Ever since my blog became popular and came to be a source of help for lots of new bloggers, time and time again I would normally get emails from newbies asking me how to make their blog a success as well.
I often give them some tips and then tell them to apply it, because this was what I did to boost my blog.
Yesterday though I got a message from another new blogger asking me to help him make money from his blog. Making money from a new blog isn't impossible but it will take lots of hard work in order to get the task done.
As normal I gave him a few tips on how to drive traffic to his blog and then use that traffic to make money blogging.
But seeing that he was in the same situation that I was in when I started blogging, what I decided to do was to write a blog post on how I made my blog successful.
So I told him that I would write an article (this blog post) telling him all the things that I did to get my blog to where it is today.
If you are in the same position as this blogger then this blog post is for you, I encourage you to read on.
My Story Of How I Became A Great Blogger
I am not sure how long ago I started building websites but when I started I made a mobile site. It was a mini forum and chatroom which was accessible by mobile phones.
The reasons for building this type of site was because they were a bit popular back then because internet was new on mobile phones at that time. So having a forum where people could share their opinion on many different topics helped me to build a wonderful community.
With the traffic I had I monetized my mobile site and I surprisingly made over $1,500 USD from that site.
I never thought that I would have made so much money from this mobile site, but then again I never doubted that it couldn't make money from it because I would have never monetized it in the first place.
My First Website...I decided to go even further online by closing down the mobile site and went to building my first website, which I coded all by myself with little knowledge oh HTML and PHP coding.
My love for dogs encouraged me to build a website for pitbull dogs where I shared tips on how to train and care for your pitbull dog. I monetized that site too using Google Adsense and even though the traffic wasn't really high on it, within the first year on Adsense I got my first check. This again goes to show that it was possible for me to make money online.
Then I Discovered Blogging...I still wasn't satisfied with my website and I began to search for other forms of sites. I then discovered blogging when I stumbled on Lisa Irby YouTube channel.
After checking out a few of her videos I loved what I saw and visited her website where I learned even more. I subscribed to her blog, became a member of her forum ( WebsiteBabble.com), learned how to make a blog and then created my very first blog.
My first blog was on Blogger.com and I loved it so much that I decided that my pitbull website had to go because my blogging was my new love.
Why Did I Choose Blogging?
Well for one thing when I discovered blogging it seemed that it was around for some time but it was just getting popular. I decided that this was a great time to hop on board and become a blogger instead of just a website owner.
Is there any difference with owning a blog than a website?
I love that with blogging I get to produce contents on a regular basis instead of having static pages.
I also think blogging attracts more people to a site than a static website and this will invite people to come to your blog on a regular basis to check out what you have written.
Blogging with WordPress is quite easy and I adopted very quickly to this blogging platform.
So those are my reasons for choosing blogging instead of a static website.
5 Pro Blogging Tips
So you want to become a pro blogger right? These are the things that I did to become a great blogger and I am pretty sure that if you apply these tips then you can become a successful blogger as well.
Would you visit a blog on a regular if every time you go there its the same post on the homepage? I hardly think you would.
The same can be said of your blog. If you don't write blog posts on a regular basis then visitors of your blog may not come very often.
If you really want to build traffic to your blog then you need to write and publish on a regular basis. Remember its a blog that you have and not a static website, so you need to write every now and then.
Posting and updating your blog on a regular basis as well helps to build your traffic from search engines. Search engines crawls and index blogs that are updated regularly.
So you can never go wrong if you update on a regular.
A great way to get traffic to your blog is if you use the avenue of guest posting.
When I started out blogging I wanted lots of people to know about me and my blog, so what I did was to write guest posts on a regular.
I looked for blogs that were in my niche which had more traffic than mine. I then emailed the blog owner saying I would love to write for their blog.
Writing one guest post wouldn't build up lots of traffic to my blog.
I had to write guest posts like I was crazy. I found tons of blogs and started writing for them. I even wrote more than one guest posts for some blogs.
This helped me to build a relationship with the blog owner and the blog's audience that I was writing for, and helped to boost my blog greatly.
In order to get people to read and comment on your blog post that you have just published then you need to promote your blog post.
Whether it is a post that you have written on your blog or a guest post you need to promote it.
The more traffic you have on each post that you have written then the better it will turn out for you.
If your post is good enough then readers will even contact you asking you to write for them, or to even pay you to review a product or service for them.
So always remember that promotion goes a long way.
If you want to become a popular blogger then you need to be friendly with other bloggers. Get to know them and what their blog is about.
When they write a blog post, comment on their article.
Join Facebook groups and engage with these bloggers. Chat with them on Twitter or via Google Hangout.
Doing this will help other bloggers to remember you and your blog as well. So when you publish a blog post they will freely share your blog post and might even make a comment on it.
There are tons of ways that you can optimize your blog, but which way is most effective?
