Still Can’t Make Money Blogging? – 9 Eye-Opening Reasons Why!
You started out to make money blogging,
you have taken out time to create a few blog posts, you have added beautiful images to them and took the big step of clicking the big blue “publish” button…
But asides the occasional visit to your blog from your mom or your friends you told about your recent blog post, nobody is reading your posts..
Talk less of clicking on an affiliate link for you to be able to make any reasonable money from it…
Why is this…?
In today’s post we are going to be looking at the top 9 reasons why you still can’t make money blogging even when you are really trying….
If you are ready to make money blogging, let’s get straight to it….
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Why You Still Can’t Make Money Blogging
1. You Can’t Make Money Blogging If You Still Don’t Know Who Your Target Audience Is
Yes!….this is a real thing….
When i first started out blogging 2 years ago, I just wanted to write and write and write….
About whatever I wanted…
I was pushing out blog posts almost everyday based on what I wanted or what I thought my readers wanted to read….
After doing this for some months….it didn’t take me long to realise that…i was the only one who actually wanted to read what I was putting out…
And so I decided to change my strategy and to ask the question, “what do my readers want to see?’, who are they?, What age are they?, and most importantly…”where do they spend most of their time?”
Answering these questions helps you find out who your target audience is and helps you better create content that match their needs…
and knowing where they spend their time and adjusting your promotion techniques to target those places brings your content to the right people who are looking for them…
Think about it this way….the internet is the ocean and your content is a specific type of creature in the ocean, say sharks.
Now we know that sharks love seals and seals in this illustration would be your target audience and your blog, the shark.
Sharks can’t find seals….because they don’t stay in the same place..
So the sharks have to migrate to where the seals are to find find them….
If the sharks keep waiting for the seals to come, that will probably never happen
That’s the same way you need to go after your audience.
Knowing who your target audience is and doing everything you can to reach them is one very important thing you must do if you want to make money blogging.
2. You Haven’t Invested In Any Blogging Course Or EBook
It’s okay to start out blogging having no money and simply figuring out your way..
I know I started out the same way too!
But to be able to make money blogging, it has to be more than that…
You are going to have to take it a lot more seriously…
You need to start to see your blog as your business and yourself as the manager.
And just like every other manager out there, you need to make decisions that will affect your business positively…..
This can be anything from, investing in a proper blogging course just to make sure you are on the right track and not just wasting your time and money.
You need to invest in the right tools and softwares that will help you take your blog to where you really need it to be.
Figuring it out on your own is great and all but it takes time…time that you don’t have….
Save that time and energy by investing in a course that will tell you what you need to know and how to do it!
If the goal is to increase your blog traffic, increase your affiliate income or even your AdSense earnings from your blog, invest in courses that teach you exactly that and apply their techniques strictly.
Other bloggers have gone through the same issue you are going through and can help.
3. You Can’t Make Money Blogging If You Aren’t Promoting Your Blog Posts
One of the biggest mistakes I know that I have definitely made especially when I started out blogging is thinking that I could just publish a post or two and wait for traffic to come….
THAT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN…
And even if it does….it could take years and a lot of changes in the Google algorithm to change the ranking factors in your favour….
You need to get out there and promote the heck out of your blog!
Social media, Search engines, SEO, Ads, Facebook groups etc, create useful infographics, write guest posts for high authority websites…
Offer useful content and information, plan yourself and your time properly to make sure you are hitting all these points…and watch the traffic to your blog skyrocket!
According to SEO expert, Neil Patel, he would spend 20% of his time creating a blog post and spend 80% of his time marketing it.
After all….
What is the need of writing an epic blog post, if no one gets to read it?
4. You Are Not Growing Your Email List
When people ask, can you make money blogging?
Almost every blogger you know will tell you that growing your email list is very important when it comes to blog monetization…
But they hardly say why….
You see, to effectively monetize your blog,
You need to have people who believe in you and what you are writing about…
These are the ones who believe you enough to eventually buy whatever you have to sell…
Because you can reach out to them directly via email.
These people are the most important, so focus on growing your email list…
You need to find these people and make them an offer they can’t refuse…
And how do you do that?
By offering up tangible and irresistible information for free….
Entice them with an offer so irresistible that they feel they NEED what you have to offer,
So much so that they are willing to give up their email address in exchange for that piece of information.
