Starting a Blog and Making Money is possible if you follow these 6 Tips:

After running an online business for 10 years now, I’ve learned a lot about what to do and what NOT to do! Starting a blog and making money is something that eludes many people who start a blog…but end up making NO Money!

In fact, Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger.com says 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 support yourself or possibly quit your job one day.

The good news is the other 37% of bloggers are making money! Here are the statistics on that:

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;

As far as where I rank, I am in the top 9% of bloggers and some months I’m in the 4% of bloggers and I’m going to share my 6 tips that I think are most important if you truly want to start a blog that makes money!

My 6 tips for Starting a Blog and Making Money are:

TIP 1: Focus on Giving Value First, Profits Second – Think about why people come to a blog and why they read blog posts? They come to a blog to “enhance their lives” and to learn something new. So if you start a blog with the goal of making money first, and as a result…you put up a blog full of ads, paid reviews and affiliate promotions, then you will not be successful because your priorities are out of order and people aren’t interested in these types of low-value blogs! Focus on helping, educating and entertaining your audience and you will have the building blocks to a successful blog!
TIP 2: Good Content is the Foundation of a Profitable Blog – Again, this goes back to “adding value” to people’s lives. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been doing research on a topic and found a blog with an article about my topic, only to read 3 paragraphs of useless information and then a link for an affiliate product! In other words, the blog post itself did not give value; it had the keywords I was looking for, but not the information and certainly did not enhance my life! In order to have a great blog, you have to have great content! So the big question is: Are you a writer? If the answer to that question is no, then you have further things to consider. First, you can have a great blog and outsource the writing or you can start a blog like “Mind, Body, Green” who simply has guest bloggers write about a variety of topics. That is harder to do, but if you aren’t a writer and/or you don’t like writing, then consider the alternatives. But always know that in order to have a successful blog that makes money, you must have good content that people love and will go back for again and again!
TIP 3: Content + Marketing = Traffic – You can have great content, but if you don’t know how to market your blog, then people won’t find you. With the advent of Facebook advertising, it is easier now, more than ever to start generating traffic to your blog! Of course, Facebook ads aren’t the only form of marketing, that’s just one and in order to be successful you need “multiple streams of traffic”. Some examples of how to market your blog are: writing an ebook and publishing it on Amazon to drive traffic, optimizing your blog with the proper keywords so Google and other search engines can send you traffic, guest blogging on similar blogs to drive traffic to your site, Linked In ads, free giveaways to drive traffic, leaving comments on other related blogs, and the list goes on and on. Just remember to start small and finish big. You don’t have to do everything at once, but you want to keep adding new traffic streams. My experience shows me that most bloggers are poor marketers. Again, marketing is something you can outsource, but typically in the beginning of launching a new blog, you are on a tight budget. If I were just starting out now…in 2014…my market strategy would be to publish a book on Amazon to drive traffic combined with Facebook advertising and then I would start guest blogging and joint venturing with others.
TIP 4: Consistent Blogging (on a Topic You Love) + Monetization Strategy = Successful Blog – If you treat your blog like a hobby, then you’ll get paid like a hobby. If you treat it like a business, then you’ll get paid like a business. For 7 years I ran my online business part-time (like a hobby) because that’s what I chose to do. I was busy being a single mom, raising children, and working an outside sales job that brought me 6-figures and that worked for me! You need to decide on your own goals for your blogging business, but I can tell you if you want to make enough money to support yourself (like I do now full time and have done so since 2011), then you need to treat this like a business. Your #1 purpose is to put out great content “consistently”! Your #2 goal is to market your blog! Your #3 goal is to have a monetization strategy in place for your blog. I teach 10 ways to monetize your blog in my 6-week online course, Blogging with Passion 4 Profits because there is no “one size fits all” monetization strategy. And I teach some simple ways to start out with your new blog and then add that to it. For example, many teachers say you need to have Google ads/Google Adsense on your blog to earn money. That is one method, but one that I’ve never used because it was not in alignment with what I wanted on my blog and it doesn’t typically work for my niche’. The problem with AdSense is it doesn’t work for all
blogs and despite how well it’s contextual matching is, you still don’t control exactly what is displayed on your blog. I used other methods for generating income on my blog such as creating “information products” (my online courses), affiliate income, recurring affiliate income, web design services, coaching, and other strategies. Now, if you want more of a “passive income” blog, and your topic works for Google ads/Adsense, then I would recommend that. Again, there are many ways to make money with your blog, but you have to select the right methods for you and your topic.
TIP 5: Recurring Affiliate Income Brings in Consistent Income – I love recommending products and services that I use in my own business and getting paid for recommending them! That’s what affiliate income is. When starting a new blog, you really want to be careful not to overload your readers with affiliate promotions. You want this to happen organically and naturally. Only recommend products/services that you have tried, you believe in and are in alignment with your topic. Also consider “recurring affiliate income”. Recurring Affiliate Income is the next level up from your basic one-time affiliate commission. So what happens is you recommend a service like Aweber (which I do because I use and love Aweber) and Aweber pays me every month for my affiliate referrals! So you’re not only building affiliate income, you have recurring affiliate income!
TIP 6: Build a List when Building Your Blog – I am still amazed at how many people miss this amazing opportunity to build a list with their blog. Building a list is the most important aspect of your blog. Because once you have an email list, the opportunities to market to your subscribers are numerous. You could apply affiliate marketing and sell other people’s products, or release your own products or services. Use your email list to provide more content to strengthen relationships with your audience, and you have another communication channel and this list is a valuable business asset!

Those are my top 6 Tips for starting a blog and making money!

This is truly an incredible time to start a blog and create an online stream of income for yourself. If you’d like to me to hold your hand and guide you through this process, then please take a look at my 6-week online course, Blogging with Passion 4 Profits!