3 Ways to Make Money Blogging (even on a brand new blog)
“It should feel genuinely good to earn income from your blog - you should be driven by a healthy ambition to succeed. If your blog provides genuine value, you fully deserve to earn income from it.” - Steve Pavlina
For most people, making money with your blog is the ultimate goal, the big dream…
To be able to stay home with your kids and live the life you really want to can absolutely happen for you!
It’s not a faraway thing in the distance that only “other” people do.
YOU can be that person…
I want to share this disclaimer with you first though lovely – if you’re after something which will “get you rich quick”, I’d get outta here so that I don’t waste your time because blogging is by no means a way of making money quickly.
In fact, it’s probably one of the hardest and slowest ways to make money, BUT, it’s also the most sustainable and I’m all about helping you start and grow a blog, which can sustain you for years to come.
“This post does contain affiliate links throughout and if you make a purchase using one of my links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you”
Blogging takes an incredible amount of time and effort and there’s many challenges along the way, but it’s also wonderfully fun, versatile and provides freedom for everything that being a mum needs.
The great thing about blogging too, is you don’t just have one way of making money.
A blog allows you to have several income streams in place…
So today I wanted to share with you 3 ways to make money blogging (even on a brand new blog).
First up is offering a service of some kind!
#1 - Offer a Service
One of the quickest ways to earn money with your blog is by offering a service.
If you have skills and knowledge in something (and can do it really well) then offering to do this for someone else is awesome!
People always need something, no matter what niche you’re in.
There’s two main reasons people will seek a service:
They don’t know how to do what they want themselves
They don’t have the time to do what they want themselves
Time and money are the two things people always pay in.
You either pay money and have someone do it for you OR you save money and do it yourself, but this uses your time.
It all comes down to what’s more important to someone – their time or their money…
This is where you can come in and solve their TIME problem with the service you’re offering…
TIP: To start with, while you’re building your authority in your niche with your blog, you may not be able to demand top money for a service, but that shouldn’t stop you from doing it.
Blogging is all about building relationships and trust and this can only be established from you being consistent with your blog, publishing posts regularly and putting yourself out there for the world to see who you are and what value you have to give!
What can you offer as a Service
Offering a service doesn’t require creating anything (such as a product) and there’s so many things you can offer a service for. Some of them are listed below:
Freelance writing (blog posts, emails, ad campaigns)
Graphic design (logo, book cover/product design, branding)
Web Design (this is very popular as it can be very techie)
Social media graphic design (Instagram/Facebook posts, YouTube thumbnails)
Social media management (managing accounts, ads)
Blog management (scheduling posts, SEO)
Affiliate management (managing affiliate accounts)
Ad Campaign management (managing Facebook ads etc)
Blog set up (WordPress installation, adding plugins)
Coaching/Consulting (either one-on-one or within a group)
Researching information (such as facts + figures for case studies)
Writing emails (putting together email sequences)
Sourcing information (such as photos + images)
Support assistance (email support and management)
Admin help (Facebook group monitoring + responding to comments)
Transcribing (videos, audio)
Formatting products/courses (helping to put layouts together, fonts etc)
Video editing
SEO management (optimising posts for search engines)
Bookkeeping
Ghostwriting
Data Entry
Of course, under each of those listed above comes many, many other services you can offer.
A lot of them come under the VA (Virtual Assistant) umbrella and so many people are seeking these kinds of tasks to be carried out for them!
There’s literally a service you can offer for anything and everything.
So sit down and have a think about what you could help others with, what you’re good at, what you have tons of knowledge and skills in, because I can guarantee you can offer someone else that service.
How do I offer a service on my blog?
This is a good question and it’s really quite simple.
You’ll need to create a page on your site (or several depending on how many services you’re offering) explaining what the service is and exactly what the service entails.
You need to be super detailed and transparent here, as there’s nothing worse than someone clicking on your page and not being able to get all the information they need.
Some of the things to put on your service sales page are:
What kind of packages are you offering (low cost, mid cost, high cost).
The cost/rates of the service/packages.
How much time the service will take.
What support is being offered (1:1, email support, regular group calls).
What payment methods are accepted.
Refund policy.
What are the benefits of the service/what are they getting .
The process they need to take (book a call, make payment, get service etc).
