To ask if you make money from blogging?

[sukitea]

Just that really, and how? Apart from the obvious bit of having an interesting read, what do you do to bring in an audience? Do you approach companies for review products or vice versa? Any hints/tips welcome.

I make a small amount off youtube and blogging, it a very small amount though, it will never replace my actual job it 's just for fun and the small amount of money I make off it is a nice bonus.

DS did whilst at school, he was turning over £150 a month in Y10, he's moved on to 'influencing' now

Thanks a lot for all of the replies. I am under no illusion that I will start blogging tomorrow and make money or freebies next week. I was looking for a time frame, how to do things etc.

I will do it anyway as I think there isn't much out there in the niche I am intending to target. There was a thread recently asking where BME groups go on holiday which got a lot of but for some people they are wary to try new places for fear of hassle or even the looks. Just today someone told me that she was in France over the summer and was made to feel very uncomfortable in a local establishment once they realized she wasn't White.

Thanks for links, will check those out.

First step choose a name and check it isn't registered already as a Web domain. Check its also available on Twitter, pinterest, install.
I had a shortlist of 50 names. 48 were already taken!
Get blogging for dummies book it's brilliant
Watch sharing gourlays tutorials.

I actually think you could be onto something with that niche.

I used to have a blog, it took about 3 years or so before I started being approached by PRs and companies offering products for placement and the occasional paid placement by which point I was garnering in excess of 10,000 unique views a month. I think the most I was ever paid was £50 for a placement, but they wanted full editorial rights on the copy and in honesty the money wasn't worth the hassle.

It really isn't - this is one of the things I have to do for the blog I work on. It's such a PITA. And then your blog starts just looking like an ad, and people get pissed off, and you lose credibility.

If you want to blog do it because you want to, to develop writing skills, make you go to different places etc. Don't do it in the hope of getting freebies. You would have absolutely no trust from your readers if you did. People aren't stupid, they can tell a mile off if you're getting something out of it.

Some bloggers I know are on patreon, so get a small amount from people who like their blog.

I’ve worked in blogger outreach for 7 years for companies like big brands to small plumbers and everything in between so I have a view of it from the other side.

First thing I’d say is - don’t just blog for the ‘freebies’. The amount of time and effort that goes into reviewing things and they are no longer ‘free’ as you’ve put in hours work for it.

Some bloggers work on sponsored posts which means that a company will write a blog post, send it over to the blogger and you spend 30 mins uploading it and tweeting it. Less time and effort but you’ll end up with a blog full of crap content from SEO companies which will devalue the whole site from a marketers point of view.

Best advice I have, write about something you’re genuinely passionate about but also network with other bloggers and take any opportunities to guest post for other bloggers as possible. This will allow you to get backlinks to your blog and boost your domain authority (a metric marketers look at when deciding whether to work with a blogger)

Final point, there are really two different kinds of marketers who want to work with bloggers - SEOs and PRs. SEOs main aim is to get a backlink for their client and they will look for high DA, well written content and a well structured website. PRs are more about exposure so they will be after page views and followers.

If you want to be a writer, approach travel publications - submit based on their submission guidelines. You may get some income from it, but it won't be a lot. Hardly anywhere actually pays for submissions these days.

If you want to be a blogger specifically, I think you have to accept that you're looking at a couple of years of work before you earn money from it. And nobody is going to keep coming back to a blog that is essentially promotional.

I've had a few friends get a blog to a certain level of success, which then attracts advertisers, and the blogs have gone down the shitter, as every other post is 'I tried this amazing make-up/ooh looks at the book I got sent, it's the best book I've ever read, I've got a few to give away'

I’ve had a blog for quite a few years, and still make money off it even though I hardly spent any time on it now (busy with baby, lost my enthusiasm for it but hopefully will get it back at some point). I have a lot of display ads so even when i don’t post, I still earn a bit from traffic to old posts.
When I was putting more effort in and doing it full time, I used to earn couple of thousand a month plus products, trips, holidays - so it was worth it, but setting up a new blog is definitely a slow burner especially now that the market is very well saturated already.
I never pitched a company for any free holidays by the way, only took ones that approached me. If you ask them then yes it’s CF territory especially as a new site!

Great advice thanks. Fear not, I have no intention of going out with a begging bowl,nor do I want it to become a job. I have watched much loved blogs going to the dogs as every other post is a guest post or a review for something that isn't even relevant. One blogger has started posting daily videos asking for a monthly donation, as "every pound will make a huge difference to my children's lives"
Anyway, in terms of a domain, is there any one that is better than others? Are the 99p ones sufficient?

Also the places in my 'bank' are mostly independently owned smaller self catering establishments. If I mention them should I tag them on twitter etc? Not sure what the etiquette is here (or even if there is one)?

Yes definitely tag them On twitter and FB and all Other social media and hope that they share with their followers.

If you want to be successful (and that doesn't necessarily mean follower number - more engagement numbers and SEO) you need powerful Social Media.

But only tag them once so if you tweet the same thing again don't tag them again.

Let us know when you set it up suki. As I said earlier, I'd read it and I think it's a definite niche.

I'm not BME myself but my dh is, and dc's are mixed race. Being white I had obliviously never considered that some places (even within uk) can have such a different feel for minorities. My dc's are young but I obviously don't want to take them places where we'd be made to feel uncomfortable I'm looking at you Croatia, with every other kid pretending to be a monkey as soon as my dc's weren't looking.

Your niche sounds like it might actually have a readership so I think it is worth slowly starting up and researching and posting what you can, then seeing what happens. I do think it will be very hard to gain traction/ever get freebies. But but but but, if you are genuinely useful, then you just don't know.

My sister makes money from blogging. Once she got 10,000 readers for each post for longer than a month, she was able to approach companies and was approached. It took her 3 years of blogging to get to that point. She also is part of an affiliate program, and sells some bits via Etsy.
I've recently started a month ago & am proud to be getting 50 new readers per post as I know it's going to take around a year until I'm bedded in. But from my sisters experience I know it's a combination of blog, Twitter, Instagram and video as they feed into each other. Checking in with community, new content every 2 days, cross promotion and interacting as much as possible. She is never 'off' and works much harder than I do in a full time job. It's worth doing a promo day course as well.

Pinterest is good too

I also think that you have a potentially good idea and I can see there being a readership. You might also want to check out general advice for travel writers and look into guest posts for travel websites and even magazines. (Some magazines, even now, will actually pay writers for articles - travel mags will be even keener if you can take suitable photographs yourself.)

I do think the niche is a good (and helpful) idea but you'll need social media traction for your reviews in order to build up enough of a following to get offers for new places to review/turn over any Adsense/affiliate revenue.

Hmm, as I said we go for small, independent places and I've just checked and most of them don't even have a website or social media. I found them via booking.com, would you just tag them instead?

No there's no point tagging booking.Com
They won't share any reviews or blog links for you.
Tbh I don't get much traffic from Twitter.

What everyone who wants to start a money making blog need to understand is that you need to have patience.

I always tell my readers that, the only easy part is starting a blog.
Look at it your self How to start a Blog.

The hard part is driving traffic (the most fundamental element) to your blog.

However if you get a good number of views and users on your blog then the sky is the limit when it comes to earning from your blog.

Here is something to motivate you: find out how much some bloggers are actually making

All it takes implementation of some effective strategies
Here are some ways to make money blogging

Hope I was helpful.