This is a message to Bloggers who write from passion – you can still make money blogging!
You have found what you are passionate about, and have created your blog around that. You love what you are writing about, you are putting a lot of effort into it and you are filled with enthusiasm. You put a lot of time into blogging, and for that you are receiving traffic, and lots of comments, but not much else, particularly in monetary terms.
So many bloggers I speak with still haven’t figured out a way to make money or are too afraid of upsetting their readers, this post is for all of you!
The first thing to keep in mind is that the only thing holding you back is…you!
You are probably losing money to take part in this awesome passion. Admittedly you are getting much in return, such as friendships and the gratitude of many of your readers. You also get happiness from doing something you love. Which is great! In fact I was exactly like you up until about 4 months ago. Then it suddenly hit me, I realised that I could actually make money from my passion and use that money to fund it. My site needed hosting, some of the add on’s I needed had a cost. I had to fund this from somewhere. Well now the blogging is paying for itself, while maintaining what it is there for, helping people make changes in their lives. I’m one of those ‘crazy’ bloggers that also believes that if I work at it, hone my skills, develop my blogs, I may be able to turn it into my main source of income.
Once I realised that I could and should monetarize my blog, I was of course worried about my integrity as a blogger, because if I lose my integrity I would also lose my credibility to my readers, the lifeblood of my blog, many of whom I’d also call friends. Without my credibility, they would stop coming to my blog and even probably no longer communicate with me in our social network groups. I came to realise that nothing really was going to change. I would still post 5 times a week, the quality of my articles would be maintained, but I would just add some pieces to help me make a bit of money. This hurt no body.
I started this article after by being inspired by an online, social networking friend who emailed me and she said how much she liked the changes I’d made to the design of my blog, and had noticed that I was now moneterized. She asked me how she could turn her blog into an online business or profitable blog. She blogged for the love of her subject, but needed to find some additional income, and wondered if she could do this through her blog.
She has been blogging for quite a while, longer than me in fact, but the hardest part for her was knowing where to start things off, she really had no idea how to kick off moneterizing her blog. She needed me to point her in the right direction.
She has a popular blog which receives very good traffic, including a regular readership, but hasn’t monetized it in any way. Her blogs posts are never boring and add value to her reader’s lives.
I knew that there were many bloggers out there, who do it for the passion that it brings, and that they want to share. They never started blogging with any thought to the potential money it could earn.. Money will never be their number one motivation. But making something from it, the money you need to pay for everything you need to spend on blogging, well that just makes sense.
So you’re obsessed with your blog posting daily, rarely taking a break, apart from maybe going to do your day job or look after your family. You blog no matter where you may be, using your iPhone if your laptop isn’t handy. Often you find yourself blogging through the early morning. And this insane behaviour all because you love blogging.
The great thing about blogging with a passion is that you know about your subject and love it. A wise man would say “find what you love first, and then find a way to make money with it”.
So why be embarrassed or put off from trying to make a little bit of money out of something you put so much effort into it?
Wouldn’t it put a bit of a spring into your life if you could wake up every morning and do work that you would do anyway, even if you weren’t going to be paid for it, and earn from it. I find it awesome.
Let me assure you there are people in the blogosphere making money blogging, so it is not impossible. I’m not just talking about pro-bloggers, I’m talking about hobby bloggers like you and me, making descent money from their passions.
I’m not saying it’s easy, and certainly not telling you that you’re going to make a fortune. Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time and dedication, focused effort and some good luck thrown in besides.
Many of us hobby bloggers do a day job and experiment with our blog whenever we can steal the time. To me it makes sense that we can cover our blogging costs, if we can.
I think eventually we all look towards our blog and think that it would be good to earn something from it. We spend so much time blogging that it does make sense for us to supplement our income a little from our activities. But you have to have lots of patience and a long-term attitude, if you really want to see any form of significant results.
As a personal development blogger I strive to make a real difference in the quality of life for my readers. For me my motivation has never been making money when It comes to blogging. I do it because I’m passionate about helping people. Blogging is about sharing your knowledge, reaching out and for me helping others along on their life journey. I simply love blogging. My goal is to unveil new and fresh ideas that will empower my audience. My blog is the vehicle through which I connect with my readers, where I have the opportunity to motivate and inspire them to take the next step in their own journey. My blog provides me the opportunity to make a difference. That’s one of the reasons why blogging is so rewarding. It is not about money although money is an eventual by-product of blogging.
You have to continuously focus on delivering quality content. At the same time you have to do other activities to attract readers to your blog. Then in time the money may come, but it should not make you stray away from the purpose of your blogging.
You must keep writing meaningful and helpful content, keep on updating your blog daily! The more content you create the more traffic you will get from search engines.
You must see blogging as a service to others. You are giving to people and helping them, which is so rewarding. This is a way to share what you are passionate about in order to help people. It’s fine to make money from it, but service and passion need to motivate you in order to put your readers first.
One thing that made a huge difference in my traffic was that of interacting and engaging with other bloggers. I take the time to guest posts on other websites, comment on posts on other blogs and to get to know other bloggers because creating a community is crucial, if you want to achieve a following and you want to make friends.
If you focus all your attention on the money making aspect of your blog, and fail in providing quality useful content to you readers, you will not succeed in making money. If you use your blog to provide quality information that people can actually use in some way or another, you are sure to make some money, and that’s how you make money blogging.
I believe there is a very simple formula to follow:
QUALITY CONTENT > TRAFFIC > INCOME
Let me introduce you to the one thing you must have on your blog … Google AdSense.
The great advantage of using Google AdSense to make money with your blog is the simplicity of it. It takes just a couple of minutes to install the code on your blog, and you can begin to make money right away. Basically adsense automatically matches the ads with the content of your blog. So, if you are writing about personal development, then adsense on your page will be showing ads related to personal development. You get paid every time someone clicks on one off those ads. Adsense is by far the number one way for many bloggers and webmasters to make money online.
You can still concentrate 100% of your efforts on creating quality content, and driving targeted traffic to your blog, and just let google adsense create you a little bit of money, with very little attention from yourself. This will continue to make money for you without any additional time or work on your part.
If you want to take it further then you could consider other streams of income that you can develop on your blog. This could include;
• consulting,
• freelancing,
• coaching,
• selling products you create,
• selling other people’s products (affiliate marketing),
• advertising,
• donations.
For me I have three sources of income now directly of my blog. If you told me 4 months ago that I would be earning money off it, I’d have said you are ‘mad!’ Yet now my Personal development Coaching, Google AdSense and selling advertising on my blog is after all creating a brand new income source for me. Happy days!
Let me conclude by telling you what I think the priorities are;
• It isn’t easy to make money blogging
• It takes time to make money blogging
• It has a lot to do with the quality of content you produce
• It has everything to do with the traffic that comes to your blog.
Any type of blog can profit from monetization, provided what you try to sell relates to the subject of your blog.
What can you sell? Will it be your own product or someone else’s?
Never lose sight of the reason people read blogs, it is not to be marketed to or to see ads, it is because they like the content in the blog. you should always stay concerned with giving readers great content that makes them want to come back. The more readers you have, the better your monetization methods will work.
So in conclusion you can make money by blogging about your passions.
I hope that this opened your eyes up to a few possibilities. There are so many ways to get money in this economy that it’s ridiculous.
Previously posted On Healthy Lifestyles Living