You get the idea – basically, you have to be really clear on ALL the details so people know what they’re getting, how to go about it and the timeframe everything is done in.
You then need to have a “Services” tab somewhere on your blog homepage and within your menu and footer.
People need to be able to find your services with ease.
You can see an example of this in the screenshot below…
This site is really detailed with all its services and it has a separate pricing page too.
However you set your page up, don’t worry about all the design features etc too much. Just concentrate on including all the important, necessary information.
Promote your Service
Once you’ve decided on the service you’re offering and set your service page up, it’s time to look at getting it out for all to see.
You need to be promoting your services wherever you can and this can be on your blog, social media platforms and within your blog posts too.
There’s no point having this amazing service if you’re not going to showcase it to anyone.
You’ve put in the time and effort to create your sales page and set it up on your blog, now it’s time to share what you can do for people, otherwise, you’re going to miss out on tons of opportunities…
Where and how can I promote my service?
There’s several places you can promote your service and I’ve listed some of them below:
You could write a whole blog post dedicated to explaining all your service has to offer and promote this everywhere. Make sure you utilize SEO and include relevant keywords so you can be found in the search engines.
Put together social posts explaining your service – maybe even offer a special discount or introductory offer for the first 10 people who sign up. Spark some curiosity, hype and interest around your service.
Go live on social media or do a Reel or Story… people love to put a face to an account and this could really help sway people to take you up on your service.
Host a webinar – this is a great way to get people on a live call to offer your product or service.
Create a YouTube video. This is another way to get yourself out in front of your audience and get your service out there.
Email your list explaining your new service (if you have an email list and if not, selling a service is a great way to start building an email list)so you can stay in touch with them and follow up. It’s also a great way to get feedback.
Guest post on other blogs as this will get you recognised more and will help build your authority and bring in new audiences to your blog. It’s also a great way to network and get to know other bloggers in your niche.
Offer an upgrade or something exclusive for the first few customers who sign up to your service. People love getting something that isn’t offered to everybody, or for a limited time only!
My final word on offering a service is to make sure you’re always around to answer questions people may have for you in regards to your service.
Don’t ignore people who are clearly interested, but just need a bit more information before they decide whether it’s for them or not.
#2 - Create and Sell Digital Products
The second way you can make money on your blog is via digital products, which are so popular…
I love, love, love digital products and courses and have purchased a fair few over the years (probably too many if I’m honest lol) but it’s such an easy, simple and fab way to learn something new, get a template for something or grab a checklist to use…
Let’s look at why they’re so popular – firstly for the customer:
The customer can pay for something and have it delivered via email straight away. No waiting around meaning they can get stuck into the course/product immediately.
They’ll always be in stock, so there’s no risk of something running out.
They can re-download it as many times as they want (if it’s a checklist or template).
They last forever and don’t go out of date.
Customers don’t need room to store it – it just sits on their computer and gets printed if, as and when required.
It’s super convenient and quick. Customers can purchase products with the click of a button.
Now let’s look at why they’re so great for you as the creator:
They don’t take forever to create. They’re a lot quicker than a physical product.
You only have to create it once and sell it over and over.
It’s easy to add additional information and keep your product updated and fresh (great for you and the customer).
Delivery is all automated. You set it and forget it so the process is only done once.
Very low cost as no shipping, warehouses or physical tools involved.
Higher profit margins for you because of the low costs involved.
You can reach a wider audience globally.
Digital products allow you to help more people.
So you can see that there are many pros for both the customer and you as the creator to producing digital products.
One thing you need to remember when it comes to digital products is this – you need to make sure you’re creating something which is extremely valuable to your target audience.
There’s so much competition out there and with many fantastic products being given away for free as email opt-ins, you really need to step up your game when it comes to what you put out there as a paid product.
With that said, so many people sell amazing information online and you can be one of them…
What digital products can you sell?
