How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Your First $1000

Making money as a blogger can be a difficult and frustrating journey, especially for those who are unprepared. This is all you need to choose a blog topic, set up your blog, and generate your first four digits.

Five years ago, if you had told me that I would be sitting here today blogging for a living, I would have laughed in your face.

Of course, I can say, “What is a blog? How can you make money blogging?

Five years ago, I worked as a financial analyst at a financial planning firm.

I go to work every day from 9 am to 5 am, I dread Mondays and look forward to the weekends that don't last long. There was something I liked about my work at that time. Full time pay, health insurance, some co-workers. But for the most part, I'm not a fan of the 9 to 5 lifestyle. But by that, I mean:

1- I feel unappreciated and my work is unimportant

2- I don't control my income

3- To request leave of absence

4- Corporate governance (the worst)

Our Blogging Story

First, we (my business partner Ben and I) didn't get into blogging on purpose. We fell into blogging by accident. We started our business in 2014. It started as an investment site: people pay us for detailed market research and specific information on where they should invest their money. Needless to say (as you read this article), the idea failed miserably. In fact, in our first 18 months of existence, we earned $29.00. Obviously, our first idea didn't work, so we needed a plan B.

 

That's when we found the blog. We quickly discovered that other people were making thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars per month from their blogs. Our first idea was a good fit, and I didn't want to go back to the full-time job I left a year ago, so we gave it a try.

 

4 Best Ways to Make Money Blogging

Some ways to make money blogging are easy and quick, while other sources of income take time and effort to develop.

 

As a blogger, you have many funding options to choose from, and you don't have to choose just one. Of course, it is wise to have multiple ways of making money. That way, if something happens and their income decreases, you still have other sources of income.

1. Advertising

When most people think of starting a blog, this is the main source of income that comes to mind. Often times, it's not the most lucrative, but it's one of the easiest ways to get started. There are different ways to get paid advertising on your blog.

Display Ads

You know when you go to a site and see an ad for a car or clothes or something you looked at on Amazon? These are promotional ads. Every time you click on one of these ads, the website earns money, which is why they call it Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. You can see how Erin from Erin Lives Whole uses display advertising to monetize her editorial content.

1- This results in a poor user experience. How many times have you visited a site and been able to scroll through the page without an ad popping up every two seconds?

2- It totally depends on your traffic. And you need a large amount of traffic (tens of thousands of visitors per month) to make a meaningful investment in display advertising.

3- This drives users away from your site. You can earn $0.80 for someone who clicks on your ad, but now they are on someone else's site and they are making money.

2. Affiliate Marketing

It's our favourite way to monetize our website.

 

Affiliate marketing (n): Earning a commission for promoting the products or services of another person or business. Affiliate networks offer many products and services to promote in one place. On the other hand, you can get a higher job by working directly with the company you want to promote if they have a system for this. In her post on Extra Petite, you'll see how fashion blogger Jean Wang includes a link to hidden clothing throughout the post.

3. Digital Products

Digital products are another great way to monetize your blog. Instead of selling someone else's product or service, you create your own unique content and sell it directly to your target audience. There are many options to choose from when it comes to digital products, but we'll take a look at what we saw and consider the top three.

Ebooks and Workbooks

The first product we developed was an eBook. At the time, we were still trying to sell investment advice online (before we discovered the whole blogging thing), so as we've covered before, it was a failed business. However, there are many bloggers out there who are making a lot of money from their books and e-books.

 

One that comes to mind is Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter. He sells the Budget Boot Camp workbook for $27, along with various other notebooks and workbooks.

Online Courses

This way of making money has become incredibly popular in the last few years. Many bloggers who make a lot of money online do this by selling premium courses. Alex and Lauren of Create and Go make over $50,000 a month selling digital products and online courses.

 

4. Services

While outsourcing is the fastest way to monetize your blog, it's also the least expensive. Your blog also acts as your portfolio when you bring in clients, so you can earn money working for others while building your source of income. Here are some of the best services you can offer as a new blogger.

Digital Marketing

If you don't already know, blogging is more than just writing and publishing articles. In the process of creating your blog, you will learn about social media strategy, design, SEO, content marketing, and about a million other things. Most of these things fall under digital marketing, and they are very useful for other businesses.

 

Our friend Bobby Hoyt from Millennial Money Man realized this shortly after starting his blog. His site wasn't making money at the time, so he had to find another way to make money. That's when he started reaching out to other companies to build his career doing what he learned from blogging (Facebook advertising, online content writing, social media, etc.)). This quality idea became a small Janin and let it continue building his house and develop his business online. It is now a complete blog and education and other teachers how to get money on Facebook by ads for other companies.

Virtual Assistant

Open assistants are in high demand among online entrepreneurs. A virtual assistant helps business owners with everything from administrative tasks to design to email marketing. Your role will depend on your specific skills and experience. For example, if you have impeccable spelling and grammar, one of your jobs might be writing articles for other websites. Jenny Weg, a mom and lifestyle blogger, was able to monetize her blog right away and start making $2,000 a month doing charity work.

Freelance Writing

This is one of the easiest and most common jobs to offer as a new blogger. You already write content for your own website, so why not get paid to write for someone else? Freelance writing is a great way to practice your writing skills and gain exposure. It's also great for building authority if you're writing for a site in your niche. Don't think for a minute that "freelancing" is the same thing as "working for pennies". Some bloggers earn more than six figures a year as a freelance writer.

Here's how to make money blogging in a nutshell

Have I covered everything there is to know about blogging in this article? No, not close. It will be the subject of a million words that no one will read. What I have done is tell you everything you need to know to get started now. Today. If you follow every step in this article (and don't skip anything), you'll have a good foundation for your blog to start making consistent, meaningful income. This guide is here for the taking. I have shown you 90% of what it takes to make thousands of dollars a month from a blog. I have provided all the information for free, all you have to do is decide if you want to use it. Seth Godin sums up the concept of blogging well: