Do you have a blogging hobby that makes money today? You know how the saying goes: do what you love, and the money would come. Can the same be said about your love for writing or creating visual content for hobby blogs?
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Your Hobbies
Creating a blog is a great way to share your writing and content creation skills with the world. Luckily, there are several ways you can monetize this hobby to make the most out of your blog.
Sharing your passion online can give you a bigger audience and connect you with people who share your interests. Start by choosing a simple name that reflects what you love.
Set up your blog using a platform like WordPress, which is user-friendly even for beginners. Write posts that teach, entertain, or inspire—whatever feels right for you.
Share your stories and tips with your readers. Regularly respond to comments to make your blog a lively place. Think of blogging as an extension of what you already love to do.
Here are a few ways you can make extra money from your blogging hobby.
Create Videos To Make Money
Are you passionate about creating videos and want to monetize your skills? Making videos for others on YouTube could be a great way to turn your passion into profit. With so many content creators out there, there is a high demand for professionals who can create top-notch videos.
You can offer your services to businesses with video presentations, influencers, or even individuals who want to elevate their online presence.
Keep in mind that your success in this field will depend on the quality of your work and your ability to market yourself effectively. So, if you are up for the challenge, grab your camera and start making videos that will catch the eye of potential clients.
Host A Webinar For Your Hobby Blog
If you are an expert in a specific area, hosting a webinar is a great way to make money from your blog. Webinars give your audience a chance to be more “interactive” with your brand. Your loyal viewers would also be interested in what you have to share and would be sure to purchase a ticket.
With numerous free webinars available, the content you give in your webinar must be substantial to give your audience value for their money.
Doing this would help you keep an interested and satisfied audience, making it easier for you to hold profitable webinars frequently in the future.
Sell Ad Space Around Your Blogging Hobby
Selling advertising space is a common strategy bloggers use to make money. Generally, two types of ads are usually placed on blogs. The first is Pay Per Click ads, which are banner ads placed anywhere on your site, but usually within your content or on the side.
A blogger is paid per the number of times the ad is clicked on. The second form is the Cost Per 1,000 Impressions.
With these ads, the blogger is paid a fixed amount after receiving 1,000 or more views. Programs such as Google AdSense can help you place and manage these ads on hobby blogs.
However, you can also be creative with ad space ideas. For example, rent out space on your pop-up box or social media header. These are great ways to make your blogging hobby money.
Affiliate Marketing For Hobby Blogs
Another common and effective strategy to earn money on your blog is by engaging in affiliate marketing. This is done by adding various affiliate links to your content.
You make a commission each time a viewer clicks on the affiliate link and purchases or hires the service. Don’t know how to go about this? Well, the good news is several companies offer affiliate programs.
All you have to do is sign up for these programs, and your company of choice will give you various text and links to use in your post. Of course, be sure you like the tools and products you are using before promoting them.
The affiliates you choose should be related to your hobby blog’s content.
Hold Sponsored Contests and Giveaways
An excellent form of advertising is by holding sponsored contests and giveaways. Suppose you run a beauty blog. In that case, you can reach out to various beauty brands and offer to host a giveaway or contest. This is a win-win situation for the business, your audience, and you.
For the company, these sponsored contests can help promote its brand and increase its customers. For your audience, this offers a fun and exciting opportunity to earn something for free (who doesn’t like free stuff?).
This helps spread the word about your blog and generate more leads that can be converted into money in the long run.
Get Paid To Write Reviews
In addition to giving products away, you can write a product review at a fee. Not only do you get to try these products, but you get to do so for free. Simply reach out to a business and offer to review their products and services at a price.
Ensure that the goods or services you are giving a review on are significant to the theme of your blog. By doing this, you are sure your customers would be interested and contact the business. This can help develop a relationship between you and the company for more paid reviews in the future.
There are numerous websites such as PayPerPost that can connect you to businesses that may be interested in this service.
However, it is essential to let these businesses know that a positive review is not guaranteed – after all, you would want to be honest with your audience.
Write Sponsored Posts As A Blogging Hobby
Although ads are an excellent way for bloggers to make some money, there are a few challenges. Some ads may annoy viewers or offend them, meaning they would not click on these ads. On the other hand, some of your followers may have ad blockers.
Both of these problems affect the amounts of money you earn. Therefore, in addition to having ad space, you should consider sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are a great way of advertising the business to your audience in a non-threatening way; therefore, helping you make more money.
