5 Actionable Tips to Make More Money from Your Blog

Did you know upwards 90% of the bloggers never make any money from their blogs?

The majority of the bloggers fail to make money from their blogs because of 3 main reasons.

1. They don’t know their target audience
2. They don’t lay out a monetization plan
3. They focus only on making QUICK money online

If you don’t want to be one among them and looking for actionable tips to make money from your blogging efforts, this post is exclusively for you.

Blogging is NOT a Get Rich Quick Scheme

Making money from your blog is NOT as simple as setting up a WordPress site.

First things first. Making money online is not easy. It takes time and consistent efforts to make more money from your blog. If you understand this ONE thing alone can save you a lot of time and energy.

80% of the bloggers who never make a penny from their blogs fail because they think making money from a blog is easy and fast. There are thousands of “fake online programs” that promise people to make some quick money online.

Don’t fall prey for such things. Never invest money on something that promises to give you really quick results. Like any successful business, building a profitable blog takes time.

As a rule of thumb, don’t expect making money from your blog for the first 6 months. Just focus on building audience for your blog, layout a monetization strategy and educated your audience about the products and services you promote. That’s how you succeed.

That’s how you will finally start making money from a blog. Now, let’s talk about the incredible blogging tips to make money from your blog. To learn more about everything mentioned above, be sure to check out this WordPress Tips blogging guide on Udemy.

#1. Create an Email Sales Funnel

The best way to make money blogging is to start building an email list. I know you might have already heard about the phrase “the money is in the list”.

But majority of the people who are building lists really not making any money or sales.

If you are one among them or wondering how to create and grow an email list that really makes money, here’s what I recommend you to follow.

Create an Email Funnel.

So what exactly do I mean by that?

Firstly, collect the email with a freebie (eBook, checklist or video) and then before they even check their email for that freebie, recommend them a $5-$20 low-end product. It can be either your own product or any affiliate product that’s aimed at your target audience.

Pro tip: The key here is to sell the product at 50 to 80% OFF with a 10 to 15 minute time limit.

Then, create a 30 day email broadcast series loaded with free information and offers of more expensive products or services that are relevant to your subscribers. At the end, recommend your final product which can be obviously a high-end subscription service or coaching material.

That’s how you really make money from your email list. You start selling them small but really quickly and then you work it through all the way to your high end product or service.

Here are few more tips to make money from your email list.

• Always analyze what others are promoting from their blogs in your niche. This gives you a better idea about the most profitable product ideas that can give you more profits and commission.
• Use the products you recommend. This is a must. Without using a product, how can you recommend it to your audience?
• Don’t send too many emails. People might think you are just running after money by sending too many promotional emails. Always educate your audience with great content first. Then, recommend affiliate products you trust.

#2. Affiliate Marketing is NOT What You Think

Most beginner bloggers think affiliate marketing is all about two things.

1. Create more content
2. Drive more website traffic and make money

If you are thinking the same way, you will never make a sale.

Here’s how “successful affiliate marketing works”.

1. Create engaging content
2. Build trust with the audience and
3. Recommend products that your audience needs and make money

Successful affiliate marketers such as Darren Rowse, Neil Patel, John Chow and Zac Johnson are making so much money due to their audience. Their audience trust their words and buy the products or services they recommend.

Successful affiliate marketing is all about building trust. The more people who trust you, the more sales you can make from affiliate marketing. It’s as simple as that.

If you are wondering how to build trust online, have a look at the following things.

• Always lead by example. Practice what you preach. Don’t suggest tips or strategies you don’t follow. Know about your audience pulse and try to solve their problems.
• The fastest way to build trust online is to communicate openly. Don’t lie. Don’t talk nonsense. Always be passionate about your audience wants and needs.
• NEVER recommend a product just because it’s payout is high. Once you break the trust of your audience by promoting worthless products, you will fail to make money blogging in the long run.

#3. Become a Freelance Blogger

Freelancing is one of the most effective ways you can try if you want to quickly make money from online. There are thousands of freelancers who are making money by doing what they love.

The best part about freelance blogging is you don’t need too many technical skills, marketing efforts or online reputation.

All you need is a blog with targeted content serving to your target audience.

