How do beginner blogs make money?
So you’ve picked a great niche for your new blog?
Check.
Got your domain, web hosting, & WordPress set up?
Check.
Got a great WordPress theme?
Check.
Everything’s in place, but how do beginner blogs make money? Can you really create a solid passive income stream from a blog, or is it just a myth?
Just because you’re a beginner doesn’t mean that you have to put off your monetization plans for your blog.
You just don’t want to get distracted by them and let them keep you from creating, which is your main goal anyway.
How Beginner Blogs Make Money
As a beginner blogger making money is something that’s on pretty much everyone’s mind.
I know it was for me.
First time I started a niche site I did it as a way to earn money.
I’m not sorry for that.
It took a while, but after spending time creating content for that blog, that site now earns money for me on autopilot.
All I do is keep adding content to it, and it keeps growing.
And I’m not alone in my own experience; tons of people are making money with their blogs out of the gate.
Still not sure?
Harsh Agrawal of Shout Me Loud built a micro-niche site earning $174 per month and an average of $100 per month from affiliate marketing alone.
With a $160 investment and 40 hours of work, he generated $2,000 in just one year!
Here’s the best part (that I’m betting you already knew about):
Once your blog is up and running, the annual income can add up in to millions!
Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income earned a total of $2.1 million in 2017 through affiliate marketing, book sales, course sales, and he started with a simple blog.
So you know that it can be done.
So how do you do it?
How can you earn from a beginner blog?
Here’s the bottom line:
You have to provide information and resources to people who are looking for answers to their questions and problems.
And you do this by creating high-value content.
The first and the most obvious step is to create value-packed content meant to address the user’s search intent. Money should always be second on the list. You can only scale up if you have a decent amount of people visiting your blog regularly.
Let’s jump into the “How do beginner blogs make money?” and uncover the secrets of how beginners are making money with their new blogs.
Earn money as a beginner blogger using affiliate income
Have you ever visited a product review website and saw something like this at the top:
This is what affiliate marketing is.
You promote the services and products (digital or physical) and get paid every time you drive a sale through your affiliate link. Pretty simple, right?
You can even see that here on my own blog where I’m doing a review on something relevant to my audience & community.
My friend Dan Miller of 48days.com talks how one of the greatest parts of his business is when he’s making money while he sleeps. And affiliate marketing is an amazing way to do exactly that.
A reader finds your new blog, reads through the whole article which was meticulously crafted by you to provide the best possible answer to the question, and when they decide to make a purchase using your link, you earn a commission the sale.
How cool is that?!?
Why is affiliate marketing one of the best ways for beginner blogs to make money?
Because it’s virtually always super easy to get started and there’s no shortage of things you can promote.
From good physical goods, to digital goods, like eBooks and online courses, you can promote anything that seems like a good fit for your dream customer in your niche.
Tom of Online Media Masters is earning $150,000 each year through affiliate marketing alone!
Some of the best affiliate programs pay you on recurring charges each month, so when you make the sale the first time, you get paid each month like clockwork without having to do any additional work.
I subscribe to several platforms like ClickFunnels, where my affiliate commissions from the sales I’ve made are more than enough to pay my subscription costs each month, and pay me on autopilot.
So, what’s holding you back?
You can either join an affiliate network or a referral program to get into affiliate marketing. Here are some of the most popular affiliate programs of 2021:
- Amazon Associates
- ShareASale
- CJ Affiliate
- Click Bank
Sell Digital Products And Online Courses
Are you a subject expert? Can you offer something truly unique that people will pay for instantly? Why not sell your own digital products?
They don’t have to be huge creations that take months to develop.
Some of my favorites that I’ve bought over the years are ones I spent less than $100 on, and most times, less than $50.
The most common digital products you can sell are:
- eBooks
- Stock photos
- Swipe files
- Checklists
- Digital planners
- Recipe books
- Short films
- Video animation intros
- PowerPoint / Keynote presentation templates
- Browser plugins
- Online courses
And the list goes on!
The whole purpose of selling a digital product is that it can be instantly purchased, downloaded, and used.
And you can sell it over and over again!
You don’t need to maintain a physical inventory, and you are never out of stock.
Why sell digital products directly on your blog?
You can create offers at all kinds of price points, offer bundles, build an entire sales funnel around them, and a whole lot more.
And it all starts with a simple digital product – what’s not to love?
When you’re ready to level-up, another great way to earn from a beginner blog is to sell online courses.
If you are a subject expert, you can also host webinars, offer coaching/consulting services, and even offer freelance writing services.
Run Ads On Your Site
Your blog is a blank canvas for ads.
Running ads is one of the best ways beginner blogs make money.
You allow an advertising network like Google AdSense to place ads on your blog and viola!
Every time a user clicks on the ads, you get a percentage of the ad revenue.
You can choose how many ads should be there and where they are placed.
They can be on the top, sidebar, at the bottom, or anywhere you wish.
The most important thing is to make sure the ads don’t interfere with the whole user experience.
I can’t tell you how many sites I bounce away from when it’s clear that all they’re doing is trying to get an ad in front of my eyes.
Here’s an example of how ads are placed on a new blog:
Google AdSense is the most popular ad network that beginner blogs use to earn money. It is easy to set up, and you can monetize your blog even when it’s new. You can check out the eligibility criteria here.
And the best part?
Readers will see relevant ads because Google has thousands of advertisers on board. Your AdSense earnings will vary depending on the competition and CPC (cost-per-click) in your niche.
Other ad networks pay better than Google AdSense, but their eligibility criteria doesn’t usually fit for beginner blogs. MediaVine, Ezoic, Media.Net, Adversal, PopAds, and InfoLinks are some of the alternatives.
And if you don’t like the idea of an ad network, you can sell ad spots on your blog directly to advertisers.
I’ve done this on one of my sites and it worked like a charm!
The best part was that they reached out to me – I didn’t have to chase them and it was money in the bank.
In order to make enough money to move the needle you need to get plenty of traffic.
The traffic will come though, so be patient.
Keep creating and publishing high-quality content your visitors will find you when they’re searching for answers.
Next Steps
Making money from a beginner blog is no myth.
You need high-quality, consistent, and valuable content for your niche, and you can easily start earning money from your blog.
It takes time to get going in most instances so you need to be consistent and have realistic goals. Start small and work your way up the ladder.
Hustle.
Work hard.
Commit to publishing every day on your new blog.
With these tested and proven tactics that show how beginner blogs make money, you can boost your earnings from $0 to $100 in no time at all.
It’s time for you to start working on creating content and making money for your new blog.
Have any questions about any of this? Just leave me a comment below.
OR
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