Welcome to part 2 of How to Start a Money Making Blog! Today I’m sharing tips that I wish I had known when I first started blogging and I hope this helps those who are new to blogging or those who are still figuring out how to earn some money on your blog. If you’re thinking about starting a blog to earn some money, see how on my previous post: How to Start a Money Making Blog.
Add Click Ads + Affiliate Advertising
Now that your blog is hosted, you can start adding click ads and affiliate banners and links! Google AdSense is a great place to start and you earn your commission through viewer clicks. ShareASale is where you can find Affiliate Advertising and they have multiple affiliate programs to fit your blog style. Amazon has a great affiliate program and many bloggers find success through their program. You can add banners with your affiliate link on the side bar of your blog, but the best way to incorporate affiliates and make money through these programs is by including them in your post and mentioning a specific product.
While having advertising on your blog is great, it’s not much help when you don’t have visitors coming to your site. Here’s how you can increase traffic and start seeing some money come in.
Create Social Media Pages for your Blog
After creating your blog, this is the next important step. You’ll need to create a Facebook Page, Instagram Account, Twitter Account, and Pinterest Account. It will definitely keep you busy, but it is totally worth it! You’re viewers are going to want to see that you are active in the social media world and readers like bloggers who engage with them.
How to Grow Your Social Media + Email List
After you’ve set up your social media accounts, it’s time to find followers. But how do you get people to follow you on your social media accounts? I recently added MiloTree to my blog earlier this year and it has made a huge difference in my followers and my views! MiloTree is the little pop up in the corner or sidebar of your blog that asks if your viewers would like to follow you on social media. You can focus on one specific account like Facebook only, or add multiple social media accounts for your viewers to follow, but it only pops up one social media for each visit, not all of them at once. Instead, it rotates your social media for each visitor.
Your e-mail list is another great way to get viewers to come back to your blog. You’ll want to set up an e-mail marketing newsletter so that you can let readers know what’s new on your blog. MailChimp is easy to set up and it’s free for the first 2,000 subscribers on your e-mail list, and you can send up to 12,000 emails per month.
Getting readers to subscribe to your e-mail list is really easy with Hello Bar. It’s just like MiloTree, but it pops up right in the middle of your page. You can link Hello Bar with Mail Chimp, as well as many other e-mail marketing newsletters.
Post “Blog-Worthy” Content
You might see this a lot, but I cannot stress the truth on this statement. Starting out is going to be busy, especially if you want to have people viewing your blog. When I first started blogging, I created day and night, and posted 3 times a week. It was A LOT! When I finally felt like I had enough blog posts, I started to slow down and learned that it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality in your posts. I posted a lot just to get people to see my blog, but I didn’t see a lot of growth. When I did finally post something that was generating a lot of traffic, I took my time to think of other posts that would continue to increase traffic on my blog. Now, I try and post once a week so that I have time to create a quality design and not rush through it, and also because I still have a family to take care of. J
Team Up with Other Bloggers in your Niche
As I kept posting more content to my blog, I was looking for other ways to increase traffic. I remember seeing opportunities to be a guest blogger on other popular blogs and “applying” for a spot. I did a guest post for Eighteen25, and they liked my work so much, they asked me to be a contributor to their blog, and I post every other month for them. It was a great opportunity for me and I see more traffic because of that.
Other ways you can team up with bloggers is by commenting on fellow bloggers’ posts. I remember seeing comments from Rae of Sparkles on my posts, and I was so excited and appreciated that she took the time to comment on my posts and returned the favor! We would occasionally share each other’s posts through Instagram and that helped with getting more viewers over to the blog.
Social media is also a great way to connect! Team up with bloggers in your niche by creating a group board on Pinterest, or a Facebook group and exchange pins/posts to share. The best way to find bloggers to team up with is by connecting with those who have the same amount (or close to) of followers you do on their social media pages.
Use Pinterest
When I first started blogging, I only Pinned my post once because I thought you were only allowed 1 pin. Turns out, you are able to pin your post more than once! Total game changer! Here’s how you can continue to post your pin more than once.
First, make sure if you have more than one image on your post. More pictures equal more opportunities for your post to get noticed. If you have 3 images on your post, you’ll be able to pin all three images and it’s a great way to get your pins circulating through Pinterest.
You’ll also want to save each picture as something that relates to the blog title or post. If someone wants to pin an image from your post, they’re not saving it to Pinterest as “Image1234”. You need to give it a good description so that it is easy to find when others are looking for a subject relating to your title. For example, one of my blog posts is titled “Bill Pay Checklist,” and I have 4 images that can be pinned on Pinterest. I can save these images as “Bill Pay Checklist,” “Bill Pay Checklist Printable,” “Monthly Bill Pay Checklist” and “Monthly Bill Pay Checklist Printable.” They are all similar, but they are still describing the post. Descriptions are very important when it comes to getting found!
Second, create multiple boards that relate to your blog’s niche. Remember how I said you can pin your post multiple times? This is where it comes in handy. Anything that your post relates to, make a board for it and add other pins from your blog and other blogs that are in the same category. The more pins that are in that board, the better and the more it will get noticed. Nobody wants to look at a board that only has a few pins under that category. Keep adding to it over time, and those extra pictures you used in your post, pin them here too!
Here’s how I put this into practice. I have a board for “Short Stop Design’s Posts,” and this includes all my posts from my blog. “Printables” has all my printables from my blog as well as many other printables I’ve found throughout Pinterest. “Organization”: I have a few calendar printables that I offer on my blog and that’s where I pin them, and everything else that relates to organization. If you have Holiday posts, divide those up into each holiday: Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day, etc. Make multiple boards so that you can pin your posts in as many places as possible.
You should also try and pin from the original pin so that it has more opportunities to be viewed. What I mean by this is don’t keep going back to your blog and pin from your site, instead pin from your boards If you notice in the bottom right corner of each picture, there is a number that shows how many times the post has been pinned. The more pins it gets, the greater the chance it has to be noticed.
Third, find group boards that are in the same niche as your blog. Just like you would search for a pin, you would use the same search bar on Pinterest to find a specific board. My blog is mainly about offering Free Printables, so when I search for boards within the same niche I look for “Free Printables Group” or “Printables Group Boards.” After you have searched for your group, directly underneath the search bar you will see options for “All Pins,” “Your Pins,” “Buyable Pins,” “People” and “Boards.” You will then want to select “Boards” to find a group that fits your niche. Many of the groups have instructions on how to be added to the group, and some will have limitations on how many pins you can post. It is a great way to get your pins viewed by other users on Pinterest!
There is a lot that goes into making a successful money making blog, but these are the tips I wish I would have known when I first started blogging. These tips have helped my blog tremendously and I have seen a lot of success using these methods. Money does not come in right away, but it does over time if you are willing to put in the effort. When you first start off, there will be lots of late night or early mornings just to get your blog started. If you really want to blog and make money, keep at it and don’t give up!
Read part 1: How to Start a Money Making Blog
