With the coronavirus outbreak, there are many people worried about their jobs and financial security – particularly if you are a sole trader, consultant or casual employee.
Making money online might seem the solution so I thought I’d share my experiences to answer the question that many are asking:
Can you make money blogging?
The short answer is: Yes.
The long answer is: The best way is to develop several income streams from your blog. And the money generated may be very different to what you are hoping for, particularly if you are cash-strapped!
While many people go into blogging hoping to make a motza (I admit, I was one of them!), the ones making a full time income are the exception rather than the rule. A lot of this comes down to the fact that there is a world of difference between personal and professional blogging.
Having said that, blogging can be a fun hobby that actually generates a bit of pocket money. How awesome is that? Most hobbies cost you money. I went through a scrapbooking stage, and all those bits and pieces cost a lot. I never realised paper could be so expensive before!
So here’s a hobby that can not only pay for itself, but can make a bit extra … and you never know where it could all lead.
I started this blog at the end of 2012 as Redland City Living; but changed to Middle Aged Mama at the beginning of 2014 which is when I set a financial goal. I was booked to go on a week’s cruise of the South Pacific with a group of friends in December, and I wanted to be able to pay for it out of my blog’s earnings – which I was very proud to achieve.
There have been some pretty awesome lurks and perks too! I’ve been sent lots of items to review, from brands hoping that I’ll like them and blog about them. In my time blogging I have scored goodies such as:
- A robot vacuum
- Clothing, shoes, jewellery
- A $300 steam iron
- Tickets to see Grease at QPAC
- Tons of makeup
- A luxury sheet set
One of my blogging highlights was in 2016 when I was flown to Melbourne as a guest of Princess Cruises, to tour the Golden Princess. I was wined and dined, pampered and spoiled … and even saw my name up in lights!
Mind you, I have also mentioned and promoted lots of brands for free, simply because I like them and want to share about them.
But back to the real story here – if it’s possible to make money from blogging, HOW can you make it so?
Here are ten blogging income streams that I’ve either tried or investigated, so you can decide if any of them will work for you.
10 Blogging Income Streams
- Sponsored Content
- Social Media Posts
- Advertising buttons and banners on your blog
- Affiliate marketing
- Online memberships
- Blog and website design for others
- Writing for others – blogging, freelancing for magazines
- Writing and selling a book or e-book/s or other resources, online courses
- Conducting workshops, speaking at conferences etc
- Brand Ambassadorships
Let’s look at each of these in more depth.
1 – Sponsored Posts
What is a sponsored post? It’s a blog post that a company pays you to write. I did a lot of these, particularly in the early day of this blog, writing sponsored posts for brands such as:
- Marks and Spencer
- The Continence Foundation of Australia
- Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream
- Sunsilk
- Finish Dishwashing
- Millers Fashion
- Vaseline
- Michael Hill
- Freez Clothing
- Rugs a Million
- Shop a Docket
- Aussie Farmers Direct
- BBQs Galore and
- The Iconic
In America, bloggers are legally required to disclose that a post has been sponsored. It’s not yet law in Australia, but it’s only a matter of time and in the meantime it’s not just a good habit to get into, it’s good ethics.
So how do you get sponsored posts?
Once you are blogging, it will only be a matter of time before you start receiving emails from PR agencies, brands, and others. Trust me, once you get on their radar, your inbox will be swamped! (This is not always a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of these PR and brand reps don’t do their homework to see if something is a good match for your blog. If I get one more pitch about nappies or school holiday activities, I’ll scream – it’s just not relevant to my audience. I mean, my tagline is “fashioning a new life after the kids are grown” for goodness’ sake!)
Why is there a demand for sponsored posts?
Brands want two things from you as a blogger – they want to generate buzz and awareness around their product; and they want a link to their website (called a backlink). Now the topic of backlinks is a huge issue on its own, so just briefly the reason they want a link pointing back to their website is that it will boost THEIR website ranking, so that it comes up higher on search results.
My first sponsored post came about almost a year after I’d started my blog. I don’t think it was any coincidence that only a couple of weeks earlier, I had attended my first Problogger conference on the Gold Coast and met not just bloggers, but also several brand representatives. Sure enough, one of them followed me up and asked if I would be interested in doing a sponsored post for Rexona.
So what is a sponsored post worth?
This is the hard part – you will find it tough to find a blogger willing to disclose what they are charging. Usually, the bigger your following, the more you can charge.
