Photo: Frank Gruber / Flickr

Is it possible to make money out of blogging? Steve Pavlina believes it is, as long ‘your blog provides genuine value’. He goes on to say that if you do provide your readers with great value, ‘you fully deserve to earn income from it.’ To make a success of your blog, it’s important to write about what you know and about what you’re learning. Don’t be afraid to share your mistakes and yourself because readers want to know about you.

The difference between affiliate marketing and blogging

Affiliate marketers are businesses that drive traffic to merchants. Blogging isn’t necessarily seen as business but that doesn’t mean money can’t be earned from a blog on the side. Success can come from applying affiliate marketing strategies to your own site.

More tips from Steve Pavlina

The reality seems to be that most bloggers who try to earn an income from their blogs end up failing. Steve Pavlina’s solution to this problem is to be bold: ‘if you decide to generate income from your blog, then don’t be shy about it.’ You’ve got to be courageous about it otherwise you’ll be wasting your time.

‘If you’re going to put up ads, then really put up ads. Don’t just stick a puny little ad square in a remote corner somewhere.’

Get web savvy and persevere

The most successful bloggers have been at it for a good few years. Many professional bloggers have been working at blogging for 10 years or so. Keep writing, learning, editing and sharing over the long term and you’ll increase the chances of turning a hobby into a profession.

Get web savvy, work out your strategy and persevere. Once you’re being compensated for your efforts, it’s important to keep a balance between respecting your readers and over-populating your blog with ads.

Keep it in mind that it’s not all about good writing. Being a good writer helps but it’s not going to earn you much income if you’re not driving traffic to your site. You can do this by linking to other blogs, for example.

Tags: career, money, writing