Before we get into the instruction for today, make sure you have completed all the steps on Days 1, 2, 3, and 4.

If you’ve skipped any of these steps, go back and do them first because today’s coursework builds on the previous steps.

Here are the links to the earlier days of the course:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Today, we are going to finish these steps:

Let’s get started with Day 5!

Are you ready to make some money? A blog can be a business, and can also be a money-making machine if you put the work into it and set it up properly.

So, how much money can you make with your blog?

Our blog, It’s A Lovely Life, averaged about $30,000/mo. in income from blogging alone for years. This figure grew over the years to that level. I wish it happened overnight, but it was a process that took a lot of hard work and dedication.

There are bloggers out there making more than that, and we would like YOU to be the next success story.

As a new blogger, you will have to take some specific steps in order to start making money with your blog.

The first thing you need to do is to have your site completed with enough content that will make it look respectable. I always say that you should have 10-20 posts written on a site for it to look complete. Until you have this many posts, I would refrain from sharing all your posts. It is still important to publish your posts as soon as they're completed, but you just won't start actively sharing them yet on social media.

You also need to complete all the major pages on your site and they should look good as well!

This may mean some long nights, but if you focus, you can get these blog posts created and major pages done so your site looks like it is complete.

Many bloggers will write 10-20 new posts a month or more. These days it is about quality rather than quantity, but to really stand out, you will need both….at least at first. When you have an expansive library of posts already completed on your site, you can begin scaling back the quantity of new posts each month.

So how do bloggers make money?

Here are the top ways bloggers make money:

One of the easiest ways to begin monetizing your blog is to start with affiliate marketing. In fact, you can begin working on this right away as soon as your site is complete. There are many different affiliate networks and platforms out there. They all have different specialties and depending on your niche, that will probably determine which ones you may want to sign up for.

One popular way to monetize your blog with affiliate links is to join the Amazon Associates Program. The concept is simple...you write a blog post about something that can be found on Amazon and link to it. If a reader clicks through to Amazon and buys that product, or anything else for that matter, Amazon will pay you a commission.

Many bloggers strive to monetize with sponsored content. When you have your site established, and a track record of some traffic, you will need to sign up for various networks that specialize in working with bloggers. These companies act as a liaison between brands and bloggers.

Then, these networks will notify you when sponsored post opportunities are available. If it is a good fit, and the rate is acceptable, you will then apply. If selected, you will receive specific instructions and parameters for the sponsored post.

Sponsored posts have a wide range of compensation. As a newer blogger, you may receive $100 to $250 per blog post. When you are established (have a large following and are known for producing quality content), you may earn $1,000+ per blog post.

Keep in mind, you need quality content on your blog, traffic (site visitors), and social accounts that are active in order to get sponsored assignments. I know there is the urge to jump into this step right away, but it is very important to build your base before immediately applying to these sponsored post networks. If your site is not complete, and you don't have any traffic yet, your application will be rejected.

Digital products including Courses and Membership programs are becoming increasingly popular ways for bloggers to monetize. If you are interested in this as a focus, we have another free training which you can sign up for here. It will show you how to create your own digital course or membership program. We’ve got a lot of experience in this area and we’d love to share all of our knowledge with you!

Now that you have a good overview of how your blogging business can generate income, it’s important for you to pick one of these methods that you will focus on first.

Will it be: Affiliate Marketing, Digital Products, Sponsored Posts, Display Ads, or something else?

Think about these monetization strategies and consider how they will line up with your blogging business.

As soon as you determine your first monetization strategy, you are done with Step 13!

Keep in mind, this can and normally will change as your blogging business evolves. But, we all need to start somewhere and it is very important to focus on one strategy first.

Our blogging business has evolved considerably over the years.

In fact, we’ve documented those changes by publishing monthly blog income reports. We started writing these reports at the beginning of 2017 and continued it monthly for over 2 years straight. Now we just do occasional updates, but as you’ll see, things have really grown over the years! These are meant to show you what has worked for us and inspire online success for you as well!

See our archive of online business income reports here.

You’re not done yet!

There is one final step you need to take in order to fully complete this course.

Thankfully, it’s a pretty simple one!

All you need to do is comment “Done” on THIS POST in the Facebook group!

