Do you want to learn how to earn money blogging? We all have opinions and ideas, why not get paid to share them?
As a blogger, it is wise to choose a topic to stick to. A topic that you enjoy and that others will find interesting. For example, If you like beauty products, you could write about everything beauty. You could make youtube videos of you doing your make up, post coupons you find for beauty products and even do reviews for products that you love. Everyone loves tips and tricks. I can't tell you how much I use google just for that. Tips and tricks on everything!!
Once you have your topic, start thinking about what kind of content you will be writing about. Will you be selling products through your blog? Finding online deals? Posting tips and tricks? Posting about all of the above?
As a blogger you want to have a good name, an eye catching name. When I started out, my blogs name was Columbia Coupon Mom. I mainly blogged about my local area. Over time I noticed more of my readers were from all over the country, so I changed my name in 2013. If you plan to blog for everyone, then pick a name you won't have to change later. A good name that relates to your topic.
A big hint here, you want to make sure you pick a domain name that matches your blog name. Don't know what a domain name is? I will help you with that in a few.
Once you have your topic and name ideas, you want to start looking for a place to blog.
Alot of people choose to start blogging on free platforms such as wordpress.com, weebly.com and blogger.com. These are fine, BUT I suggest self hosting your own wordpress blog. And by self hosting I don't mean free platforms. If you have $10 to spare, and believe me it is well worth it, you can self host. This will do amazing things for your traffic. If you choose to use a free platform such as one listed above, I would still buy your own domain. Otherwise, people will have to type in your blog name plus a long host name too.
For example, when I blogged on the free blogger platform, in order for people to get to my site, they had to type columbiacouponmom.blogspot.com. When you have your own domain you can connect it to your free platform and have a .com. I bought Columbiacouponmom.com because it was easier and seemed more professional.
Right now you can get your own self hosted wordpress website free trial on Godaddy, so you can try it out. If you don't like it, you can cancel! If you decide you like it, and you will, you will pay $5.99 per month. You can either pay monthly or yearly. If you choose to try this out, be sure to choose the 'personal' option. This is not only the cheapest, but all you need for a personal blog. Most times your domain is included free in this package. Domains will be about $25 per year after your first year though. But it's really worth it!
If you plan on getting your domain name, then you want to go here and search for it. Whatever name you choose for your blog, type in the search bar. If you're lucky noone else will have your name, and you will be able to buy it!
Do you know what a domain name is? If you look at the search bar at the top of your page, it says theversatilemama.com, that is my domain name. The extension .com is the domain. I really suggest getting one, even if you use a free platform. You will be able to call Godaddy and they will help you point your domain to your free blog, and there are 1,000s of online tutorials that will tell you what to do! If it wasn't for tutorials, I would never have gotten as far with my blog as I have.
So now that we have gone over starting your blog, start creating content and publishing. Once you have content to share with your friends, that is where making money will start.
CREATE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
This is one of the most important steps of having a blog. You must create social media pages to promote your content for free. I would suggest making the following:
Facebook Page (This is different than your personal page, go to the top right of your personal page and click the down arrow by the lock, then go to create page.)
Twitter
Google+
Pinterest
Youtube
These are the main social media networks I use for my blog. There are so many more, but these are the most popular in my opinion.
You can see mine by clicking on the tabs at the top of the page.
Having several social media accounts is important. There are millions of people on these sites. When you post your article to your page, they get to see them. That means more clicks on your links if you write something they may be interested in. Then they are directed to your blog!
This is the fun part. I will tell you how I make money with my blog. Get your pen ready, because there is a lot to note. I don't use just one program to make money, I use quite a few. I started with affiliate programs. These are programs that provide you with content topics to share with your readers. They may have a business who is looking for people to spread the word about their new program, and they will pay you to tell your readers about it. You can see an example of a post I created using an affiliate, here.
You can also use your own referral link from your favorite reward programs also!
Here are the affiliate programs I use:
Shopher Media
Escalate Network
Shareasale.com
LinkShare
Impact Radius
Panthera Network
Now these are my main ways of making money using my blog. Some of them do have certain restrictions, so you will have to read their terms. When I say restrictions I mean they may want a minimum amount of facebook fans or twitter fans. Starting use of these programs will be your best bet to start earning an income from your blog. You will find more topics to base your content around.
But remember, you won't make any money if you don't work on getting your reader base up. You must promote your blog through your social media networks! This is imperative! If you want share 4 share, this is where I will share your posts if you share mine, I will do so! Helping others is fun, especially fellow bloggers. I have helped quite a few and they are doing extremely better than myself now, but this is my hobby, not my full time job. I work in the medical field, so my time is very limited!
This post will be continued later this week. Be sure to follow me.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below and I will answer as quickly as I can!
I'd like to give a little background on me, and how I started blogging and earning money doing so. In 2011, I was heavy into couponing. The internet was my guide to find deals. So many amazing deals that I was telling all my friends and family about it constantly, and trying so hard to get them to try it out too. Eventually I was so into it that decided I wanted to share my finds with as many people as I could. I won't deny that the show Extreme Couponers started my addiction!
I started my blog on blogger.com. It was ran through Google. It was easy to use and had some nice addon widgets to help customize my site more. In March I started my coupon posts. I would search through store ads, and find coupons online using coupon databases to save the most money. I would then post store coupon match ups. This became my main topic of my blog.
