How To Write And Get Paid By Starting A Blog

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you make a purchase through the links.

If you are looking to make extra money and you have a passion for writing, why not get paid for what you already love doing.

You might be planning to start a blog or already started blogging as a hobby to simply have an outlet for the things you are passionate about.

If that is your primary goal, then that’s okay, you might not even need to read this article.

However, if you are serious about blogging as a business, then you might want to learn how to write and get paid by starting a blog.

In this post, you will learn the basics of how to start earning money from your blog.

How To Write And Get Paid Through Blogging

1) PREPARE YOUR BLOG FOR MONETIZATION

To have a profitable blog, you have to start it the right way. You have to have a secure professional-looking website with a professional hosting plan.

You can get all that with Siteground. When you sign up through this link, you will only pay less than $4 per month, and you will get a FREE SSL for your domain.

2) CREATE A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

The way your website looks will create a first impression on your readers. Make them stay and read your amazing content by having a professional-looking website.

Learn how to set up your site here.

3) CREATE HELPFUL CONTENT

Content is the bread and butter of your blog. It’s the reason why your readers come to your blog.

Therefore, it is vital to create content that is helpful to your readers.

So, before you start writing, here are some things you need to do.

CREATE YOUR AVATAR

An avatar represents the target audience. Therefore, your avatar needs to be specific.

You should be able to know everything about your avatar’s life, their needs, wants, struggles, goals, etc.

This was one of the mistakes I had made early on; I had a very vague avatar; I was trying to help everyone! As a result, my content was pretty much all over the place.

By having an avatar, you will be able to focus on creating content that will help, inspire, and teach your audience.

BRAINSTORM ON WHAT TO WRITE

Refer back to your avatar and pay attention to their struggles — brainstorm on how you can help them.

If they are struggling with productivity at work, can you write a list of tips that can help them be more productive?

If they want to learn how to crochet? Are you able to write them a guide?

KEYWORD RESEARCH

A keyword is the main focus word on your post. This word or group of words is what someone will type on Google when he or she is searching for something.

By choosing the right keyword, you will increase your article’s chance to show up on the search results.

You can use a free tool like Ubersuggest to research keywords.

CREATE CLICK WORTHY HEADLINE

If you post a click-worthy headline, your readers will likely click and read your article.

Headlines with numbers and superlative adjectives are popular.

You can also use a free tool like Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer to create a clickable headline.

WRITE. WRITE.

Finally, write your heart out! Be yourself and use a conversational tone.

If you are worried about grammar and spelling, download Grammarly. It’s FREE.

Try to have 4-6 articles written before you launch your website. Aim for 1,000 words or better.

Your readers will likely stay longer on your site if they have more articles to read.

On the other hand, don’t wait until you reach 20 posts before you launch.

Remember, it will take 3-6 months before an article shows up on Google search results.

Therefore, the sooner you publish an article, the sooner you’ll get out of Google “sandbox.”

USE IMAGES

After spending time writing your content, take time to add images. Images make a huge difference in the user’s experience.

I don’t know about you, but when I see an article with no images, I leave the site right away.

Images help break up the text and make it easier to read.

You can use free stock photography from websites like Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay, and more.

PROMOTE

As I’ve mentioned, especially earlier, it will take a while before your site is out of the “sandbox.”

Therefore, make the most out of your time. Ust it to learn as much as you can, write epic content, and promote your content.

Share your content on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on any other platform.

However, being active in all social media platforms will take a lot of your time.

You should be allotting equal time to learning, content creation, and promotion.

I use SmarterQueue to schedule my posts to go out to all of my social media.

It helps me to appear active on my social media during peak hours. You can try them out FREE for 30 Days.

As a beginner blogger, I would recommend using Pinterest.

Pinterest is also a search engine tool, but unlike Google, Pinterest does not have a “sandboxing” time.

If done right, you can show up on the first page.

Check out Pinterest Primer to learn more about Pinterest. It’s a FREE course.

CREATE PINS

After creating an account on Pinterest, you now have to create pinnable images for each of your blog posts.

I use Canva to create my pins, and they have tons of templates that you can customize.

