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CAN I MAKE MONEY BLOGGING?
Are you a blogger who loves what you do but would love it even more if you could do it for a living? Well, I was! I started my blog back in 2009 on the Blogger platform as a hobby coupon blog. I loved blogging about coupons and saving money, and after blogging for a few years I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if I got paid to do this?
After doing some research and finding that it was possible to make money with my blog I moved my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted blog on WordPress and started my journey to making money with my blog.
If you have a blog and want to move it to a self-hosted platform like WordPress.org (different from wordpress.com), you will need a host. I recommend Bluehost where plans start as low as just $3.95 a month.
Esavingsblog is not a blog about blogging, but since I do blog about personal finance and making extra money, I thought I would share how I make extra money blogging. I have many people ask me “can I make money blogging”? And the answer is yes. Is it easy? No. The one thing I can say is that blogging is an excellent way to make money if it’s something you’re passionate about.
Looking for other legit work from home jobs? Check out 5 Legit Work From Home Jobs.
One misconception a lot of bloggers have is that you have to plaster ads all over your blog and become a product pusher to make money with your blog but that’s not true at all.
If you look around my blog you won’t see it plastered with ads; I have a few Adsense ads but nothing that would interfere with my reader’s experience.
I value my readers and only want to serve them better. I make money by partnering with brands that I think my readers will love, through affiliate marketing and from an eBook which I am rewriting to relaunch soon. There are so many ways to earn money and you just have to find the right one for you and your blog.
HOW DO YOU START MAKING MONEY BLOGGING?
In my opinion, getting educated is my number one tip to make money blogging. The second is having a good support system. You can be like me and think you can learn everything on your own and take years to do so or learn from fellow bloggers who are making a full-time income with their blogs.
I remember the first few years of blogging I refused to buy any courses to help me blog better. I thought I could just find the information myself and learn on my own and I would be ok. Well if I could turn back time I would have looked for quality courses to help me blog better right away. I would have spent more time connecting with other bloggers and making long-lasting friendships.
You can take the hard and long road or connect with some wonderful teachers and learn from their experiences, remember it isn’t easy, but it’s possible as long as you put in the work.
This is actually a good thing because if it was easy everyone would be doing it and it would be harder for you to make money blogging.
What courses do you need to take?
After years of not taking any courses and trying to learn everything on my own, I started researching courses and joining blogging groups to find which courses were right for me. I was overwhelmed with the choices and started taking e-course after e-course only to find out some were a waste of money, and some were so good I wished I had found them years earlier.
With so many courses and books out there, how do you find the ones that are right for you?
I look for courses and books that are written by bloggers who have a successful blog that is not just a “blog about blogging”.
I also tend to like the courses that come with a private Facebook group so that I get that added support while I am learning. I have found some great ones that are super supportive and extremely helpful when I ask questions.
The bloggers in these group are paid customers, so they tend to be more supportive and motivational because everyone there is trying to obtain the same goal and that is to make money blogging.
Some of the free Facebook groups out there are great for sharing posts etc. but tend to be filled with thousands of bloggers and sometimes a bit of drama.
So what courses do I recommend? Depending on what stage of blogging you are in, here are four of the courses I took and can recommend based on value and support.
The first and last one are full blogging courses and go over everything about blogging. The 2nd and third on the list are very specific ways to make money with your blog that I found very useful and have helped me monetize my existing blog the RIGHT WAY.
Blog by Number is the perfect course for anyone who wants to start a blog, find their perfect blog idea, get step by step help with the technical parts, learn how to get traffic and how to make money with their blog.
I love this course because the instructor Suzi is so great! She goes over EVERYTHING you need step by step in videos so you don’t get stuck on anything. I already had a blog when I took her course but I still learned so much! It is jam-packed and is super affordable!
You can check out Blog by Number here as well as many of her other courses.
2. Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers
This course is for current bloggers who are looking to start monetizing their blog with affiliate marketing. I was using affiliate programs completely the wrong way until I found this course! Tasha, the blogger behind Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body, designed this course to help bloggers take the confusion out of affiliate marketing.
I was already using affiliate networks when I took her course and realized all of the things I was doing wrong! Tasha is so helpful and doesn’t hold back anything. She shares everything she knows and that’s why I love her course.
If you buy the advanced course you get access to a private Facebook group and Tasha is super active in the group and does Facebook Live often to answer questions people have on affiliate marketing and much more! I have learned so much from her course and from her live videos in the group.
If you want to check out her eBook or her full course, you can do that here.
3. Working with Brands by Jenny Melrose
Do you know the one critical strategy behind the most successful influencers landing contracts to work with brands on sponsored content? Jenny Melrose has made it super easy to learn more about working with brands to increase your income.
Jenny has a free 4 part video series where she answers who to reach out to and what to say when you do. Plus, she’s talking about pricing. You can sign up for this FREE Video Series here.
Or go ahead and sign up for the full course here.
4. Elite Blog Academy created by Ruth Soukup
This course is BY FAR the best course I have ever taken and it has changed the way I blog and for the better. I listed it last because it’s a little more expensive than the rest but WORTH IT!
Elite Blog Academy only opens once a year but you can get on the waiting list here. But good news, Ruth offers a few freebies that I highly recommend and they are free so nothing to lose! Grab them now.
FREE EBook: 7 SureFire Ways to Boost Your Blog Income Overnight
FREE Goal Setting Workbook for Bloggers
What classes are you taking? Have you tried any of the ones I mentioned? Leave a comment below.
thanks for all the useful information Always up to learn more and make more in the blogging world
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
Wow very helpful and I agree before making the big decision to blog for money educate yourself!
Although it’s nice to get paid to blog, I truly started my blog because I’m passionate about writing. The rest just follows I guess. I love the whole process and articles like this are always useful to bloggers looking to monitize. Thank you.
I agree you have to love what you do! I started my blog in 2009 as a hobby and when I wanted to turn it into a part-time job, I looked for ways to monetize it and found that it allowed me to actually serve my audience better. I have created an eBook, a course and looking to do more as well. I am now blogging full-time and love that I can do what I love and get get paid as well. Although I am still learning new things daily I know I can reach my goals with the right training and support.
Getting paid is a plus but I also started my blog for fun
I eventually want to make money through blogging. Thanks for sharing these very useful information!
Will pin it for later 🙂
Your welcome! I recommend these resources because they truly are great and the women who created these courses are wonderful for sharing their experience and expertise in how to monetize a blog.
I started blogging simply because I love writing too, but I would definitely consider monetizing it soon.
Thanks for sharing this!
Me too and I would not recommend starting a blog just for money, we have to love what we do or it will not work. Blogging is a passion and takes a lot of dedication, monetizing a blog allows us to create an income stream from something we love to do. Hopefully this post was helpful 🙂
I started blogging as a hobby! Really enjoy what I’m doing and it’s so rewarding. I agree that getting educate to blog to make money is important. This looks like a very helpful post. Thanks for sharing
I started my blog as a creative outlet. I wouldn’t mind monetizing later on. Useful post and great info. Definitely will bookmark
This sounds like an amazing resource!! I love being able to make money from blogging to stay home with my kids.
monetizing is always a good idea for anyone as its more or less a way to earn for all your hard work on your blog, but as always hardwork pays off and using the right channel and medium to moneytize without affecting your blog badly is another thing. good read you have shared here.
I always wanted to have a money blogging, but I am not really sure where to start & how to deal with it. These are some great guidelines that could help make the best out of it and the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit sounds great as well.
Very helpful. Good post