Blogging is a great way to share value with your audience and make an impact around the world. From a community platform to a well-known resource library, your blog is your business. Although writing blog posts may only seem like your method of self-expression and connection to others through inspiration and education, you are changing the world.
You could be the go to for education or business needs from a loyal subscriber or website that someone stumbled upon while looking up a keyword that you use often. Your $0.99 domain name represents your brand and the source of income for your business. Here are 10 easy ways that you can begin to leverage your blog and build an income.
1. Affiliate Marketing
You may know of blog posts that contain a link to purchase a book through Amazon. The blog owner makes a commission from every product purchased through their affiliate links. This is one of the easiest ways to begin making money from your blog. You can join Amazon’s program here and start adding relevant links to your writing. This is also a great way to persuade your audience to purchase without seeming “salesy”. If you are writing a blog post about your reading list like I did here, you can provide an Amazon link to purchase and have them take something with you as they leave your website.
2. Advertisements
Most websites have some form of advertisements, like a square image to purchase a pair of jeans in the right sidebar. You can join Google’s AdSense program to start displaying on your site now. There is potential to make money via people clicking on the ad or purchases made in which you will receive a commission. This can be an option that most people choose to stay away from because you may have less control over what is displayed, but there is potential for success on your blog.
3. Endorsements
Endorsements are a great way to leverage your social media following besides your blog, which is an opportunity to charge more. When you reach a certain number of audience members, you can pitch companies or vice versa. This is your chance to represent a brand that is aligned with your content and bring them revenue and awareness. This is a source of income where you are paid an upfront cost to then design and develop content to post.
4. Product Reviews
You may have seen a blog post or video about a game you want for your birthday or a course that will help you build your business. Those are product reviews. This would be an opportunity for you to show you audience great companies that could possibly make their lives better through valuable content besides yours.
5. Speaking
I travel the country speaking to organizations, corporations, schools, and universities, because my blog became my business. I began to provide value about education and business at 16 years old. I designed business cards and shared it with everyone I ran in to. I quickly realized after I did my TEDx Talk that the knowledge I always wrote in a blog post can also be shared with words. Speaking is an opportunity to dive deeply into what is hard to explain with writing. This is a chance to display emotions and look into people’s eyes as you say “you can do this!”
6. Courses
Courses are an amazing way to create your own product and keep all the profit. Any topic that you have knowledge about, put it into a video series and charge money for your information. If you carry information that can change someone’s life, never underestimate what you know. You can develop your own product in various ways like private YouTube videos or with a platform that many use, Teachable.
7. Ebook / Book I recently finished my book that will be coming out this October and I never imagined if would happen at 17 years old. I told all the stories that I never mentioned before that has contributed to my success of graduating high school and college at 16 years old. As a business owner, your book (self published or not) is your certification of success. You can use the title “author” when you introduce yourself and increase the prices for your other services. You may feel that you have no idea what to write about, draft the little conversations you had and just start writing.
8. Shop
Product Merchandise is good to increase brand awareness and leverage the traffic that is driven to your website for your blog. You get the chance to control profit as well as design. “Swag” is used to promote your brand by just providing a useful product with your logo and business name engraved. If people long to support you in different ways, purchasing a tshirt, water bottle, or button from your store is a great way. Then, you can ask them to post on social media and showcase their review of your awesome product.
9. Coaching
When you discover a strategy that has allowed you to make an impact while make an income like Gia Tejeda in my most recent Young Legend interview, share it with the world. Start offering coaching services and make sure to leverage that you have a successful business. People are willing to pay just for your secret sauce to success through blogging, being a social media influencer, or driving traffic to purchase from your 7 income sources.
It has been over 1 year since I started my blog and I am on the call with kids often talking about strategies to build their business. People now reach out to me. They ask for my help, which I so appreciative of the opportunity to say I am a coach and mentor.
10. Drive Traffic / Leads To A Business
Lastly, blogging is not just for people to ONLY want to blog. There are companies that gain organic traffic from people just searching a keyword. Writing is an opportunity to provide value that you are willing to give away for free and extending your company to those who need it. There is a saying that when you provide good value to people, good people begin to value you and what you charge.
Now that you have 10 outstanding reasons for starting a blog, what are you waiting for? Begin to value what you type out and share the important information you have kept to yourself with the world. Now you know how to leverage your blog and make an income. “Create so much value that you become the asset.” - Unknown