Posted on by

Can you Really Make Money off your Blog?

,
Blogging Workflow

Blogging Workflow (Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg)

Article by Wendy McCance

When I started blogging last year, I never dreamed that I would switch over  to writing full-time. I also never thought that I would like blogging so much that I would create all of the things I have put together on this site.  Life is full of surprises and when you sit back and allow the story to unfold, amazing things seem to happen.

Switching over to a dot com has been the best decision I have made.  The freedom it allows you is unbelievable.  It’s so much fun to have such freedom over what you create with your blog.  Changing my site has allowed me to develop all sorts of creations I never even dreamed I would attempt.

When I realized that I wanted more from my blog, I have to admit, I would see other sites that had the components that I wanted and I would be envious.  I would wonder how were they able to do what they did?  I also wanted to know if their efforts really paid off.

As always, I want to share my experiences with you.  I’m sure there are many people reading this that have been wondering if you can really make money off of advertising, affiliate marketing, consulting and writing.  I know that my experiences will be different from other people attempting the same thing based on personal knowledge, effort and ways they get their traffic.  Even so, I’d like to share as much information as possible.

If you are thinking about switching over to a dot com, the one thing I would recommend is to have a link that pulls readers from your old site to the new one.  I never did it and it has been painful to see my dead site get so many views.  I still have days where I will have close to 100 views and the site has been dead for over a month.  Not only that, but I still get 5 or more new followers a week, comments and likes even though it says on the old site that we have moved.

I finally cut the cord and deleted all information accept a note saying we moved and a link to this site.  I still got two likes.  I have no idea how since it doesn’t show likes on the site anymore.  I got the likes messages in my emails.

I have been doing a ton of reading  about monetizing blogs.  I have decided that for my blog I would put in the store for affiliate marketing and I would offer companies the ability to advertise with us.  I am also offering social media consulting and writing services.  So I am trying to juggle four different types of services to see what might hit and take off.

The one thing I won’t do on this site is overload it with ads.  You will never see a pop-up add that you have to click just to read the article underneath.  The only ads I will use will be in spots where they don’t get in the way of reading.  They also have to be relevant in some form to be placed here.  I have decided I won’t be using Google Adsense.  I haven’t heard people making much money off of it, and I want more control over what goes up on my site.

I promise that I will be keeping you in the loop with this new venture.  I will let you know if all of this effort has paid off for me.  Wouldn’t it be great to know if you really can make money from affiliate marketing (for example)?  I will tell you how much I’m making, the learning curve, what I have tried out to make the most out of what I am attempting etc…

So look at this as a grand experiment that you can sit back and read about without getting your own hands dirty.  It should be interesting to see how it all goes.  I’ll keep you posted.

If you are trying to do the same thing with your own blog, I’d love to hear from you.  It would be awesome to hear what you are trying, what has worked and what wasn’t worth your time.

In the meantime, if you are interested in pursuing a way to monetize your own site, I have done some crazy amounts of research.  Below I am sharing some of the best sites I have found to help you along.  Trust me, the sites are worth the look.  If you don’t have much time, at least look at the first link, it’s my favorite link out of the bunch.

Links worth a look at:

http://www.makemoneyontheinternet.com/make-money-with-amazon/

http://beafreelanceblogger.com/free-resources-freelance-blogging/

http://www.ghostwritinguncovered.com/ghostwriting-rates/

http://www.leavingworkbehind.com/

Enhanced by Zemanta

Wendy McCance

Wendy McCance is a Michigan based freelance writer and social media consultant. Wendy has gained attention as the founder of the popular blog Searching for the Happiness which can be viewed in 9 local papers online, including the Oakland Press. The combination of writing skills and social media knowledge is what makes Wendy such a powerhouse to work with. Stay tuned for opportunities to advertise, guest post and as always, have your questions answered.

To contact Wendy McCance about a writing or social media assignment, interview or speaking engagement, please email her at: [email protected]

Latest posts by Wendy McCance (see all)

Related Posts

20 thoughts on “Can you Really Make Money off your Blog?”

  1. Pingback: Top 10 Blog Posts of All Time - Wendy McCance

  2. Hi.I am just starting to do a personal blog. Is the dot.com like the host website like blogger.com. the site offers it for free though.

    Reply

  3. Thanks for the great links! More and more I find myself blogging because I love to blog. I think that making money from blogging is great but doing what you love to do is just as great!

    Reply

      • Thank you, Wendy! Today I received an offer from another blogger asking if I’d be willing to “guest” blog on her site and vice versa. She says that our site topics are very similar and that we could probably both benefit if we write for each other or share links. I am still awaiting their response so that I can view their blog. Assuming that both our blogs are similar or complimentary in topic, would you consider this a win-win situation or is there something that I should be looking out for with regards to this surprise request?

        Reply

  4. Pingback: Why Blog ? 5 Strong Motivations | Planning or Designing a Website and Blog

  7. Hi Wendy,

    I was directed to your site from Susan Cooper and I must say I am very thankful she recommended your site. I am new to the website and blogging world and learned so much from this one post. Thank you and look forward to reading more.

    Reply

Leave a Reply