Wondering how to blog for profit without selling your soul? If you think building a profitable blog means working tirelessly writing about something you don’t care about, you’re dead wrong! Blogging can and should be an enjoyable way to earn a living. Not all bloggers are profitable though and it’s important to establish a realistic expectation about what a blog can do for you. Yes, some bloggers make a great income from their efforts, but often they have been at it for years.
Don’t expect to start a blog, work sporadically on it and be able to quit your job! You’ll need to put in the effort to build even a modest, reliable income from a blog. There’s millions of blogs on the internet. In order to stand out you’ll need to work regularly building content for some time. Depending on your particular niche topic this could be months or years. But if you enjoy writing on your blog you’ll have some distinct advantages over those who are only blogging for profit:
- You’ll enjoy the process and do it with or without payment
- This means you’ll be able to sustain your efforts for much longer than the competition
- If you’re passionate about your topic it will come across in your content and attract a larger audience.
How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul – A Short Story
When I started out as a blogger, I was determined to make money from a blog! I built multiple websites and blogs with the sole goal of making money. Unfortunately most of my efforts were wasted. I didn’t spend nearly enough time or energy on most of my content. In one particular case, I built a website around the keyword “when to harvest mushrooms”. A friend, who was also affiliate marketer, had had some success from a potato harvesting website! So I scoured the keyword planner for keywords which I could rank a website for on Google to get free traffic.
A Niche Website
When to harvest garlic fit the criteria of having monthly searches and not much competition for other websites. So I set to work! I bought the domain name whentoharvestgarlic.com and built a WordPress website on it. I wrote content using Google’s free keyword tool to title all my articles. It did rank top for those keywords for several months. But I ran out of steam. It was incredibly labour intensive researching a topic I knew nothing about – nor was I interested in it! I just wanted the end result. After 6 months of building content I gave up on the site and soon it drifted down the rankings.
It was a difficult topic to monetise too, with little to offer in terms of affiliate products I could sell from the site. I monetised with Google Adsense and found an affiliate program offering vaguely related products. However, the site was largely a failure, and I now use it as an example of what not to do!
The main takeaway from this is that my foundations were wrong. I put the “cart before the horse” and wanted the outcome more than the process. I was selling my soul! How to blog for profit without selling your soul? That’s an example of how not to do it.
How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul – Ikigai
What fires you up? Maybe you’re unsure what really floats your boat? Perhaps you haven’t found your “thing” yet. But a good way to determine what you’re all about is to ask yourself what you would do if money didn’t matter? How would you like to spend your life if money was out of the equation? If you could be with complete integrity with yourself, and not compromise, what would you do? The answer lies somewhere in what comes up for you here and the Japanese have a saying for what this is: Ikigai.
Ikigai is where your passions, interests and vocation all line up. Blogging is an awesome way to line up your passions with making an income. But you need to create the content first before the money comes. To create enough content and content which is good enough to get noticed, you need to keep at it for several months or years and become consistent at creating content. If you choose a topic which you’re not interested in, the chances of your blog making money for the long term is vastly diminished. But build a blog you love, and pay into it regularly (by creating content) and over time your blog can pay you handsomely.
Just Get Started
Whether you know or not just what your passion is, it’s also a good idea to just get started. Blogging is a long term endeavour and it takes time for you to find your feet. Often by starting something you can find your way. You can start out by purchasing a domain name. A good domain name can make a difference to how your visitors perceive your blog. If you’re unsure, just use your own name. You can also build a blog around a specific keyword which can help you with your rankings. Here’s a blog post on the process of purchasing a domain and getting your site hosted.
You’ll also need to regularly create content on your blog in order to get any visitors. This is where your passion should come into play. Without a driving focus and belief in and love for your topic, you’ll find just doing the necessary work far more problematic when blogging for any length of time. With a passion for your topic, you’re much more likely to succeed and you’ll enjoy the process too which is vital if you don’t want to sell your soul!
Monetising Your Blog
Monetising your blog can be done in several ways. The main two ways are through affiliate marketing and advertising. I use Google Adsense on this blog and several others. With Google Adsense, you can place code on your site which Google converts into advertising. When visitors click on your adverts, you make a small commission each time.
With a lot of traffic, you can make a nice extra passive income from this over time. But the key is traffic. With little or zero traffic, you’ll not make anything. Traffic therefore is linked to creating content and we’ve already said why you must love your blogging! Without a healthy zest for your blog, you simply won’t be able to keep up the work for long enough to make it pay.
The other way to monetise a website is through using affiliate products. Of course if you have your own products or services, you can also promote them directly from your blog, too. If not, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways, if not the best way to monetise a blog and start profiting from it. That being said, you need to choose your affiliate products carefully. Most importantly they need to be a good match for your audience and content. Without a good match, it’s unlikely your visitors will purchase something from your site. See how to know your target market.
Building An Email List Of Subscribers From A Blog
Building an email list is the best thing you can do to monetise a blog. Without a list, you’re depending on visitors to your blog taking some buying action on your site or clicking on your advertising. Most website visitors won’t purchase immediately from a blog or website. But by giving away a powerful “lead magnet” you can obtain your visitors email address and continue giving them valuable content through your email marketing campaigns. See the power of email marketing.
With an email marketing campaign, you can build relationships with your subscribers over weeks, months and even years and decades. On a blog, you only have a few minutes to make a sale. But an email list extends this time period dramatically.
Again, coming back to the main point of this article, you want to align your values with your content. If you don’t believe in the products you’re selling, you will feel like you’re selling your soul! So choose affiliate products you would purchase yourself to promote. Otherwise the disconnect will be reflected in the way you communicate through your content – both blogging and emailing.
Choosing The Right Affiliate Products
Selling anything doesn’t always gel with people and if you’re creative, this can be a sticking point. Ideally start with your passions and interests. Then look for affiliate products which relate to this. A simple Duckduckgo.com search for “your niche/topic affiliate program” will help you zone in on products and services which you can promote from almost any blog. Whatever your blog topic, you can monetise it through affiliate marketing in some way. But the best way to sell products is to choose products you’re genuinely aligned with and believe in.
I made the mistake early on in my blogging career in promoting products I had no clue about – just for the money. The problem was, I couldn’t create any content which was helpful to anyone in making a purchasing decision and therefore didn’t make many sales. Finding the products and services you want for yourself is the best way to find the kinds of products you are best positioned selling as an affiliate.
Consider selling something you care nothing for and actually don’t believe in! Then compare this to talking about your favourite topic or thing. What lights you up will come across in your content while you’re creating your blog and this is important if you want to create a worthwhile blog.
How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul – Summary
As Simon Sinek puts it “Start With Why“. Blogging takes some time to generate traction and if you choose a topic you don’t care about, it’s take twice as long and be half as effective! But choose a topic you love and your passion will turn into your vocation. You’ll find more content to write about and love every minute. If you hate the process, you may as well have a job you hate! At least you’ll get paid a regular wage!
You can monetise a blog with advertising and affiliate products but again, choose products you align with and personally would choose to purchase. Otherwise, you’ll be selling your soul! When you believe in what you’re doing, you’ll have so much more energy for it and it will be less difficult.
Find your Ikigai – ikigai is a Japanese term meaning reason for being. When you align your values and passions to your vocation, you’ll love working and it won’t seem like “work”.