AD| Blogging used to be known as a big moneymaker, but over the past 5 years, there have been other platforms that have taken over, such as Instagram and Tiktok. So, can you make money blogging these days?
It seems that many bloggers have jumped ship and a lot of brands are looking to spending their budgets on those with a large following on Instagram and Tiktok.
It begs the question of whether blogs still make money in 2021. I’ve seen discussions on Twitter about people talking about blogs not making a lot of money anymore.
Well, I am here to tell you that this is wrong.
I make money blogging. In fact, I just left my full-time job and I now blog full-time!
Here’s my story of becoming a full-time blogger.
My journey to being a full-time blogger.
This story starts long before I started this blog. Actually, it starts long before I started my main lifestyle blog in 2012.
When I was younger, I always wanted to be online. I had online blogs, Livejournal, I even made my own Sophie Ellis Bextor fan website on Geocities in about 2001. I’ve been on members forums and had online diary threads on message boards. I also was an active member of the DeviantArt community. In about 2009, I gave vlogging a go on YouTube too.
As you can see, I have a keen passion for being present online in some way. I love that interaction with people I wouldn’t have otherwise met. Then in 2012, I started my lifestyle blog.
Listen – making money blogging is not quick and it is not easy. It’s taken a long time for me to get to this point but 9 years later, I run multiple websites and I blog full time.
Why I prefer blogging to ‘influencing’
I much prefer blogging to being an ‘influencer’. I feel like being a blogger, I can keep much more of my life to myself. As an influencer, you are expected to be present all the time on social media and people want to know you.
With blogging, I have found it’s not like that at all. I have gotten to know some lovely bloggers – but I don’t particularly have a ‘fan base’ that follow me, read and comment on my blog posts who I don’t know.
I have found that being successful as a blogger is a lot more about being successful at SEO – than being a ‘public figure’.
And I love that.
I have an Instagram and have a small following on there, but I don’t get many paid opportunities from Instagram. It’s usually gifted, or add-on deals alongside my blog.
The way you make money online with blogging is just different.
How do you make money blogging?
The key is SEO and metrics such as DA.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It means writing an article that will rank for a certain search term. You can use a few different strategies to give your blog a better chance of ranking on Google. This means you get more organic traffic.
This is what you want to get success with blogging – you need authority in search engines so when you write something for a brand, you can get some traffic to it! This is great for sponsored posts and also affiliate marketing.
When looking at ranking on Google, list posts do really well in search, such as this post about books to read this fall. Posts like this are packed with information to give the searcher what they are looking for. Just think, if someone searches ‘books to read this fall’ and gets to this page, they’re already thinking of buying books. Put some affiliate links to the books you recommend in that post. Then if it ranks well in Google, you could make a good amount of money through affiliate sales.
What is DA?
DA stands for Domain Authority. DA is a way of ranking how much authority your website has. It has nothing to do with Google. DA was created by a company called Moz and it is just one way of measuring the quality of your website. This is often what brands/PR/SEO outreach consultants will look at when deciding to work with you, or how much to pay you.
DA is just one of many metrics that can be used and is the most popular metric for bloggers to look at.
Google used to score websites by giving them a PageRank, which they stopped doing so Moz Domain Authority is just one way of checking how good a website is and is very common among link building work.
You can use other metrics, she as Domain Rating, Trustflow, Alexa, SEMrush traffic.
Being known to PRs
Years of blogging will mean you will often come across the same outreach specialists. You may work with some often. Repeat work is great, as you have trust that you will get paid and they have trust you will complete the task to brief. If you always stick to deadlines and do your best work, you will be seen as a reliable blogger and people will be glad to work with you again with different clients.
Often, digital marketers do move around so it’s great to get on their radar as they will often take their contacts with them for blogger outreach at new places of work.
This comes with time, the longer you blog the more people you come across and it makes it easier to secure regular work from the same contacts.
Changes in blogging
So blogging has changed over the years, there is no doubt about that. But as long as there are search engines and people asking questions in them, searching for reviews and ideas, there will ALWAYS be money in websites.
Other social media sites such as Instagram and Tiktok are great to use for a variety of income streams and side hustles, but blogs do remain a good income-generating tool today.
You can read Julie’s story about how she’s grown on Tiktok and seen success there.
So, can you make money blogging these days? The answer is YES!
Do you make money blogging?