How to make money from blogging | Kellie O'Brien Media

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I was asked last week how I’ve gone about monetising my blogs. A part of my answer was included on StartUp Smart, Smart Company and Women’s Agenda.

However, I thought I would share a little more of how blogging has enabled me to reach this point in my business.

My blogs have never been seen as `big blogs’ as far as traffic, but they’ve always had incredibly engaged readers and created a great income. That’s been more important to me.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM PERSONAL BLOGGING

My personal blog Three Li’l Princesses started in December 2009 and was making money within about four to six months of starting up. However, I didn’t find blog advertising particularly effective. I think I read how even the New York Times doesn’t see the online advertising model as effective, despite their level of traffic.

On the other hand, sponsored posts and brand ambassadorship were incredibly successful – for me and the advertiser. To me, it’s no different to writing an advertising feature in a newspaper, as long as it’s disclosed.

I was asked by a blogger this week how I gained so many sponsorship opportunities for my personal blog. Really, all I did was just let companies and PRs who were aligned with my brand know I was interested. It was as simple as that. I was blogging five times a week with a lot of reader interaction at that time. I don’t blog every day anymore! As you probably guessed by looking at Kellie O’Brien Media.

The key though was getting OFF my blog and building relationships with people on their blogs, in forums and on social media. I also spent about 20% of my blogging time creating content and 80% sharing it – and still do this today. Lastly, it’s always been important for me to entice readers to sign up to my newsletter to continue nurturing a relationship with them via email. This has been particularly powerful for me.

Later, I teamed with the newspaper I worked for to turn my humorous weekly parenting columns into an ebook. I sold this via the blog, which allowed me automated revenue.

BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS

My personal blog then attracted the attention of a corporate and I became a freelance writer for its blog. This wasn’t something I sought or even promoted as a service. It’s a great opportunity for seasoned writers who want to bring in more income.

I’m now focusing more on this business blog and bundling my skills to offer digital products and coaching in online marketing. As you wander around this blog, you’ll probably notice you can buy or book a session with me direct from this blog.

I then use blog posts to build the “know, like and trust” factor with readers, which means the process of them turning into a customer happens organically. People email or pick up the phone and talk to me as if they already know me, even though I often have no idea who they are! But I think that’s lovely.

HOW YOU CAN START BLOGGING

I guess ultimately for me – regardless of whether I’m making money from sponsored posts, digital products, info products, freelancing, speaking or coaching – creating an in-depth profile of my ideal customer/reader has made attracting my target market through blogging relatively easy. It’s what I attribute much of my success to.

I now write content and create products/programs for one specific reader – instead of trying to target everyone. My target market feels like I’m writing just for them.

After tweeting out one of my blog posts last year, I actually received a tweet back that read:

“wow, your timing is impeccable. Are you in my head?’’!

Do you have a blog? What prompted you to start blogging?
If you’d love to learn more about increasing your reach and revenue with blogging, Facebook and email marketing, learn more about my social media coaching package.