Ready to make money from your blog? Here are some places to get started.

Now that you have a blog, you might be wondering if there’s anything you can do to fast-track making some money from it! Well, I can’t give you any silver bullets, because the truth is, high-quality, relevant, consistent content is the best thing to build your online presence. Everything else will come with consistent traffic.

But, I can give you a few tips on what to do to look as professional as possible for potential brand partnerships, and also what you can do to start making some money even with modest traffic, through affiliate advertising! 

Build up your stats

Get that web traffic! The first thing, as I mentioned, is really to make sure you’re putting content of value out there. That means it answers questions people have, is optimized for search engines, is well-written and organized, and has high-quality images. Then, it’s all about sharing your content as widely as possible.

Build a media kit

Putting together a media kit is a great way to attract potential partners and look professional. It also makes it easy to reach out to partners you’d like to work with because you won’t have to write out your stats every time. Make sure to include your bio, demographic stats, reach, and some examples of past collaborations once you have some. Then, list your packages and prices. 

Affiliate marketing

You can also start making money pretty easily with affiliate programs. You may already be part of some referral programs like “give $10 get $10” type referrals. Affiliate marketing is similar, although you get paid in actual cash, rather than store credit.

Amazon affiliates is the easiest one to get started with, and then you can join other networks and apply for specific retailers. Or, you can make a list of brands you really love and go looking on their sites to join their affiliate programs. Once accepted into these programs, you’ll gain access to their dashboards and be able to get custom links and ads to place on your website.

When you first get started, you may be contacted by brands offering you free products in exchange for exposure, and that can be really fun! Even some of the non-monetary perks of blogging like blogger event invitations can be a nice perk to having a blog. Eventually, you will probably become big enough to ask for compensation on top of the product. Even 1,000 website views a month and 1,000 followers on Instagram is an audience that can be monetized, especially if they are engaged and commenting. 

Just remember to always be transparent and publish disclaimers about affiliate links, ads, paid posts, and gifted items, so you’re compliant with the FTC rules. 

Good luck and have fun!