I don’t do gimmicks or get rich quick schemes. Just wanted to make that perfectly clear. If you think you can make money blogging with a WordPress blog overnight, then sorry I can’t help you.
As for how to make money with a WordPress blog in 48 hours, your chances are slim. Now it could be possible if you know what you’re doing, but the amount would be small. Tiny might be a better word and you probably won’t get your hands on the money until 6 weeks later.
So as I said. Not a get rich quick scheme.
That said, WordPress is still my favourite way to make money online.
The Right Mindset to Make Money with WordPress
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m a full-time blogger and most of my income comes from my lifestyle blog, not from blogging about blogging. Yes really! It’s far easier to make money blogging about your pet topic. Mine happens to be running and if I’m not out running I’ll happily talk or write about it!
You don’t need to be a terrific writer or a technical genius to make money blogging with WordPress. But you do need to be willing to learn and make the most of your skills.
Hate writing, keep it to a minimum and use your blog as a conduit for your videos and podcasts.
Struggle with tech? You can produce a blog like this one without any coding skills. You just need to be able to follow instructions and apply some dogged determination to get the job done.
My start a blog guide will help:
Blogging isn’t for the fainthearted. If you’re going to be put off every time you hit a problem, maybe blogging isn’t for you.
The people making a full-time income from blogging have worked for it. They’ve worked hard. They didn’t just wake up one day with sand between their toes and a bank account full of money.
As my Gran used to say: “If it was that easy everyone would be rich”.
How much money can you make from WordPress?
I’d be really surprised if you could find an honest answer by googling this question.
There are people making a ton of money from blogging on WordPress and there are some people making no money at all.
Which of these two types of bloggers will be making the most noise about their earnings? Yep, you’ve guessed it, those 6-figure plus earners – especially if they’re trying to get you to sign up for their expensive course.
6-Figure Incomes
Now I do know genuine 6-figure earners who are quietly making a fantastic income. Most of them are in niches where they have no need to boast about their income – parenting, crafting, food-related…These are all terrific niches for making money:
It takes time, persistence, and a willingness to learn and continually improve your blog to make this type of money. A lot of time writing content.
Facebook Adverts
Just be wary of bloggers who inflate their income by buying traffic. Those adverts you continually see on Facebook… They’re 6-Figure bloggers who earn very little by the time they’ve paid for their advert campaigns.
It’s a legitimate way to make money but the margins are increasingly small. all fighting for traffic on a social media platform saturated with adverts. I often think the only people making money from Facebook ads are of course Facebook, and the people flogging the courses about how to make money with Facebook ads. But I could be wrong.
SEO for Bloggers
It just seems to make far more sense writing terrific posts and getting ranked on Google for lots of FREE organic traffic.
All you need to do this is learn a little SEO:
For most people, with enough time and some hard work, you can make a living out of blogging. You may add to your income with a blogging related services such as copy-writing, digital marketing…
It could be a good living. Will it be a 6-figure income with sun, sand, and sangria? That’s down to you and a sprinkling of luck. I’d rather you kept your feet on the ground. Keep it real and aim for $500-$1000 first.
How to Make Money with a Blog for Beginners
My start a blog guide will take you through all the basics of how to make money with a WordPress blog from hosting to tags, categories, plugins, and the techy stuff that makes your blog function correctly.
How to earn money with WordPress
- How to choose the right blog topic.
- Build your blog.
- Your essential guide to WordPress.
- Write your first blog post.
- Your blog design and theme.
- Choose your email service.
- Start making money.
If you don’t start your blog, you’ll never make any money!
The Secret Of Getting Ahead Is Getting Started
Mark Twain
How to Make Money Blogging with a WordPress Blog
To make money with a WordPress blog you have to go through all the start-up and launch processes, write your posts and discover how to attract traffic.
Good traffic is the essential ingredient to making money from your blog. It’s best to set your sights on an easy target when you first set up your blog.
Aim to make your first $100. Why? If you can make $100 you can make $1000. Your first $100 is often the hardest. It’s proof your blog idea actually works!
How To Make Money Blogging For Beginners (A Guide To Your First $100)
Start an Email List
It’s far easier to make money from a blog if you have the means to build relationships with your readers. The money is in the list.
By this I mean convincing people to sign up for your email list. It’s a way for reminding people to keep returning to your blog and reading your posts (and ultimately buying your recommended products).
It doesn’t mean spamming people. Oh no! You only want people to sign up for your list who are genuinely interested in your advice. Otherwise, it’s a complete waste of time – for you and your readers.
That doesn’t mean everyone on your list is going to become a source of income, but they may become fans of your posts and share your words with their own followers. This will help to build your following of interested people.
Being helpful and growing your influence are the most important aims of your beginner blog. It’s a vital step before you dive in and start making money.
How To Start An Email List (And Why You Need One)
Writing To Your Email List (What To Put + Finding Your Writing Style)
The Types of Blogs that Make Money
The joy of blogging is the sheer variety of different types of blogs. You can literally blog about anything. But do you need to stick to a set list of topics to make money?
My top 10 suggestions are:
- Personal Finance And Making Money
- Health And Fitness
- Diet And Nutrition
- Food And Healthy Eating
- DIY And Crafting
- Home Decor
- Beauty And Fashion
- Lifestyle
- Personal Development
- Parenting
You can read more about finding your blog topic in my post:
Your blog needs to fulfill a need.
If you’re a one-person blogger, I figure the types of blogs that make money are ones that fulfill a need. That may be getting your child to eat peas, losing a bit of weight, or making a patchwork quilt.