There are endless things you can put together for a digital product and I’ve mentioned as many of them as I can below for you, so you can get an idea of what you can create (no matter what niche you’re in):
Courses
Stock photos + images
Fonts
Patterns
eBooks
Printables (planners, checklists, schedules + calendars etc)
Templates + template packs
Software
Audio files (music, interviews)
Podcasts
Video training (usually within a course)
Games
Apps
Premium newsletters
Membership sites (have a whole host of products + resources available to customers for a one off lifetime fee or recurring monthly fee)
Licences (for your own photographs if you’re selling them etc)
Digital Art (stickers or pictures)
Activity Sheets (such as home schooling activities)
Guides
Recipes
Swipe files
Spreadsheets
Calculators
Graphics (logos etc…)
Graphic bundles
These are all the ones I can think of right now, but that’s a fairly big list to get you started with some ideas…
How do you create digital products?
So now we have a bit of an idea on the kinds of things you can create, we need to look at “how” to create your digital product.
I’m not going to go into a ton of detail here, but I’ll go over the basics and share with you how to put together your first digital product…
Brainstorm Ideas + Market Research (super important)
The first step is brainstorming ideas and carrying out some much needed and very important market research.
Knowing what your audience wants and needs is crucial because when it comes to product creation, you don’t want to be wasting time putting this amazing product together if it isn’t something people actually want.
You could spend hours creating a phenomenal product, but if you haven’t done your market research, it could all be for nothing.
There needs to be a DEMAND for what you want to sell…
One great way to look at what people want first could be to look at yourself.
For example, my blog is all about helping mums start a blog. I’m a mum and was “that mum” who wanted to know how to start a blog and all that it entailed when I first started out blogging.
So from that, I would look at what I’d need to know about starting a blog and see what products I could put together from that.
How to set up a blog + install WordPress
Where to get blog hosting from
What blog theme would I need
How to create a blog logo
How to create a freebie to start building my email list…
You can see that all those ideas above would make great digital products and would really help other mums to start their own blogs!
I could create individual products and price them lower because some mums may not need to know everything about starting a blog OR I could create one bigger product – say a course including all of those things, so it would be a complete start to finish product which at the end, the mum would have a fully functioning blog…
You get the idea anyway. You’d need to look at what your audience really needs to get them a result – in this instance, the result is to start a blog…
You can look at what skills and expertise you have that someone else would pay to be done, so let’s look at some of these examples below:
Writing blog posts
Speaking another language
Designing logos…
A skill you have can be extremely valuable for someone else and you can turn any one of those things above into a digital product of some kind.
Where can I go to carry out Market Research?
Other than looking at yourself, there’s many places you can go to carry out customer research.
Some of those places include:
Facebook Groups – these are VERY popular because they’re interactive and people always ask questions. Those questions are gold for you…
A few of the Facebook groups I love being a part of are:
Instagram Accounts – again Instagram is a very interactive and social place to be, so people will ask questions and share their opinions on things, so you can take advantage of that for ideas.
Forums – I think people think forums are really “old school” and out of date, but they still very much have a place online and people love to start all kinds of discussions in them.
YouTube Comments – another great place to check is YouTube comments on videos within your niche.
Other Authority Leaders – yep, you can get ideas and loads of questions on your fave bloggers/Instagram leader’s accounts and blogs. Checking out their comments and seeing what people are saying can be huge…
Email Subscribers – you may not have many email subscribers yet if you’re just starting out, but if you have (and if not, listen for the future) then see what they’re responding with and asking for. They’re literally telling you exactly what they want and need – so listen up!
Survey your audience – sending out a survey to your audience either via social media or from something like Survey Monkey will give you an opportunity to see what people are having problems with.
Competitor’s Product Reviews – this is an amazing one to look into. Check out your competitors’ product reviews and see what’s missing or what people want to see added. This is massively advantageous to you as you can create products on this. You can find reviews on sales pages, blog posts and maybe even on other websites, where people may be affiliates for products and courses…
Google Trends – Google Trends is a great place to carry out research as to what’s trending and what people are searching for. You can type in a topic and select “Worldwide” and then look at the related queries that are showing.
There it will show some great ideas and unusual things come up like the air fryer chocolate chip cookies shown in the screenshot above.
I never would have thought you could make chocolate chip cookies in an air fryer, but you can and it’s being searched for.
So there’s several ways you can do market research to see what’s out there and what your audience wants and needs.
It’s then down to you to create the best digital product you can with that information.
Actually creating your Digital Product
You’re now at the fun, exciting and creative stage of this process and that’s actually bringing your ideas to life and creating the product.
