how to make money with a blog

The Six Main Reasons Why Most Blogs Don’t Make Money

February 23, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Why Blogs Do Not Make Money

It is a well-known fact that a majority of blogs (about 90%) make little to no revenue. The saying that 10% of the people in the world make 90% of the revenue is similar to the blogging model. A handful bloggers are making the bulk of the profits.

The main reason many blogs are not making money is because most bloggers do not know how to effectively make money with their blogs. All these bloggers need is the right knowledge and the ability to implement that knowledge. This blog post will identify six of the main reasons why most blogs don’t make any money. Then, it is up to you to act upon this knowledge so your blog can become successful.

#1: No Traffic

One of the most common reasons why blogs do not make revenue is because they do not generate traffic. Without traffic, no one will know who you are. You can write the best blog posts on the web and provide your visitors with the best products, but that won’t matter if your blog does not get any visitors. This article goes into detail about several methods you can use to increase your blog traffic.

#2: No Subscribers

Having no subscribers for your blog is another telltale sign that your blog is in trouble. The money is in the list. That’s what the bloggers with six figure incomes say. You need to optimize your blog so it converts more of your readers into subscribers. Of course, your blog needs to get traffic to get more subscribers, but not all popular blogs get numerous subscribers.

There was a point when I got over 500 daily visitors but only 1-2 subscribers every month. That was not because my content was bad (you, as the reader, are the judge of that). Instead, it was because I poorly optimized my blog for collecting email addresses. When I started to optimize my blog, I quickly went from gaining 1-2 subscribers every month to gaining 10-20 subscribers every day. You can learn some of the methods I use to gain subscribers in this article.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1yPt2VJ”]Your email list is a big part of your success as a blogger.[/tweetthis]

#3: No Social Proof

Regardless of whether you sell products, promote other people’s products, or make money with advertisements, you must have social proof to make you stand out from the crowd. Social proof indicates that you are popular, and people love to gravitate towards popular things. If you see enough people doing or buying something, you may follow through in that process (sometimes, it is this action that can bring negative consequences, but this knowledge is useful for marketers). Would you rather go to the #1 restaurant in the world or the restaurant that opened for the first time? Would you rather hear advice from Bill Gates or some random entrepreneur? Would you rather buy products from successful individuals or individuals who are starting out?

#4: No Income Streams

One of the worst mistakes a blogger can make is having no income streams set up on his blog. Income streams allow bloggers to bring in revenue that make it possible to become a full-time blogger. There are a variety of income streams to choose from. You can create your own training courses, write your own books, promote other people’s products as an affiliate, and do a variety of other things to create more income streams for yourself.

#5: No Products

Some people, in a quick rush to have an income stream on their blogs, often stuff their blogs with affiliate links. First off, you should only use a few affiliate links. Overstuffing your blog with affiliate links will look like a desperate plead for the sale, and it will ruin your blog’s reading experience. Instead, you need to create products. Creating your own products leads to more sales, higher commissions (maybe even a 100% commission), and most importantly, a strong relationship to build between you and the customer.

#6: Reliance On Advertisements

I understand that some bloggers make strong incomes from their advertisements. However, these bloggers are typically the ones with hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors. Most bloggers are lucky if they earn over $10/month from their advertisements. The revenue generated from advertisements is generally low since few blogs are getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors.

In addition to producing a low revenue, advertisements also take your readers away from your blog. Instead of promoting an advertisement on your blog, why not promote one of your products? That way, the relationship between you and your readers will be strengthened. People want to see you and what you stand for, not another car ad that generates $0.02 per click.

In Conclusion

Making money on a blog is not an overnight success. Yes, another blogger said the same phrase, and it might drive you crazy. When I was a newbie and read other bloggers’ articles every day about blogging, the tip almost every blogger said was that blogging is not an overnight success.

It drove me crazy just as much as it might be driving you crazy. However, realizing that blogging is not an overnight success represents a simple approach instead of a complex one. That one sentence represents a simple approach that says, “Don’t give up on the journey you wish you pursue with your blog.”

