Although blogging is just a hobby for many, there are some people who enjoy writing so much that they want to make it their full-time career. Blogging is a crowded space that gets busier by the day, but there are quite a few ways to leverage your blog and audience in order to make a living. Here are three tips to help you transform your hobby into a full-time job.
1. Try affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing remains the single most popular method of generating income from a blog. The process is simple. You sign up to an affiliate website, choose a product, and then generate a unique link. Every time somebody clicks that link and makes a purchase, you receive a cut of the profits. Bloggers find lots of creative ways to include links in posts—reviews, how-to guides, and even recipes are all options.
As simple as it sounds, affiliate marketing can be difficult. To generate a healthy living you’ll either need to sell a lot of different products or choose a few more expensive ones. Moreover, you need to foster a relationship of trust with your readers. Choosing a niche can help, as people are much more likely to follow through on your recommendations if you seem like an expert in one area, rather than someone who writes about a variety of products. This kind of marketing takes time and dedication, but it can certainly be lucrative in the long term.
2. Link to eCommerce
Linking your blog to an eCommerce platform is fairly straightforward and means that you can sell your products directly, without affiliate links. This, of course, means a higher profit per sale, but it does require a more nuanced approach. Blurring the boundaries of blog and store can be difficult, but if you get the balance right between informative and purely marketing content you can profit quite handsomely.
Setting up an eCommerce website is easier than it’s ever been using a platform such as Shopify. It allows you to set up your store, design and customize its appearance, and add products with just a few clicks. The sheer speed of set-up gives you more time to concentrate your efforts on blogging, which doubles as marketing with this method. Use your blog to write about and advertise your products, therefore driving traffic towards the store.
3. Release an eBook
If you’ve been running your blog for a long time and it enjoys a lot of traffic, there’s big money to be made with eBooks. Collecting your blog posts into a book or (better still) writing a how-to guide charting your journey to success is easy and can sell extremely well. There are bloggers across the world who will pay good money for your knowledge, and you already have a ready-made platform from which to sell it.
Amazon KDP is your best option for publishing an eBook. It allows you to produce Kindle and paperback editions with no upfront payment. Royalties are high, at up to 70% (if you meet certain criteria) and your work will appear on the biggest marketplace in the world.