Making Money Online
As many of you may know, I recently started working full-time as a freelancer and it has been an incredible journey. It has also been a very eye-opening journey. I think I’ve learnt a lot more about what it takes to work online, how to make the best of it and more.
I know a lot of bloggers tend to blog because it’s such a wonderful creative outlet and I think WordPress can be a fantastic place to share your content with a supportive audience. However, I know that a lot of bloggers out there would also like to make some money off blogging. I have gotten a pretty large number of emails, DM’s and comments asking me about that very topic.
Although I do have another post about How To Make Money Online and one about How To Make Money Blogging, I thought I would write another post about making money online since these posts are older. I wrote them before I started working as a freelancer and I think I have learnt a lot more about working online now so I have more wisdom to impart (not in general just with this topic…)
It has been a very long time since I made my first $1000 online and it was seriously exciting. I created my blog as an outlet and never thought I would make any money off it, let alone work online full-time. Although as someone majoring in history which has like zero work opportunities because everyone I know so much about is dead I should have seen it coming. I was so excited and even saved some for my tattoos which I then ended up getting years later but that’s a story for another day.
I made my first thousand dollars when I had significantly less followers, no idea what SEO even was, did not blog regularly at all, had no niche and had much less traffic coming in. The reason I’m telling you this is because I know a lot of people think it’s not possible to make money online unless you have a huge following or are really good with internet stuff but that’s just not true.
The tips I’m going to share can work for anyone regardless of how many followers you have, how often you post content, your niche etc. So without anymore chitchat, here are some tips on how you can make your first $1000 online:
Research
When it come to making money online I cannot emphasise enough just how important doing your research is. If you don’t pick up anything else from this post and simply scroll through please pick up this one thing- RESEARCH!
If you know your niche and are set on it, make sure you do some research about that niche or perhaps niches if you plan on creating content relating to multiple niches. Whether you’re a blogger or do social media, look at content created by others for the same niche, look at more popular content creators in your niche and look at what type of content they post, who their sponsors are, what tags they use and more.
Don’t copy the content they make or even their style in any way. This just makes you look like a fraud. Instead learn from them and create your own style and voice from what you have learnt.
More importantly, reach out to the people you have seen sponsoring people that produce similar content and simply ask them if they would be open to working with you as well. Some will say no but some will also say yes! If they say no, tell them to keep you in mind if they are ever looking for more content creators to work with. Most sponsors do look for content creators to work with on a regular basis and this is a great way to get your name out there. With so many content creators these days, you need to do whatever it takes to get your name out there.
If you’re concerned that you have too few followers for sponsors to take you seriously, just remember that micro-influencers are a thing now.
Don’t Wait
This tip ties in with the last one. I always tell anyone that asks me about making money online not to wait for work to come to you but to actively seek it out. Like I mentioned earlier, there are literally thousands of other content creators out there. Some bigger than you and some smaller.
There are so many content creators and only so many brands/services/sponsors that want to work with content creators. You need to get your name to them and make sure that as many potential sponsors as possible know who you are whether you create content on your blog, social media, other platforms or just on all platforms.
First, you can do your research and reach out to sponsors who you see working with people in your niche like I mentioned earlier. Other than that, there are also some fantastic platforms out there that help connect content creators with people looking to work with these creators, Some examples are HashtagPaid and Afluencer.
Other than these platforms, you can also join things like Fiverr or Upwork where you can also meet potential clients. A benefit of these platforms is that you can offer specific services and set your own price.
I have been able to work with a number of wonderful clients, sponsors and even repeat clients/sponsors thanks to wonderful platforms like these. They are incredibly helpful especially when you are starting our and don’t have too many followers yet.
Know Your Worth
This is a big one for me because I have seen so many content creators being screwed over by brands/sponsors/clients. A lot of times, people will lowball you if you seem as though you don’t know too much about how much people are generally paid on average for certain things. They may even try to get you to do something for free that other people are getting paid to do.
For example, I am sure some of you have gotten emails asking for you to add a link to an existing post or use an infographic on your post or post a guest post they’re giving you for free, you just need to add a do-follow link for them on that post. All those are people trying to get you to give them backlinks for free when people out there are getting paid a good amount to add backlinks. Don’t be afraid to charge people for stuff like that (if you want).
Produce High Quality Content
The last tip is simple. Produce high quality content that people would be willing to pay for. It doesn’t matter if you publish something once a day or once a month. As long as it’s good quality, SEO friendly and something people would want to sponsor/buy you will be able to make money off your content. Even if not right now, you’ll be able to make money in the future when you have made more of a name for yourself. The quality of the content you put out always matters and it’s something people definitely take into consideration before deciding to work with you.
Conclusion
I know some of you probably expected me to include affiliate marketing on this list but truth be told I find affiliate marketing somewhat annoying. Firstly, you need a good amount of followers and traffic to make decent money for most affiliate programs. And even if you do, you are spending some much time and effort just so you can get a VERY LOW percentage of the profit? That feels like exploitation to me. If that’s your thing, that’s great, I’m just not a fan myself.
I have a lot more tips for making money online but I didn’t want this post to get crazy long. If you’re interested in me sharing more tips on this topic please let me know in the comments below so that I know whether to share more tips in the future. If people aren’t that interested I’ll just keep my tips to myself lol!
Related Posts
How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Blog
How To Get Your First 1000 Followers
How To Grow Your Blog In A Week
For more blogging advice posts please click here.
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