You can offer any service ranging from logo design to freelance writing to installing WordPress. The key thing to becoming a successful freelance blogger is to carefully analyze what others are doing in your field and offer something extra to make more money.

Here are few incredible strategies if you want to make more out of freelance blogging.

• Start a blog with a purpose. Don’t aim to make money from it by plastering ads all over it. Just focus on defining your audience and adding true value to them by offering great content.
• Create a portfolio page. And link out to all the blogs and magazines where you have landed on with your guest posts. If you have written for top blogs with your guest posts and if you are offering freelance writing services, you will definitely attract high paying clients. If you are a designer, list out all the people whom you have already worked with. If possible, use testimonials as they can quickly boost your conversion rates.
• Learn to negotiate. Don’t aim for working with too many clients by offering cheaper rates. Work with limited number of people by offering more value and charging more.

#4. Create a Course That’s Worth Paying for

There are thousands of bloggers and marketers starting membership sites and successfully making money from them. I know creating a profitable membership site is no less than running a company but it is NOT at a hard task if you know what you are doing. Even if you don’t have the skills or resources to start a membership site of your own, sites like Udemy make it dead simple and lucrative for going live with your own courses through their site and marketplace.

Here are two things every successful membership site requires.

1. A responsive email list
2. A premium course that’s worth talking about

The best part about membership sites is they can help you earn recurring payments that you can receive every single month.

For instance, if you are into fitness niche, you can create a paid course around “how to get six pack abs in 6 months” and you can offer monthly pricing plans or one time signup offers.

Just make sure your content is worth implementing and include lots of practical stuff along with the videos, worksheets and articles.

If you want to create and grow a profitable membership site, here are few essential things you should always keep in mind.

• Make use of the plugins. There are so many membership plugins out there which make it easy for you to create an awesome looking membership site. You can easily keep your content private and access to only members by using the plugins like S2Member, MemberPress etc.
• Come up with unique and helpful membership site ideas. Don’t start a membership site just to make money. Any site that makes passive income always focuses on providing huge value to the community.
• Validate your membership site idea. Instead of spending too much money and time on creating content around it, it’s essential to know whether your idea is worth paying money or not. Take help from your blog audience or email list. Give the sneakpeak of your idea and let them know how you want to help them with your site.

#5. Offer Consulting

Brian Clark, Derek Halpern, Ramit Sethi etc all successful marketers are earning millions of dollars every single year by offering consulting. If you want to make huge money online, consulting is the most effective way.

But you need a lot of online reputation and connections with the authority bloggers in your field to get high paying clients and gigs.

If you are considering to make money from your blog by offering consulting, here are few incredible tips you should follow.

• People pay for experts, not beginners. If you keep this ONE thing in mind while offering paid consulting, you will easily able to find lots of high paying customers who are willing to take your courses or services.
• Create a page that talks about your experience or include your portfolio. People should find value in you and the content you offer. Otherwise, it’s almost impossible to make a lot of money by offering consulting.
• Connect with the influencers in your niche. Find out the people who are already making money by offering consulting from their blogs. By knowing their stories, you will get better ideas to make it work for you too.
• Don’t aim for low-paying clients. Instead of working with 10 clients who pay you 500 dollars each month, work with 1 client who pays you 5000 dollars. I know it’s not as simple as it sounds. But that’s what works if you want to make more money by offering consulting services online. Always product high quality stuff and work with less people.

Final thoughts about money making blogging tips

I know majority of the bloggers who create blogs do it for ONE main reason: to make money online. There’s nothing wrong in that. But… if you are not aware of the mistakes that most beginners make while making money blogging, you will eventually build a blog that makes no money.

That’s why it’s essential to know the purpose and target audience for your blog. Lay out a monetization strategy, use a good host to run your websites and find out various ways to make money from your blogging efforts.

Don’t depend upon monetization methods like Google AdSense, selling banner ads, paid reviews etc as they are not really viable ways to make money in the long run.

Always focus on creating a brand for yourself first, add value to your audience, find passive income sources. That’s how you build a profitable blog that makes money in 2016 and beyond.

So what are your thoughts about making money blogging? Do you have any more actionable blogging tips and strategies that help beginners to make more money from their blogs? Share your thoughts in the comments.

This article was contributed by Anil Agarwal of bloggerspassion.com.