What tools you use all depends on what kind of product you’re creating and in what format.
So you need to decide what format you’re going to be creating your product in first and make sure that it’s the best way to deliver your content to your customers.
Will your product creation be:
A printable
An online course
A template
Video tutorials
An eBook
A mix of videos + PDF’s etc…
Whatever it is, you must deliver your product in a format that is easy to consume, understand and is attractive to your ideal customer.
Let’s look at some of those tools now…
Printables, Templates, Spreadsheets etc…
The first tool I want to share with you has to be my all-time favourite.
It’s the tool I use the most and have the most fun with. It’s bright, bubbly and us mums love this kind of thang…
That tool is…
Canva
If it’s a printable, graphic, logo or PDF you’re looking to create – a great tool to use would be Canva. Canva is amazing for creating all kinds of graphics for you to sell (check the licence on each design item you use) and it’s my all-time favourite design tool…
I share exactly how to use Canva and all it can do in my post and there’s tons of video tutorials within it to help you as well.
Another great tool I use for printables etc is Snagit. Snagit is a screen capture software, where you can capture and edit screenshots quickly and easily…
PowerPoint
Another great tool for creating printables etc is PowerPoint and you can do so much more than just presentations with it.
I used to think that’s all you could do with it and boy was I wrong…
I’ve created several of my freebies using PowerPoint because it’s super versatile.
I’ve also used it as well for slide decks for my video tutorials, which I add to my posts to be downloaded by readers…
It’s way cooler than people give it credit for and if you have Microsoft 365 already, then definitely give it a go.
If it’s presentation creation you’re after, you can do this inside of Canva, if you don’t have PowerPoint.
Video
If you’re creating a video course, or a product with video in, this could consist of teaching using a digital video recording software such as ScreenPal, where you can record your screen and show yourself in the corner if you’d like via webcam…
You can then upload the videos and edit them within the software of ScreenPal and then they’re all ready to be imported and used wherever you’re hosting your course…
It can also be as simple as recording a video using your mobile device (as the quality is so good these days) and then uploading those. It really does depend on the type of content you’re producing for your product and whether it’s more behind the camera teaching on screen, or in front of the camera educating…
Of course, when it comes to creating videos, you need somewhere to host those video files.
YouTube is all good for creating videos to share privately within emails etc, but when it comes to a course you want people to pay for, you need something more professional and that’s where Bunny net comes into play…
Bunny.net is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) that can host all kinds of downloads for you and in particular, videos for your course…
It’s affordable and holds all your content securely, so is a great option for you to check out and use.
If you want to check out some other affordable video hosting – you can go here and watch John Whitford’s awesome video covering budget-friendly hosting platforms over on his fab channel Unbeatable Tech!
Audio
Audio is also extremely popular with learning. With our ever-busy lives, sometimes it isn’t always easy to find the time to sit down and watch or read something.
Listening when you’re driving around trying to get your baby to sleep, or when you’re cleaning the house can be ideal – especially for us super busy mums…
This is when you can use a free software called Audacity. This is a great software to use to record and edit your audio and I’ve used it on audio products I’ve sold in the past!
So that’s some of the tools you can use for the different formats.
There are obviously tons and tons out there and you can use whatever you’re used to or want to try.
These are just my personal preferences and ones I’ve actually used myself…
Ways to Sell your Digital Products
The type of product you’ve created will determine how and where you can sell it…
There’s many places and platforms you can use and we’re going to look at these now.
On your own Website with a Product page
First up and the number one place you want to be selling any product or course you’ve created is your own website and there’s several ways you can do this.
One of the easiest ways would be to create a sales page with all your products on, where people can see your product and then click to purchase right from your blog or website.
You can literally set up a page and call it “Products” or “Courses” etc…
Then add it to your menu, footer, within posts and pages – wherever you want to add it to and then when people click on it, they’re taken to a sales page that holds all of your products.
From there, they can then click on each individual product and this then takes them to a separate sales page explaining all about that specific product/course and then it has a pay button on this page.
You could then use a platform such as Thrivecart or Teachable, which are product cart platforms and will deal with the payment processes and funnels etc…
I’m not going into how to do all this within this post, as it’s a really in-depth subject and I just want to cover the basics here.
All of the platforms have full tutorials and instructions on how to use them.
