Many people trying to escape the rat race these days want to know how to make money blogging. Making money from a blog allows you to work less hours, pick your own hours, as well as earn money from the comfort of your home or anywhere in the world! Blogging is truly a portable business.

I’ve run an online business for 10 years now, so I have a lot of experience on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to making money from blogging.

I always tell my students, “There are 100,000 ways to earn $100,000…but you need to find the one that works for you.” Running an online business and making money from a blog isn’t for everyone. In fact, a survey done by Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger.com shows that 63% of bloggers earn less than $100 per month from their blog. That’s not very good numbers and certainly not enough money to get you out of the rat race!

So what about the other 37% of bloggers? Here are the stats:

17% earn $100-$499 per month;
7% earn $500-$999 per month;
9% earn $1000-$9,999 per month;
4% earn $10,000+ per month;

I’m happy to report that I am in the top 13% of people who earn money with their blog…and I do this full time. I don’t have a “job”. I say that to you not to brag, but to let you know that I have years of experience making money online and I want to share my expertise with you so you too can have this type of success.

Before I get started, however, I want to warn you that making money from a blog isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it, right? The reason people fail at making money online is because they quit when the going gets tough. They try a lot of different online programs, but never go deep into any of them; they are “superficial” learners with a short attention span. As soon as something gets hard, they start to look around for something else (the next shiny object). Many people who want to make money online are often uncommitted seekers who just dabble.

If you want to be in the top 9% or in the top 4% of bloggers who make money, then you must be in this for the long haul! You’ve got to have a “do or die” attitude! Before you get started, ask yourself if you have the resources (money & talent & skill) that will get you to the other end; from beginner to mastery!

Here are 7 reasons you might fail according to one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, from his book, “The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches you when to Quit (and When to Stick)”:

You run out of time (and quit);
You run out of money (and quit);
You get scared (and quit);
You’re not serious about it (and quit);
You lose interest or enthusiasm or settle for being mediocre (and quit);
You focus on the short term instead of the long (and quit when the short term gets too hard).
You pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world (because you don’t have the talent).

Take some time to think about these 7 reasons why people fail and how they might apply to you.

When it comes to making money from a blog, these are the skills/talents that will increase your odds of being more successful (and if you don’t have them, it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be successful, what it means is that you will have to pay others to do those things for you):

Copywriting Skills – People who succeed online are great writers or they hire great writers! If you want to take a great online course to learn these valuable skills, then I recommend: Yanik Silvers “Ultimate Copywriting” program
Website/Wordpress Skills – This is an important skill that you either must learn and master…or pay someone else to do for you. I learned wordpress from a 6-week course from my former Virtual Assistant, Angela Wills at: Website Design Mojo)
Social Media Savvy – Without social media and engagement, you’ll never find your ideal clients/audience. You can’t be successful without engaging in social media.
Technology Skills – You either will get on board the technology train or you will get run over by it! Your choice. If you’re afraid of technology or hate it, then don’t try to make money online unless you have the money to pay others to take care of all your technology needs. To run my business I had to learn and master: Aweber, Optimize Press, Audio Acrobat , Bluehost , Builder Ithemes and more! It never ends!

So do you think you have what it takes to make money from blogging? Be honest with yourself.

If you think you have what it takes, here are my 8 ways to make money with a blog for beginners:

Private Advertisers: In order to attract private advertisers, you have to grow your readership, your traffic and your list big enough to attract private advertisers. I choose not to have private advertisers on my 6-Figure Woman Blog because I want to focus visitors on my own products/services. However, here are many sites that have private advertisers and they make a lot of money from them. Take a look at: http://thriftyniftymommy.com/ Look in the right hand column where you see “Sponsors” and then you will see different image ads. Those are private advertisers paying to be on that site. There are also paid advertisers on this blog: http://simplemom.net/
Affiliate Income: You can check out my “Resource” page on my website and you will see that many of those links are affiliate links which means that I get paid a commission on if someone clicks on them and then makes a purchase. This is a very common way to earn money from your blog. Of course, you have to build the readership, traffic and a list to do this which takes time. I also use affiliate links in my blog posts and my emails. I only recommend products or services I use and/or trust.
Amazon Affiliate Program: Anyone can become an affiliate of Amazon and receive commissions when someone uses the link on your blog. It’s pretty easy to set up and you can recommend products related to your topic on your site. For an example, take a look here (it make take a minute to load): http://www.cantweight.org/products/
Selling digital products (Information Products) such as eBooks or Online Courses: I sell several eCourses on my Blog/Website such as: “How to Create Profitable Online Courses“; “How to Become an Amazon Best Selling Author” and more! I think you are leaving money on the table if you are not promoting your own Information Products. Look at any big name in the Internet Marketing space and they have there own online courses and digital products.
Coaching Services: Whatever you are an expert at, you can offer coaching services for! Some examples are life coaching, business coaching, money coaching, etc: Here is a women who offers money coaching services on her blog: http://www.seattlemoneycoach.com/
Paid Reviews – Here is a site that does paid reviews: http://digital-photography-school.com/cameras
Google Adsense: I’ve never done Google adsense. There is a real art to it and you have to study this way of making money online through adsense. Many people who are making under $100 per month use this method (unless they know what they are doing and find a mentor to help them). Here is a site that uses Google Adsense (look right under the header on the site): http://www.securityguardtraininghq.com/
Membership Sites: This is a great way to earn recurring income. Online Business owners that have been around a while, usually have a membership site. Here is an example of a membership site to learn social media that costs $95 per month: http://lkrsocialmedia.com/social-media-marketing-training/

My wish for you is that all of your dreams come true! It takes hard work, persistence, a do or die attitude, daily focus and recommitting to those dreams daily!

If you’re a beginner, and you want to learn how to make money online without investing thousands of dollars, then I recommend one of my 2 programs: