Have an Actual Website

First things first, you need a blog in order to start making money. But we aren't talking about a blog that's attached to a WordPress or Blogger domain. You know, the "myblog.wordpress.com" domain.

In order to start making money, you need to look serious in the eyes of your visitors. And unfortunately, not having a domain that's solely yours won't cut it.

You need to invest a little bit of cash. A domain and hosting are very important.

But if you're not tech-savvy, don't worry. You can easily build your own site with hosting included through platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace, to name a few.

Promote Your Blog

Bloggers often have a mentality of "if I build it, they will come." Simply put, that kind of mindset won't get you more traffic. And more traffic, in this case, equals more money.

You'll need to hop off your site to seek out readers. Promotion is key to attracting more of your target audience.

Social media, forums, and guest posting will become your new best friends.

Social media allows for constant promotion while forum sites allow you to connect with like-minded people. Guest posting gives you the opportunity to collaborate with other bloggers while gaining traffic from another source.

The point of promotion is so you can attract more readers to your site. The more readers you have, the better.

You'll learn what they're looking for in terms of products and/or services. Then, you can use that information to develop items they'll be interested in purchasing.

Develop Products

Now that we went over the two important ways to set yourself up for success, let's go over the actual ways to make money blogging.

For starters, you can develop products. These can either be tangible like a clothing line or beauty products. Or, they can be digital like ebooks or courses.

Whichever route you decide to take, one thing is certain: you want to make a profit. If your products are handmade then watching your margins are crucial.

To avoid going into debt (you can learn more about that here), you'll want to charge what your product is actually worth. Don't worry about pleasing buyers with price. Instead, what you're offering should appeal most to them.

Same goes for digital products. Calculate the time and labor invested in order to craft an ebook or create courses.

If you remember one thing from this, it should be to never undersell yourself.

Affiliate Marketing

If you're not a blogging veteran but rather just starting out, it's best to start off slow. Affiliate marketing is great for newcomers and veterans alike simply because you can promote the products you like and use.

Product reviews, how-to's and DIY's are a few ways to incorporate affiliate links within your posts.

When someone either clicks or buys a product that you mentioned, you either get a cut of the purchase price or a set amount per click. It pretty much works like commission.

To nail affiliate marketing, you want to list products you actually use. Readers can spot when a review of a product isn't honest. With that being said, write about items you truly love and have been using either consistently or for a long time.

And don't worry if it's not what everyone else is promoting. It can be easy to get swept up in the latest products that all hotshot bloggers are writing about. But stick to what you know and use and chances are, you'll start gaining a better income because of it.

Allow Ads

Before we get into more detail, know this: allowing ads won't make you a significant income. That said, it's best to allow advertisers you know and trust onto your site. And most importantly, limit the number of ads throughout your blog.

Using a trusted source like Google Ads (previously known as Adwords) is a good idea. Not only will they pair you with other trusted advertisers but there are several types of advertising options they offer.

As stated above, it's best to not add a lot of ads to your site. It'll end up cheapening the whole look of it rather than help it.

A good place to include advertisements is below the fold. This is the place on your site where users have to scroll down to see.

Offer Services

You started a blog, right? That gives you grounds to start offering services such as coaching, consulting, and freelancing.

With coaching, you can guide eager new bloggers on the way to success. You can teach them the tactics you used to gain a readership and ways to keep their content fresh and exciting.

If coaching isn't your thing, try consulting instead. Consultants work with owners who have already established themselves as bloggers. Your job would be to conduct audits on their site and content to see what can be improved.

Coaching nor consulting sound like something you'd want to do?

How about freelancing or design work? You can write for other blogs or help design websites for up and coming bloggers.

Whichever service you choose to provide, make it something people will pay for. And again, be sure to charge what you're worth.