Blogging has become one of the most common ways of building passive income and launching an online business. It is cost-efficient with little to no risk than taking a few days of your time. Having one or several successful blogs can ensure wealth and popularity within your field, while you take a sip of a cold cocktail in the Bahamas. But very few can actually achieve complete independence from a 9 to 5 hustle.
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There are many myths out there when it comes to making a lot of money just by blogging. Quite a few people can actually make a decent living blogging.
While not many will generate millions in profit, many can earn a few hundred dollars through passive income streams!
Build Traffic to your Blog
At the heart of every blog’s earnings, comes the building of traffic to their website. Traffic basically refers to visitors, bounce rate, user activity, and behavior on your website.
The end goal is to get people to visit your blog and interact with it.
You have to build content that you can use to reach out to your target audience.
There is a good old saying that:
“Content is King!”
By building content, be it written, video or podcast, it is meant to address your audience.
How do you get thousands of people visit your blog so you can finally make a living from blogging?
In my expertise, I have learned 3 methods to grow Times International’s traffic and readers from 0 to 50,000 in a year and a half.
1, Build Organic traffic
You have to learn all you can about what good SEO requires. What people search for on the internet. What does your competition do? How can you rank first on search engines and take the steps to make it happen? Get the plugins, do the research, be persistent as it takes time.
2, Link building
You need others to link and reference your website. It is not only a good way to let people come to you from other domains, but also increase your blog’s domain authority. Why is this important? Because this way you can signal search engines like Google that your website is trustworthy and thus, it will take your articles or pages closer to being Number 1 on Google.
3, Social media
In my personal opinion, social media does not bring too much traffic to my websites. However, because it is free and it helps people see your activities, you shouldn’t avoid it. Facebook and Instagram are most bloggers’ starting points. But Pinterest should your best friend when it comes to building traffic via social media.
4, Networking
This is perhaps the best way to get traffic, subscribers, visitors, backlinks, and guest writing opportunities. I used to attend a lot of WordCamps across Europe and the payoff was great. Networking is the way to go.
5, Guest writing
If you want your website’s Domain Authority to grow and get closer to the first page of Google on a specific topic, guest writing is your best bet. Simply send a friendly email to the site you want to write for. This is kind of like applying for a part-time job. You may get ghosted or rejected multiple times. But if you keep trying, someone will eventually take interest in what you have to write for them.
Make A Living Blogging – The many Myths
Do I need thousands of daily visitors to start making a living?
Huge amounts of traffic on your own blog are only one small way you can make a living as a blogger. It can come in handy to have a handful of curious eyes peeking through what you have to offer them.
But that is not the whole story.
While traffic is crucial, it is the quality of your traffic that matters. You do not have to have a huge blog with massive amounts of traffic unless you plan to spend every winter in Mauritius solely off of Adsense.
At the moment with one of my websites called Times International, my main source of income derives from Adsense, which is anywhere from $60 to $100 per month. This is really not a lot, considering that my traffic on Google alone is around 22,000 to 26,000 per month and +50,000 on all platforms.
The rest comes from affiliate marketing and very often from a client who happens to be able to dispose of a few hundred dollars for my consultancy.
Affiliate marketing varies greatly. In the past few months, the numbers ranged between $65 to $300. This came mostly from hosting and WordPress-related affiliate links.
With that in mind, I still consider myself lucky, since 75% of my income from this blog comes passively. And that makes it worth the effort while having a full-time job.
If I wanted, I could dedicate myself to blogging, but I do not want to become a full-time blogger since my monthly income will not compensate for what I’m earning at work.
Let’s be honest. That kind of outcome happens to very few writers and bloggers, mainly the ones telling you they did it and getting traffic and clicks from bloggers like you who want to figure out what they did. That’s a pyramid, and not everyone is at the top.
Traffic is important, particularly if you’re selling a product or using ads or affiliates for income, but not everyone needs a million hits a month to still make a decent living off of their blogging.
There is no magic pill! There is no magic formula! You can imitate a lot of bloggers, but they build pyramids. Every new follower is an addition to the stacks of bricks added to their pyramid.
You can copy a few things, or be inspired by their success. But try to create your own formula and see if it works. If you want to make a living by blogging, you have to make your own magical formula and convince others that it works perfectly!
What can I blog about?
You can about anything!
BUT…
Many people fall into this trap. Consider these questions before you start writing. Is your content worth reading? Does it bring value? Does it inspire, encourage or is it informational?
Will your content be able to sell anything or is it made just to make someone giggle a little? You can still make some money with entertaining or fun content. But it will hardly guarantee a living with your blog.
When you are new and starting out, you don’t have the luxury of being picky about what you love. Blogging shouldn’t be a stressful job, but it is still what it is… a job!
It will take time to make your own blog an income-generating giant. Until then, find out what people want with SEO tools like Ahref, Ubersuggest (free), or SEMrush.
What should I blog about?
There are three major points I like to cover when I tell people what sort of content gets the most traffic and money. But I would like to highlight 3 major points that every successful blogger has used and I’m consistently adapting.
Provide informative Content
People use search engines to look for something. Most of them are not in it for shopping. Just like you and me, we want to find information about something. This is where many bloggers come into the picture. They provide their readers with the information they need.
Write Evergreen
Evergreen content is the key to stay relevant and build passive income streams. Imagine that your blog is about covering major events or quick trends. Those things will fade into obscurity and oblivion. People move on to the next big thing. However, evergreen content remains the same.
Imagine your blog is about cooking. You tell people how to make pancakes and provide them with the best pancake recipes. This is the first step to an evergreen article. Why? Because imagine you will want to have a pancake recipe 2 or 3 years from now. You will still use the same formula, the same ingredients.
Keep giving to your audience
Whatever you wish to blog about, the most important thing to consider is GIVING! I cannot stress this enough. If you give information, sentimental value, a product, or a service to people, they will keep coming back. they will remember and trust you. And this will eventually lead to purchases or paying customers.
This takes time. Some people get their blogs to start off with a bang and make thousands of dollars in a matter of months. That’s 0.1%. Most people who make a living from their blog are doing it for years. They start early and so should you if you want to make a living.
Are you ready to start and create your first passive income source?
If you’re considering starting your blog, like many others, (including myself) I’d recommend starting with Bluehost. You can create your domain name, set up WordPress, and start designing your blog in a matter of minutes. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you change your mind.
Whatever you choose to do. My advice is simple.
Start today! 🙂
Robert is a part-time blogger and internet entrepreneur. Join Robert and thousands of other monthly readers to learn how to build and scale up the next-gen of online entrepreneurship. While running this blog, Robert is the founder of his media company, Times International, and a PR Team Lead at Lensa.