How to Monetize a Blog: Tips for Newbie Bloggers

70% of bloggers fail to make money from their blog. Does this stat scare you? Then hold on, I have more- 22% bloggers generate less than $10,000 p.a. and only a handful of 2.5% bloggers make somewhere around 10-30k. 

I don’t want to discourage you at all. 

Blogging CAN be a real business that makes real money. 

When I launched my website, I was earning peanuts. With consistent efforts, within a couple of months, I was making $1200-1300/month selling my article and email writing services. I know it’s not much, but not a bad start. I am still not monetizing my blog with affiliate marketing and ads. But, I am sure it is even more exciting for bloggers to earn a passive income. 

In this post, you’ll watch five mompreneurs taking the wrap off their blog monetization strategy. You’ll know THE EXACT secret to what’s working for them, how they achieved it and in how much time.

I would like to sincerely thank them all for taking out time to pen down their exact processes. I am sure, you’ll enjoy the post as much as I did while shaping it up.

1- Elna Cain from Twins Mommy

For my first blog – a service-based business – I saw “real money” within two months of starting. I made my first $1k in several months as I answered job ads and networked as much as possible. 

For my other blog – Twins Mommy – it took me around 10 months before I generated $200 strictly from affiliate marketing. 

But after that initial income, I was able to generate $2k the next month and more every month after that. So, even though affiliate marketing took a long time to see results, once I had results, it was easy to make money.

What worked with affiliate marketing was creating guides or tutorials showing how to use certain products or demonstrate the pros and cons of a service or product. Having a few posts like that is what helped me generate income quickly.

Before I created these types of income-generating posts, I was using affiliate marketing all wrong. I would slip in my affiliate link haphazardly with no direction, thinking I would make sales. But I never did.

To make affiliate marketing work for you, find products or services with a good commission rate and try to be familiar with the product you’re recommending.

My best converting posts are from ones about the tools I use.

2- Angela Vaz from Stray Curls

My primary method of monetization is currently my services as an illustrator and digital product sales. It’s a tie at the moment. I slowly want to shift to digital product sales and affiliate marketing so that I can take a step back from illustrating for clients. 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun to create illustrations for clients. But it’s even more fun to do that for my eBooks and Blog. 

It took me about 3-6 months. I already had experience with a previous (failed) blog, so when I started my second blog, I knew what NOT to do. And I just kept going. I kept monitoring my mini-wins and this propelled me further. 

When it comes to being an Illustrator, it’s quite easy. People see my Blog filled with Illustrations and want some for their own or for personal use. So, I don’t really need to advertise my services. My Blog is like my Portfolio. 

With Digital Product Sales, I took it slowly. Once I had gained a loyal audience that kept coming back for more, I started to work on my eBook. I also modified an older eBook and sold both on my new Blog. I then wrote new blog posts that centered around topics discussed in my new eBook. So whoever was interested in learning more could check out the eBook. 

I love creating eBooks and planners. Because it’s a one-time thing, but you can keep selling it indefinitely for as long as you want. 

I’ve never tried Ads. Because I didn’t want the design of my website to be compromised. I have tried Affiliate Marketing, but I lose interest quickly. I plan to focus on Affiliate Marketing once the launch of my new product is complete. 

Always stick to a profitable niche. Don’t try to be unique when choosing your niche. I’ve seen so many people do this (myself included with my first blog) Traffic isn’t everything. Pageviews don’t matter if you can’t keep bringing people back to your website. 

Find your USP. Once you’ve found your niche, find a way to be different from the norm and stand out. In my case, I love fusing humorous illustrations with my Blogposts so that I can educate and entertain at the same time. 

Find your voice and just be you! Focus on building a brand. This will help you earn an income in the long run. 

3- Christine Keys from Raising Kids Making Money

My primary method of monetisation on my blogs are affiliate marketing and ads (with Mediavine). I am also in the process of developing my own products.

It took about 15 months before I started making money worth speaking of. That is when my traffic got to the point where I was able to qualify for Mediavine.

Since then, my income has continued to grow and I started my second blog in February 2019, which is now also in Mediavine.

 Ad income is mostly passive but there are things I do to help increase it such as inserting relevant images, writing long-form content, and increasing font size.

Affiliate marketing isn’t all that difficult and my income from that is slowing growing as well. I link to affiliate products often and make sure to put them at the top of the post as opposed to the end. I also bold all links and make sure that they are a different color to the other text.

Sponsored posts is something I gave a little go, but because I’m based in New Zealand and have a US audience, it made it a little tricky. 

I also love working for myself and not having to meet someone else’s rules in order to get paid, so sponsored work isn’t something that I’ve pursued.

Always write for your readers and be genuine. People will pick up quickly if you’re just trying to make money without offering value. Be consistent and your work will pay off.

4- Lisa Tanner from Lisa Tanner Writing

My primary method of monetization is affiliate marketing. 

I launched my blog originally as an ongoing sample for my freelance writing business, so I wasn’t originally planning on monetizing it except through services. 

Thus, income generation for everything else was slow. Once I realized the value in diversification, I began seeing my blog in a new light. From this ah-ha moment through earning more consistent income from affiliate marketing, it took about a year. 

When I plan my content, I spend a lot of time in the prewriting stage. I brainstorm how to integrate products that will genuinely help my audience. When I first started, I just would throw links in without really having a plan. It was almost like an after thought. Needless to say, this didn’t generate income.

So now I have a plan and I always make sure to provide value for my readers while intentionally placing the links and pointing them out with direct CTAs or bold text. 

Don’t be afraid to use the same link multiple times in your post. I used to be so hesitant to do this, and when I finally took the plunge I began seeing a drastic improvement in my affiliate income.

Put one in your introduction. Include one part way through, and have one at the end. Switch up your anchor text, you never know what will appeal to different readers.

5- Amy Edge

My favorite way (and the easiest way IMHO) is affiliate products, etc on our blog. It is the easiest and quickest way to partner with a brand and begin to benefit quickly.  Once I identified the areas and the products I wanted to feature on my website, writing the content and then publishing and marketing the content/products, I saw real money within 30 days of implementation of our strategy.

Our strategy that has made this effective is to be genuine and authentic in regards to affiliate partnerships we create as well as marketing. You can’t expect people to jump and buy *the thing*. Marketing through storytelling, using our experience has been the key to seeing real results. 

Wrapping it up:

Did you notice one thing they all talked about?

Yes, being genuine and authentic, serving value first and then thinking about money. If you’re a new blogger, focus on creating content that helps your audience and you building a community of your own.

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