Want to Start Making Money From Your Blog?

If you own and write a blog and enjoy it as a hobby, you might be considering how to level up and start making money. It’s perfectly possible to do, many people do this and have even managed to turn it into a full time job- so how do you go about it? Follow the tips below to improve your site and make your blog appeal to advertisers and sponsors.

Have a professional looking design installed

The first thing a reader will see when they click on your blog is the design- the overall appearance of how it looks on the screen. Blogs have come a long way since the early days and now, it’s the norm for them to look really professional and well done. So if you want yours to be a site that people stick around on and want to read then it’s important to make sure it looks the part. Even if your content is good, if the overall site looks amateur or is visually hard to read due to poor layout or text then people will simply click off. If you have the budget then paying a designer to create you a custom layout is great, however you can buy premade templates on sites like Etsy quite cheaply. You can also find graphic designers on there to create your blog’s header, logo and visual elements so that it all ties together really nicely. When advertisers are looking for sites to work with they’re generally spoiled for choice, so will of course go with the ones that look the best (if they meet all of their other requirements). So put yourself in the running by ensuring your site looks high quality and professional, not only will your readers appreciate the aesthetics but you’ll be much more likely to secure those sponsored posts too.

Purchase a domain

When you sign up for a free Blogger or WordPress site you’ll get a link ending in ‘.blogger.com’ or .wordpress.com’. For just a few pounds a year you can purchase your own ‘.com/ .co.uk’ etc domain and link this to your site. Most advertisers won’t work with blogs that don’t have their own domain, as without this it’s not possible for them to find out what your sites metrics are. Each advertiser will have their own requirements about what these metrics need to be, things like organic traffic, spam score and domain authority are all taken into account. On top of this, your own domain looks more professional and again, with so many blogs out there it’s just one of those things you’ll need to do in order to compete.

Track your analytics and data

Speaking of analytics and data, these are things that are worth keeping an eye on. Sites like Semrush and Google Analytics enable you to keep tabs on the health of your site. If you have any major drops in traffic, spam attacks or errors occur then you’ll be able to find out through these tools and put things right. If you can see that your traffic for example isnt very good, you could work on improving your linking strategy and your sites SEO in order to give things a boost. While everything can seem a little complex at first, it’s perfectly possible to teach yourself the ins and outs just from finding information online. If you have more of a budget then you could work with an expert who will be able to advise you on your marketing strategy for promotion and SEO and fix any errors in your site.

Improve your photography

Your photography is a huge element of your blog, your images bring your blog posts to life and also draw people in when they click on your page. While there are some beautiful stock images that you can use for some posts, if you can, it’s worth creating your own photography to give your site a personal feel. Particularly in the case of things like reviews and your own life type content, the images should match up with what you’re writing about. Most smartphones can take fantastic photos these days, but if you want to go a step further invest in a DSLR and take a course in photography so you know how to use it properly. Not only is photography a great hobby in its own right, but it will definitely add to the quality and appeal of your blog and something to consider if you want to take things to the next level.

Focus on your content

Finally, dont overlook the quality of your content. This is still key in building and maintaining a readership (meaning regular traffic that continues to grow) and is something that advertisers will want. Avoid spammy, promotional pieces and write to provide value to a reader. Whether that’s information, humour, a relatable story- whatever it is that you like to share on your site. SEO is important, but remember you’re writing for humans, not just for search engines so don’t fall victim to this.