However, to earn money from these posts, you must contact a relevant business and deliver meaningful information to both the sponsoring company and your audience.
Before meeting a company for sponsorship, it is advisable to create a document stating your blog’s following, audience demographics, traffic statistics, and other relevant information that may perk up the company’s interest. It would be best if you also considered the laws concerning disclosure.
In the US, you can find these rules in the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines.
Sell Digital Products For Your Blogging Hobby
Selling digital products on your blog is another excellent way to make money from blogging and start a business. If you have great advice to offer on specific topics, you can write and sell an eBook to your audience.
You also add a “shop” page to your website to sell handmade goods or offer consulting services, courses, or workshops. Your audience would believe your products and services are worth purchasing through the knowledge you display in your content.
Therefore, be sure to provide services and products relevant to your blog and allow customers to leave reviews to entice skeptical buyers.
You can also create a membership system whereby your audience can apply to be members at a fee to access premium content. Premium content could include eBooks, downloadable guides, or any great content you think your audience would pay for.
Flipping Websites For Hobby Blogs
Website flipping is just like house flipping. The only difference is that you would be changing up sites and not physical products for website flipping. The process is a relatively simple one.
You may choose to purchase a pre-existing blog, add more traffic, and sell it off to entrepreneurs to launch their businesses on it. Another way of flipping websites is by building them from scratch and producing traffic before selling them to an entrepreneur.
Either way, you make it easier for the business to gain a following, which makes this form of earning money from your blogging hobby a great one to consider.
Although building a website from WordPress is impressive and helpful in this form of making money, you should consider hiring a professional website designer to make the site more attractive and functional.
Don’t know where to sell your flipped websites? There are several websites, such as Flippa, that serve as auction sites for selling flipped websites. Thank goodness for the internet!
Create A Business Directory
In the course of blogging, there may have been numerous goods and services that your audience has asked you for recommendations on. To make it easier for you and your audience, you should consider creating a paid business directory.
Before starting the guide, contact relevant companies in your niche for a sit-down to discuss paying you for a place in your directory.
Be sure that the directories are a compiled list of reviews, products, and other relevant information your audience would need.
In addition to a business directory, you should consider creating a job board. You can offer your audience exciting and credible job offers by letting companies pay to have job vacancies advertised on your blog. For your job board to be successful, narrow these job vacancies per your content.
For example, suppose you run a blog that focuses on tech. You would want your job board to consist of vacancies related to IT or a related field. This way, your readers would be interested, and you would help them find good job opportunities.
Be A Guest Blogger For Media Outlets
As your blog grows, your great work would be recognized by news outlets, various brands with blogs, or other bloggers or vloggers in your niche. They would be willing to pay you to make an appearance on their page with your expert knowledge on a particular subject or topic.
For example, if your blog is focused on relationships, another relationship-based blogger may love to have you featured on their website. You can also offer up some publication ideas and probably make a little money from that as well.
However, if you think you would like to feature on a business, influencer’s, or brand’s blog, you should not shy away from reaching out. If they are not familiar with your brand, a quick and short introduction will suffice.
Does Your Hobby Blog Make You Money Today?
Making money out of blogging is a great way to “never work a day in your life.” With these ten ways to monetize your blog, your past-time hobby could bring you good money.
However, apart from these methods, you can develop out-of-the-box ideas to make money from your blog.
I’d love to know more in the comments below if your blog is a blogging hobby or a blogging business today.
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Hey Lisa!
I was on the fence to launch an E-book about blogging. And after reading this, definitely going to do it soon.
It will include the steps to start a blog and my personal experiences as a beginner blogger.
Thought I plan to keep it as a free resource rather than selling it.
Do you think e-books are still a good way to attract an audience for your blog?
Thanks for the post, Lisa!
Ali from Infoverses.
Hi Ali, I think that’s a great idea if you are giving it away to build up your list. Something I am thinking about as I’m updating my Twitter eBook. Thanks for coming by and enjoy your day.
I first started blogging without even thinking that i can get money with my blogs. Which then I find later on. But it seems always very easy just to read the tips but in real world its kinda difficult i don’t know about others but for me luck is still finding its way to reach me :P. Thanks for the information I know some of the points will follow the neglected ones too. Have a great day.
Hi David, that’s how I started as well! Yes, it takes a lot of time and hard work. It doesn’t happen quickly unless you have a lot of luck. And just when you learn how to, things change and you have to learn new things. I’m always learning along the way! Enjoy your day.
I am new to blogging and always wanted to make money with my blogging passion. Thanks for sharing this article with us which gives us a lot of information.
