The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 4. How to Make Money Blogging

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

We are answering a question that we get asked often…How do you make money blogging? But really, how do you make money blogging?There are several ways that you can make money blogging and we want to help you choose the right way that makes sense for you and your blog. The possibilities are truly endless. Tune in to hear all of the ways that we share!Check out the show notes for links and resources mentioned in this episode.Thanks for being here and being a part of this community! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconcepts or share this episode with your friends!Interested in starting a blog? Join our waitlist!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode4

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hey, today we are so excited to talk to you about a common question that we've gotten since becoming bloggers, and that is, how do you make money? Like, really, how do you make money? And it's a question that some are nervous to ask, but we are super passionate about telling people how you can make money blogging. So we are going to dive right in and answer this burning question for you today. Yeah, we're going to start out with

one of our favorite ways to make money as a blogger. And it's going to be one of those ways that's going to take you some time to build up to, but this is a goal that we have for everybody that we help with our blog. We want you to get on an ad network. And if you're wondering what an ad network is, when you go to somebody's website and they have ads placed on their site, whether it's in the sidebar, within the content, et cetera, those are ads placed by the company on the site. And it's usually in a targeted way because of the content that you have on your blog. They understand what kind of readers come to your blog and they're able to place ads that they feel would be effective for those readers. And the good thing is that most readers are used to seeing these kinds of ads on your site. So

it's no big deal. They can just look at those ads. It's not based on click-throughs or anything like that. So you will earn revenue just by people coming to your page. So it really works like passive income. And there's a couple of ad companies that we actually recommend working with because while there's many of them out there, Google AdSense and so many more, we want you to be working with a reputable company that will get you the best value, that will get you the most money, and will not do things that will slow down your site or give you bad ads that your readers will be turned off by. So those two companies are Mediavine and AdThrive. And each of those companies has a minimum number of sessions or page views that

will be required to qualify for their ad network. So it will take you some time, most likely, if you're just starting out in blogging to get enough traffic to your site to qualify for those. But the income potential once you get on an ad network can be pretty significant and it will be fairly passive because it will just be traffic coming to all the posts on your site. Now, again, like we said, it can take some time to work towards this. So what we're going to do today is talk about other ways that you can make money on your blog while you're waiting to qualify for an ad network and even far beyond, because it is definitely good to diversify your income streams. Yeah.

So another great way to earn an income as a blogger is through affiliate sales. And essentially what an affiliate is, is working with a brand who is going to provide you a link that you can share with your readers. So as you're creating blog posts, you can put the links within the blog posts that correlate. So let's say that you're sharing a post and a product on Amazon fits into that post. You can add that affiliate link within the post

and then it lives there forever and that affiliate link is always working for you on your blog. And what you have to do when you're an affiliate is you have to disclose that you are an affiliate. So you'll have to say that that is an affiliate link, for instance. So when you share an affiliate link, you will actually earn a percentage from the sales of that link. There are a lot of companies that you can work with to get an affiliate link for and be an affiliate for their brand. Some of the bigger ones are LTK, which used to be like to know it and reward style. They basically took those two platforms and turned it into one now. So it's LTK. You can also work directly with Amazon for their affiliate program. But let's say

that you have a brand that you love and you're super passionate about sharing that particular brand or product, you can contact them directly. A lot of times you can just go to their website and at the bottom of the website, they have an affiliate link at the bottom that you can connect with them and you can easily connect with them, apply to be part of their affiliate program, and they'll give you the parameters for what is involved to be an affiliate. A lot of times they will send you products each month or some products to get started. And that way you have a clear sense of what you're going to be promoting. I think that's the biggest thing when you're promoting products or brands that I want to

make sure is important for you guys to understand that you want it to be authentic and you want it to be something that you feel good about sharing. So don't just share a ton of affiliate links. I mean, as you become a blogger, you're going to be given tons of opportunities to promote products, but make sure it actually aligns with your brand and what you want to say. That is really important. We'll talk about that more on the podcast throughout, but when you have a niche, you want to make sure that the things that you're sharing are relevant to what you're talking about. So when you're considering affiliate sales or sponsored posts, like we're going to talk about soon, make sure it does fit within your brand and it makes sense. You can also use these affiliate links on Instagram. These are a great way to serve that audience as well. And so you can use them in both places,

your blog and Instagram, just allowing you to earn even more revenue in regards to affiliate sales. Yeah, I love the affiliate sales because it feels so natural. You're just including a helpful link to someone in a blog post that already includes that topic. So maybe it's a certain device you need to cook a recipe

or something like that. So it's always a very natural thing when you share affiliate links and then they just continue to work for you. And think about how many times we've had bloggers that we've learned something from, that they've shared something on their blog or social media and it's through an affiliate link

and you're supporting that blogger and you're discovering a new product that could end up being like one of your favorite things ever. I know. I know. I find stuff all the time. Yeah. It's a great way to just communicate with your readers and get to know more of what they want and what they like. And then you can find other products like that or create your own products that they might be interested in purchasing from you or using your affiliate link for. And sponsored posts are super similar to affiliate links in where you are promoting a product for a company, but it's a little bit different because when you're using