It is important for you to avoid making these same mistakes. If you are making these mistakes on your blog, the first thing you need to do is fix them. Just launch your own product. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Then, launch another one and improve the process as you go. Grow your traffic and convert more of that traffic into subscribers. Build your social proof. And don’t forget to stop relying on those pesky advertisements all together. They drive your readers away from your blog.

Which of these mistakes do you make? Do you have any other suggestions for bloggers who want to make more money? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Ways To Make Money With A Blog

January 30, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Make Money With Blog

Although there are bloggers who are absolutely crushing it on the web, other bloggers wonder if it is even possible to make any money in the first place. When it comes to making money with their blogs, most bloggers are confused and try a variety of methods to boost their income.

Some of these bloggers fall prey to the advice of taking surveys and clicking on paid links to bring in revenue. Activities similar to those eat up a giant chunk of your time every day but don’t show much for it. Even if you make $500 every month by taking surveys (that would be a great income for a person who takes surveys), that only adds up to $6,000 every year which is not enough to support a family or amplify your message.

The solution is to implement fewer, but more powerful tactics that bring in a steady stream of income. The days of taking surveys are over. The days of making thousands of dollars in your sleep are now here. In order to make a good amount of money with your blog, utilize these five methods.

#1: Offer Consultation Sessions

Offering consultation sessions is a great way to bring in more revenue and make connections at the same time. My recommendation is to start with a low price, and as you get more clients, increase your price point. Compared to the other methods, consultation sessions bring in a quick, sizable amount of money, but they do take up time and force you to constantly change your schedule so you can talk with your clients.

The goal of every consultant should be to eventually charge thousands of dollars for a few hours. That way, getting one client every month means making thousands of dollars every month, and having fewer clients will open up more time you can use to implement the other four methods for making money with a blog.

#2: Create Your Own Training Courses

You have knowledge that many people want. Some people have become millionaires by offering advice as practical as dog training advice. Training courses have been sold for hundreds of dollars, and the really good training courses have been sold for over $1,000 (not to say that any training course under $1,000 is sub par or not phenomenal). A basic training course with a few videos can be completed in about a week. Some training courses that didn’t even take two hours to create are now generating thousands of dollars in revenue every month. Imagine what you could do if you created multiple training courses, and they all made multiple sales every day.

#3: Create Your Own Membership Sites

Out of all of the methods, creating your own membership sites represents the most stable way to earn an income. While sales of products can spike and decline, once someone is a member, that person always pays a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual fee for being a member. If someone gets access to your membership site for $9.99/month, and that person sticks around, then you can always count on making $9.99/month from that one member.

Then, imagine if you had 100 members like that. Now you are making $999/month which is about $12,000 every year. That’s not bad for an inexpensive membership site with only 100 members. What if the membership site had 500 members? What if you had 10 membership sites with 100 members each? What if members each paid $19.99/month instead of $9.99/month? The possibilities are endless.

The best part is that the income you generate from a membership site acts as the foundation for future months. If you get 20 members in July, and you only get 10 members in August, then you are still making more money from your membership site in August than you made in July (in August, you have a total of 30 members while in July, you had a total of 20 members). The foundation simply continues to get stronger as your membership sites accumulate more members.

#4: Promote Affiliate Links

Depending on the products you promote, the commission rates, and traffic, an affiliate can make anywhere from a few dollars every month to thousands of dollars every day. Some affiliate even get a recurring commission when they get someone to buy membership to a membership site with an affiliate link. Amazon, ClickBank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare are four websites that offer a variety of products with affiliate links.

The only problem with affiliate sites is that typically, with great power comes great irresponsibility. You should only promote the products that you have tried for yourself and believe in. Do not grab the affiliate link for a product just because that product has a high price or promises a higher commission. Only promote the products that you can truthfully say are incredible.

When you use affiliate links, it is also important to avoid turning this method into your #1 source of income. Although some affiliate marketers make strong incomes from their links, these marketers depend on other brands and entrepreneurs to continue producing products. In addition, affiliate marketers have no control over the commission rates. If Amazon decided to cut the commission rate from 4% to 2%, then too bad for the affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make more revenue, but you need to create your own products and market them as well.