We know that it is a pretty simple little step, but it is a great way to bring some acknowledgment to your hard work and there is amazing satisfaction that comes with checking things off a list!

So, if you made it through this whole course and completed all 14 steps, it’s time to make it official.

I just want to take a quick moment to recap how blogging has impacted our lives. Income from It’s A Lovely Life has been well into the 6 figures from blogging.

Also, blogging affords us opportunities as a family that simply would not have been possible without it. A few years ago we began blogging extensively about travel as this is something we really love to do as a family.

We regularly travel over 150 days a year as a family. These destinations have included: Turks & Caicos, Cancun (3 times), Hawaii (4 times), A 19 Day Tour of Florida, A Dude Ranch in Tucson, Aruba, Jamaica, Virginia, Maryland, Austin, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Dells, Colorado Springs, Park City Utah, all over California, and many more wonderful places. We were “hosted” on all of these trips and were even paid to take some of these trips in exchange for coverage on the site.

We've attended more special events for the blog than we can count including: World Premier of Lethal Weapon in Hollywood, Numerous special events at Disneyland and Disney World, and KIA events in Lake Tahoe and San Diego.

Most importantly, I am able to be there for my family all of the time. I work on my own schedule ...I never have to miss a game, a school event, or stress about missing work when they are sick or need me. I am my own boss, and I decide everything about my business.

And I’m sure you have joined the Facebook group by now, but if for some reason you haven’t, the time is now! We’d love to see you there. You’ll pick up some great information and hopefully meet some other like minded bloggers that will be able to help you along in your journey.

I hope you truly enjoyed the Start A Blogging Business - 5 Day Crash Course. We will stay in touch as we have new information to share.

As you can imagine, even though your blogging business is now started, much of the work is still ahead of you. This course (and taking the 14 steps in this course) laid the foundation for your blogging business. It’s time to start building on that foundation to create something amazing!

Just know that we are here to help you build that amazing business!

We have numerous programs that can take you much further in your blogging business:

Each month we run a FREE 10k Traffic Challenge in the Facebook Group. The goal of this challenge is to show you techniques and strategies to build your blog traffic. We’ve also set it up in a way that will help you connect with other bloggers on the same journey as you!

Are you ready to take things to the next level? Consider signing up for our flagship training program, Blogging Blastoff! This one of a kind training will really supercharge your results. We focus extensively on making money, growing your traffic, building your social media accounts, structuring your business properly, and much more. You name it, it's in there! It’s 15+ years of my blogging experience wrapped up into a 30 day course so you can quickly get up to speed.

Or, maybe you are interested in travel blogging. This is an area of blogging and normally allows us to travel 150 days a year. Travel blogging has a lot of unique things about it, so we put together a specialized free training that will show you how we use email to pitch for comped travel opportunities. If you’re interested in travel blogging, then this is can’t miss content. Travel will be back before we know it, and when it does return, destinations will need travel bloggers more than ever. This will be a prime opportunity for travel bloggers that are already set up! Sign up here for the free training.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a really important skill for bloggers to master. This is the art and science of making sure your blog shows up in Google. When done right, this can drive amazing amounts of targeting traffic to your site and increase your blog readership. We’ve put together a bootcamp that will show you exactly how to do this right. Check out the SEO Blogger Bootcamp here.

Affiliate Marketing is a great way for bloggers to monetize. It allows you to leverage established brands, recommend products and services that you love, and make a commission in the process! We created the Affiliate Blogger Bootcamp as a way to teach extremely effective models that bloggers can use to drive income to their blogging businesses.

As we mentioned in this course, Pinterest can be an incredible source of traffic to your blog if you’re doing it right. We created the Pin Success Bootcamp to show bloggers how to leverage Pinterest to drive traffic to their blogs. It’s a highly concentrated training that will turn you into a Pinterest expert in no time.

That’s not all! We’ve got a full list of our programs available here. If you have any questions about any of our courses or training programs, please send us an email to reese@itsalovelylife.com and we will get back to you asap!

We hope you enjoyed the Start A Blogging Business course and we can’t wait to see what you create!!

© Copyright 2020. It’s a Lovely Life® – by Sale Pros Corp, Pete & Heather Delaney Reese.