5 Ways to Make Money as a Blogger
Looking for ways to kickstart your blogging career? Let’s dig right in, shall we?
While the following techniques are pretty good to get you started, Moss Media has published a rather impressive guide on how to make your blog profitable through actionable blogging tips. I highly recommend it if you’re serious about digital publishing as a long-term business.
Now, with that said, let’s explore some ways to help you get the ball rolling as a newer blogger.
1. Guest blog
Guest blogging is a great way to get your byline out there and maybe earn a little cash while you’re at it. Many of your favorite blogs accept — and encourage — guest posts from contributors; it’s one of the ways they’re able to keep providing compelling content, day after day.
While guest blogging is generally done for free, some blog owners are happy to compensate you for a job well done. Otherwise, you can always link back to your own blog where you then sell a particular product or service.
Read The Write Life’s 7 More Writing Blogs That Want Your Guest Posts to get an idea of which blogs to pitch. Or check out Be a Freelance Blogger’s The Ultimate List of Better-Paid Blogging Gigs for a list of 75 blogs that pay $50 or more.
Before you pitch, familiarize yourself with the blog you’re pitching so you can craft a guest post that its readers are sure to love.
Be sure to follow any posted guidelines as well; some bloggers have specific rules for word count, and others have a list of preferred topics they’d like to see guest bloggers cover.
Some even include a “password” you have to include in your pitch — and emails without that password go straight to the trash!
2. Ghost blog
Ghost blogging is like guest blogging, except you won’t get your byline on the post!
When you’re a ghost blogger, you work with another person to ghostwrite a post that’ll run under their name. They often give you the post topic and the examples they’d like to see you use, and then you craft a blog post draft which they can shape into their own voice.
Ghostwriting is a long-standing literary tradition, so consider earning money as a ghost blogger. If you and a client build a good relationship, you might be asked to ghostwrite bigger projects, such as e-books — and those bring in even more money!
3. Blog for businesses
A lot of businesses have blogs as a way to share news and ideas with their customers. These businesses need people to write blog posts — they don’t always have someone on staff with that particular skill — and that’s where you come in.
I’ve written blog posts about A/B testing for landing page company Unbounce, for example. That’s the kind of work you’re going to want to look for; businesses that need interesting posts on specialized topics.
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of an A/B test before; if you’re a freelance blogger who knows how to research, you can write for just about any business.
Simply head over to one of the many job boards available out there, including the famous ProBlogger board. You may also visit company pages and contact them directly.
4. Become a SEO blogger
Plenty of clients hire writers to write blog posts in a way that makes them easily searchable on Google. If you know a little bit about SEO, start looking on job boards for clients who want SEO bloggers — or put out your own shingle, the way Kevin Cole did.
Whenever you get into SEO, you run the risk of working with people who want low-value or unethical content; think “spun articles,” where you grab somebody else’s work off the internet and rewrite it just enough to pass plagiarism filters.
That’s not the type of SEO writing we want to promote. To quote The Write Life:
“Our definition of SEO writing involves high-value writers and bloggers who know how to create compelling, readable articles and blog pieces that simultaneously rank high in Google for both trending and long-tail keywords. No stuffing, spinning or spamming required.”
So look for those kinds of blogging jobs, and see what SEO can do for you!
5. Blog for pop-culture sites
Pop-culture sites are, as the name suggests, popular — and they’re ready to pay writers for listicles, quizzes, hot take, and other pop-culture blog posts.
Check out sites like Listverse, XOJane, Heavy.com and Cracked for pop-culture blogging opportunities, or pitch your own favorite pop-culture site.