affiliate links, you're posting those within different content that you're already creating throughout your site. So you might use it on multiple posts where it's relevant versus a sponsored post is going to be a very specific post that you're writing for a company to promote their product or service. So the company would either approach you and ask you if you would like to share this on your blog, or if there's a product that you really love, you can do a little research and try to find a contact and reach out to them and ask them if they would like to work with you. So in general, when you start to work with a company, they're going to have certain parameters and how they want their product shared. And again, just like with the affiliate sales, we want this to be products that you already use, that you've had an opportunity to test out that you truly like

and know that will be helpful to your readers. So they will have different guidelines for how they want you to share that content on your site. And there'll be a timeline in order for you to give them a draft for them to review before you post it most likely. And so you'll want to work within their guidelines to create your blog post and share their product. And so what it will really end up being instead of an affiliate link where you're getting a percentage every time, it will be like a flat fee that you have negotiated and they will pay you once that work is completed. So once you get established, like we said, some brands may reach out to you. You can create your own media kit or create a pitch email and reach out to them if there's brands that you want to work with. This can be a great way. You don't have to have a ton of

followers in order to have sponsored content. If you have a group of loyal readers, those are the kind of bloggers that companies are starting to work with more and more because those are the people that are truly going to be the purchasers. They're going to be the people that will buy or follow your recommendations. So that's a great way to work with brands is by creating sponsored content. And some of you might be thinking, well, I don't want to work with brands. That would not bring me joy. And if that's you, then we still have some other ways, some other ideas for you. One of them is creating your own course. And this is something that Jennifer and I did actually with our course, the ultimate blog bootcamp. And a course is a great way to take something that you know and that what others need to know

and help them and teach them. So you're creating a course that can add value to somebody else's life. There's a couple different ways that you can create courses. They can be hands-on or off. And kind of what I mean by that is you can have a course that's an evergreen course that's always running and people are able to purchase throughout the year for a specific need that they have. And when you're kind of brainstorming what you would like to talk about

or what you would want to teach about, think about something that you know that somebody else wants to know and you don't have to be an expert. I want to make sure that that's super clear. If you know just one to 2% more than somebody else in regards to something, you can teach them that. So don't tell yourself like, I have to have this all figured out in order to teach somebody else. You absolutely don't. So your course can be hands-off. It can be that you're teaching somebody, you know, all year round, people can be joining your course, or it can be hands-on. That's how our course is. And what I mean by that is that you have different times throughout the year that it's open. And then you might add like an additional layer to your course of support. So we have coaching calls with our bootcamp and we only open the bootcamp about every eight to

12 weeks is when we open a new round. So the course is not for sale all year round. You have both ways of going about it. If designing a course and promoting that to your audience is something that you think you would enjoy, it is a great way to earn passive income because you create the course once and then it continually serves you. Now you will need to update things as they change and things like that. But overall, you do the bulk of the work in the front and you kind of front load the work and then it just continues to work for you and you just refine it and make it better and better and better. We love being course creators. It's given us so much joy and it's been a great way to add revenue

to our business. And it's allowed us to kind of let go of some of the things that we weren't enjoying as much and focus more on the course because it's actually been the thing that we enjoy doing the most. Yeah. And I think courses are just going to become more and more popular as time goes on because people are looking more towards online learning and not only that, but like really specific topics. So if you can create a course on a specific topic, no matter how simple it seems, there is probably someone out there who could use your help. I know I've been eating up these courses that I've been finding on all different kinds of things. And it goes back to the, we like to continue to learn. So I think that this will continue to be a great way to create an income for people is by creating courses. Yeah, and it allows people to hear from real people

who have done what they want to do and see the success story. You know, years ago, it was always on commercials. That's where we were learning things or things like that. But now we can learn from real people who have gone through these things or use these products and done these things and teach them. And I think that that's a great way

to just continually refine your brand and help people along the way. Have you ever wanted to start a blog but had no idea where to begin? Or maybe you have a blog that you'd like to update and want some help to make it the best it can be. We know that there are many people out there who have big dreams for their own blog that never happened because they simply feel stuck. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp is an eight-week course designed to help you create a solid blogging foundation by teaching you how to treat your blog as a business, find your audience, design a website that is optimized for SEO, all while providing support via online coaching calls each week of the course. There's a private Slack channel for students as well,

so questions will never go unanswered. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp will give you the tools and support to create a blog that has the potential to turn into a profitable business. We are committed to helping each and every student feel empowered and confident with the foundational principles of blogging and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it. If you don't want to blog alone, we can help. We keep each round small in order to provide each student and the behind the scenes work that goes into it. If you don't want to blog alone, we can help.

