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Blog Post Excerpt from February 8, 2017:
It’s well into February now, and it’s probably time to reflect on the current progress of my blog. My business license and other business-related paperwork have all been filed, so my blog is officially now a business. With this now in full-swing, I’ve started looking in-depth into the monetization as well as the growth of my audience.
September 25th, 2017:
Wow, how time flies. After reading this brief blog post, I have to tell you guys that a lot has changed within the past 7 months. There have been so many crazy amazing things happening to me and my blog since then that I had to share it with you.
Shortly before writing the above blog post, I committed myself and The Baller on a Budget to turn into a full-fledged business. Just the month before (January) I obtained my business license for my blog, and this was a way to kick my own ass into high gear and be productive (as well as conducting business legally).
RELATED POST –5 TIPS ON GETTING A BUSINESS LICENSE FOR YOUR BLOG
This move was a good one. It’s only been literally 7 months since then and I’ve accomplished a ton. Between February and September, here are some of the things I’ve accomplished:
- One (just one!) of my blogging income streams now covers all my bills and more
- Had the opportunity to work with several of my favorite brands such as Lancome, Kenzo Parfums, Dermalogica, BH Cosmetics, Diamond Candles and more.
- Got accepted to premier ad network that provides me with a minimum of $1,000/mo in passive income
- Paid off one of my high-balance credit cards thanks to my blogging income
I know some people, my own family included, can’t seem to wrap their heads around the idea that blogging can be a full-time business. Moreover, when done successfully, your blog can actually grow to become a multi-million or evenbillion-dollar business.
Say what?
It’s totally true. Throughout my short blogging journey this year, I’ve had the chance to meet and connect with several bloggers who make millions each year. This means that these bloggers make about 6-figures… a month. Crazy, huh?
RELATED POST – How to Manifest the Life You’ve Always Wanted
Earlier this yearI had the opportunity of interviewing one of my favorite bloggers, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of Making Sense of Cents (you can read my interview with Michelle here). Michelle’s monthly income this year has been more or less around $130,000 per month and she now travels across the United States enjoying a fun-filled life free from the shackles of a 9-5 job.
I get this question all the time from my readers! Blogging may simply appear as a narcissistic online diary of some sorts, but there is much more to it than meets the eye. Out of all of the jobs I’ve ever had, blogging is probably the hardest, yet fulfilling – and I can say this with confidence because I have worked several jobs with varying incomes from being a full-time editorial and wedding photographer, Realtor, multimedia tutor, an esthetician, and even worked at a car dealership in the service department. So trust me when I say that I still consider blogging to be the most rewarding and time-consuming job I’ve ever had.
Successful blogs thrive on several variables:
- Efficientmarketing strategies to find and capture new readers
- Unique and useful content that provides value
- An extremely narrow niche or a unique selling point to stand out from others in the same niche
- Consistent publishing schedule (ie.: new blog posts every week, daily posts across all social media platforms)
- Attractive branding to entice new readers
- Sellable products/services
- A sizeable audience to sell to
- Several income avenues
There are thousands of blogs out there that may have several strengths from the above but may be lacking in other areas. In order to create a feasible income as a blogger, you must have all of the above, or else you lose out on the potential to capitalize from your blog. For example, if you have 5,000 active readers but don’t actively endorse products or services, you may not get paid. In contrast, you may have tons of content to read and blog posts featuring tons of products, but if you lack a decent amount of readers, then you won’t get paid either.
#1: Affiliate Links
More often than not, bloggers who write about products or services are often monetizing URL links placed within their blog posts. This means if you casually drop a link just like thisand this link leads to a product from a 3rd-party website, cookies are created in your web browser that tracks the reader’s activity. If a reader clicks an affiliate and decides to make a purchase, then the cookie will record the sale and it will be credited towards the blogger. In short, bloggers make a small percentage of commission per sale from affiliate links.
Commissions from affiliate links are typically very small. For example: if a blogger is part of an affiliate program that gives her 5% commission from every sale and she decides to write a blog post about a facial moisturizer that costs $15.26, then she gets only $0.76 per each sold unit. This may not sound a lot at first, but if she has about 15,000 readers every month and about 7,000 of them decide to purchase the moisturizer through her affiliate link, then she gets an estimated $5,320.00 from that single blog post.
Yeah. That’s justoneproduct, too.Now imagine writing several blog posts a month full of affiliate links while you continue to grow your audience!
Considering that nothing on the Internet truly ever dies, if she continues to drive traffic to this blog post and people continue to buy, then she will keep generating income from this single blog post. Over time, traffic to this post may very well increase, and the blogger will have to do little to nothing to continue profiting from this post. With affiliate links, you write a blog post one time, direct traffic towards it for some time, and then it may continue to grow itself parallel to the growth of your audience and traffic.
More Posts on How to Blog:
- How Can Blogging Be a Real Business?
