If you’re interested in a subject and want to share your thoughts about it with the world, a blog gives you the opportunity to do so—and it may also give you the opportunity to make passive income.
Yes, some work will be involved if you’re writing the blog, but if you were going to write it anyway and you’re passionate about the subject, the work won’t feel like work at all. A blog also gives you the chance to express yourself creatively if your day job doesn’t allow you to do so. Or, it can give you the chance to market yourself professionally and establish a reputation in your industry, particularly if you combine your blog with an active social media presence. Whatever your particular goals for your blog, you can monetize it.
The following are some ways you can go about doing this. Keep them in mind if you’re interested in making some low-effort money on the side:
Advertise
Selling ad space on your blog is one of the most common ways to monetize it. If you have a loyal following of regular visitors, businesses who want to get noticed will gladly pay money to advertise on your blog.
This is how passive income guru Pat Flynn got started. Before making millions helping others achieve their passive income dreams, he was trying to earn a certification in his field that would make him more valuable as an employee. He knew that passing the test for the certification was difficult, so he created a blog about studying for it to keep himself focused. He eventually found out his blog had attracted a relatively large amount of readers and decided to sell ad space to make it even more profitable.
Sell Your Own Product
Advertising via his blog gave Flynn the chance to make a little extra money off a topic he was already writing on. However, he really started to make more money when he turned his key insights into a study guide. Selling it through his blog in the form of an ebook, Flynn made more than $7,000 in his first month. This launched him down a path that has turned him into a millionaire.
While his case may be exceptional, you can still learn from his example. Maybe you can write an ebook on your subject matter and sell it via your blog as well. If you don’t think you’d be interested in publishing an ebook, you could design an online course. Or, you could simply promote a product of your own related to the subject matter of your blog. Maybe you write a blog about sewing, documenting your projects. Why not make something you can sell on the side? Using your blog to sell your work can help you make extra money off your passion.
Sell Someone Else’s Products
Affiliate marketing is a way to make money off a blog while selling products, even if you don’t have products of your own to offer. As an affiliate marketer, you would promote someone else’s products. Every time your blog generates a sale of the product, you get a percentage.
For example, perhaps you have a local hiking blog and often write about the trail mix, hiking shoes, or other gear you find the most useful. If you’re already covering these topics, you can publish blog posts that list your favorite products, including some for which you are an affiliate marketer. Of course, not all blog topics easily lend themselves to affiliate marketing—but even in less commercial fields, there’s usually somebody selling something they’d love for you to promote on your blog.
Again, if you’re really interested in a particular topic—be it cosplay, baking, or classic cars—you probably have opinions on various products related to it, so affiliate marketing is simply another way of monetizing your interests.
Write Guest Posts
If you blog on a subject that you have some degree of authority on, others may notice. They might be willing to let you submit guest blogs or articles to their publications.
This offers two benefits. One, the publication may pay you for your content, which lets you turn what would have been an unpaid blog post on your own site into something that earns you extra cash. It also helps you direct more traffic to your blog. If you’re already hosting ads, more traffic can mean more ad revenue. If you’re using your blog to sell products (whether your own or someone else’s), you’ll obviously be more likely to increase your sales if more people are visiting your site.
Leveraging the popularity of an established publication while also getting paid to submit a guest post is one of the simplest and most effective ways to turn your casual blog into something that can make you a decent amount of money on the side. You may even cultivate a reputation for being an expert on your subject matter. As a result, even more publications will want to pay you for your work.
Of course, for this strategy to truly be as passive as possible, you should write on a subject you genuinely care about, and which you’re knowledgeable. Your main goal as a blogger should be to have fun and explore your passions. If you can make money doing so, all the better.