We keep each round small in order to provide each student the attention and support we believe you deserve during this process. Since space is limited, get on the wait list today so we can help you with your blog. The link to join the wait list is in our show notes or go to sparkmediaconcepts.com and click on the ultimate blog bootcamp. Yeah, and so similar to courses are ebooks. So instead of like maybe creating a whole entire

course, maybe it's a little bit of a smaller bit of information that you can package into an ebook that's essentially like a PDF download that somebody can purchase from you. The benefit to those is they are pretty quick and easy to create. And it's pretty simple also to market those. You can add simple links on your site. There's several different services out there that will host that ebook for you. You can create links and then people can pay through those services to purchase your ebook from you. Again, those can be on any number of topics from recipes to organization to health. The ideas are pretty much endless. So just listen to your readers as you start blogging, see what questions they ask and figure out if you can answer those in a way that

you could package into a super helpful ebook that you could create for them to be able to purchase and download. Another way to earn income is through freelance work. And this is actually something that I did when starting. I wasn't earning any income from my blog. I actually was on Instagram first and wasn't earning any income there either because I wasn't doing affiliate sales either. But I did VA work for Jennifer. That was something that I did. A VA is a virtual assistant, even though we were next door neighbors. It wasn't as virtual as it sounds. Yeah. But I was still considered her VA. And so I just did things for her that she needed. And

that can be in the blogging world or just honestly the online business world. So there's lots of different ways that you can serve as a VA. You could be a Pinterest manager to help bloggers pin. You can take photos for bloggers. You can write blog posts. That's something else that I've done for other companies. You can offer design services if you have a design background by creating different color palettes and logos and things of that nature. There are a wealth of things that you can do in regards to freelance work. And I think now more than ever, there's so many people who are outsourcing to people online that you can find all kinds of things online that you can do

to work alongside. And maybe it is something in regards to what you're blogging about and that you're kind of working that together that you can do with freelance work. Yeah. And I think it's awesome because, you know, as you get into the blogging community, you'll find that you're really good at one thing and another blogger may be really good at another thing. So it's kind of interesting to watch how it goes. Like for me, I really enjoyed the photography piece, taking pictures of my recipes. So as time went on and my skills were growing, I was able to offer that service to other bloggers. And then I was able to hire out some of the chores that I didn't enjoy as much to someone else.

So it's interesting how that kind of comes together in terms of freelance work. It can just be like you offering services to other bloggers and then maybe you're using other freelancers to do work for your blog. Yeah. Another way to make money with your blog is by offering a membership plan. And these can kind of come about from looking at the different things that you've offered, whether it's something that you've thought about putting in an ebook or something that you've put in a course, but maybe it's something that people need in an ongoing manner. So you can create a membership plan to stay connected with your readers and your audience by having them subscribe monthly, and you're providing them new and fresh content every month.

What that is going to look like is going to depend on you. It may just be one live call a month, or it may be a module to a course that you send out to them once a month. There's so many different ways you can do it. It can be something that's live. It can be something that you've already recorded. It can be very hands-on. It can be very passive, but it's a really great way to stay connected with your audience because you're providing them value that they need on an ongoing basis. You're staying in front of them all the time, and they're looking forward to getting that content from you every month. And if you get people connected in that way and they really look forward to that content and they want to stay with you, you can really create a good income from that by building up that membership over time and having lots of subscribers.

Not only that, but the more that you connect and grow with people, the more people that they're going to share you with. And so while you're continually providing value to them, they're going to be talking about it most likely. I mean, how often do we have something that's made a great impact on our life and we just don't talk about it? You know, that's just being like a natural influencer, right, is just sharing something that has made an impact on you. way to take those people that you've been able to impact, maybe via your blog post or maybe your course and stay connected with them via the membership plan. And so they will continue to spread the word of the good that you've added to their life. Something else that you can do in the last one that we're going to give you for today is to create your own products. We could have an entire podcast and go on and on and on about how you could create your own products. I mean, just get on Etsy. There's so many different things that you can create. You can create journals,

t-shirts, home decor, jewelry, artwork, and you can sell these on your site as a great way to earn passive income each month, or you could do launches for these things. This is just a great way to do this. It's funny, some of the people that I have followed for years started out making planners. Emily Lay is the one that comes to mind as I'm thinking about it. And now she's developed into this massive brand. And it was grown out of the need that she saw for herself and thought that it could be something that could help others. And so that is just one example of many of things that you can do in order to create income while you're blogging.

Really, the opportunities are endless. And we say that knowing that sometimes it can feel hard to think outside the box, but we encourage you to try. Just open your eyes for a little bit and look around and see what people are doing. And maybe you're not surrounded by people who are thinking outside the box, and we're going to challenge you to find some people who are. Because I know when I first started blogging, my mind just wasn't open to that stuff. I didn't realize that people were at home working and finding income at home and creating that income for themselves while creating the schedules that they wanted. I didn't even know that was a possibility.

I thought that you had to go work for someone else and that's what it looks like, but it's just not, there are other ways. So I hope that we've provided you some great ideas for ways that you can earn income as a blogger along the way. If you are a blogger and you've made some money some different ways, we'd love to hear about it

if you wanna come over and join us in the conversation on Instagram. And if you have any questions about how to make money blogging, feel free to connect with us and hopefully you learned something new today. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much for tuning in today.

If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes.

Go out and make today a great day.