A blog is the way in which many people establish their very first online presence and it can be addictive. The thrill of sharing your thoughts, opinions, and expertise on-line can be very rewarding. For others, it is a natural progression from their social media accounts. They feel that they want a larger platform where they can share their opinions in more detail and can provide resources for their readers. A personal blog is an obvious place to do that.

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At some point, most bloggers toy with the idea of making money from their blogs. This is not for everyone. It may require a shift in emphasis that you are not comfortable with. On the other hand, it can turn into a useful additional income or even a full-time income if you are prepared to work hard. Many parents of young children find it an attractive prospect as they can fit the business around the needs of their family. If you have begun to consider making money from your blog, here are 10 top tips for how you can do just that.

1. Choose if you want to accept sponsored posts

This is a great way to make money from your blog. Companies pay you to publish content. In most cases, it is already written for you and will be relevant to your readers. Sometimes you have the opportunity to write it yourself. This can be a source or regular income and requires little input from yourself.

1. Affiliate links can earn an income

These are links to another company website. When someone clicks on that link and buys something from the company you get a small percentage of the sale. Again, once you have set this up on your blog, it requires very little effort from you. However, you are making a lot of effort attracting visitors and it is not you that is making most money from them.

1. Selling something yourself

If you like the idea of selling something yourself, rather than helping other companies to do so, you could decide on a product. This needs to be in-line with the culture of your blog. You have the choice of selling a digital or a physical product. You can set up your own store as part of your blog or you can link to an external store such as Etsy. Most bloggers start off using a site like Etsy and then establish their own store once it becomes successful. You do not need any capital outlay and someone else deals with the sales technology for you. However, you do need to pay a percentage of the sale to them for hosting your products.

1. Selling digital products

You can sell digital products with very little capital outlay and so this is where a lot of bloggers start.  It is relatively simple to produce printable sheets, resource lists and guides in any niche if you have a word processor. It is easy to use programmes such as Canva (which is free) to make attractive infographics and charts. If you have a lot to say you can even publish your own ebook.

1. Selling physical products

Selling physical products requires some more thought. Do you want to handle all of the sales yourself or hand it over to a third party like Amazon? If you handle it yourself, you get all the hassle but at least you are in control. If you hand it over, and things go wrong, you can be blamed when it was not your fault.

1. Deciding what you should sell

Physical products cost money to despatch and can go wrong. If you are inexperienced it may be best to avoid electrical items as the market for these is already overcrowded and highly competitive. It may be best to stick to small and lightweight products that have your logo. These can also help to spread awareness of your blog and increase traffic to your site.

1. Without traffic you cannot make money

You do not need to have millions of visitors to make money but without any traffic you cannot hope to make any money at all. Every blogger aims to increase traffic. You can get traffic directly, from people who are actively searching for you. You can get traffic from social media and this may be something that you want to handle yourself. The problem with social media traffic is that these visitors are in the mood to read something and not buy something! The traffic that you get from internet searches is the best because these people are actively looking for a product.

1. Getting traffic from searches

This is where you should get some help to get you started. This seo company can help you to effectively use marketing services to make your business grow. They will guide you in how you can bring your business to the attention of prospective customers. Then, they can help you to convert those visitors into paying customers which is your ultimate aim!

1. Don’t let quality slip

You need to remember why you started the blog in the first place. All blogs need high-quality content to make them successful. Your readers come to you because they want something. They may want to be entertained, informed or encouraged. If you stop providing that service they will no longer come to your blog and your traffic numbers will fall.

1. Be consistent

Maintaining a successful blog is hard work. There is a lot that has to be done on a regular basis. You have to produce content, share on social media and network with other bloggers. Publishing 10 articles one week and nothing the next is not going to help make your blog a success. At some stage, this will become too much for one person to cope with. Find a team that you can trust. Buy in the expertise that you don’t have. Only then can you take your blog to the next level.