On your own website with the WooCommerce plugin
Another way you can sell right from within your website is by using the Woocommerce WordPress plugin.
It has a lot of built-in tools you can use in order to help you set up everything you need to manage your product sales.
It also integrates with a lot of other apps and plugins too.
You can find a full tutorial on how to use WooCommerce here if this is something you’d like to use to host and sell your products on your blog.
On your website or within emails using Convertkit
I use and love Convertkit. It’s my email marketing platform, but fairly recently it’s introduced a new “Earn” tab, where you can set up and sell digital products.
It’s super-duper easy to use and makes it so convenient as it can deal with all your payments from right inside the platform, as you can see in the screenshots below.
You literally click on “Earn” in the top menu.
Product Details: Then you can enter your product details, including the name of the product and the Product Type and click Next.
Product Price: Then you can choose your Pricing Method, enter in a price, choose your currency and click Next.
Fulfilment: Next up is uploading the product you want to sell and click Next.
Domain Name: The next step is to select the Custom Domain and add in the Page URL information.
You can then go through and start designing and creating your product form within ConvertKit.
Set Up Payments: Setting up the payments is really straightforward. First off, you need to confirm whether you’re an individual or a company!
Then to get paid, enter your email address and click Continue.
Continue going through and enter in the following:
Your Mobile Number as you’ll get sent a verification code from stripe
The Country you’re business is in
Your Personal Details
Your Professional Details (Industry and Website)
Your Bank Details to get paid
And that’s it – really straightforward and easy and you have a product set up ready to sell.
You’ll be able to embed the form within emails, blog posts or landing pages and start making sales.
If you use Convertkit for email marketing, this is a no brainer to use for selling your first digital products too, as you can embed them on your website wherever you want…
Use Third Party Platforms
The final way I want to show is by using a third-party platform, of which there are so many out there to choose from.
These platforms can do a number of things and most of them are “All in One” solutions when it comes to selling digital products of any kind.
Some of them include:
These platforms all come at a premium price but can do so much and keep everything all in one place for you – including sales funnels, analytics, payment processors and marketing automation.
However, if you want something more affordable and much simpler to use, I’d recommend SendOwl.
These platforms all come at a premium price, but can do so much and keep everything all in one place for you – including sales funnels, analytics, payment processors and marketing automations. However, if you want something more affordable and much simpler to use, I’d recommend SendOwl.
SendOwl is fab for selling your printable/printable packs etc, as it’s perfect for beginners and super simple to use.
My personal advice would be to only invest in a more expensive platform once you’re already making money to cover the costs because a lot of them are either a monthly payment or a large one-off cost.
You can see from what I’ve listed above that there’s plenty of less expensive options available to you, especially when you’re just getting started.
How do you price your product?
The final part of product creation is pricing it!
You can start by seeing what your competitors are pricing their products and courses at. See if there’s a trend and what kind of things are included within their products for the price being charged.
Pricing will vary from product to product too.
Your courses are more than likely going to be more expensive than your eBooks and template packs, but it all comes down to the quality of the content and how you’re showcasing it.
Also if you’re offering bonuses, additional support or calls etc, this all needs to be reflected in the price frame.
These kinds of added extras and benefits can demand a higher price point.
When starting out, you’re probably going to start with maybe an eBook, a template pack or a small course that could include a few short videos and text files as well.
These sorts of products within my niche would sell for prices such as $7, $17 or $27.
These are lower price points and people will often pay this kind of money to get a quick, problem-solving eBook etc.
With any product though, it needs to be full of valuable and actionable information – no matter what price you’re charging.
Courses that are bulkier and will have more content would likely go for prices like $47, $197 or even $397 and into the thousands, depending on what type of content is being offered.
It all comes down to the type of audience you’re trying to sell to.
For me, my audience are stay at home and working from home mums and anyone who has kids knows how expensive they are lol 🙂
There’s no way I would price a product at thousands of dollars, as I know this would be so out of reach for many of my mums…
I want to help as many mums as possible, no matter what their financial situation and so I want to make sure the products I create are totally affordable.
The great thing about smaller products too, is they’re easier to digest (great for the customer) and means you can create more products (great for you).
The worst thing you can do is price yourself out of the market and this is why market and customer research is so, so important, so you don’t waste your time.