Some people think that brands only work with BIG bloggers – but that’s just not true. I started out charging $50 per post and was rushed off my feet. Way too cheap – I cringe now to think of it!
Since then I have put my rates up considerably and am a lot choosier in which brands I choose to work with, meaning that I probably write only about two sponsored posts per year.
Even though I’ve increased my sponsored post fee, it’s still not much. I’m only getting compensated for the time and effort I put into that particular post. It really doesn’t go towards the 95% or more of blog posts I do for free, or all the work and effort I have put into building a community around my blog, on social media etc.
There is a formula that can help you work out your rate – Google “blogger rate calculator”.
2 – Social Media Posts
You’ve probably already heard that people like Kim Kardashian get paid a squillion dollars to mention a brand on their Twitter or Instagram.
Believe it or not, some of us mere mortals can be paid for social media posts too, though nowhere near as much.
3 – Ads on Your Blog
You can sell advertising space on your blog.
You can work directly with brands; they might approach you, or you can pitch to them. I’ve had a handful in my seven years of blogging, from an insurance company, a software company and an online clothing store.
Most of the ads you see on my blog these days are from the Google Adsense program. It doesn’t make a huge amount, but it is enough to cover the cost of my blog hosting each year. How it works is that every time you click on a Google ad here on the blog, I get paid a (tiny) amount. When my total reaches $100, I get paid out.
4 – Affiliate Marketing
Closely related to ads is affiliate marketing. You will see I have what looks like an ad for Dymocks books on my sidebar. When somebody clicks through and actually buys something from those websites, I earn a small commission (at no extra cost to the purchaser).
As an affiliate, I can also put specific links in my posts, social media and newsletters, and again, earn a commission.
There are different affiliate marketing programs you can join; I’ve had the most success with one called Commission Factory. In my best month ever I made about $65; not surprisingly, November and December tend to produce the best results! I learned about affiliate marketing at a presentation by Sharon Gourlay of Digital Nomad Wannabe at one of the Problogger events. The pic below is of one of her slides. (If you are serious about making money from blogging/websites, I highly recommend you check her out.)
I joined Amazon affiliates but didn’t have any success so closed my account. My theory is that it doesn’t really work in Australia (where most of my readers are based) because a lot of their products aren’t available here.
5 – Online Memberships
This is not something I have tried, although I *am* thinking of implementing a paid membership program on my business website.
6 – Building Blogs/Websites for others
As a blogger, you has skillz. You can make a bit of money by helping friends and family with basic website design, or getting started on their own blog.
I offered this service in the early days of my business, but quickly realised that people tended to want very specific things on their sites – far beyond my capabilities. It just wasn’t worth the hassle for me so I stopped doing it.
7 – Writing Web Content for others
As you blog, your writing will improve and as you mix in the blogging community you will learn of opportunities to be paid for writing, whether for online publications, companies wanting content for their sites, or print publications and magazines.
8 – Sell Your Own Products on Your Blog
Write a book or create an online course which you can sell from your blog. It might be an e-book, or you might self-publish. You don’t even have to start from scratch – once you’ve been blogging for a while, you have lots of content. Simply group together related posts and turn it into an e-book (pdf) or online course, and away you go.
9 – Workshops, Speaking etc
As you build your blog and your reputation, you may find (as I did) that you get approached about guest speaking or running workshops. Or once you’ve established a following, you can run your own!
10 – Brand ambassadorships
For quite a few years I was an ambassador for a women’s clothing brand. They sent me samples of their range and I shared content to highlight their products on my blog and social media.
And there you have it – ten potential blogging income streams!
You’ll find thousands of websites telling you about the riches to be found online, and most of these are written by people who “claim” to have the formula to success (but do they really?!). It’s not often that somebody will actually share real information about the various blogging income streams and how they really work – but you know me, I’m all about #keepingitreal. Sadly, it’s certainly not a get-rich-quick scheme or even a get-rich-slowly scheme for most of us!
Seven years after I started this blog, I’m still here and I’m still loving it. Any money I make from it is a bonus.
And while I may not earn much money directly from my blog, what it has done is provide me with a wealth of knowledge and experience that has served me well in my business – I specialise in search engine optimisation (helping businesses get found online).
Have you ever thought of starting a blog? Would you be interested if I ran an online course to help you kickstart your SEO, so your business website gets clicks AND clients?