Since you only have a handful of blog posts, I would recommend creating a bunch of pins for each of your blog posts and start pinning them on Pinterest.

However, make sure you space them out throughout the day so that it won’t look spammy. You might run the risk of getting suspended by Pinterest.

Now, I have a full-time job, and so do you, we do not have all day to be pinning on Pinterest.

This is where Tailwind becomes helpful. You can schedule your pins on Tailwind, and it will pin your pins during the best times of the day. Totally a timesaver.

You can get started for FREE here.

BUILD EMAIL LIST

Once you start building your email subscribers, nurture them by sharing your helpful articles with them.

Convertkit is one of the most popular email service providers out there, and it makes sharing your content to your email list a breeze.

It easily integrates with your website, making it easier for you to create a landing page, create and send newsletters, automation, and more.

You can try them out for FREE here.

Here are some tips on how to start a blog and get paid from it.

4) MONETIZE

Now that you have a website with great articles and impressive images, it’s time to make some money.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite way to make money blogging because, with affiliate marketing, you can start right away.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is when you partner with a brand or company, and you promote their product. In return, you will get a percentage commission.

The best thing about affiliate marketing is you do not need any investment to start, and you do not have to deal with customer service.

When you are just starting, do not go crazy on applying to every affiliate company that you run into.

Start small as you’re getting your feet wet. The best place to start is Shareasale. Check out my personal Shareasale review, where I show you how I made my first $100 as a beginner blogger.

They have a ton of affiliate companies that you can choose from.

Here are some of the best ones from Shareasale:

When you are ready to add more, Flexoffers has some good affiliate companies as well.

Airfarewatchdog
Care.com
Credit Sesame
Expedia
Groupon
Macy’s
myFICO
Moosejaw
Personal Capital
Points.com
Sephora
Trip Advisor
Walmart
Decluttr
Doordash
Hulu
Instacart
Paribus
Task Rabbit
Trim

Again, focus on a few affiliates and promote products that you personally use and love.

Create a spreadsheet to track your monthly affiliate income.

Michelle from Making Sense Of Cents shares her secret on how she went from $0 affiliate income to $50,000 per month in her course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.

DISPLAY ADS

Display ads are one of the most common and easiest ways to make money from your blog. These are ads that are placed on your website that displays other companies.

These companies are paying you to increase brand awareness through your website.

The best thing about display ads is that it can be passive, and you do not need an email list to make money.

The only thing you can do is to drive traffic to your website.

PRODUCTS

Creating your own product to sell can be a flexible way to make money from your blog. It can also be a great source of passive income.

Your sellable product can be physical or digital, like ebook, photos, courses, etc.

The downside of creating your own product to sell is customer service. Buyers, most of the time, will have issues on their purchases that you need to address.

If you have a lot of buyers, then you’ll be providing more customer service, which can be time-consuming.

MEMBERSHIP

Setting up a membership site can be a source of a steady income. If you have an expertise that can have you viewed as a go-to authority, a membership site will be perfect for you.

The most common type of membership site is a course. Creating a course will not only help you share your expertise with your students but also make you significant, if not a lot of money.

Other types of membership sites include a mastermind group, discount/coupon sites, PLR(Private Label Rights) sites, stock photography sites, etc.

SERVICES

Another way of making money from your blog is through offering services. If you have a skill that can help others, you can create a “Hire Me” or “Work With Me” page.

5) GET PAID

Now that you know how to monetize your blog, it’s time to figure out what is the best way for you to begin making money from your blog.

Eventually, you’ll need a business bank account; however, for now, I would recommend setting up a Paypal account.

Use Paypal for making payments and receiving payments so that you do not have to sift through your personal bank accounts.

There you have it!

Blogging can be a fun side hustle that has a lot of potentials to bring in money. However, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.

As you start building your blog, do not be discouraged if you only see pennies or even don’t see money dripping in. Always remember, you are building a foundation for your future success.

And no matter what you do, do not compare yourself to other’s journeys. Yours is unique!

Are you going to start a blog, write and get paid for it? Let me know in the comments.