You are a blogger and you want to start making money on your blog. You have been blogging for a while and you know there are some options, but don’t know which way you should go, which direction you should you pursue in order to make money.

BUILD A LIST OF TRUSTING FOLLOWERS

There are a lot of ways to determine which direction would be the most suitable for you but before we even move on to the directions I want to tell you that what you need to do first is to start building an email list. You may say: well I’m not selling anything yet, I don’t have a product. I don’t have a service. Don’t you worry there is no need for that at first because the idea of the list is not selling or pushing products out. It’s to build an audience that will trust you and value your content. This way when you are ready to launch a product or to be an affiliate for certain company and advertise their products, you will have hell of a lot of people that trust you. They’ll love your opinion, advice and will actually want to follow what you are recommending.

Now you may say: is there a point to an email list if I don’t know what I’m going to be sending them. The answer is YES! If you have a blog or a vlog you have content, lots of content. That’s exactly what’s going to be your super power even before you have a product or an amazing collaboration with the brand you love. Your email list is for you to gather more attention of people that are on that list, to build a beautiful relationship based on trust and honesty. This is what will help you sell once you’re ready.

DON’T LET THEM MISS IT!

Nowadays we are all super busy in our lives today; we miss things, we ignore our calendar reminders just because we have so much on our minds all the time. It’s very easy to overlook a new post, even if someone loves you and it’s not their fault. It is just that today’s world constantly competes for our attention, so- as Gary Vaynerchuk said – it’s become the new currency. I totally agree with that! Remember that if you have vlog or a blog and that means you have content, then you definitely have something to share. It’s a great idea to send a new blog post to your audience. It’s a great idea to repurpose the old blog post or let them know about value they may have missed.

YOUR LIST, YOUR RULES, YOUR BASE

Your email list is your base, even if you don’t have a product yet and even if you don’t sell anything yet. ‘The List’ isn’t subject to algorythm changes, it isn’t subject to fluctuations in social media traffic. Start building your email list as soon as possible. The sooner the better! If you don’t want to push and inject a lot of cash into your advertising campaigns just to grow your list, it is better to do it steadily and organically. Another aspect which has a certain appeal is the fact that an Inbox is the only place where viewer’s attention won’t be disrupted by tons of ads, updates and interactions. It’s just you and her reading an email from you. It’s voluntary, they opted to be on the list, unlike with ads and posts on other platforms which don’t always fit what we want to see.

Let’s move on to ideas to make money from your blog. In the old days, one of not many ways of earning money on our blog was to put adverts or banners. The reality was that it wasn’t very effective at bringing consistent income. Nowadays there are a lot of things that you can do, even if you don’t have your own product or service.

BEING AFFILIATE

You can recommend a product or service of other people – that’s called being an affiliate and it simply means that you get a percentage of that sale from your recommendation. You get paid in return for your authority and influence with people. See why building trust is so important?

SPONSORED CONTENT & BRAND COLLABORATIONS

You can also create sponsored posts or videos. Let’s say you’re an athlete, you can get sponsorship from a company that produces sports gear or supplements. Collaborations are often based on showcasing newest product or one of the best sellers in some of your content in a creative way. It needs to be genuine and honest. In order to do that you first need to have an engaged audience because big companies won’t invest in you if you don’t have the trust factor on your side.

So remember if you want to go the sponsorships route or the collaboration route, you first need to build your tribe and that may take some time.

LONG TERM SOLUTIONS

On the other hand if you are an expert in your field and you don’t have a huge audience you can still make money on your blog or vlog.

• create a product – it could be an eBook (an infoproduct), a video recording, a course. There are plenty other forms and often the delivery method are mixed.
• create a service – if you’ve been doing something for a long time and you’re en expert in certain field, you cna certainly monetize it. You may not even realize the skills you have and perceive as normal and hence think people won’t pay for it. You cold be totally wrong. As long as you solve someone’s problem/pain: physical or intellectual, you’re on a great way!Examples:
  – nutritional advice
  – workout plans
  – teaching photography
  – therapy: life, addiction, couples
  – don-for-you solutions
  – virtual assisting /administrators
  – DYI coaching sessions: craft, knitting
• create a membership site – A membership site is something great because it gives you consistent income every month. It means that someone pays you monthly or yearly for access to certain information or certain service, i.e. paid live calls, masterclasses, weekly/monthly lookbook, etc.

Have in mind that with all these possibilities there is plenty to choose from. Business models should be chosen with your personality, lifestyle and strengths in mind. You want your business to support your life and not the other way round. Having said that, none of this will work if you don’t have a even the smallest engaged audience, a strategy or plan and if you’re not consistent. This means choosing your channels of content distribution wisely. I bet you already have social media accounts you’re utilising, but are you maximising their effectiveness?

I prepared an amazing tool for you which will allow you to stay organised and never forget what should be done when. So every day when you wake up you know what you need to fous on, every week isn’t a mystery anymore.  

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We’re now getting to the end of this post. I hope you find it helpful. Let me know which one of this ways appeals to you the most and for what reason. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.