- The Blogger Crash Course: 9 Must-Have Tools to Make Money Blogging
- How to Start a Fashion Blog: The Ultimate Guide
- The Blogger Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Blog
- 5 Tips on Getting a Business License For Your Blog
#2: Sponsored Posts
Brands love to work with bloggers as a way to share their products or services with the blogger’s audience. In this partnership, a blogger will create a dedicated blog post or social media post that endorses the product or service of the sponsored brand. In return, the brand will offer a flat-fee for this sponsored post. Although these payments are usually one-time, sponsored posts are usually worth several hundred or even thousands of dollars in payment, depending on the size of your audience.
If the brand allows you to use affiliate links in this sponsored post, then you have another opportunity to make more money.
#3: Ad Revenue
There are several ad networks that partner with millions of brands who want to place ads on blogs. Once you become a part of an ad network, you can place ads from your favorite brands on your blog and make money from these ads. Depending on the ad network and your contract with them, you can earn anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per click or impression. This may not sound like a lot, but again, just like with affiliate links, the success of monetization depends on the size of your audience. Oftentimes (although not always), ad network income is one of the biggest income streams for bloggers.
#4: Selling Your Own Products or Services
Selling your own products or services can be a very lucrative way to keep 100% of your profits instead of being paid only on a commission basis. I have seen tons of bloggers create their own products from clothing lines to how-to guides and even offer consulting services (I, too, offer blogging and social media consultations since I have a background in marketing).
Aside from having a consulting business, I also recently launched my own blogging course, The Blogger Bible. I know a lot of seasoned bloggers may scoff at this, but since my consulting clientele has grown to take up a lot of my time I figured I might just offer a course and put all of the information I normally give my clients into one course. This not only saves people money on sessions with me but also gives them an entire course to continuously refer to.
I worked on The Blogger Bible for several months and can honestly say that there are not many blogging courses that offer as much in-depth information as I do in my course, especially for the price. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I were to sell information that could easily be found within a quick 15-minute Google search, and so I wanted to make sure that my course offered something unique.
While the material in The Blogger Bible can be applied to blogs across all niches, it is hyper-focused and geared primarily towards bloggers in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle niches. I have grown very close to tons of bloggers in these niches and many have agreed that although the FBL community is vast, it is extremely competitive. So it’s no surprise that not many successful bloggers in these 3 niches have offered much help to other bloggers in the same niches.
I don’t claim to make millions, nor do I try to trick others into my course by promising they will make millions either, but I do think that new bloggers and even some who are feeling stuck can definitely benefit from my course. In this course, I teach a lot of strategies from both my extensive marketing and design backgrounds to help new bloggers create their blog while sharing unique and clever strategies to build multiple streams of income. On top of these offerings, The Blogger Bible serves as an in-depth master plan for those who do not have a long-term strategy, don’t know where to begin, or don’t know what next step to take. This course can be referenced throughout your blogging career and can be revisited over and over again, which makes the purchase a long-term investment.
The Blogger Bible can be purchased for $197 and there are monthly payments available to make the course affordable to everyone.
More Posts on How to Blog:
- What is the CCPA and How Will It Affect Your Online Income?
- How Can Blogging Be a Real Business?
- 2019 Income Report: Tough Lessons I Learned During My 3rd Year of Being Self-Employed
- 5 Tips on Getting a Business License For Your Blog
- The Blogger Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Blog
You may have learned by now that blogs definitely have the potential to earn enough income to make a living from. I highly recommend blogging for people who are:
- Unhappy with their 9-5 job
- Feel they are overworked and underpaid
- Hate working for someone else
- Motivated to work for themselves
- Eager to grow their income to thousands or even millions
- Desire to work from home and create a flexible work schedule
- Passionate about their hobbies and interests
I also recommend that you check out The Blogger Bible if you are considering starting a blog and need step-by-step guidance from beginning to your end game, as the information can be reused and recycled for years to come. This course is larger than any other course I’ve ever taken, and trust me,I’ve takena lot.
The information in my course is not just regurgitated information from other courses or Google either. I’ve spent a lot of time testing these strategies with my previous photography business as well, which involved a lot of social media marketing to build my clientele.
You can click here to enroll.
Also, don’t forget to grab your free copy of my e-book, The Blogger Blueprint!This FREE e-book will help you create your own blog, publish amazing blog posts that generate tons of traffic and build your audience across several social media platforms.
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More Blogging Tips:
- 5 Tips on Getting a Business License For Your Blog
- 2018 Income Report: How I Made $37,953.17 During My 2nd Year Blogging
- How I Got 3 Million Monthly Viewers on Pinterest
- The Blogger Crash Course: 9 Must-Have Tools to Make Money Blogging
- Are You an Influencer or a Blogger?
I was wearing:
Arizona Cardinals Beanie: $8.62 on Amazon
Cowl Neck Sweater: $20.99 – $21.99 on Amazon
Patent Leather Waist Belt: $13.99 on Amazon
Lightweight Down Jacket: $34.99 on Amazon
Over-the-knee Boots: $99 on Amazon
(RELATED POST: The Look For Less – Stuart Weitzman’s Highland – $798 vs. $99)
Levi’s 711 Skinny Jeans: Purchased for $24.99 at Levi’s, available on Amazon for $36.99-$44.99
Genuine Leather Purse: $55.87on AliExpress
(RELATED POST: The Look For Less – 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli Mini: $695 to $59.86)
