If you want to know how to make money from blogging, try out some of these top tips:

• Sell advertising space on your blog
• Link to other websites for a fee
• Set up events, conferences and workshops
• Offer a subscription with exclusive content
• Sell physical products to go alongside the blog

The internet is a wonderful thing. It can be used to keep in touch with old friends and connect with new ones, it can be used to share funny videos of animals, and more recently, it can be used to make money. Learning how to make money online can help immensely in this day and age – and blogging is no exception. Mr Lender, a leading UK based short term loan provider, has put together a guide to help you learn how to make money by blogging.

Start a blog

The first step to making money from blogging is to set up a blog, if you haven’t got one already. There are plenty of websites which allow you to set up a blog for free, where you will get your own domain name and access to plenty of different layouts for you to design and play with until you find what works for you. Websites such as WordPress are free to sign up to – if you want the basic package – but you can pay extra to have a domain name which doesn’t include ‘wordpress’. This not only makes your blog look more professional, but it’s also fairly cheap, with packages starting at £2.50 per month.

Once you have set up your blog, you will want to make a decision about what it is you’re going to be writing about. The best blogs tend to help solve a problem, or help the readers in some way. Whether that is by helping to relieve a fear, teaching something new, or simply entertaining the reader – the blog needs to serve a purpose. By writing content which focuses on one particular subject, you are likely to gain a larger, loyal following if you are able to write about it well.

Another tip for starting out as a blogger, is always strive to know more about your topic. It’s almost impossible to know everything there is to know about one single topic – there will always be something new to learn. So keep learning!

Sell advertising space

If you blog about a particular topic, and have quite a good following, you can sell advertising space on your blog. Many bloggers today will allow other companies to advertise on their site for a fee – usually in the form of a side bar advert, or an advert at the bottom of the page.

If  you don’t have very many followers, Google Adsense may also be an option to consider. With Google Adsense, you have the freedom to choose which style ads you want to appear on your website, and where you would like them to sit on the page. Once a reader clicks on the ad, you receive commission. Google Adsense are usually fairly easy to get involved with, while other ad networks can be a little more selective about who they accept. Other ad networks include Blogads, Beacon ads, Media.net and Rivit.

Making money on Google Adsense works better if you are writing about a particular topic. This means you are more likely to have a following who have an interest in your niche subject, so advertisers will be able to target people who have a genuine interest in what they’re offering. For example, if you blog about knitting, advertisers promoting wool, or a new brand of needles will be able to target readers who are more likely to click on the ad and make a purchase.

Link to other websites for a fee

Today, Google position is a great determiner for how reputable a company is. One way that businesses are boosting their Google position is by getting links back to their website on other reputable sites. This means that as a blogger, you can make money by charging businesses to include a link in one of your posts. You can even charge a little more by writing the copy yourself.

You could also make money by working with an affiliate. This is where you include a link to a product or service on your blog, then if a reader makes a purchase by clicking on the link in your post, you will earn commission. Of course, this will certainly work best if you have quite a large following on your blog.

Sell your content

If committing to your own blog is a little too much for you to handle right away, consider blogging for other websites for a fee. Contact blogs and websites who you feel you could write for, and ask them if they would be willing to pay you to write a few articles for them. You may not always be successful, but the ones which are successful are sure to bring in a little bit of money. Once you have written a few, you will begin to build contacts and the work will start to trickle in.

Set up events

You can make money indirectly from your blog, by setting up events, conferences and workshops, and charging a fee for the tickets. If you’re a bit of an expert in your field, you could set up an event where you talk and give advice on your topic. If your area of expertise is a little more hands on, you could set up a workshop and charge people to attend.

Offer a subscription service

Offering a subscription service, where your readers have access to exclusive content is another great way to make money from your blog. This is another option which would work better if you have a large following, but it could certainly work if you have a small following too. You could charge your readers a small fee to subscribe where they will receive regular updates, and posts which only they can see. You could even send out gifts around the holidays too to entice more people to subscribe.

Sell products to go alongside the blog

Depending on the type of blog you run, and the amount of followers you have, you could make money by selling products through your blog. This might include eBooks, or digital guides, giving help and advice on the topic of your blog. You may even decide to sell your own products through the blog if you have your own business.

How to make money from blogging

While all of these tips will help you to make money from your blog, the best way to make money is to try them all out. Mix and match a few different tips until you find a money making combination which works for you. Maybe even combine your blog with social media, and make money from Instagram too. The best way to get people interested in what you have to say, is to promote your blog on social media by sharing your content as much as possible. Building up an army on social media will in turn encourage more people to read and follow your blog.

One key factor to making money from blogging is to stay on top of it. There is no point investing all that time and effort, only to lose your followers and not make any money from it. If you truly want to make money from blogging, you need to update your blog regularly and never take your eye off the ball. Decide which day you want to post your blog on, and stick to it. This could be once a week on a Wednesday, or three times a week on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The key is to keep it consistent so your readers know when to expect your latest blog post.

Another great tip is to start off small. You won’t be making millions over night, so expect to keep blogging as a side business to begin with. Once you perfect your money making techniques and figure out what works best for you, you can then build on this and start to gradually earn more money. But don’t be surprised if blogging stays as a second job – there are plenty of professional bloggers who have thousands of followers, but still keep blogging as a side business. So start blogging, have fun, and watch the hard work pay off.