Many strategies and ideas are being discussed when it comes to passive income generation. One of these is blogging. The question is: Can you make passive income with a blog? The answer is yes.
Four bloggers who make serious cash
We've all heard that bloggers can earn six- to seven-figures per year. Is that not an exaggeration? Is it possible to make substantial amounts of money blogging online?
It is not easy, but it is possible. Ask the following bloggers who have made a huge difference in their lives by starting blogs that generate passive income.
- Jeff Rose runs a popular personal finance blog called "Good Financial Cents", which generates him monthly blog revenues of $102,000.
- Robbie Richards of RobbieRichards.com earns more than $60,000 per annum from affiliate revenue, without having to spend any ads or traffic generation. That's only one revenue stream he has from his blog!
- Lena Gott, of the What Mommy Does blog, took just ten months for her to reach $10,000 per monthly in sales. She works only 20 hours per week.
- Ramit Sethi, I Will Teach You to Be Rich, makes millions each year from his blog. His blog has helped him to publish bestselling books and six-figure speaking gigs. He also offers seven-figure courses, business ventures, and numerous other opportunities.
These are just four examples. It is easy to find over 4,000 blogs that are earning a full-time income from blogging. Many more bloggers are making passive income through blogging to pay bills and improve their lives.
It doesn't really matter if you want to make $300 per day or $3 million per annum -- blogging can help.
Have a strategy. This is the key to making money blogging. It's not enough to just type some words in cyberspace and expect them to come back with dollar signs. This is highly unlikely. You need to be deliberate in your approach.
Although every blogger is unique, there are three steps that can help you build a profitable blog.
Step 1: Create a blog
First, create a blog. Then launch it into cyberspace. This is, in many ways, the easiest part. If you want it to go smoothly the first time, however, there are a few things you need to remember.
The blog starter has six steps that you should follow to start a blog. This is the first step.
- Choose a blog name. This name should be related to your topic. It should be concise and descriptive. You must also have a domain. One to three words is the best length for a blog domain. You should consider a top-level domain (TLD), that is either.com or.org.
- Create your blog online. After you have chosen a name for your blog and found a domain that is available, you can get your blog started. You will need a web hosting company to host your blog online. A content management system (CMS), which will allow you to populate your website in a user-friendly and attractive way, is also required.
- Create a custom blog. Now you have a website host and a website builder. Either customize an already-existing template/theme, or hire a custom web developer to create it.
- Create and publish your first blog post. Start with a "pillar article". This is a blog post that contains a lot of information and can be several thousand words long. It will serve as foundational SEO copy for your site.
You can now officially declare that you have a website by checking the boxes for each of these items. This is more than 99.9% of people can do, so give yourself a big pat on the back.
Step 2: Make money with your blog
One thing is to have a blog. You're not creating a blog to share your thoughts online. A blog is not meant to be a passive income source. You must monetize your blog. These are the top four blog monetization techniques.
- Affiliate Marketing. Once your website has a steady traffic flow, you can use affiliate links to make money. This method doesn't require you to have any products or services of your own. You simply drive traffic to the products of others and receive a commission for each sale.
- Banner Advertisements. Advertisers can pay for a digital billboard on your blog, in the form a banner advertisement. They usually pay according to your blog analytics. These can include your monthly visitors, engagement, conversion rates, and so on. You can charge more for more impressive numbers.
- Sell Digital Products. Building a loyal following through high-value, free content is one of the best ways to monetize. You can then upsell your followers to digital products like eBooks or courses.
- Offer Coaching. There are always people who want to learn from you and copy your success. This can be monetized by selling coaching services through your blog. If you do it right, coaching can be as cheap as thousands of dollars per month. Mastermind group is another option.
Each blog monetization strategy is different. Affiliate marketing is a major source of income for some bloggers. Others sell their own digital courses and products. There are also bloggers who do all of the above. It's up to you to decide which option makes sense for your needs.
Step 3: Automate your blog and outsource it
It's very exciting to successfully monetize your blog. It doesn't matter if you make several hundred dollars a month or thousands of dollars, it's very satisfying to see your blog transform from a concept to a published website into generating cash.
If you don't like the idea that you spend 40-60 hours a week creating content, optimizing websites, and managing your email inbox, then you need to find a way for your income to be passive. You have two main options.
- Automation. Automating is the first step. Find tools that simplify the tasks you are tired of doing, and then integrate them into your blog workflow. Apps are available to automate email marketing, Social Media, list segmentation and proofreading, writing headlines as well as scheduling meetings, tracking analytics, finding links, optimizing images, automating payments and all other tasks. It is important to choose smart tools that work together. To connect multiple applications, you can use tools like Zapier and IFTTT.
- Outsourcing. There is only so much that you can automate. You will eventually need to create a team of professionals capable of handling the tasks that require creativity and human energy. This is where outsourcing to freelancers or virtual assistants comes in. To get the best results, it's a good idea to hire a freelance copywriter and an assistant virtual to assist with administrative tasks. You can add writers and assistants over time. To increase your revenue, you may want to hire an operations professional or sales professional.
It doesn't mean you have to automate everything and outsource it all at once. You can start with tasks that are both tedious and not desirable. If you don't like the SEO part of blogging, you can always find SEO professionals who will gladly do the work. A virtual assistant can be an alternative if you spend two hours a day responding to comments and answering emails.
Once you've eliminated the most tedious and unwelcome tasks, you can move on to the more important tasks. Try automating/outsourcing one new task every week. You'll find that you only spend a few minutes working on your blog instead of dozens. It'll be easier to increase your revenue if you're not the only one creating content or running promotions.
Ready, Set, Blog!
You won't magically generate $10,000 per month passive income by starting a blog. If you stick to the above steps and work hard on your strategy, you will eventually begin to generate steady income.
Your initial revenue may be $100 per month. It could rise to $1,500 per monthly. The next step is $5,000... and so on. Although it will take some time and a lot of hard work at the front end, you can make it. Many thousands of people have already blazed the path to success.
