Welcome to

Hedonistit blog

What is the next step toward turning your hobby into your full time job?

quiz
Taking Pleasure Seriously

How To Make Money From A Blog – All Methods That Will Turn Your Blog From A Hobby To A Business

When people are interested in my job and I say that I’m a “blogger”, the next sentence almost always follows: “yeah, that’s really cool and it looks great, but what do you do for a living?”

Blogs are still considered by most people as a hobby, something that you do during your free time for fun, and not something you can make money from. Therefore, I really wasn’t surprised that right after I posted the guide to starting an independent blog, I got tons of questions about it. In fact, almost everyone was interested in one specific thing that people hardly ever talk about – how to make money from a blog.

I really understand where this curiosity comes from… Most people don’t know that blogging is a tool that can generate a very high income, even more than other jobs out there. After all, blogging is a relatively new profession, and although there are different ways to make an income from a blog, most people don’t really know how or where to start. Only those who are deep within the industry know that if the goal is to make money from a blog, the blog should be treated as a business for all intents and purposes.

1

Like any business – a blog also needs strong foundations, a target audience and branding that differentiates and distinguishes it from others. A profitable blog first and foremost should be completely independent – that’s why right from the first step, in the guide to starting a blog, I recommended not compromising on this. Secondly, the blog should have a defined and segmented audience, and reaching them requires marketing work. But don’t let the word marketing threaten you, in an age where everyone is already on social networks you can advertise your business completely for free. In addition, a profitable blog is not only one that publishes good and interesting content, but also gives its readers real value and provides it to them in the best and most aesthetic way.

It's very important for me to emphasize this because I don’t want you to think that once you start your blog you’ll jump into a pool full of dollars 🙂 You can make money (and even lots of it!) with a blog, but it's not magic – it requires investments and love for the profession.

This was a brief explanation in a nutshell about starting a serious and profitable blog. In the future, I'll share more targeted posts on marketing, branding, community building, and more.

It’s definitely worth to stay tuned 😉

1

Starting a blog was the best decision I made – thanks to my blog I turned into my own boss, set my work schedule and vacations myself and travel {a lot} around the world! I'm so glad I can get to know the amazing world of “blogging” and share my secrets with you, because I really believe that everyone can succeed in this business and that there’s always room for more bloggers! In this post, I’ll reveal to you all the methods by which I earn money from my blog 🙂

Okay, let's dive right in…

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

An affiliate program is actually a partnership between businesses that sell products or services and advertisers {blogs, content sites, Facebook groups, etc.}. The blogger can include on the site a unique link that leads to the company’s site he wants to promote, and in return receives a small commission for the click itself or for various actions on the site (such as a purchase or a newsletter signup).

In the past, before I was familiar with the affiliate system, I simply added regular links that I thought would be useful to my readers. And then, I’ve discovered Michelle Schroeder-Gardner's excellent blog, “Making Sense of Cents“, in which she explains exactly how she makes tens of thousands of dollars a month! {Last month she earned more than $160,000! Crazy!}. I heard about the concept of an affiliate program in the past, but only after the excellent and super-detailed course she created I really started making a lot of money from it. In her course, she explains everything you need to know to make the most out of your affiliate programs with complete transparency. This is one of the best acquisitions I made for my business, and that same month I made more money than I invested in paying for the course. If you decide to turn your blog into a business, and want to make money with using affiliate programs – you definitely shouldn’t skip this course!

These days, I always check whether the product or service I want to recommend has an affiliate program so I can get a commission if someone takes action as a result of visiting my blog.

I’m very selective about the services and products I recommend on the blog and will never suggest to my readers to buy something that I don’t believe in myself, because I believe that a blog is a community and a community is based on trust.

I love this method for a few reasons: first of all, it creates a triple win – everyone gains – the business that sells the products / services, the readers who receive recommendations on reliable products, and the blogger – who works hard to create content that’s interesting and valuable to readers. Secondly, it's very easy to find and join affiliate programs {simply type the business name in Google followed by “affiliate program”}. Thirdly, this is a relatively passive way of generating income.

