The first time ever I made money from blogging was two weeks after my first blog was setup. This was back in 2012 and it may seem easy to conclude that making money blogging
As a matter of fact, I setup my blog, signed up on jvzoo, located an interesting affiliate product, picked up an affiliate banner and pasted on my sidebar. A few days later, there was a sale and $33.33 was the affiliate commission. Many more sales came in and with little knowledge, I saw my income moving upward.
As a newbie blogger, I was soon hitting over $1000/m from my blog. Yes, in less than a year, my blog was generating over $1000 a month. I had other sources of income online. But the blog alone (emfastcome.com which was sold out) averaged $1k/m and that was growing so fast.
There were three main money making models that worked for me so well in those days. These are:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Display advertising (banner advertising)
- Sponsored content
Affiliate marketing topped the list. I also had some advertisers who were interested in link placement but Google has always fought this model of monetizing a website. I had good traffic from the search giant so I never wanted to compromise it.
I didn’t struggle to generate income as a blogger but I know many today who are almost giving up despite trying all they have been told. As a coach, I have come across struggling bloggers whose blogs are unable to generate enough income to handle domain names and hosting bills, and many of these have been blogging for over a year.
I believe by sharing this, the knowledge here will help you increase your come if you are drawing a negative conclusion. If you are just starting up, this is going to be helpful as well. These tips are going to be massively based on my experience.
5 Reasons you are struggling to make money blogging
1 – It’s principally about you not your blog
Before I got into blogging, I had some experience online as a product creator. My experience in marketing helped quite much in monetizing my blogging. What you should understand is that your blog is a reflection of your value. Blogs don’t make money. Bloggers do generate income using their blogs. The blog is just a tool. You must be able to properly use it to see results
2 – You don’t have a marketplace
The income from your blog comes from a marketplace. The bigger your marketplace, the more the chances you have to generate income. One of my membership platforms had over 1000 active users when I started blogging. So it was easy to tap into this community as a new comer in blogging. My very first article got many comments and social interactions from readers who stepped in from this platform.
As I focused on SEO while growing the blog, I also expanded my marketplace by building a list (which I failed to start early though), creating a following on social media, connecting and networking with other savvy bloggers, etc. One of my first sponsored posts was promoting a product called Author hReview, created by a fellow blogger I connected with.
You can’t just setup a beautiful blog today and expect to bank big if there is no active market of readers who spend on whatever you promote.
3 – You don’t promote products you have experience with
If Affiliate Marketing is one of the ways you make money blogging, promoting products you have used is a strong way to grow your income. The reason is that this allows you to share your results and experience with your readers.
Remember my first commission of $33.33 I mentioned earlier? This came from promoting a popular plugin called Commentluv. This plugin was actively used on my blog and beside the banners, I wrote several reviews, showcasing my results and teaching readers how to use the plugin and get the same (or better) level of results.
I have seen quite exciting results promoting digital products I use: Plugins, themes, web hosting, platforms, etc. If people like what you do, they would always want to know how you do it. Showing them these details will definitely open more room to generate income.
4 – You focus on the wrong models
I soon found out that Contextual Advertising wasn’t a good fit for my blog. I have tried Google Adsense but this has not given me any good results. While others are getting huge paychecks from Google, my results have been poor so I moved away from it.
If your blog is new, you may not succeed with SEO oriented sponsored posts. Many advertisers sponsor content on other websites for the sake of the backlink and link juice. One of the matrices they focus on is DA (Domain Authority). Generally, the more your domain DA (a value measured on 100), the more SEO value a link from it has. As new blogs have DA1 – 10, chances to earn from SEO motivated sponsored posts are very slim.
Try out the different ways to make money from your blogging and focus on what gives you the best results. Don’t follow the crowd. Follow what works for you not others.
5 – You focus on the money not your audience
At one point in my blogging business, I made this error. I was more about the money but I soon realized I was kicking it off track. Focusing on the money blinds your sight to the right steps to take.
I signed up to a platform that paid quite well. I was blinded by the huge commissions but didn’t take note promoting products on the platform wasn’t allowed in my region. I began promotion and earning commissions. But my account was suspended. Before I got a free VPN to mask my IP address, some money was lost.
Knowing your audience and the demographic is very important if you have to increase your blogging income. Sometimes, you may just need to run a survey on your blog to get general or specific knowledge that will help understand your readers.
Analyzing your traffic stats from Google Analytics also helps with useful data. I have learned not to sell to my readers. I seek to show them solutions. Some of these solutions are free while others are paid. When they go in for the paid options, I make the money.
Conclusion
It’s exciting to make money with your blog. It’s also frustrating if efforts are not yielding results. If it works for others, it should work for you too. Figure out why it’s not working for you. Change your strategy to change your results.
Read more: Blogging Has Evolved; Have You?
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Enstine Muki.
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