Want to learn more about blogging as  a business – and how you can start your own blog and make money online?
Making money online and starting some kind of passive income business is the goal and the dream of many people.
But how do you actually do that in real life?
The basic mechanics of how it all works is not that hard to learn and understand, though it does take some time and some effort over time to produce consistent and meaningful results in most cases.
So let’s start with the basics.

Blog – What is a “Blog” exactly to begin with?

A blog is a type of website focused on long-form communication of ideas and information using the world wide web aka the internet. It traces its origins back to “weblog” or web log. Posts consist of articles or other content that is created and made available in reverse chronological order with the most recent being the first thing you see when you view a blog.
Some people refer to a blog as a kind of online journal or diary – and while it can be that – it can also be far more than that too.
The topics covered are usually going to be narrowly defined – and the more specific it is the better – and this is specifically important to being able to get “traffic.”
Traffic simply means people coming to your blog/site on a regular basis.
Specific areas of focus are also referred to as niches. Having a specific niche makes it more practical for search engines like Google and others to be able to determine what your blog is about and to “index” it so it can be shown in search results to those seeking information about the things your blog covers.
Traditionally the tendency was to think of a blog in the format of written content – such as what you are reading here, and that is still true to a point – but nowadays it also includes much more than that.
Blog content may also be made up of video or audio content and may feature infographics individually or in combination, and other content methods as well.

Ways to Make Money With Your Blog

Now that you have at least an idea of what a blog is – the next question you may have is “How can I make money with my own blog?” and here are a few of the ways you can do that;
  1. Affiliate Marketing – This is my number one recommendation for most people, especially those just starting out in online entrepreneurship and looking for passive income. When you learn affiliate marketing skills you learn business skills and marketing skills that you also need in ANY type of business too. It is also one of the lowest cost ways to start a business and has the least hurdles and least barriers to entry of them all. The way it works is that you signup and become an “affiliate” of another company or individual and you market their products in exchange for a fee when your efforts produce results – and that most often means producing a sale. For example, you write a post – put a link in the post to a relevant product, and you can earn a fee each time one of your readers clicks that link and then buys the product.
  2. Online Courses and Training – You can create your own courses and training products, and sell those directly on your own site/blog. The actual course hosting can be on your own site or actually another course platform (such as Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific, etc.) which you just link to from your own blog posts. you can even sell other people’s courses (including mine!) as an affiliate. Many of my courses are hosted on Udemy and each month several of my sales come through affiliates there, and they help me sell more courses – which helps me, it helps Udemy, it helps new students find my courses and it helps the affiliate marketers producing those sales too! That makes it a WIN for everybody involved.
  3. Books and Publications – You can create simple and easy to write eBooks that add VALUE and then sell them directly on your site and or through Amazon and other places.
  4. Coaching, Mentoring, and Consulting – If you have specialized information then chances are there are other people who would like to know what you know – and who are willing to pay you to teach them and help them. You can offer to personally do that as a coach, mentor, and or consultant. You can meet with them via Zoom and or by phone and they pay for your time with them per session, which can be $30 to $100 or more per hour depending on your knowledge and your marketing skills.
  5. Selling Services – Maybe after you learn how to build your own WordPress sites and blogs you may discover that you are good at it and you enjoy it too. Then if that is true, why not offer to create a site for others for a fee? You certainly can and people will pay you to do that too!
  6. Products – Whether physical or digital there are plenty of things you can either create yourself or source and then sell them directly from your own website/blog for a profit. Templates, stickers, forms, and all kinds of POD or make and sell products are possibilities.
  7. Membership Sales – There are two ways to go about this one. Create a membership of your own and sell access to your own prospective members. This can be very profitable – but also very challenging because you need a ton of exclusive and valuable content to justify the cost they would pay for access. Another route and another way to get the same benefits while providing greater value and do it all with a whole lot less work for you is to sell access to OTHER PEOPLES MEMBERHIPS… This can be a game-changer for you over time. It will also be a source of recurring passive income.
  8. Market All Your Businesses – You can also use your own blog to help spread awareness and attract new people to you where you can introduce yourself, your other products, and services. This is a major part of my own business plan as I use my blog content and other content (on multiple sites/blogs) to do just that, and to let people know about my courses, my books, other publications, training programs, and all the products and services I offer. By the way, nice to meet YOU too!
  9. YouTube Channel – Use your blog to attract people to you and then direct them to your channel to get to know you better. From your channel, you can also spread awareness of your blog and site and interconnect the two. Even before your channel becomes eligible to generate revenue directly through YouTube – you can effectively monetize it yourself from day one in this way, (which is what I am doing) and begin generating income from the other products and services you offer.
  10. Build Your Own Network – This is important. To be successful at a major level in a way that is consistent, sustainable, and profitable you need repeat business and you need referrals from your happy customers and clients, fans, follers, readers, subscribers, and social media friends – collectively all known as your own NETWORK. You can use your blog – and other things – all together to help you continuously build and grow your own network over time – and in the process increase your profit while at the same time providing VALE and helping other people do better too.