After about a year of blogging, I was contacted by someone to review a product and write about it on my blog. I decided to give it a shot, they sent me a free product and I tried it out and wrote my review about it. Doing this increased my traffic because they linked to my blog from theirs. Back then Facebook promotion was huge! The majority of my readers came from Facebook and things really started picking up. And then I found ways to earn money blogging!
Enough about me, let's get to my main point. How you can earn money blogging.
FIND A TOPIC
As a blogger, it is wise to choose a topic to stick to. A topic that you enjoy and that others will find interesting. For example, If you like beauty products, you could write about everything beauty. You could make youtube videos of you doing your make up, post coupons you find for beauty products and even do reviews for products that you love. Everyone loves tips and tricks. I can't tell you how much I use google just for that. Tips and tricks on everything!!
Once you have your topic, start thinking about what kind of content you will be writing about. Will you be selling products through your blog? Finding online deals? Posting tips and tricks? Posting about all of the above?
PICK A CATCHY NAME
As a blogger you want to have a good name, an eye catching name. When I started out, my blogs name was Columbia Coupon Mom. I mainly blogged about my local area. Over time I noticed more of my readers were from all over the country, so I changed my name in 2013. If you plan to blog for everyone, then pick a name you won't have to change later. A good name that relates to your topic.
A big hint here, you want to make sure you pick a domain name that matches your blog name. Don't know what a domain name is? I will help you with that in a few.
Once you have your topic and name ideas, you want to start looking for a place to blog.
FIND A BLOGGING PLATFORM
Alot of people choose to start blogging on free platforms such as wordpress.com, weebly.com and blogger.com. These are fine, BUT I suggest self hosting your own wordpress blog. And by self hosting I don't mean free platforms. If you have $10 to spare, and believe me it is well worth it, you can self host. This will do amazing things for your traffic. If you choose to use a free platform such as one listed above, I would still buy your own domain. Otherwise, people will have to type in your blog name plus a long host name too.
For example, when I blogged on the free blogger platform, in order for people to get to my site, they had to type columbiacouponmom.blogspot.com. When you have your own domain you can connect it to your free platform and have a .com. I bought Columbiacouponmom.com because it was easier and seemed more professional.
Right now you can get your own self hosted wordpress website free trial on Godaddy, so you can try it out. If you don't like it, you can cancel! If you decide you like it, and you will, you will pay $5.99 per month. You can either pay monthly or yearly. If you choose to try this out, be sure to choose the 'personal' option. This is not only the cheapest, but all you need for a personal blog. Most times your domain is included free in this package. Domains will be about $25 per year after your first year though. But it's really worth it!
PICK A DOMAIN NAME
If you plan on getting your domain name, then you want to go here and search for it. Whatever name you choose for your blog, type in the search bar. If you're lucky noone else will have your name, and you will be able to buy it!
Do you know what a domain name is? If you look at the search bar at the top of your page, it says theversatilemama.com, that is my domain name. The extension .com is the domain. I really suggest getting one, even if you use a free platform. You will be able to call Godaddy and they will help you point your domain to your free blog, and there are 1,000s of online tutorials that will tell you what to do! If it wasn't for tutorials, I would never have gotten as far with my blog as I have.
So now that we have gone over starting your blog, start creating content and publishing. Once you have content to share with your friends, that is where making money will start.
CREATE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
This is one of the most important steps of having a blog. You must create social media pages to promote your content for free. I would suggest making the following:
Facebook Page (This is different than your personal page, go to the top right of your personal page and click the down arrow by the lock, then go to create page.)
Google+
Youtube
These are the main social media networks I use for my blog. There are so many more, but these are the most popular in my opinion.
You can see mine by clicking on the tabs at the top of the page.
Having several social media accounts is important. There are millions of people on these sites. When you post your article to your page, they get to see them. That means more clicks on your links if you write something they may be interested in. Then they are directed to your blog!
HOW TO MAKE MONEY
This is the fun part. I will tell you how I make money with my blog. Get your pen ready, because there is a lot to note. I don't use just one program to make money, I use quite a few. I started with affiliate programs. These are programs that provide you with content topics to share with your readers. They may have a business who is looking for people to spread the word about their new program, and they will pay you to tell your readers about it. You can see an example of a post I created using an affiliate, here.
You can also use your own referral link from your favorite reward programs also!
Here are the affiliate programs I use:
Shopher Media
Escalate Network
Shareasale.com
LinkShare
Impact Radius
Panthera Network
Now these are my main ways of making money using my blog. Some of them do have certain restrictions, so you will have to read their terms. When I say restrictions I mean they may want a minimum amount of facebook fans or twitter fans. Starting use of these programs will be your best bet to start earning an income from your blog. You will find more topics to base your content around.
But remember, you won't make any money if you don't work on getting your reader base up. You must promote your blog through your social media networks! This is imperative! If you want share 4 share, this is where I will share your posts if you share mine, I will do so! Helping others is fun, especially fellow bloggers. I have helped quite a few and they are doing extremely better than myself now, but this is my hobby, not my full time job. I work in the medical field, so my time is very limited!
This post will be continued later this week. Be sure to follow me.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below and I will answer as quickly as I can!
Tags
Blogging 101