Many have tried, many have failed. I’ve failed more times than I’ve succeed actually but today, since I’ve probably failed more than you, I’m confident enough to say that I can help you make money with a WordPress blog.
At the time of writing this, I have two monetised blogs that make me a full time income (had 3 but I just sold one) and I know it’s going to sound super corny but; If I can do it, so can you.
See blogging and making money is not that difficult. It simply takes a bit of time, a whole lot of patience and the right mindset.
You’re also going to need a solid CMS. A platform so powerful that it can allow you to do practically anything you want.
How To Make Money With A WordPress Blog
Introducing WordPress
Why WordPress? Why not?
If you’re going to be starting a blog with the intention of monetising it, why not start off on a platform that is considered to be one of the best in the business?
WordPress is a “content management system” that powers your site / blog. You can write posts, pages, reviews, etc directly from WordPress.
You do not need to know any HTML or other complicated coding. Just pick a great theme and get to blogging. WP will take care of the rest.
Let’s Take A Step Back
I know you’re eager to know how you can make money, but I need you to understand a very important lesson before I get into monetisation.
You first need to focus on getting an audience, then you can think about monetising it!
One of the mistakes I’ve did over and over again is that I tried to monetise a site from the very first post.
If I had to start a new blog (which I will do eventually), I will make sure to not add a single offer or an advertisement before I start hitting at least 50 visitors a day.
This is super important and I don’t know how I didn’t catch on to it earlier.
When starting out, the judgment is still out on you and your blog. For the first few months; your blog is under scrutiny from the search engines, competitor bloggers and also random visitors.
They’re all saying: Is he for real or he just wants to sell?
Obviously yes, we are here to make sales, but most people won’t believe that you’re also in it “for real”; that you know what you’re talking about and that you’re truly into this subject.
There Is No Success Formula – Well Kind Of
To be honest, I don’t know how I managed to build up my blog business. It kinda just happened. When I got my first check, I retraced my steps and then it hit me “Ohhh that’s it!”!
Now I know what works, but more importantly; I know what doesn’t!
I knew what I was doing because I’ve invested in the right training but even if you do everything right, it may sometimes seem unreal.
There is one formula that I would consider a safe bet though, and that is:
Quality Content = Visitors.
If you’ve read 5 articles in your life about blogging, I’m sure you’re heard that statement more than you need. It’s been beaten to death on my blog and others many times but that is because it is 100% true.
The only “formula” that has worked so far is to produce quality content.
Monetise Your Wordpress Blog Using Affiliate Marketing
Now that we’ve got those two covered, it’s time to talk about monetisation.
One of the best ways I know and personally use to monetise my blogs is; affiliate marketing.
Let’s face it; banner ads, infolinks and all this crap is dead. Even AdSense if you ask me.
I’ve tried to make Adsense work many times but it’s no easy task. It requires so much volume of traffic for it to be substantial that if you consider all the other options, it’s just not worth it.
If you get 30,000 visitors to your blog per month, with Adsense, you would only be looking at around $200-$300 of revenue. That’s ridiculous!
Let’s apply those numbers to an affiliate marketing business model and say you convert (a very modest) 1% (usually it’s 3%+) of those 30,000. That is 300 sales in a month.
As an affiliate, most offers pay you at least $10 a product. That’s $3,000 a month. $3,000>$300 – Easy choice.
[Tweet “Please, stop blogging for pennies and cents ! “]You’ve put in a lot of time, effort and money into your blog so don’t settle for pennies.
You can find out more about affiliate marketing from a previous blog post I wrote.
It’s Not Hard To Make Money With A Blog
Get the traffic, write helpful content and use affiliate marketing to monetise. It’s really easier than you think, but harder than most “experts” make it out to be.
Blogging and affiliate marketing are not that complicated, all you need is somebody that shows you the way and you’re good to go. I can help you with that!
One thing that you’ll need though, is a WordPress blog. You can get started with a free one with SiteRubix (it also provides training).
Thanks for tuning in. Drop me a comment with some of the ways you monetise your blog. If you need further assistance from me, make sure to tweet me, email me or subscribe to my newsletter. I’m available 24/7.
Till next time..
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Thanks Chris for all the fantastic iformation shared here and in your previous blogs.
It is really difficult to trust anyone in this indrustry but I have to ssay that I find your review of John Chow very objective and useful.
Happy to hear. Yes I try to keep all my reviews clean and honest. Thanks for the kind comment.
Oh my God Chris! This post is just so truthful! I think I need to communicate a little more frequently with you. Getting visitors is the main thing for the first years; how come one will think about monetizing without visitors?
I read once that big bloggers have at least 3 years blogging before they can actually see some good money, what do you think of this?
Anytime you wish Andrea 🙂 You know I’m always available on any social network 🙂
In the past, I’ve always monetised from the get-go. I now realise it was a huge mistake.
While I’m not sure about waiting 3 years but I would say that waiting 6-12 months or at least till you get a constant flow of visitors is essential.
Thanks for dropping by, you’re always welcome 🙂
I think making money with affiliate marketing + WordPress is a lot easier than people imagine. The concept is simple – match a product and customer. The thing that catches people is the time it takes to build traffic and the effort it takes to make consistent sales (real income). I think patience is the only real qualification you need in this industry.
100% true. Patience is the key to everything really but when it comes to making money blogging; it is a must.
It’s a shame people don’t have the consistency to “stick with it” for a few months, they usually give up just before they catch their first break.
Thanks for dropping by mate, you’re always welcome here. 🙂