We have to remember that search engines can help to drive tons of targeted traffic to your blog so optimization is a must.
Lots of new bloggers make the mistake of not optimizing their blog and they sometimes wonder why they can't get traffic to their blog from Google.
Google doesn't hate your blog. You have to optimize to get Google to love your blog.
What you firstly need to do is great a sitemap for your blog using a plugin. Submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools. This will help Google to index your blog posts so that you can get traffic to your blog.
You also need to find the right keywords that matches your blog and its posts.
Do keyword research and use the keywords that matches your blog post with the highest number of search queries for your post.
Optimize images that you use in your post is a must as well if you want to boost your blog traffic.
A mailing list can take some time to build up so the earlier you start then the better for you.
If you write great blog posts then your readers will want to subscribe to your blog.
Create a mailing list for your blog (affiliate link) if you haven't done so as yet, because it is good for making money and also good for traffic for your blog.
I have created my mailing for my blog and I must say that I am loving it. Most, if not every pro blogger has a mailing list and I sure know that they are having great success with it.
So why don't you have one as yet?
5 Blog Monetization Methods
Here are ways that you can make money from your blog now that you know how to drive traffic to your blog.
Google Adsense is a popular paid per click (PPC) program which allows you to make money from your website or blog by putting advertisements on your blog and you get paid each time a person clicks on the advertisement.
Is this a great way to make money from your blog?
Yes this is a great way to make money from your blog, but only works great if your blog has tons of traffic.
Here are four posts if you want to make Google Adsense work well for you
- 5 Google AdSense Tips To Follow If You Want To Make Money From Your Blog
- 4 Tips To Help You Collect A Google Adsense Check Every Month
- Simple Tips I Used To Increase My Google Adsense Earnings
- How To Increase Your Google AdSense Revenue
If you wan to sell advertisements on your blog as a means of monetization then I urge you to use BuySellAds or OIO Publisher WordPress Plugin (affiliate link).
I have successfully used those two tools to make money on my blog. Tons of money can be made by selling ads on your blog too.
Just make sure your blog has lots of traffic, sell the right sized ads, set the price right and the location. Once everything is good then you will make some money.
Do you use products and services to make your blog? I am sure you do.
Did you know that you can make money by promoting these products and services that you use? Yes you can.
One of the top ways that people make money from their blog is through affiliate marketing.
I am pretty sure that if you ask any top blogger what is their number one source of income from their blog is, they will tell you that it's affiliate marketing.
What makes affiliate marketing a money maker?
Well these top bloggers know what works when it comes to building a successful blog. So the tools that they use to build their blog would be recommended by them. If you purchase this product, through their affiliate link of course, then they will make a commission.
Imagine if they have tons of visitors to their blog who are eager to know that they use to make their blog, then they will make tons of money.
So work on building up a successful blog and then promote the tools and services that you use to make your blog a masterpiece.
Another great way to make money from your blog is to make your own products and sell them on your blog.
What makes this great is that you get to keep 100% of the money that you are selling it for. You also get to set your own price for whatever product that you have created.
You might be wondering to yourself now, "what sort of product can I create to sell on my blog?"
There are tons of things you can create and sell.
Do you have skills in making plugins? Well you can do so and sell it back (make sure this plugin is unique and help to make blogging easier).
You can write ebooks and sell them back as well.
Take for example Darren Rowse's ebook 31 Days To Become A Better Blogger and John Chow's ebook Make Money Online. They have built up a great name for themselves in blogging and now they can sell their knowledge, so to speak, in the form of an ebook.
So the possibilities are endless when it comes to creating a product to sell on your blog. Just be creative and market it will, you will make tons of money from it.
Another way that I make money form this blog is by offering my services or coaching new bloggers who to become successful as well.
There are tons of new bloggers who are spawned everyday and they need help in taking their first step towards becoming a successful blogger.
Why not help them out?
I have done it before and I have made money by offering my services.
Do you have knowledge in installing WordPress on Hostgator Hosting (affiliate link)?
Well what you can do is to create a page on your blog offering free WordPress installation. Yes FREE WORDPRESS INSTALLATION SERVICE.
Well what I do is to include my Hostgator affiliate link on the page and if a person purchases through my link then I will install their blog for them free of cost because Hostgator will pay me for recommending this new user to their hosting.
I have also done coaching and make good money doing it as well. This is because I have proved that I know what I am doing when it comes to blogging, so others will pay me for my advice.
What about you? You can make some money as well offering coaching and services. Try it today and make some money.
Over To You...
Now that I have shared some valuable tips with you, what will you now do?
Will you just sit on the knowledge that I have passed on to you or will you apply it?
Hey, its totally up to you if you want to truly become a successful blogger. I think you want to become a successful blogger and I am pretty sure that you will apply these tips that I provided in this post.
