Do you spend countless hours trying to come up with the perfect topic for your blog?
Do you also itch to find out if anyone left a comment or shared your latest post?
If you’re anything like me, writing for your blog is not a chore, but an exciting opportunity. Every month you come up with awesome blog posts and hope they reach your target audience.
While most bloggers start off not thinking about making money from their blog, after a while they start to think maybe they can earn some cash by blogging.
So, naturally you start to explore different ways to monetize your blog, but after six months you’re finding what little money you are earning doesn’t help pay the bills.
Can blogging be a viable career choice?
It can, but the traditional methods you’re familiar with take a long time to blossom into steady income. According to Sue Dunlevie from Successful Blogging, it can take up to 6 months to make money with your own products, while affiliate products can take up to two months to see any profit.
And here’s what Amy Lynn Andrews has to say about this:
I’d say give yourself at least 6 months before you start pulling in an income. And even then, it’ll most likely be coffee money.
This isn’t unusual for bloggers. For many, it can be up to a year after starting a blog to really see any profitable success.
Stings, doesn’t it?
Here’s Why You Aren’t Making Money Blogging
There are many reasons why you’re not as successful as other bloggers you know, but for today, let’s talk about three core reasons why it’s easy to fail.
1. You Don’t Think Your Blog is a Business
Let me ask you this:
When you first started blogging, what were your initial intentions?
Was it to have a public diary of sorts? Or, was it to have a place to store all your ideas and tips? Maybe you just wanted to share your personal stories because you thought it would help someone out there.
So, when you decided to start monetizing your blog, you weren’t in the business mindset. You viewed your blog as a hobby. A side project.
If you truly want to be successful, you need to treat your blog like a business. This means you:
- Consistently publish content – there’s no skipping a week or weeks when you want to make money with your blog
- Have a marketing plan – do you have a plan to generate more traffic? Do you have a plan to network with other bloggers to help grow your blog?
- Have multiple streams of income – do you have a product? Are you focusing on other projects in case your strategy to monetize your blog doesn’t pan out?
2. You Have No Focus
Sometimes bloggers lack focus and end up blogging about all their favorite topics. One day they write about WordPress plugins and the next they write about easy ways to include spinach in your diet.
When you have no niche, you’ll struggle to have an audience.
A niche – a topic or passion – is something top bloggers have and they exclusively blog about it. This is partly the reason why they can generate hundreds of shares and comments.
But, don’t you think readers will get sick and tired of reading about the same thing? Well no. People want to become invested in your blog and to do that they need to know what you primarily blog about.
Take my blog for example. I’m a freelance writer and blogger, so I tend to write about both those topics. I tend to write more freelance writing topics than anything else, but I know my audience is made up of more than just writers.
I know bloggers and other WAHMs follow me. So, I do my best to include topics for all my audience.
And since I’ve been true to my word, my audience knows what type of content I provide, which helps me grow my audience.
3. Blogging Takes Time
Blogging is a gigantic commitment and many bloggers burn out. They either lost the passion they had to blog, or are battling bloggers block.
If you truly want to make any kind of money , you have to invest in your blog like it’s a client.
This is exactly what I do. I create a content schedule for my blog and one or two days a week I write my blog post, edit my post, find a feature image and package it up all nice and pretty before I publish it.
I have to make room in my schedule for my blog.
While my blog helps me land clients, I hope to leverage it in the near future once I launch my course for freelance writers.
So, don’t expect to have a huge following after blogging for a month. Creating great content and promoting your posts doesn’t happen overnight.
Now that you know the main reasons why your blog isn’t making money, is there anything else you can do to earn a decent income without it taking a year?
There’s definitely a quicker way to earn cash with your blog. It’s the fastest way any blogger can earn big bucks.
Your Ticket to Making Mounds of Cash With Your Blog
The easiest and quickest way to start earning money from your blog is to offer a service.
And since your talent is blogging, why not become a freelance blogger?
Adam Connell from Blogging Wizard said:
And it’s true. The average blogger will have much more success freelancing their blogging skills out than with trying to generate more traffic and promoting ads on their blog.
For me, not even two months after I started freelance writing from scratch, I ended up landing a blogging gig for $100 a post. That month I earned $400.
As a first time blogger, could you earn that much money from your blog in that amount of time?
Okay, how can a blogger become a freelance blogger? What are the steps?
My Quick Step Freelancing Guide for Bloggers
You might think you need a degree or have amazing writing skills to be a freelance blogger, but you don’t. Before I started freelancing, I worked as a teacher. My background is in psychology.
As long as you know how to write for the web you’ll have no problems finding blogging gigs. Here are five things you can do in the next two months to land your first blogging client.
In Your First Month
One of the first things you can do is put up a Services page on your blog. You can title it “Hire Me,” “Let Me Help You” or whatever fits your brand.
Explain what type of services you can do. For freelance blogging you can offer:
- Editing
- Rewrites
- Copywriting
- Article writing
- Blog writing
If you want to offer more than only content services, you can also promote other services like:
- Blog coaching
- ebook design
- Logo design
- Website design
- Social media management
- Blog management
Try not to list a million services; I would stick to blog writing, editing and social media management as my main categories, and within each category explain what I can do for a client.
Once you have a service page up, the next thing you want is to align your blog with your services page.
I can quickly think of two blogs that brilliantly align their blog topics with the services they offer. They are Twelveskip and Quicksprout.
If you find your blog doesn’t lend well to this, you might find it a bit more difficult to leverage your blog for freelancing. This just means you have to work a little differently.
For instance, you may find that your blog can lend you samples when you pitch. If your niche is parenting, use those blog posts as samples for your portfolio, rather than trying to fit your blog with your services.
This is how freelance writer Lisa C. Baker used her blog about being a supermom to help her land freelance blogging clients.
Finally, finish your month by landing guest posts in the niche or niches you want to write for. Target popular and niche-specific blogs. Be sure to give these bloggers your best content because their blog is seen by thousands more people than your blog.
Before you submit your guest posts, work on crafting a solid author bio. Prospective clients will hopefully see your author bio and visit your services page to see what you’re all about.
In Your Second Month
Now it’s time to source gigs. Places like Problogger and Blogging Pro have job boards for bloggers. Visit them daily and note any gigs that interest you.
When you see a gig that really interests you, send your pitch.
A pitch is an email that:
- Explains who you are (a freelance writer with expertise in your niche)
- Provides proof you are a writer (guest posts and your portfolio)
- Details your experience and skill set
- Showcases any noteworthy things (a feature on a popular blog for example)
Most prospective clients want a blog writer that has written for blogs before, has a social presence online and can create awesome content.
The more you pitch the better chance you have at landing your first client. If you build your brand and social media presence, you might notice prospective clients reaching out to you for content.
This is only a quick step guide. To really leverage your blogging background, you would want a separate website with your services, like I have with Innovative Ink. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t start setting up your services page to see if you can land a couple writing gigs.
Start Making Money As a Blogger Today
Don’t wait for an affiliate payout of only dollars. Start making money today by positioning your blog as a service-based business.
If you need more help setting up your freelance blogging service, I have a free mini-course on Getting Paid to Write Online. Join the hundreds of aspiring writers and bloggers on learning how to get started with their freelancing.
Now it’s your turn – do you find it hard to make blogging a success? Maybe consider freelance blogging! Tell me in the comments.
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