It would seem everywhere you look online, someone somewhere is making money with their blogs. As good as this might sound, the question for many still persists, how do you make money with blogging?
Sounds only fair doesn’t it, that someone interested in blogging, or at least a version thereof, would be asking this question?
Sadly, and based on my experience reading and writing my own blogs since the dawn of this age old craft, that many bloggers assume that making money blogging can only be accomplished through:
1: Writing what you’re passionate about and
2: having a product you are promoting etc.
None of those are remotely close to the truth, fyi.
The Early Years
Before we delve into the meat and potatoes of this “how do you make money blogging” article, or into the artichoke and pasta if you happen to be vegan, a brief history on blogging and how this passtime turned into the behemoth online money making opportunity it is today.
Blogging dates back to c1994 when a Swarthmore College student by the name of Justin Hall started a personal blog on links.net. Whilst the term blog had not been coined yet at the time, blogging or weblog as it was aptly called back then, became more mainstream from c1997 when Jorn Barger, creator of the blog Robot Wisdom, began “logging the web” as he browsed.
Remember this term – Loging the web, as it’ll become apparently clear later.
You may be asking yourself, what does the history of blogging have to do with how to start a blog and make money?
Fair question, but Paytience grasshopper!
You might miss your entire motivation, reason and strategies to start an awesome money making blog that you would be proud to show off to your mom-in-law in due time!
You wouldn’t want to be hiding your laptop for fear of her sniffing out your wicked ideas of a blog each time she pops in unannounced would’ya hmm?
I didn’t think so!
History aside, weblogging was a method of logging one’s activities throughout any time or period of the day – kind of what modern day facebook posts are made out to be.
So, if blogging’s about logging one’s activities online, why then do so many people find it difficult to create a blog and start making money?
That, in a nutshell, is the question..
Speaking from experience, I hesitated for months to write anything coherent and have it posted online.. the idea that my thoughts, my determination, my hobbies and my thoughts would be riddiculed, and that I wouldn’t be able to make money off that content, kept me at bay!
..and rightfully so.. there’re 1000s of blogs online that seemingly looked better than mine, and the content way better than mine, so how could I even compete at that level?
Sound familiar?
The truth of the matter is, and getting back to the “weblog” statement earlier, competition is GOOD, and your content doesn’t necessarily have to sound salesy, based on a high interest topic, nor be related to making money.
If you have a hobby, chances are there are millions of others out there, just like you, who have a similar interest and would kill, literally, to read your articles or blog, as it were!
The notion that you have to write a well researched blog on business, how to be an entreprenuer, how to cut daisies like a pro etc, couldn’t be far from the truth!
Still sounding too far fetched?
Well, I’m glad you asked, let’s look at 5 of the most obscure, yet highly popular blogs on the internet todate:
We’ll delve into how these blogs make money and how you too can start your own obscure blog and make a killing – erhm.. money speak, not literally you klutz!
Top 5 Obscure Niche Blogs Making an Insane Amount of Money
5: Studio Quirk- Cobbler/Shoe maker and everything in between..
URL: studioquirk.com
Approx. Subscribers: (Google Reader count: 10,849)
Main income source: Advertisements, affiliate links?
Whilst personal style and fashion are the rage on the internet – what with the advent of social media platforms like instagram where vanity rules, remember marketing’s all about angles.. there’re literally 1000s of car dealerships in any major city across the world, and yet each and every one of them sells cars, some similar, some different, but the fact of the matter remains, these dealerships wouldn’t be in business were they not making bank.. so think about that the next time you get cold feet about starting your own blog!
What I love about this blog:
Unassuming, very plain, honest, if you will, and written from the first person – in a way Jessica, the blogger, is wearing her heart on her sleeve as she shares her personal experience and journey about shoemaking.
This blog resonates with Jessica’s readers because they too, are exactly walking in her footsteps.. every day folk who are not in the limelight, but have something to contribute, as we all have, to someone in need of this style of inspiration.
I give this blog 7 out of 10, partly because Jessica has been neglecting this channel of communication for youtube instead!
Nothing wrong with that.. had she directed her youtube traffic to her blog, then captured the visitor’s email addresses to promote affiliate offers to them, then she would’ve been making a killing (that expression again – I’m a natural IKR!) online!
