Inside: How to increase your blogging income in the new year. Collaborative post.
Blogging has changed so much in the 7 years that I have been part of the industry. No longer ‘just a hobby‘, people are able to turn their words into a profitable business from the comfort of their own home.
Blogs can be informative, entertaining, and inspirational providing a resource for all aspects of life. Written well, you can attract a large audience which can in turn provide you with a source of income through various means.
I want to share the ways I have monetised and grown my blog over the last 7 years to be able to provide a steady income for my family. Hopefully you will be able to take away key information to implement it on your own site.
How to monetise your blog
There are many ways to monetise your blog (or indeed your entire brand) these days. In the past there weren’t as many options but also the view of blogs has changed and evolved over the years so that now bloggers are highly prized by brands.
Advertising. This has been a common method for many years and so many bloggers are able to make a decent income using ad partners. It all depends on your page views as to how much you earn though.
Affiliate links. Do you constantly share products and services you love? See if the company has an affiliate scheme you can sign up to and earn yourself commission for every referral.
Collaborations/ reviews. Brands recognise that our audiences align to theirs and so will pay us money to gain access. Whether that be through a review of their product or a mention on socials, we have what they need and that is valuable.
Sponsored content. Similar to the above but a brand may just require a mention within an existing post rather than a dedicated post for their product. You can still charge though as our blogs give them access to their key demographic.
Guest posts. Instead of you writing the post, the brand or PR agency may provide the content for you to place on your site. Just as valuable to them but doesn’t require you to do as much legwork.
Social content. With Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Youtube being current favourites with our audience, you can also set up profiles on each platform and use them to enhance your brand. Brands will want access to your audience there too so utilise it!
E-books. If you are an expert in your niche you can compile your best posts and create an e-book. People like to have all of the information laid out for them so will happily pay to have it in one book rather than split over several posts.
Courses. If your blog teaches people how to do something then you can use that knowledge to create a course. Creating a course that walks them through from point A to point B is definitely something people will pay for.
Merchandise. Are you known for something specific? Could you create clothing, bags or something else that would align with your branding?
How to increase your blogging income
Obviously, if you aren’t diversifying using the different monetisation methods as listed above then that is the first thing to do. But, if you are already trying to get ad revenue and work with brands then the next step is to try and increase those earnings.
Increase your page views.
This should be your main priority as a blogger. The more page views you have the more influence you have as a blogger.
Niche down to write about something specific rather than trying to cover all bases. Google prefers it if you write about one area of expertise and will favour you when showing your posts in search results.
Use SEO (search engine optimisation) to increase the chances of ranking on the first page of Google.
Be helpful. The majority of people searching on Google are wanting an answer to a problem they have. So be the person to answer that question and become the expert that Google loves to show off.
Share your posts. On your email list, on social, in forums. The more eyes on it the better.
Increase your fees.
Do you recognise your own worth? I see so many people either working for free or underselling themselves. Remember, your audience is valuable to brands. They want access and are willing to pay for it. Influencer marketing is huge right now as brands recognise that people like to hear from real people that they trust.
Working out how much to charge can be tricky and so having a group of blogger friends to bounce ideas off and discuss fees can be invaluable. But just remember, you have built up your brand, you maintain the blog with useful information, not to mention managing social channels and everything else that goes along with running a blog – don’t be afraid to charge your worth.
Diversify
Your blog is just the platform, you can do so much more than just write posts. Use your knowledge and package it up in a way that people can’t resist. E-books, courses, merchandise, subscriptions… people are out there earning money doing it right now so you can too!
