Can You Make Money Off A Blog and What Do I Need To Know

Can you make money off a blog? So many people start a blog because they want to change their current lifestyle or set aside money for their future.

Today, I am going to tell you that yes you can make money off a blog. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you will.

Why I Started My Blog

I know that everyone says you shouldn’t start a blog just for the money. The truth is that no one is going to work this hard or give away all their knowledge if they weren’t planning on making any money.

I’m not saying that the money should be your main focus. However, you’d be crazy if you didn’t start monetizing your blog right out of the gate.

Read these posts to help you monetize your blog:

• How to Sign Up For Google Adsense
• Affiliate Marketing Tips that Will Increase the Conversions on Your Blog
• Monetizing Your Blog What You Need to Know

 
As you know, I’ve had several blogs in the past, some made money and some didn’t. Now I started this blog to help beginners start, grow and make money blogging.

I know what new bloggers struggle with that’s why I only share the basics of WordPress with you. The great thing about using a self-hosted WordPress blog is that you have so much control over it.

Plus you can learn how to monetize it and hopefully make money in the process.

Can You Make Money Off A Blog

Yes you can and if you spend some time online, it won’t take you long to see several bloggers who are actually making six figures or more.

They’ve managed to make money with their blogs by sharing their knowledge and passion with their readers. In turn they found ways to monetize their blogs by using Ads, affiliate marketing, digital products, sponsored ads and other monetization methods.

Making money with a blog is not a scam and many people are using the Internet to build their life to suite their needs.

So if you’ve ever wondered “can I really make money blogging” then you’re in the right place. I am going to share some things that you need to do to get started.

What You Need to Know

It won’t happen overnight. I know you’ve started your blog because you were pulled in by those income reports that state you can make money in your first month blogging.

The truth is that most bloggers don’t see a penny for a very long while. Everyone’s journey is different and that’s the great thing about blogging.

Just because it took so and so 5 years to start making money, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to take you that long.

I know that the bloggers who focus on Pinterest are usually the ones that make money the fastest. That’s actually why I’ve started investing more of my time on learning Pinterest.

New bloggers realize that it’s going to take a while for Google to start sending them traffic. So they jump on the Pinterest bandwagon and focus their efforts on learning the ins and outs.

If you’re brand new to Pinterest, I recommend the Pinning Perfect course. It will show you how to lay the proper Pinterest foundation plus you get lifetime updates. They are constantly updating the course, especially since Pinterest is always making changes.

I haven’t put 100% of my efforts into learning Pinterest because I don’t want all my traffic coming from just one place.

However, there’s nothing saying that you can’t focus 100% on Pinterest and then move on to other traffic methods.

Anyway you look at it you’re going to have to learn how to drive traffic to your blog. That seems to be the hardest thing for new bloggers. That’s actually why I share my monthly traffic growth reports.

If you’ve been following me, you know that I am not a traffic expert. I am learning as I grow this blog. The techie side of blogging comes easier to me. That’s why you’ll find several beginner WordPress tutorials to help you with WordPress.

Related: How to Grow a Blog What I’m Focusing On My Second Year

It doesn’t matter how you choose to drive traffic to your blog. The important thing is that you start as soon as you launch your blog.

Getting Started

Okay now that you know that it’s going to take time and traffic. You’re probably wondering how do I get started?

Well hopefully, you started your blog on the right version of WordPress. Yes there’s more than one and it can definitely be confusing for new bloggers.

You’ll want to make sure that you’ve followed this checklist that I’ve put together for you that will show you how to start a blog. Don’t worry, you don’t need to do everything today.

Just keep it as a handy reference to go back to it whenever you’re ready to tackle the next thing.

Who’s Your Audience

You’ve probably heard that over and over again, especially if you’ve spent any time reading blogs that teach you how to make money.

It’s one of the things that I struggled with when I first got started. Sometimes I find myself still wondering who my audience is.

One of the best things that I have done is I wrote down who my people are on Google Drive. I go back and look at it whenever I feel like I am losing my way.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Finding your reader can be confusing, I struggled with this when I first started my blog back in the day. However, it’s not really that challenging. It will take you some time to answer these questions.

