expensive and if you are using a blog to sell your services, then a domain name is a must! Who trusts a website trying to sell a service that has a long string of words that aren’t relevant in the URL?

Get a domain name and you are immediately more professional. And if you don’t have a service? Get a domain name that is your name. This generally attracts a buzz as it’s more personal and by creating a brand out of your name you generate more traffic to your site becuase you are delivering your personality.

2. Decide what are you blogging about and stick to it

Have a focus and keep to it.

You’re writing about your business? Then don’t start unexpectedly putting in posts about how you’re cooking lamb for dinner.
If you want to change the subject, then let your readers know at the start of the post. Basically, let all of your articles have some relevance to your readers. Know who they are and why they are kind enough to come back and read what you have posted up. A solid theme to your blog also helps for my next point…

 

3. Start Advertising

That sounds hard doesn’t it? But if you want your blog to make money then you need to implement some ways for it to pay.

You can have advertising on your page that won’t put your readers off but instead will actually help them.
Keeping the theme to your blog focused is an excellent way to source relevant advertising. Look at affiliate programmes and decide what products your readers would like.

Don’t think of it as advertising, think of it as recommending helpful advice.
If your blog is about books, an advert about a book shop that sells limited edition prints would be really useful to your readers. Do your research and take your time selecting advertisers. This will hopefully only present ads that the reader will find useful.

Google Adsense is also another easy tool to use and implement into your posts, and it is very effective. Readers only have to click on one of the ads presented and your blog is making money. But, and this is a bit but, your blog needs to be focused on a theme or the ads won’t be relevant, they’ll just be irritating.

4. Tell Everyone

This is something else that I learned the hard way.

With my other blogs, I was a tiny bit shy of promoting it. I didn’t want to tell everyone, I wanted to be modest and let them find it on their own when it was a huge success, I wanted other people to recommend my blog. All very good, but it didn’t work and I didn’t have much traffic.

My advice is to tell everyone on your email list, tell people who you meet off-line, tell friends to tell their family and friends and anyone else they meet along the way. Get the word out there or how are people going to know you’re blogging and start visiting?

 

These are the first four things that I’ve done on my blog and they’ve worked for me.
Start with these and you should have another stream of income, it won’t be huge but the potential is limitless (check out the probloggers out there!) but you do have to put in the work.

Do something to promote your blog once a day, write a daily post to keep readers interest and have fun with it.