That’s how you grow your email list…
Here’s a list of freebie ideas to help you grow your email list.
5. You Are Not Linking Your Content Internally.
When learning how to make money blogging for beginners, traffic is key.
As a blogger, it is hard enough to get people to visit your blog…
So when they do, you need to make sure that you are using that visit to it’s maximum potential..
What do I mean?
There are 6 ideal things that should happen to maximize every visit from your audience…
Ideally, Every visitor should….
- Spend at least 2 minutes on your blog…this reduces your bounce rate seriously…
- Click on your internal and external links, which may include affiliate links…
- Remember your blog name.
- Give out their email address so that you can remind them keep coming back to your blog by sending them regular post notifications
- Follow your social media handles or sign up for your Facebook group or Pinterest group board if you have any., These act as social signals for Google SEO.
- Share the Pinterest pin of that particular blog post to other people so other people can see it too.
Now ideally, someone who is visiting your blog for the first time would hardly do all…
If they are able to do any three, that’s a win in my book!
To increase the time they spend on your blog, make sure to link your posts to each other.
This way they have new opportunities to click on links and make purchases in every blog post.
6. You Have Not Added Any Affiliate Links
It’s so funny when other bloggers complain about how to make money blogging online especially through affiliate marketing.
Especially when they have just added two or 3 links to one or two posts on their blog and called it a day.
You see…you have to have a really strong strategy when it comes to affiliate marketing.
You can’t add links in some posts and then don’t in other posts…
Most importantly,
You should only add links WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED.
Don’t go adding them everywhere or anywhere, and always make sure that you are linking to products that you are sure about their quality.
Your users will have to trust you first to want to purchase from you of course but once they do….it’s upwards from there….
7. You Are Not Selling Any Products
If you are wondering how to make money blogging for beginners, this isn’t the first monetization method people look at….
Mostly because they haven’t established their blog enough or have little to no authority…
But if you have a little bit of authority, you want to create a product specifically for your audience.
One that appeals to them and covers all their areas of concern…
This is what distinguishes you from other sellers…or bloggers
Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer and think about why they would buy your product,
What need they are trying to meet or problem they are trying to solve,
Find out what problems they have had with other products like yours and then create a product that addresses all those concerns..
To be able to make money, you need to be selling something.
So It’s never too late or too early to sit down and brainstorm ideas of things to sell on your blog.
Here’s a list of things to sell on your blog I think you will like.
8. You Are Still Not An Authority In Your Niche
The simple truth is, no one is going to buy anything from you if they think you don’t know what you are talking about.
That is why positioning yourself as an authority in your niche is essential.
You want to make your audience know that you have knowledge and expertise in the topic you are blogging about.
And so you need to take time to create very helpful and detailed content that will resonate with your readers.
Make your blog a credible source of information for your niche,
This way people will look for you and try to remember you and your blog because they believe what you have to say.
That’s the only time they will trust you enough to buy a product from your website or a product that you recommend to them.
9. You Are Not Writing Content Your Readers Want To See.
This is one of the biggest mistakes i made when I first started out blogging,
I wrote basically any and everything I felt like writing about…. wherever the wind took me…
Was just putting out posts, without any keyword research or any SEO optimization.
I didn’t even know who my readers where and so had no clue what type of content to create for them.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that little to nobody wanted to read what I was putting out and after a while, I understood the reason why.
I WASN’T WRITING WHAT MY READERS WANTED TO SEE.
You see, the most important thing you will ever learn as a blogger is that, IT ISN’T ABOUT YOU.
Taking this advice to mind,
I started to search for my audience and find out what they wanted to see and then create content for them based on that.
Websites like Quora and Reddit can help you with this….They are the best sites to make money blogging strategically.
They bring you questions people in your niche are actively searching for.
This way you can recommend or create unique products that match their needs.
Make Money Blogging – Takeaways
Learning how to make money blogging is a journey,
When looking for a way to make money blogging online,
Understand this
Nobody ever went from making $0 to making $10,000 dollars in a month just like that…
It takes time effort and lots of hard work…
Most of the 6 figure bloggers you see who find it easier to make money blogging,
have all invested time and effort to grow their blogs to where it is now.
Take your time, keep learning and keep trying,
You will get to where you are going!