However, I do think that this exercise will help you get a better understanding of who your audience is.

• What type of hobbies does your avatar enjoy doing?
• What are their favorite books?
• Which blogs and websites do they spend time reading?
• Which social media channels does your avatar hang out on?
• What is your avatar’s biggest source of pain?
• What keeps your avatar up late at night?

 
Of course you could go deeper and really get to know your avatar. The truth is that most of the time your avatar is going to be kind of like you. (that’s what I’ve found)

If you need more tips on how to create the perfect avatar, read this.

A lot of the tutorials and content that I post on this blog were things that I struggled with when I started with WordPress and my freelancing business.

I know what new bloggers struggle with because they are the same things that I struggled with when I started my first blog back in the day.

You’ll notice that I also share my current blogging journey. This helps share what I am doing to grow this blog. After all as I mentioned all new bloggers struggle with growing their blog.

Best Thing to Do

One of the best things that I did when I started this blog was I answered a lot of these avatar questions and created a file on Google Drive that reminded me of who I am talking to.

Then I will create content based off what will actually help my avatar. Whenever I feel like I am going off topic, I will go back and read what I wrote on Google Drive.

The great thing is that nothing is set in stone. You can always tweak things as you continue blogging. If you write a blog post that doesn’t help you’re reader or is off topic, it’s not the end of the world.

Help Your Readers

The only purpose with your blog is to help your readers. People who come to your blog are looking for a solution to their problems.

If your blog solves their problem and they resonate with your story, chances are they’ll hang around and become a loyal reader.

You’re not trying to help everyone and you can’t help everyone. You’re just trying to help your people.

Yes you’ll get other readers and other bloggers who comment on your blog. This doesn’t mean that they are your true fans.

Your fans are the ones that sign up for your email list and read every blog post that you write. Eventually, they’ll buy your products and services as you create them.

These people are the ones that want to hear from you. They need your help and are turning to your blog whenever they need a solution to their problem.

It may take a while to figure out who your people are. The great thing that I love about blogging is that nothing is set in stone. If you find yourself needing to pivot and turn you can do that.

Check Your Analytics

As soon as you start blogging, you need to install Google Analytics. This will help you keep track of your blog growth and you can then start using that to see which posts your visitors enjoy reading.

I personally make it a point of time to check my blog stats every month. I’ll find my most popular posts and see if I can monetize those posts or improve them.

Another thing that I’ll do is see if I can write another blog post piggybacking off the success of that post. If you’ve taken look at my Social Warfare Review blog post, you’ll notice that I’ve written several blog posts from that one post.

That’s because I love using the Social Warfare plugin and wanted to share my tips and tutorials with you. I also did it because that’s actually one of my popular posts on this blog.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

One of the hardest things for new bloggers is to NOT compare themselves to others. If you’re like me, then you’re competitive by nature.

Whenever I go for my 5 mile walks, I find myself competing with strangers. They have no clue that I am trying to beat them, and chances are they don’t care.

Honestly, I don’t know why I do that, it’s just my nature. I always turn everything I can into a competition, especially exercising.

At the Beginning

It was really hard for me to put my head down and just work on my blog. Sometimes I still find myself reading other people’s income reports and silently thinking what am I doing wrong?

We’ve all done it after all, we all want to make money with our blogs.

The worst thing that you can do is start comparing yourself to others. If you start doing that, you’re going to start thinking that you’re doing something wrong.

Remember what I said above, we all have own journey to make money with our blogs. Yes some people are going to have success a lot faster than you.

The great thing is that there will always be people behind you. So it’s kind of like you’re in the middle until you reach your level of success. (whatever that is)

I know that there are people behind me, that’s why I share my tutorials and experience. My hope is that I can at least help one person follow my blog and change their current situation.

Other People Are Already Blogging About This

As you know, there are millions of blog posts published every day. You’re going to realize that you’re not the only one in the niche that you chose.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t start your blog in the niche that you’re passionate about or want to write about. It’s scary starting a blog in a niche where there are are already successful bloggers making money.

You can still start a blog in that niche. Remember you are talking to your people by sharing your own stories and unique experiences.