Basically, someone has a need and your blog provides the solution. The more essential the need – getting a date when you’re a 40-year-old virgin, advice that works to run a three-hour marathon, the greater the value attached to your topic.
It needs to be a popular topic.
There’s another factor that comes into play – popularity.
No one is going to pay much for a simple bread-making recipe. Does this mean bread-making is a lousy money-making blog topic? I doubt it. Pinterest has consistently high search traffic for bread-making topics. It’s an incredibly popular topic.
When you have a very popular topic with a large audience, advertising can be the obvious way to make money. It becomes an easy passive income way to monetize your blog.
Plus you can also add an ebook with 100 different bread-making recipes or even a course on the perfect way to get your bread to rise.
There’s no paint by numbers answer to picking a blog topic.
I still stand by my view that a money-making blog needs to fulfill a need, must be reasonably popular, and should be something you want to write about. It helps if you’re knowledgeable too.
It’s also important to have a clear idea of how you can make money for your blog topic.
Your niche doesn’t have to be narrow. Some blogs do well with a range of topics. BUT there’s always some link between these topics.
Know who you’re writing for.
Successful bloggers have a clear idea of who they’re writing for. You don’t see young fashion and tips for teething babies on the same blog. Or a blog about exotic travel next to a piece about where to find the cheapest burger.
It sounds obvious really yet it’s so easy to get wrong.
Conclusion – Making Money with a WordPress Blog
If you’ve made it through this post and followed my Start A Blog guide you’re well on your way to making money from your blog – congratulations.
Takeaway tips are:
- Be persistent – it will take time to grow your blog and make money but it’s so worth it!
- Blog about a popular topic or related set of topics.
- Look for different ways to make money from your blog. The best blogs diversify their income streams.
- Don’t always believe those 6-Figure incomes you read about on FaceBook. There are bloggers earning terrific money from blogging but most of these bloggers are working below the radar and not shouting about their income. They’re quietly writing posts about cooking, crafting, parenting, and countless other popular topics.
Ignatius Bijoy Gomes
Saturday 7th of March 2020
I am an ordinary person from Bangladesh. I work at a local company as a graphics designer. On the job line I wander a lot to earn money online but I have not yet seen the money. Your writing was very simple, very like it. I want to write a blog with my family for the money. I can not understand all the wind or limited knowledge or English skills. Still trying to do something. Thank you for the beautiful writing.
Alison Wright
Monday 9th of March 2020
Hi Ignatius. The fact that you're a graphic designer should give you a head start. I suspect you could use your skills better on your site. There are some sites at the moment killing it with illustrations. Your site is on blogger, doesn't have it's own domain and isn't https so it comes up as insecure in my browser. Self hosting with an SSL installed is essential for a money making blog. You have 160 million Bengali speakers in Bangladesh so why not target them and write in your own language? It will be a lot easier to rank in search engines in Bangladesh. I suggest you pick one niche and stick to it rather than randomly writing about lots of topics. At the moment your posts are just sales pitches. You need to write information pieces that are useful to your readers. Pick something that will appeal in your country that's a popular online topic. Learn some SEO to make sure your posts start to rank and stick to one social media platform starting out that you know your readers use and master it.
Demfy
Friday 6th of March 2020
There are a lot of ways on making money online whether it is by blogging, affiliate marketing, article writing, freelancing or whatever it is, there is only one thing you must bear in mind. You must provide value to your potential client or audience. If you are able to provide your audience needs or giving solution to the problem of your clients, you will surely make money.
Alison Wright
Friday 6th of March 2020
There's definitely a lot of different ways to make money online but there's a bit more to it than serving needs and providing solutions. For example you need to make sure your plans for making money fit the audience you're targeting. You can't sell an expensive course to people who have little spare income or make money from a niche that's just too small.
MoneyMake
Tuesday 14th of January 2020
Nice article I'm looking forward to downloading your Start A Blog guide as we are always looking for more ways to improve and make money from our website. Thanks
Alison Wright
Wednesday 23rd of October 2019
Hi Wayne, Thank you for your comment. It's a common issue that people get bogged down with the techy side of setting up a blog. You don't need a complicated theme from the word go. Follow my start a blog guide https://simplyhatch.com/start-blog/ and install the free version of the GeneratePress theme. For the first few months just concentrate on writing posts around your chosen topic. I strongly suggest you stick to one topic. Travel or relationships. If it's travel you need lots of good location pictures to include in your posts - the standard is really high. People want to know where to go and what to do. Relationships is a good one. It's a big topic and I suggest you start with one aspect of it and add in sub topics as you build up your posts. Maybe write 10-15 posts on finding love before moving on to maintaining your relationship. These are just ideas but the important issue is to keep your blog focused. You need content - traffic - then you can make money. Hope this helps!
Wayne Osgood
Tuesday 22nd of October 2019
Hi Alison,
Thank you for your blog, it's most helpful for me. May I, like you've said in your article 'How to Make Money with WordPress", I confess to you that I am working, trying to at least, start a blog regarding travel. I haven't started the process yet, but wanting to get my website on WordPress started at least.
Making the website is my biggest concern, not worry, just concern because I'm no technical person. I want to get my website up and developed. I have a few affiliated marketing prospects that I'd like to incorporate into my blog.
Travel is my blog, but was also just kicking the idea around about also talking about relationships, which I know is a broad subject. I honestly do not have anyone, current blogger, that I really go to get help through the process of starting a blog. I'll for sure download your how to steps, but I'm really wanting to get my website completed and operational so that I can put content in and get some affiliate marketing programs up. I'm very ready, just need help. I am very new, just like you at one time, so just asking for guidance,
Respectfully