As with offering a service, once your digital product is completed and you have set a price, it’s time to get it out in the world and promote it.
The same rules apply as I mentioned before – write posts about it, add them to your menu tab, guest post, add to relevant (and most importantly, to groups that allow you to promote) Facebook groups, email your list if you have one, put together social posts…
Do everything you can to get the word out about your new and amazing product.
#3 - Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing will always be a fab way to earn money, especially for bloggers.
There’s so many awesome tools, products and resources out there we love and want to share and we can do just that AND make some money from it!
Most tools and software offer affiliate programs you can join, so I really recommend you do this when you start your blog.
TIP – I do have one tip I want to share on this. ONLY promote products and resources you actually use or have used and love! You should never just promote any old thing because you want to earn money, or you see other people promoting it.
I always feel you can’t properly evaluate a product or give a full, transparent and honest account of it if you don’t use it yourself.
You owe it to your readers to provide them with trustworthy and reliable information that’s true – especially if you’re asking them to pay for it!
Although I link to a lot of resources from my blog, there isn’t one thing I promote that I’m not using myself.
All the courses I share on my resources page are ones I’ve gone through, completed and loved myself.
All the products I share, are what I used or have used day in, day out…
I would never want to promote anything I haven’t used, as I’d feel so dishonest and wouldn’t be able to answer any questions my readers may want to ask.
So with all that said, let’s take a look at how you can include affiliate marketing within your monetization strategy…
Courses or Products you’ve completed and gone through
So I mentioned above that I promote and recommend a few courses I’ve personally gone through and love and you can do this too!
If something has really helped you or changed your life, then wouldn’t it be wonderful to not only share that with others but be able to make some money from it as well.
A lot of entrepreneurs, creators and other marketers online have affiliate programs, allowing you to get paid a commission for every sale you make.
If you can’t see anywhere mentioning an affiliate program, you can always reach out and ask… You never know, they may not have thought about it and will let you promote it.
Sign up to affiliate platforms
No matter what niche you’re in, you can pretty much guarantee there’ll be an affiliate program for you to sign up to and use.
An affiliate marketing network is where companies who have products and services to sell are connected with publishers such as influencers and bloggers etc…
The influencers and bloggers will then promote those products and services by giving reviews, creating content and sharing it with their audience!
Then, when a sale is made, a percentage of that sale goes to the influencer/blogger etc.
It’s pretty straightforward and there’s stacks of networks out there to choose from and join.
Some of the main contenders include:
CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction)
Impact (for me this holds, Canva + Tailwinds programs)
Awin (formerly Affiliate Window)
Each of the above holds products within all kinds of niches, from gardening to horses.
All you need to do is look into networks that house products related to your niche and then sign up and join the networks.
They all have different rules and requirements for joining, so you’ll need to look into each platform individually.
Again and this is really important, it’s always best to promote something you’re using or have used and love.
A lot of things I promote are under a few of the above big networks and they’re forever sending me requests from companies to promote different things, however, I don’t take them up because I don’t know what they are and whether they’re any good.
Having your own affiliate program
I briefly want to mention having your own affiliate program once you’ve got a couple of products created and selling.
Allowing other bloggers and content creators to share your products and courses with their audience is a great way to not only make an income for yourself, but it can really help other mummy bloggers to make their first income online…
If this is something you want to do in the future, you can apply to one of the big networks above, or you can set courses up to make affiliate sales using WordPress plugins or on platforms such as:
It really can be amazing having your own affiliate program knowing you’re not only making money but helping other mums to make money too.
That’s all I want to say about affiliate marketing within this post because it really is fairly simple to get set up & started.
The best thing to do for monetisation is to have a mix of all the things I’ve talked about, so your eggs aren’t all in one basket…
You don’t have to do it all at once though…
Maybe start with offering a service, then you can add in some affiliate products and then move on to creating your own product.
Eventually, you can have all three incorporated and even several of all three!
So there you have it – 3 easy ways to start making money blogging (even on a brand new blog)
Offer a service
Create your own digital product
Affiliate Marketing
If you incorporate all of these things, you’ll have several different income streams making you money.
As you grow, use more tools and create more products, you’ll be able to include even more streams of income, including sponsored posts and ads etc...