4: Nature Moms
URL: https://naturemoms.com/blog
Approx. Subscribers: 5,000+
Main income source: Advertisements
From the title of the blog, you can guess this is a mom blog.. and there’s millions of moms out there who have something in common, be it raising kids, how and what they feed them, to activities in and around the home.
If you were to ask me, is there still space in this niche of mom blogs? The answer is a resounding Yeah’Ya!
Again, it’s all about angles.. I haven’t come across a mom blog that talks about their hubbies (from the wife’s perspective).. things about the hubbie’s hobbies (and what the mom thinks of them etc).. I’m getting long winded, but I’m pretty sure there would be a lot of interest to read a mom’s blog on their perspective of their significant others – bear in mind what goes into a blog can also be too personal, you are after all sharing your “web log” of your daily life with strangers.. if that feels a tad too personal for you, you could alter the names (to protect the innocent) and use a pen name etc so your neighbors don’t sniff out the freaky stuff you and your hubby get into at 7PM each eve!
My thoughts..
Tiffany – the Mom whose blog this belongs to, is doing amazing sharing her insights on this blog.. issue is, she seems to be struggling with attracting a lot of eyeballs to her blog, and this is another issue I will write about in another article – how to drive swarms of hungry readers with credit card in hand to your blog – be on the lookout for that!
3: Art of Manliness
URL: artofmanliness.com
Approx Subscribers – 200,000+
Main source of Income: Affiliate links, adverts and product sales.
I first caught wind of this blog eos ago on facebook as friends of mine were sharing (free advertising) articles and images from the art of manliness’ fanpage!
You know you’ve struck gold when your fans share your articles etc to their friends on social media.
The art of manliness has spawned a number of copycat blogs etc. each attempting to outdo each other, but the shear revenue from this blog means competition is definitely not a threat and they continue to innovate with each passing day!
Whilst there’s nothing unique about this blog, they found a footing early on and ran with it – that of their vision of what it means to be man’s man, literally!
Think of the Malboro Man back in the day – the image the ads were conveying, that you were less of a man unless you, well, smoked a malboro!
Whilst that speak would never fly in today’s PC culture, angles once again, sell bucketloads!
So, if you’re looking for inspiration – think barbie, coin that into something feminine and write a blog about personal upkeep for the busy woman who desires to look like Barbie, but with the strength of Katy Perry or something.
You get the drift!
I give the art of manliness a solid 9, mainly because they turned a steriotype into something mainstream!
2: Beekeeping Like a Girl
URL: beekeepinglikeagirl.com
Approx Subscribers: 50,000+
Main source of Income: Affiliate links, adverts and product sales.
Artist-turned beekeeper Hilary Kearney knows a thing or two about how to earn money through blogging!
This is a an authority blog that ranks highly with the google gods and get a ton of visitors for numerous reasons – for the love of bees, their impact on life (human life especially) and honey etc.
One could argue that Hilary, a notable author featured on amazon, has the financial backing to qualify doing blogging, but you would be sway wrong!
Hilary’s blog is a fun read and her personal adventure into bee keeping. As per her about us page, the blog has nothing to do with recording a new beekeeper’s adventures, successes and mistakes, but about learning the art of beekeeping. Nothing less.
Whether you’re into beekeeping or not, the blog is quite enticing, you’d have to read it for yourself to believe in what this self proclaimed “girl from next door” is accomplishing with this blog.
I give this blod a solid 9 for Hilary’s determination in a craft that could literally save humanity!
Think you’ve got what it takes to be a beekeeper, or even a pet raccoon? Blog about it and let the world decide!
1:Food!!
URL: https://completelyketo.com
Approx subscribers: 500,000+
Main source of Income: Affiliate links, email marketing and private label product sales
Harlan Kilstein – the owner of the blog and a fellow internet marketer, started this blog live on a webinar a few years ago and ran with it.
None of the content is original, it’s all aggregated content from other blogs with a few words from the blog owner!
Again, it’s about being creative.. nothing stops you from “borrowing” content from other blogs, as long as you attribute the original content writer in your blog.
What Harlan has achieved here is nothing short of a marvel, using the same concept that the huffington post or buzzfeed uses, he curates content related to his niche on his blog, and drives traffic using facebook groups, nothing else.
The blog’s now too big and literally runs itself – whilst Mr Kilstein pockets all the profts!
Think you’ve got what it takes to find content from other blogs and repurpose it on your own blog for maximum profit?
What’s holding you back then?
