If you'd told me in 2013, when I first created this blog as a hobby to keep me occupied during my pregnancy, that it would be my full-time job almost a decade later - I would never have believed you!
I didn't even realize that making money from a blog was a possibility, and it was certainly never something I set out to do. But it was a serendipitous blessing - one that has enabled me to create a life that I love, giving me the freedom to home educate my children and to manage my chronic illness whilst maintaining financial security - no easy feat given the times we are living in!
When I hear other parents talking about their desire to create a business that they can run from home whilst still having the time to manage their families needs, it's usually followed by talk of an MLM company and while I don't wish to throw shade on these - I do wish that more people realised there is an alternative that doesn't involve paying out for starter kits you may never see a return on or trying to encourage your friends and family to buy things from you.
All you need in order to set up a blogging business is access to a computer, a few hours per week to dedicate to content creation and email negotiations with potential clients, and a bit of imagination. I wouldn't even say that you'd need to be a fantastic writer - there are plenty of bloggers making lots of money despite having little talent for writing!
People can make anywhere from a few hundred pounds per year up to well over £100k. Like any business, you'll get more out of it when you dedicate time to it but it is absolutely possible to put in a few hours per week and earn £1,000 per month. It just takes a bit of time to allow your blog to build up some SEO credibility (and don't worry, you don't even need to fully understand that to be able to make money!)
So how do you get started? Let's break it down...
Decide On Your Niche
You may decide that your niche is very open - perhaps you want to blog about your own thoughts or mental health, perhaps you want to keep a bit of a journal of family life. Alternatively you may have a very narrow niche in mind, perhaps you're going to write about fixing cars or you're planning to start a Vegan recipe blog. There is no right or wrong, and every blog will have the potential to be monetised eventually if you put the time into it - just keep in mind that the wider your niche is, the more companies you are likely to fit with when it comes to paid collaborations.
Choose A Name
Choosing your blog name can often be one of the trickiest parts, you want something catchy but something that you're not going to outgrow quickly (don't make my sisters mistake and choose a name based on the number of children you have - this quickly becomes dated once you have more!).
You want a name that will grow with you over the years, and something that people are going to remember. If you're having trouble, why not try a name generator like this one:
https://businessnamegenerator.com/blog-name-generator/
Just enter a few keywords about you and your blog niche, and you'll get a whole list of name ideas!
Choose A Host Platform
There are lots of different ways to host your blog and get started, the most popular ones being Blogger & Wordpress.
Unfortunately I can't offer a great deal of advice on this matter as I have only ever used Blogger but Wordpress does also seem to be popular so it might be worth looking in to and seeing which you find easier to use.
I use Blogger because I find it so simple to navigate, everything is very self explanatory within Blogger and it works well for me.
All you need to do is go to www.blogger.com and get started.
You will also want to buy your own domain - which means your blog has it's own URL - I use a vanity URL which I bought through GoDaddy.com for around £7 for the year, and I redirect to this through Blogger. It was very easy to do, there's an excellent how-to guide on this which you can seeHERE
Having your own URL is important when it comes to getting work, so don't skip this step.
Once your website is set up, it's worth spending a bit of time trying to make it look nice - choose some brand colours, and have a play around with making it look pretty. You can do this yourself using templates from the likes of Etsy along with How-To Guides online, or you can pay somebody to do it for you. Websites like Fiverr offer this service pretty cheap.
The most important things in my opinion to include on your blog home page are:
*An intro - preferably a photo introducing yourself and giving a brief description of you and your blog*Your social media buttons - allowing people to click and follow you on other channels*A search box - to allow people to search your blog for specific things*Links to other posts - some people include links at the bottom of each posts directing readers to recommended posts, I prefer to just have a a Popular Posts section showing what people have been reading most lately*A PR/Contact Me page - If you hope to work with brands, have a dedicated page detailing your willingness to do so and offering your contact email address. Make this easily visible.
Create Your Social Accounts
If you want to increase your earning potential, then you'll need to set up social media accounts to accompany your blog across all of the major platforms - Facebook, Tik Tok, Pinterest, Twitter and the big one - Instagram.
If you spend a bit of time building a following across these platforms, your earning potential will likely increase as brands will pay you to advertise their products via your social channels (and no, this is not the same as MLM companies encouraging you to sell to your friends as your pay will not rely on purchases - you should always agree a flat fee for each promotion you do, rather than agreeing to affiliate or pay-per-click schemes.) I see myself as paid media rather than a network marketer.
Come Up With A Content Schedule
The best way to get yourself on track to make money is to build up your content base, as the more traffic you get and the more links you acquire to your content from other well-ranked websites - the higher a value your blog will have. So you need content in order for this to happen.
The best way to keep yourself focused and on track with content creation, is to schedule it in. Treat it like any other job where you have to work a certain amount of time per week, even if you're not making anything from it right away...think about the bigger picture.
Spend 2-3 hours per week creating content that people will want to click through to - the best way to do this is to make it helpful or educational. People want to learn, and they want to be helped so content that ticks these boxes is more likely to result in traffic to your blog.
Aim to post at least one or two articles to your blog per week, and keep doing that. The more content you build up, the better.
As a general rule (you can research this in much more detail of course), aim for articles you produce to be a minimum of 500 words in length, with some keywords relating to the the title and point of the article peppered through to help make it searchable (include some in the first paragraph). You should also use an image on each article, you can find free stock images on websites like KaboomPics.
But How Do I Make Money From It?
There are three main ways to make money from a blog.
Advertising products to your audience - this may be done via blog posts, via your social media channels or both. It usually involves being sent a product to try out, photograph and review. You should negotiate a payment rather than simply accepting the product as payment. Remember that the brand is paying for your time in creating the content, as well as for exposure to your audience.
Paid Backlinks - this is when a company pays you to place a link within an article on your blog, linking back to their own company or their clients company. They may ask you to place the link within an existing article on your blog, they may send you a new article containing a link for you to publish or they may ask you write an article specifically to place the link in. But what they are paying for is the link - this is because they are "link building" in order to boost their own websites SEO score. This is the main way that most blogs earn money, and it can be pretty lucrative. Once your blog has built up some worth from an SEO perspective, you can charge up to a few hundred pounds per link placement - not bad considering it can often be for 30 seconds work. Keep in mind though, that they're paying for the value of your blog - this means all the work you've put in to it over the years to make it valuable.
Affiliate Links - this is when you use tracking links provided to you by an Affiliate programme, which allows you to earn a commission on any purchases that your audience make after clicking through one of your links. Companies like Amazon offer this, and some bloggers do alright out of it. I have never personally chosen to utilise Affiliate Links, but it's something worth considering.
I hope this post has been helpful in giving you a business opportunity to think about. My favorite thing about blogging is the freedom it gives me to be my own boss and plan my family time of my own accord, choose how much and how often to work, and set my own rates. I feel so fortunate to have been able to make a living out of it for the past decade, and if it stopped tomorrow I would have no regrets. What have you got to lose?