Hi Prince, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. You are most welcome and I wish you the best on your new blog. How long have you been blogging?
Hi Lisa,
In the past ten years I’ve seen some hobby bloggers turn into business bloggers. I assume the love of their hobby turned into cash because they realized they could do more. One hobby blogger comes to mind from way back who was into fitness. Now she is selling all kinds of stuff related to her niche.
-Donna
Hi Donna! Oh yes, I know there are many bloggers out there that started out as a hobby. It’s the best way – doing what you love usually brings the money afterward if you don’t give it up! It’s great when you can make money from a hobby and doing what you love, that’s what I call freedom. Thanks for coming by Donna and enjoy the rest of the week.
Hi Lisa,
I have also started my blogging journey as a hobby a few years ago.
But now I am discovering the real earning potential of Blogging and Affiliate Marketing.
From starting a blog with Blogspot subdomain to generating the first sale it is really an amazing journey and I am enjoying the process.
Thank You for this detailed article.
Hi Atanu, Welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Oh yes, it took me many years and I too started with the old Blogspot! You are most welcome and have a great rest of the week there.
I started my first blog on blogspot as a hobby in 2015. Things started changing as I started reading other blogs, connecting with other bloggers and implementing the tactics that I been learning down the road.
I make decent money now out of my blog with affiliate products and sponsored content and I am totally in love with blogging. My blog is more like a small business than a hobby.
All great ways to make money out of blogging, Lisa. Take care.
Hi Mudassir, I’m so glad to hear your blog has turned into a small business. Did you change the name of it or have different ones too along the way? Thanks for your input and I hope you are well there. Have a good weekend ahead.
Hi Lisa, Now I don’t remember the name of my first blog but it was on blogspot. techmyles.blogspot.com was my 2nd one which is still there. With the knowledge I gained via blogging along the way, I started a small business digimiles.in in 2016 which is doing well now. Blogging really helped me to learn and implement digital skills like creating WordPress websites, SEO, market research, writing, and more with which I am making a living. Along the journey, connecting with people like you has been productive and fun-learning.
So yeah, blogging can do wonders if we stick to it with patience and hard work.
Have a great weekend too!
Hi Mudassir, Ah yes, I started there too with Inspire To Thrive. I still have about nature there but I don’t remember how to log into it! You are correct about learning so much more from blogging than one could ever imagine! It is a nice way to meet other people from around the world as well. Consistency and sticking with it do pay off. Many don’t have the patience for it to work, sadly. Thanks for the response back here.
Hi Lisa,
I’ve been hobby blogging on various platforms for so long it seems impossible to make money. Although it has been good for my mental health. My takeaway is to research opportunities for guest blogging in my industry. Thanks for the pick-me-up.
Hi Devin, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. I too did that for many years before making any money. And most of what I earn is through services. I’d say about 65% and the rest is via the blog with sponsored posts and affiliate marketing. Thanks for coming by and commenting. I hope you have a great day.
All smart streams Lisa. Bloggers new to the game rarely realize how even though pros treated blogging seriously from early on in their careers they also had a hobby-type attitude in terms of attachment. Pros spend ample time giving full energy to the blogging process and none to pro or money outcomes, which sums up the idea of a hobby, right? We engage in hobbies for the love of hobbies not for some outcome. This is the attitude we need to take to go pro but of course, adding these income channels allows money to flow to you.
Hi Ryan, thank you. I know that’s how I started almost a decade ago now. A pure hobby and then developed a pass for it. It took a long time as you know for me to go full time with the business through my blog. I’m always in transition along the way ready for the next thing. Thanks for your feedback as always Ryan. Make it a wonderful day there in paradise
Hi Lisa,
I really don’t want to keep it a hobby and want to develop it as a business.
There are many ways you have mentioned above but still, I have opted only for AdSense and affiliate marketing.
Definitely, as my blog grow I will opt the other ways to monetize the blog.
Once you have mentioned home decor and furnishing as a good blogging niche, and I am planning to start an e-commerce website and also blogging related to that niche.
Will it be a good choice for business and blogging.
I will be looking forward to your valuable opinion.
Thanks
Dipanjan Biswas
Hi Dipanjan, I’m not a big fan of ad sense. I think home decor and furnishings are great today as many stores do not carry much inventory as they once did. I’ve been looking for some tall dining chairs and learned that recently! Good luck with it and can’t wait to see what you develop there. Thanks for coming by and have a great day.