1

SPONSORED POSTS

I keep getting emails from lifestyle and travel businesses that suggest I review their products on my blog or post a photo on the blog’s social media platforms for a certain fee. If this is a product or service of brands that I’m familiar with and love or that are relevant to the site, I first ask to experiment with the product and see if it’s worthwhile and good, and only then I agree to recommend it with a sponsored post. The blog’s sponsored posts will always be classified as such in the body of the post itself due to disclosure to my readers – after all, transparency is the most important thing in building trust, right?

It's important to know that a blog doesn’t receive offers for sponsored posts until the blog has enough followers (most brands request data from Google Analytics), and if you're just starting out as a blogger, you should establish your status before charging for this type of post. In the meantime, you can get products and services to review for barter to create content for the site without any financial investment on your part. This way you'll also be able to experiment with new products and services that are relevant to your niche and you’ll also establish your blog as an expert in the field.

CONTENT WRITING FOR WEBSITES

Thanks to the posts published on my blog, many brands ask me to write specific articles about their products that will appear on the company's website or blog, and not on my blog (for example, in cases in which the brand isn’t related to topics that are relevant to my blog or if a brand wants to create interesting content on its official website). This is one of the ways my blog serves as my business card and creates great opportunities for work and income without having to search for it myself.

CREATING VISUAL CONTENT

I work with brands from Israel and worldwide, creating visual content for marketing on social networks. Whether it’s stills or videos, these companies approach me because they love the unique aesthetic style shown on my blog and are interested in me producing high-quality content for them including building a concept, styling, photography and editing. As in the case of writing content for websites, here, too, the blog serves as my business card and attracts potential customers.

MANAGING SOCIAL NETWORKS

I created the brand “HEDONISTIT” alone, with my own two hands. It's not just the blog itself, but also the social networks that accompany it and contribute to its marketing (Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook). I took professional courses about social networks and managed to build a large audience of followers across all platforms quickly without sacrificing quality. Following the success of building my own private brand, many companies and brands started asking me to create a digital advertising strategy for them and manage their social networks for a monthly fee.

ADVISING COMPANIES AND PRIVATE PEOPLE

During the past year, I started advising companies and individuals regarding three different topics: blogging, brand building and social network management.

I like using the tools I’ve accumulated over the years {both in my degree in communications and business administration at the Hebrew University and while creating my blog and brand} to help people who are interested in acquiring a new and rewarding profession {whether it’s opening a business blog or managing social networks for other brands}, and for brands that want to establish themselves in the market by opening a blog and creating a unified visual language and visual appearance in social networks.

My consulting services are conducted in a one-on-one format in which I offer in full transparency all the tools and methods I use to manage my brand and other brands.

For advice, you can contact me through this form.

And A Few More Ways To Increase Revenue From A Blog...

ADVERTISEMENTS ON THE SITE

Another way to make money from a blog is to ‘plant’ advertising spaces in different places in the blog. Advertising spaces can be sold directly to relevant businesses who are interested in reaching a target audience who visit the blog for a fixed monthly cost, or use ad networks (like Google AdSense) that automatically plant ads that can be relevant to visitors and generate revenue based on the number of impressions or clicks on the ads.

At this point, I prefer not to use this way to generate additional revenue from my site, since I feel that the revenues from the ads aren’t worth the harm to the browsing experience, which I think is caused by the ads.

ADVERTISEMENTS ON THE SITE

A blog can be a great platform for selling products, whether they are tangible or digital. For starters, you can offer relatively easy-to-manufacture products that will give value to your community, like digital books or courses in topics that have to do with your blog {for a fashion blog, you can offer styling products, for example}.

In addition, as I've already written in the guide to starting a blog, if you're a business owner who already sells products – a blog is one of the best tools to promote and market your product. For example, Urban Outfitters' successful blog, which promotes the company’s products by sharing interesting content.

 

I hope this post made things clear regarding how to make money blogging 😉

If you liked this post, please share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest! ♡

leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tags

מתנה אישית ממני

הצטרפי לקהילה שלי וקבלי את אחד הקורסים המקצועיים שכתבתי
לכל מי שמתעניינת בהקמת בלוג ויצירת חומרים דיגיטליים לסושיאל

מהו הקורס שהכי מעניין אותך?

A personal gift from me

Join my community and receive one of the professional courses I created
especially for ambitious women with a passion for Lifestyle.