Three strategies to make money blogging in 2020 and beyond!
You know I’m not usually one to buy into conspiracies or all the pity complaints you hear about making money online. People like to blame their own failures on some unseen evil lining up against them.
They’ve been saying you can’t make money blogging for years.
In fact, I remember when I first started blogging in 2014. I was blogging for about six months and went to my first bloggers’ conference…and one of the first things I heard was, “Blogging is Dead!”
I was heartbroken! I had spent half a year developing my blogs and paid thousands to go to this conference only to hear that you can’t make money blogging anymore.
Six years later and I’ve made over $450,000 on my blogs and online business…
I will admit though, it seems like it’s getting a lot harder to make money blogging lately. Much of my income comes from my YouTube channel and the blog income has pretty much flat-lined over the last year.
So I got on the phone with my old school blogging friends and we brainstormed three strategies to recharge our blogging incomes. You can still make money blogging and I’m going to help you do it!
Why is it so Hard to Make Money Blogging?
First though, I wanted to highlight a few of the reasons why it’s getting more difficult to make money blogging. Knowing these reasons will help you confront them and get around them to keep making money. It also helps to know the legit reasons so you don’t fall for all the other conspiracy theories of why ‘blogging is dead’.
The first reason why it’s getting harder to make money blogging is an old scapegoat. The first blogs were launched before 2000 and it became THE way to make money online for more than a decade. As a result, there are more than 600 million blogs according to TechCrunch…and that’s a lot of competition.
Not only is there just more competition than there was even when I started six years ago but many of the older blogs dominate their topic niche. It’s tough for new bloggers to get started when just about everyone already has their favorite blog to read.
A more technical, and less whiny, reason why it’s getting harder to create a successful blog is the way Google has changed it’s search algorithm over the last year. Google is now focusing heavily on what’s called E-A-T or expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
You can spend hours reading about what that means and trying to build a blog around it but basically it’s just Google playing favorites with the biggest, oldest blogs out there. It’s why the corporate websites like Forbes and Wiki nearly always show up in the top search results.
The third reason before we get to how to beat all this is that the money is flowing into video and podcasts. Advertisers and sponsors are going to go where the customers are and right now, that’s increasingly in other media besides traditional blogs.
How to Make Money Blogging
There isn’t much you can do about any of these reasons. They’re all external factors and just a fact of life but you still can make money blogging…a lot of money! While I’ve shifted to the YouTube route, I have blogger friends that aren’t doing any video or podcasting and still making $100,000+ a year just from their blogs.
In fact, one friend recently sold his blog for $6.4 million! You don’t get money like that from a blog sale if blogging is dead!
So I wanted to share three strategies my friends and I (the super-blogger brain trust!) came up with to keep those blogging dollars rolling in.
Write More Posts and Monetize Every One!
It used to be one or two blog posts a week was enough. A weekly post would get you ranked on Google and growing a community of readers.
Now it’s more like two or three posts at least. People are constantly looking for new information online and the only way you’re going to compete with some of those older blogs with thousands of posts…is to start racking up the content yourself and ranking for as many different keywords as possible.
And because you never know which blog post is going to hit big, ranking #1 on Google and bringing in thousands of visitors a day, you need to monetize every post you write.
- As you’re writing, think about how you can fit in a call-to-action for an affiliate or if any of your own digital products would fit with the theme.
- Have a list of affiliate offers or products that generically relate to your broader blog topic and that you can mention in any post.
- Write one post a week that is specifically for monetization like a long list post comparing affiliates in a certain topic or a review.
Thinking about how you can monetize every post will mean a constant flow of clicks to your affiliates and products.
Learn Every Way there is to Make Money Blogging
Most bloggers turn on Google ads to their blog and maybe join an affiliate network…but that’s it. They expect the money to come to them and wonder why they never make anything.
Treat your blog like a business. That means learning the different ways blogs make money and actively developing as many as possible.
I use six different income streams and there’s even more that regularly make bloggers money. You need to find the 3-5 income sources that work best for you and focus on developing each.
- Multiple income streams will smooth out your monthly income. Sales from any single source can jump around a lot month-to-month. Having multiple sources means you’ve always got something making money.
- Multiple income streams means you’re not dependent on any single source. A lot of the traditional blog income sources ebb and flow regularly. Affiliates drop their programs and Amazon changes how much it pays out. Being dependent on just one source sets you up for a huge disappointment when it stops working.
- You never know which income source is going to explode and start making you tens of thousands a month. Understanding the different sources and trying each will help you catch the opportunity when it comes along!
See the nine income sources bloggers use to make money and the six that make me $22,000+ a month. Proven strategies and income sources that work! Get your copy of Make Money Blogging on Kindle or Paperback.
Partner Your Blog with a YouTube Channel or Podcast
Maybe it’s a copout to say you can still make money blogging but then recommend starting a channel or podcast. A successful business is about adapting and evolving to the changing environment, going where your customers are now.
That means using some of these other media like podcasts and video.
Not only will you benefit from faster growth in these other media but you’ll appeal to a broader group of people. The fact is that some people like to read blogs, others want to watch a video and still others like to listen. By offering your content in different forms, you reach as many people as possible.
Click to reserve your spot at the FREE YouTube Quick-start Webinar! I’m sharing three strategies that helped me grow my YouTube channel and double my business income. I guarantee they WILL work for you. Seats are limited for the webinar, so make sure you reserve yours.
Create your account on TubeBuddy for free to see the features that will help grow your channel!
You can still make money blogging but you need to evolve your strategy. It’s no longer 2005, you can’t just publish a few words and expect thousands of visitors a day. Adapting your blog to the new reality will keep it fresh and keep you making money!