Creating a Blog and Using It to Make Side Income Through Revenue Models Ie Ads, Affiliate Marketing, Subscription

u/Chemika

Blogging for side income ($100 a month unreasonable to strive for?)

I first posted this in r/personalfinance, but r/blogging might be able to give me some more specifics.

So I've been thinking about creating a blog and using it to make side income. Here are my goals for the blog:
• Write about things that are on my mind that I come across in my day to day life. For example, maybe on giving to charity, politics, science, DIY, relationship goals/problems, family goals/problems, etc. Sort of like Reddit ya know? Where it's just people posting questions that are pertinent to their life and hoping others will want to listen. The same sort of thing. Unfortunately, Reddit has a large audience while my blog most likely won't, so that sort of limits who will see it and thus the blog's "success".
• I think writing could be a useful tool to have. I write a decent amount (or at least every now and then) for my job. But writing on topics not related to work might be a good opportunity to widen my vocabulary, how I need to appeal to people, etc.
• Having my thoughts out and seeing if my thoughts, advice, questions, etc can help others and perhaps help myself (through input from the readers).
• Generate some income. I'm not looking for a lot. But being able to generate $100 a month would be great lol.

Anyone already doing this sort of blog thing? Has it worked out for you? How did you get started? How much do you make a month? Are my goals reasonable?

I'm not looking to make this something I do every day for hours. Rather, at most, once an evening for an hour max. More of a hobby then anything else. At least initially.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Critiques? Thanks to everyone!
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Unknwing
It's a reasonable amount but may not come immediately. May take a few months of work depending on how much content you put out.

It also depends on the revenue model (ads, affiliate marketing, subscription, etc). You may need to spend some money on advertising to get traffic flowing. You'll also need to implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or hire someone to do it for you.

$100/month is very obtainable but there will be work to put in first

expatfreedom
Where do you place paid ads usually? Is commenting on other blogs and creating an Instagram a good free strategy?

How many readers do you typically need before you can see $100 a month of using a combination of Adsense and amazon affiliate links?

levchikb
To get $100/mo you will need 100-300 visitors a day from US … and also a somewhat high Cost Per Click (CPC) … if you are going for "inspiring quotes" type blog, you will need much more traffic that 300/day. I wouldn't :)
henrykene
High search volume keyword with good CPC research is a very important factor to consider in this case.

Especially when the source of revenue has to come from adsense

levchikb
So you won't see $100/mo right away. However you can see a lot more than that, if you stick with the program :) … that is keep on blogging. Eventually most sites start to rank, and get traffic.

I had a site that was getting 1500 visitors/day and was making over $3000 / mo. But I put a lot of work into it, as far as content. It did start to rank very fast – I quit my local business, went on 35 days vacation, come back – it's getting 600 people per day… Then came Panda/Penguin and traffic was gone :)

So I built a new site, no crappy link exchanges, only quality content. Been working on it since <year> … it grew VERY SLOW … took a year to get to 500 visits/day. But then it started increasing by 500-700 daily visits every January :)

Now site gets over 3000/day traffic, and makes very good money. Every 2-3 months I get unsolicited offers to sell it for $50,000-100,000 (and some idiot offered me $1700)

Bottom line … it's not only possible – it is very much the norm for folks who don't give up after 2-3 weeks. I've been living off online incomes for past 8 years (when I quit my local business). Large chunk of my income is Adsense – I buy sites with traffic and put my Adsense on them.

So definitely go for it!

In the beginning you will want to do AdSense ads, after you reach 100 people a day consistently. When traffic grows to 300-500/day, start exploring Affiliate offers that fit your best ranking (top traffic) pages, and see how you can tie them in. Don't build content around specific affiliate offers, but build content that you can include affiliate products into.

As for ads – this is how I typically double my investment sites ad revenue: https://www.adsenseninja.com/double-adsense-earnings/
I find sites that have good traffic and poor ad placement. By improving ads, you can 2x or 3x income, without increasing traffic :)

Good luck – stay positive, and persistent

Chemika ✍️
Thanks a lot for the really detailed reply. You're convincing me that I should push forward and that it might really be worth while. :) congrats on the progress you've made. You clearly know your stuff. Keep up the good work!!

tiffixies
You can collaborate with brands, write and sell product reviews, post affiliate product. I will recommmend Phlanx influencer marketing platform. They have the marketing tools there.
Chemika ✍️
I like what you suggesting. I guess I'm worried that I will "run out of things to talk about" for one topic. But I guess I could start with one broad topic like "cutting edge science" and then work my way to something else if I get bored. Thanks for the advice!

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