Being able to earn an extra income while blogging is such an achievement. But in my case, blogging is a hobby that keeps me sane from the very hectic schedule at work. I’ve been writing online on my blogs since 2006 and I am still enjoying what I do. Eventually, as time went by, I gained a huge number of readers and followers, and many establishments asked me to feature their products and services on the website. In exchange, they sent me tokens or offered me payments for an extra income.
How I Earn Extra Income While Blogging
It was never my primary intention to ask for money in return for my writing. However, I have learned that it is also a good way to earn extra while doing the things that I am passionate about. In the first place, there are also quite a lot of things that I am responsible for paying in cash (which I will talk about, in other part of this discussion).
Aside from accepting writing assignments, I also started to do the following things to help me generate income while blogging. I can share with you five (5) ways on how I earn while I do blogging:
Google Adsense
I signed up for Google Adsense in 2006. This platform lets you embed banners and advertisements from third-party companies on your blog. When your setup became active, advertising banners and images will be displayed on specific parts of your website depending on where you put them. Once your readers click a banner from your blog, they will be redirected to the advertiser’s website. When they do that, Google will pay you a specific percentage or amount per click.
There are many internal procedures that must be considered, as the validity of the clicks done on the banners you put up. I am not very technical on how Google randomly picks a certain banner to be displayed on your website, but basically, the advertisement will be relevant to your content or the Internet address of your readers.
The minimum threshold of your eligibility to cash out your earnings with Google Adsense is $100. You can also adjust the value of the threshold above the minimum requirement. This is applicable to those bloggers who already earn more with the platform.
With my experiences, my first cash out happened seven years after I initially signed up. The next one was a year after that. I was also able to reach the minimum required amount within 6 months of the previous cash out.
However, there are a lot of things that you need to do to be able to “pass” the initial sign up, as well as the granting the ability to set up banners on your website or blog. Nowadays, Google became very strict with implementing application rules.
Some of my friends who also blog haven’t been approved for their application up to this day. This is due to past incidents where applicants abuse the opportunity to display advertising banners on their websites.
Event Invites and Coverage
I receive invites from local establishments to cover their events. What I do is take pictures of the event and write about my experiences and talk about them on my website and feature the photos I took. These events can vary. They can be a new store opening, new product launching, food taste testing events, concert or music shows, stage plays, vicinity tours, and press conferences and seminars.
What I earn from these event invites and coverage are tokens from different establishments. I am also offered to be paid in cash depending on the length of exposure they wanted to have on the website/blog and the frequency of sharing the published content on social media.
Sometimes, I am not paid. However, I am using the opportunity to my advantage as a blogger to be able to gain more readers on my website since this can help me update my content as frequently as possible.
Sponsored Posts
From what I’ve mentioned earlier in the introductions, I have been receiving writing assignments from companies that wanted to be featured on my websites. Usually, they provide pre-written materials or they wanted me to write about their products and services and present them to my readers. The service I offer is more likely to advertise them on my website to help these parties get more exposure online or offline (word of mouth).
The arrangement can be done through online promotions on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Of course, they will avail of this specific type of service from you if you have a huge following. This is very important as a way to make sure that advertisers get more readers through your blog.
With sponsored posts, I usually earn by writing articles with photos and contact details. Also included are links redirected to their official website or social media accounts. But sometimes, I receive tokens or items with the same or higher value from the basic honorarium fee.
The amount offered will depend on how good your website is performing regarding page views and visits. The frequency of updating your website/blog will also affect this.
Sponsored posts are most of the time written in a positive tone; different from a product review where you have the flexibility to say whatever you want with the products and services they provide to potential consumers.
Affiliates
You can also earn promoting online products and services. This is done by setting up affiliate links on your website/blog. When your readers click these links, they will be redirected to the advertiser’s website. Once they successfully purchase any product or avail the services being offered, you will get a commission.
Online shops like Lazada, and other online shops offer affiliate marketing. This will help them gain more visitors who will potentially purchase from their online store.
Currently, I am earning every other month. There are different thresholds set from online stores and payments can be done in many ways as well: Paypal, Wire Transfer via banks, Checks and more.
Partnership or Sponsorship
I am fortunate enough to gain trust from leading companies and establishments to partner with me on my blog. With the partnership, an agreement was arranged on how I can promote and advertise them. These companies let me experience the products and services they offer and in return, I feature these things on my website/blog. Sometimes, I was invited to travel and attend conventions and seminars to cover their events, as well as attend conferences or training.
The sponsorship is a long-term deal and I usually benefit from their services on a regular basis, every year. Their business logos are also displayed on the website as part of the agreement.
I earn extra income and cash incentives from these companies and would write about their new products on my website when they asked me to do so. And most of the time, I can also receive free stuff from them that I can personally use and review or for giveaways on my website.
The most challenging part when dealing with partnership and sponsorship is you should always make yourself available for events. In the case of other bloggers who have day jobs, it can be difficult to manage the schedule at work as well as being present at the events.
The Gist
If your primary intention why you start blogging is just to have an online space, it can be challenging at first if along the way your mindset changes with the opportunities of having to earn extra income. I cannot put myself in this situation because I started blogging as a hobby and companies started contacting me if they can advertise on my blog. The chances of getting paid and earning extra income are secondary to my purpose.
I am thankful, though, that I earn from my passion because believe me or not, you also need to sustain things to maintain your website. Keep in mind that web hosting products are gradually increasing in price, as well as yearly domain name registration fees.
There are others who are settling for free hosting accounts like Blogspot or WordPress.com. However, there are more possibilities that sooner or later that you need to get the paid version of hosting due to demand and flexibility of what you can do versus the free one.
The Challenging Part
Always remember that earning extra while blogging is not a monthly basis (considering that I am not a full-time blogger). Sometimes, I get a huge amount of money in a month. On the other times, I get less or nothing (other publishing even ended up absolutely free—with no payments or tokens involved).
From what I have emphasized earlier, I always grab these opportunities of not getting paid for blogging. The materials they sent me will add content to my blog so I can update it and get more traffic and page views, which in return, more followers and readers.
I want to make this clear that this discussion is not about how to earn money in blogging as a primary purpose. What I have here is telling you how I earned extra money while I am blogging as a hobby.
ALSO READ: How To Start Your Blog
Blogging, for me, is not my primary business. But if I see a brighter future in it and it can sustain my needs, I think I am on that path of considering blogging as my source of earning extra income. If it can also let me be more flexible like travel and meet new people, why not.
If you wish to get more published articles like this in the future, follow my Facebook Page and my Twitter. And sometimes, I take random photos on Instagram.