I give this blog a solid 10 – it’s the lazy man’s way to make money on the internet!
Just goes to show you do not need original content, or slogging for hours on end to come up with content, to make money.
This is proof that the internet is indeed an echo chamber, just depends who produces the loudest sound to attract hordes of customers to their blog, where you can monetize with ads, an email capture form and product sales.
In Summary
As you can tell, there’s nothing earth-shattering about the blogs nor the topics mentioned above, yet these blogs churn out over $10k for their respective bloggers, each and every month, like on auto pilot!
Can you see yourself earning at least $10,000 from your blog every month? Want the shot cut route?
Subscribe to my newsletter, get your free mindmap to all these magic, and let’s do this together – Savvie?
So, Now You Have a Blog, Then What?
Now, let’s assume you’ve found a niche in which to write your blog but don’t have any idea how to come up with the content, let alone monetize the darn thing!
Like many of your predecessors, you’re not alone!
Unless you desire to cut and paste content from other blogs and not add any of your personality or spin to your blog, you might find yourself in the nether-regions of google’s search results pages.. adding some of your content and personality to your blogs is what endears you to your audience mind you, not simply repurposing other people’s content without adding extra value to it.
So then, how does one come up with amazing content designed to make even your unsupportive mom-in-laws beam at you with pride?
Well, glad you asked.. the internet is indeed a wonderful thing!
For those of you that are creatively challenged when it comes to scribing, there’s a super dooper work-around to that, and I’m about to get to it in a bit.
The idea is you come up with your concept if you will, like when ordering a pizza – you know what you want for toppings and what you don’t want, you also know how well done (is that even a pizza thing?) the entire pie should be, and how large or small it should be etc.
The same goes with your blog content.. you have to have a framework – something, anything you can “outsource” to someone to write the content for you!
There, I said it – Outsource!
…to China, I hear you ask?
Erhm, noh Squidward, to native speaking writers twiddling their fingers and waiting for you to send them a brief to magically manifest your article – right here in ‘Murika!
I kid you not!
There’re 100s of such content writing outfits on the internet – and a smart marketer (such as you!) is one who doesn’t do all the heavy lifting about blogging!
You’d literally have to be nuts to do everything – it’s literally exchanging your 9 to 5 for blogging, and that kind of mentality doesn’t fly around here – nHmm – (snubbing nose in the air)!
A smart marketer will outsource the writing of content (with an infinite amount of revisions fyi) to someone qualified to write the content for you.
Take Textboss for example, located out of Texas, you can get a well written, well researched article – in any niche, for under a hundred buck!
Ermagherd, this is insane!
IKR?
Textboss is not the only one mind you – there’s more! (of course there are!)
TextBroker for instance, ranks its writers on a sliding scale, one star writer is someone fresh off the boat from somewhere, or probably a pet monkey they trained to doodle some words.. I’d say aim for a 4 star writer or better if you want a written piece that’ll please your hungry readers!
TextBroker’s writers are cheaper than texboss, fyi!
So, there you have it, find a writer, pay them whilst you focus on other aspects of your business – bada bing!
Should you be on a super tight budget however, this is what I would do.. find a blog or content you so yearn was written by you, (but is not) and simply rewrite it in your own words!
Not as glamorous and time consuming in and of itself, but you’re trading hours for traffic here until you’re able to generate a consistent income to outsource the writing of your content to someone!
This article’s getting a tad too long, and I’ll have to cut it short, since we all have limited attention spans, and will have to write another blog post on how to monetize your brand spanking new blog, including how to get the same readers back for more!
The idea is to make as much money as possible for as little work as you can.. you are after all a smart internet marketer – you desire to spend as much time as possible with the mail man (whatever happened to them??).. could make an interesting blog topic some time in the near future – you just never know!
If you’ve read this far, I have a feeling you still have some unanswered questions beyond the how do you make money blogging topic. – I specialize in the Make Money Online Niche, coaching those interested in making money by promoting other people’s products.
Should you have the inclination to make money promoting products as a affiliate marketer rather than a content writer, AKA blogger – by all means please subscribe, I’ll even share my skype contact in one of the emails you’ll receive, that way you have direct access to moi!
I travel globally extensively mind you, so may not respond on time but, trust me, the content I share via email newsleter’s enough to make you too, a seasoned internet marketer who’ll travel the World first class, regardless of the health warnings.
Asta la vista..