This is what’s going to make your blog attractive to the right people.

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started this blog was I didn’t share my story. I just sat down and wrote tutorial after tutorial.

Basically it was becoming just another blog that shared tutorials. To tell you the truth, there are tons of other WordPress experts who know more about WordPress than I do.

I am not a PHP developer or a designer, nor do I care to be one. I just started this blog because I wanted to share the basics that a new blogger needs to know to start their blog.

That’s why you won’t find any advanced tutorials on this blog. You might find a few, but these are things that I think will help bloggers as their blog continues to grow.

So regardless if you want to go into the money saving niche, health niche, get out of debt niche or whatever niche you choose. Go ahead and start your blog today and don’t let that little voice tell you that so and so is already making six figures in that niche and there’s no room for you.

Remember, you’re sharing your own story and attracting your people. There’s enough space on the Internet for all of us to create the lifestyle we envision for ourselves.

Get Started

Can you make money off a blog? Yes you can, but you need to start today. Stop thinking and dreaming about it and start taking the necessary action to work your butt off and achieve your dreams.

If you’re really serious about making money from a blog, then you need to get off the sidelines and actually start.

You don’t need to know everything and the truth is that no one knows everything when they start their blog. None of us were born bloggers.

Ask any successful blogger and they will tell you that they had to learn everything as they went along. I’ve got you covered with the basics of WordPress.

If you don’t feel comfortable with the techie side and you know that you don’t want to mess with any of the techie stuff, then you can always outsource it.

Be An Honest Blogger

I make it a point to treat others the way that I want to be treated. Yes I live by that mentality offline as well.

Whatever you do, be honest with your readers. You never want to take advantage of your readers just to make a quick buck.

Nothing is worse than a blogger who will do anything just to make money online. You don’t want to be that blogger that can’t be trusted.

If you don’t know how to do something or are still learning, be honest. You’re followers would rather hear the truth than to hear some made up lie.

Plus people are smart and they will be able to see through the lie. So whatever you do blog with integrity and be honest and sincere in your wanting to help others.

Don’t Be Scared to Spend Money

One of the biggest mistakes that new bloggers make is trying to do everything for free. I’m not saying that you should buy courses that make you go broke.

I’ve been guilty in the past of buying everything and anything that had to do with making money. Don’t do it, trust me that’s just asking for trouble.

What I’m Talking About

If you’re serious about creating a profitable blog, you’re going to have to spend money. Running a self-hosted blog is not as expensive as you might think.

You can’t do everything for free. Plus I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend a little bit of money upfront than to spend years trying to do everything for free.

Remember, you can always make more money but you can’t make more time. So if you find something that will help you take your blog to the next level faster, then I recommend investing in it.

You’ll be happy that you did when you’re able to cut your learning curve in half. Plus when you spend money on courses and products, you’re more likely to use it.

Sure you can download a free ebook. I’ve downloaded a lot of them. Most of us don’t take the free products we get as seriously as those products where we invest our hard earned money.

What Should I Spend Money On?

I know there so much blogging information telling you that you need this or that to run a blog. However, if you don’t have a lot of money to invest in to start a blog. I’ve written a post on what it costs to run a self-hosted blog.

Start with the basics and you can always buy plugins and other things as your blog continues to grow. Once you’ve been blogging for awhile, you’ll start to understand which blogging tools will help you grow your blog.

Final Take Away

Can you make money with a blog? Yes you can and I’ve shown you what it takes to get started. Now will you actually make money?

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that. What I can tell you that is that blogging is the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. Heck my freelancing work isn’t even this hard.

As long as you’re willing to treat your blog like a business and do something for it everyday. I have no doubt that you’ll be able to start, grow and make money with your blog.

The great thing is that it’s totally up to you how much you make or don’t make. There’s no ceiling on the amount of money you can make with blog.

It may take you a year or it may take you 7 years. I don’t know about you, I’d rather work on my blog and know that I’m building my financial future for myself than to work for someone else.

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• How to Start A Blog Tips for Beginners

 
Have you started a blog yet? Why did you choose the niche and how are you helping your readers? I’d love to hear about your blogging experience.