In the last two decades, we have seen a global surge in the number of people who are able to make money online. In fact, every day we see new examples of people who have left the 9-5 in an office and get paid to work remotely from any location.
One group of individuals who seem to be part of this trend are bloggers. To many, blogging may sound like more of a casual thing people do in their free time in order to share their thoughts and let off steam.
Though this may be the case for some, blogging allows others to earn a full-time income and treat their blogging like a business. Well, if you’ve ever asked yourself ‘how do you get paid to blog’, here’s everything you need to know.
What you need before you start making money from blogging
The first lesson you should learn when it comes to making money from blogging is that it will not happen overnight. You need to first get a number of things in place before you can even think about making your first pound online. Here’s a rundown of what you need:
- A following. Most importantly, you need to have people who genuinely care about what you write and who actually read your work. Only after you have built an audience can you then look to monetise it.
- A good writing voice. You first need to find your blogging voice and identify what sort of a writer you will want to be. This is essential to building a personality around what you write.
- A blogging platform. You will, of course, need a professional site on which you can publish your articles and start to drive traffic. Here’s a useful guide to building your first blog.
- Something to write about. Being a successful blogger means being able to continually pump out new and interesting content each and every month. So you will need a topic that you are passionate and experienced in, and which you can write about week after week.
4 ways to get paid to blog
OK, so once you have all of these things in place, it is then time to start thinking about ways you can actually monetise your site and start to get paid to blog. If you already have a solid audience, then you can now look at ways to make money from them.
But if your traffic levels remain low, you will first need to look at building up the number of visitors on your site. Either way, it never hurts to have an idea of how you will eventually get paid to blog. Here are some ideas:
- Affiliate marketing. This is where you promote other people’s products on your site and then get paid every time someone clicks through from your site and purchases a product.
- Banner advertising. Banner advertising, notably Google AdWords, is a simple way to monetise your site. You get paid everytime someone interacts with an advert on your site. You can also advertise space directly to companies for rather sizeable sums, depending on your traffic.
- Sponsored content. Somebody might pay you to publish an article or to review one of their products.
Selling your own products. Many bloggers now sell their own physical and/or digital products directly through their blogs. - Earning freelance writing work. A great way to make money blogging is to then be asked by others to write content for them after they realise how successful your site and your content is.
This last point is important and is another great avenue to consider if you’re wondering how do you get paid to blog. Once you develop your skills as a blogger, you can then look down the route of becoming a more established writer. Some people may approach you directly to write for them, or you could reach out to find clients yourself.
Either way, your blog could be a great place to showcase your thoughts and your expertise in an industry and then pick up writing work elsewhere. For more information on this, check out this article here on how beginner writers find writing jobs.
No matter which routes you decide to go down, do note that you can make some serious money from blogging. In fact, some bloggers regularly earn six-figure sums each and every year from their blogging. Though there’s no exact answer to “how much do you get paid to blog?”, this article helps highlight the potential that exists.
7 steps to getting paid to blog
It’s worth noting that not every blogger earns money the same way, and their journies to blogging success may all be different. However, there is a general theme that you can look to follow if you want to start getting paid to blog yourself. Here’s the basic 7-step approach.
- Identify a topic that you have experience in and would like to blog about
- Build a site where you can publish your blogs
- Set up social media accounts where you can promote any content you write
- Regularly publish insightful and thought-provoking pieces that your target audience will want to read (you may want to get a content creation agency to help you with this)
- Engage with others in your industry and help to promote your content
- Build up a regular following on your blog
- Decide on a strategy for monetising your blog and selling to your audience
Remember, getting paid to blog doesn’t happen instantly, and instead means commitment and dedication to writing great content and promoting it effectively. It also requires you to read up on industry changes and learn important lessons, such as how to write well-optimised copy.
But, with a little bit of effort and determination, there’s no reason you can’t build a following and start upon your own exciting blogging journey. You may then have the freedom to travel the world and earn your income from your laptop in any location you choose. Others have done it and so can you.
Main image credit: nappy
Image credits: Pixabay, vanmarciano, Lukas
Martin Harrison
With a background in digital marketing and website development, Bradley is a copywriter with a special interest in SEO. A keen traveller, the freelance lifestyle suits him perfectly as he is always on the road! Conveniently, Bradley has also built and maintains his own travel blog and is interested in health and fitness.