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Everyone tells you, that blogging isn’t a get rich quick scheme.
We get that. The problem is: Blogging isn’t free, at least if you want to take it seariously. And whatever your reasons for blogging might be, I’m sure you don’t want it to be a financial burden.
What’s more, monetizing your blog from the start will help you to keep up motivation, when the going gets tough.
We know, that making money with your blog from Day 1 isn’t impossible, because there are many people, who already did that.
I found and analyzed those early motizing blogs and turned those insights into an actionable step-by-step plan and checklist to help you do the same.
Here are the bloggers, I analyzed:
A Self Guru: HOW I MADE $3,700 BLOGGING IN MY FIRST TWO MONTHS
Earnings: $3700
First Month: $1000
Second Month: $2700
Expenses: No Info
Profit: No Info
Blog Posts: 13
Email Subscribers: 55
Selling Digital Products (2 Legal Templates): $3.320
Affiliate Marketing: $380
After 1 Year: $20.000 / Month
Elle Naudet: How I Made $2500 My First Month Blogging (My First Income Report: October 2018)
Bummer: Already had a successful YouTube Channel (aka an audience)
- Earnings: $2578.88
- Expenses: $233
- Profit: $2345.88
Google Adsense: $3.83
Affiliate Marketing: $15.05
Selling Digital Products (Online Course): $2460.17
Page Views: 10.796
All.Is.On Vue: How I Made $223.26 My First Month Blogging
Earnings: $223.26
Expenses: $146.99
Profit: $76.27
Affiliate Income: $223.26
Page Views: 3.179
Unique Visitors: 1.529
Blog Posts: 9 (5 at launch, 4 added during the first month)
Time Invested: 70-80h / Month (+ 2 Months of setting up the blog prior to launch)
Email Subscribers: 38
Social Media Followers (Total on 4 Platforms): 1378
After 1 Year: No More Income Reports
Maya Maceka: How I Made $210 My First Month Blogging
Earning: $210
Expenses: $65
Profit: $145
Affiliate Income: $210 (+ 1 Free Uber Ride)
Social Media Followers (Total on 4 Platforms):
At the Beginning of the Month: 2730
At the End of the Month: 4415
New Followers During 1st Month of Blogging: 1685
Stopped Posting Income Reporst after 8 Months.
After 6 Months: $830 / Month
DollarSprout: How We Made Over $1,500 in One Month from Blogging
Earnings: $1.630,79
Expenses: no info
Profit: no info
Google AdSense: $115.79
Affiliate Income: $1.100+
Social Media Consulting: $160
Freelance Writing: $115 (One 800 Word Article)
Sponsored Posts: $140 (One Article)
After 4 Years: $180.000 / Month (!)
By Laura Iancu: How I Made $246 In The First Month With A Brand New Blog
Earnings: $245.96
Expenses: $106.20
Profit: $139.76
Affiliate Income: $225.96
Digital Product (Blog Planner): $20
Blog Posts: 5
Page Views: 2.010
Email Subscribers: 152
Social Media Followers (Total on 2 Platforms): 3627
Current Income: No Info
Take-Aways
- Affiliate Income is propably the best method to make – even a small – income in the beginning.
- The earlier you start selling your own digital products, the better.
- You don’t need crazy amounts of traffic to generate an income with your blog.
- To drive traffic to your blog, focus on Pinterest first and SEO second.
- Start building an email list from the beginning.
Next Actions
To Build Your Email List
Save
Print- Sign Up With an Email Service. Free options include Mailchimp + Mailerlite, if you want to start out more professional + with more features, I highly recommend ConvertKit.
- Read 5 Keys To A High-Converting Lead Magnet
- Brainstorm 10 Ideas for Lead Magnets (aka Opt-In Incentives)
- Pick 1 Opt-In Incentive + Create It
- Write Your Welcome Email, where you send your lead magnet
- Decide on at least 3 places, where you want to collect your leads. Good options include pop-ups, alert bars, sidebar graphics and from within blog posts. For pop-ups, alert bars etc. I highly recommend Leadpages. Click Here To Try Leadpages Free For 30 Days.*
- Create graphics in the right size to promote your lead magnet. (See: Top Banner Sizes Infographic Below)
- To implement the graphic in every post (or every page, or every post of a certain category…) set up the free WP Plugin Ad Inserter
- Create 3 Pinterest graphics to promote your lead magnet
- Post them on Pinterest or schedule them to the perfect time with tailwind.*
Try Out my huge library of Free eBooks, eCourses, extended trials, stock photos etc. I’ve found those resources all over the web and collected them in one handy website for you. It contains everything you need to know to start a business + take it to the next level.
To Generate Affiliate Income
- Write down 10-20 tools, your audience might need to reach their goals, ideally tools, you’ve tried yourself and liked.
- Check if those tools have affiliate programs.
- If they do, try them yourself first.
- If you like them, apply to their affiliate program.
- Write down 10 skills, your audience needs to learn to reach their goals.
- Research books and online courses on these skills.
- Apply to the Amazon Partnership Program. They pay small commissions, but whenever you recommend a book, you can throw their link in and it may add up.
- Find out, if the online courses you’ve found offer affiliate programs.
- If they do, try the yourself first.
- If you like them, apply to their affiliate program.
- Decide on 3 affiliate products that have a high commission and fit your audience well to focus on first.
- For each of these products, brainstorm 10 ideas, how you can promote it – examples include case studies, reviews, tutorials etc.
- For each of these products, brainstorm 10 ideas of bonuses, you can offer your readers, if they sign-up through your link – these can be quick-start guides, checklists, cheatsheets etc.
- Choose your best ideas and put them into action – one after another.
- Set up a spreadsheet to save your affiliate links, track where you’ve put them and track your income to see, which promotion methods + affiliate products perform best with your audience.
- BONUS: Apply to the Ultimate Bundles Affiliate Program, since they offer great deals on Online Course + eBook Bundles for a variety of niches.*
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