#5: Write Your Own Books

Writing your own books and promoting them on your blog serves two benefits. The first benefit is that writing and promoting your own books has the potential to bring in more revenue. The second benefit is that writing books allows you to become a better writer. Part of the process in getting more sales is how much a potential customer appreciates the value they get from your free content. Many customers see a paid product as an enhancement of free value. Therefore, the better your free value is, the more highly your customers will think of your products.

Writing books and making money from them is more than just writing a book, putting it on the Kindle, and hoping for the best. Ultimately, there are two main strategies you can take to writing books. The first strategy is self-publishing short books in bulk and hoping that they all bring in a few sales every day. The second strategy is to publish one major book every 1-2 years, promote it like crazy, and turn it into a bestseller.

My recommendation for new authors is to start with the first strategy. When authors are new, their audiences are not as large which means the chances of becoming a bestselling author are very slim. New authors would have a better chance of writing books in bulk and getting a few sales every day from those books. If you needed to get 16 book sales every day to make $1,000 every month, think of how much easier it would be if you wrote 16 books compared to if you only wrote two books. When you write 16 books, each book only needs to get one sale every day while if you only wrote two books, those two books have to each bring in eight daily sales. It is easier to achieve the same income goals if you have published multiple books, but if you choose this strategy, you must also ensure that your books still contain valuable content.

In Conclusion

There are many ways to make money with a blog. However, it does not take long for a blogger to realize that not all income opportunities are created equal. Some revenue generating activities eat up valuable time and don’t bring in a decent income.

Surveys take up a giant chunk of time but rarely bring in a good amount of income. Even if you somehow manage to make $1,000 every month from surveys (now everyone who takes surveys wants to know your secret, and you’re probably taking surveys for half of the day), taking survey after survey on topics you are not fond of is a bad way to make money on the web.

Instead, you could be making a six figure income, seven figure income, and beyond. Although most bloggers do not bring in much revenue, there is also a large group of bloggers that make six figure incomes just from their blogs.

You may not be making any money with your blog. You may be seeing progress at this stage of the game. You may even be making thousands of dollars every month. Regardless of where you are at this stage of the game, your blog can generate more revenue, and it can become your primary source of a full-time income.

What are your thoughts about making money with a blog? Which method did you like the most? Do you have any other methods you would like to share that bloggers can use to increase their revenue? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Five Best Ways To Make Money With A Blog

July 15, 2014 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

Money From A Blog

There are plenty of ways to make money with a blog, but most of the methods people tell you about are overrated. Putting up ads on a blog is an overrated way to make money. When someone clicks on an ad, you lose a visitor (potential customer, potential subscriber, and potential follower) and get two cents. There are better ways to make money from your blog that encourage your visitors to frequently come back to your blog. Here are the five best ways to make money with a blog:

Sell your books. If you have not written a book yet, you can write and self-publish that book on Amazon for free. Some self-published authors have been able to make six figures with their books.
Create a training course. Providing a training course will allow your visitors to realize that you are a top-notch expert in your niche. Some of those visitors will decide to buy your training course. If you publish your training course with Udemy (the easier and free option), you’ll get 50% of the sale, but if you publish your training course with Optimize Press (a lot harder, involves some coding, and costs money), then you will be make 100% of the commission. Regardless of which one you use to publish your training course, having a training course and promoting it on your blog is better than putting an ad there.
Offer one on one consultation sessions. You can conduct these one on one consultation sessions by using Skype. This means you can have one on one consultations with people in New York, California, Japan, and other parts of the world right from the comfort of your home.
Host a one hour webinar with a small fee. As you become more popular and your credibility grows, you will be able to get numerous people to attend a $20 webinar. Imagine what would happen if 100 people listened to the webinar. You would make $2,000 just from one webinar. Now imagine what would happen if thousands of people showed up. That’s over $20,000 just from one hour of your time. Pretty neat.
Become an Amazon Affiliate. Amazon has millions of products available which means no matter what your blog is about, there’s a relevant product on Amazon that you can promote. When someone buys the product with your link, you get a commission. Even if someone clicks on your link, buys a product, but does not buy the product you were promoting, you still get a commission.

Those are the five best ways to make money with a blog. There is no reason that you need to have advertisements to make money with a blog. Those take up too much time and result in you losing visitors who could have become subscribers, followers, or customers. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional methods you use to make money with a blog? Please share your thoughts and advice below.