Steps to Starting a Blog and How to Make Money Online With a Blog

  1. Get Essential Information
  2. Choose a Niche
  3. Buy a Domain Name
  4. Select a Hosting service
  5. Select a Theme
  6. Build a WordPress Site/Blog
  7. Create Content
  8. Monetize Your Blog
  9. Market Your Blog
  10. Continue Working to Build Your Own Business Empire
The First Thing You Need to Know to Start a Blog Based Business
To start a blog as an online business and start building your own business empire – the first thing you need is information.
You need to know about all the other things you will need to learn and then how to get the training and support you need to get the work done. You also need support – a group of like-minded people to help keep you motivated and to help you when you hit problems, and they will happen.
There are several ways to get that information – including reading other blog posts and articles, watching YouTube videos, reading books, taking a standalone course on Udemy and many other platforms – or by joining a membership community that offers all of the key things you need under the same roof – such as my number one recommendation – which I will give you next!

How to Get Started and Get The Information, Training, and Support You Need

To start a blog as a business and be successful you will need information, training, help, support – and access to all kinds of tools and resources.
The best place and source of all that and more that I have ever found is Wealthy Affiliate.
That is especially true for beginner affiliate marketers and beginners at online business building and entrepreneurship.
WA is also a great resource for experienced online business owners for a variety of reasons. The tools and resources there are an exceptional value (site hosting, site security included, ongoing live training, networking with other successful members etc.) for experienced professionals as well as entry-level entrepreneurs.
Experienced bloggers are not all always successful – that may be because of lacking key real-world information (SEO skills, understanding keywords, frequency, niche selection etc.). It can also be due to lack of support – and do not discount the importance of other people when it comes to helping to stay motivated – and to find solutions to common problems and challenges.
Another thing for experienced and successful bloggers to consider – if that’s you – is that you can help mentor and train other new bloggers and entry-level online entrepreneurs, and that will help you take your own business to the next level in several ways. The first is that you can get paid month after month by recruiting/referring new members into a value-driven community membership (WA) where they will receive all the help and support they need – and you will get paid for helping them find their own way to WA. You will also gain valuable insights and information as a result of helping your own referrals – and if you like – thousands of other people’s referrals inside the WA community.
Whether you are brand new – or whether you are an affiliate marketing authority and expert – Wealthy Affiliate is for YOU!
Wealthy Affiliate is a massive training platform, hosting service, and community chock full of all kinds of things that can help you – no matter where you are in your online business-building journey. One of the most powerful resources available there and only there is a huge active and very friendly community inside Wealthy Affiliate or WA as we call it.
The good news is you can try it out for FREE and you do NOT need to provide any card number or payment information. It is truly and honestly FREE to check it out – so why not take a look around inside WA and see if you agree that it is what you need to help you build a real business of your own online?
Here is a walkthrough look over my should inside WA;

If you would like to find out more, and get my personal help too if you like then Wealthy Affiliate is where you can do all that and more.

Final Thoughts and Remarks

I have spent years working on my own businesses both online and offline, and I have had both successes and failures along my journey. I know what works and what doesn’t. Many of those lessons cost me years of trial and error and research along with tens of thousands of dollars to get the information I now have, and which I am sharing with you.
The truth is that all legitimate income production opportunities ALL require three key components;
1. Work
2. Time
3. Money
Information is important. Training is important. But in the end, it is all going to come down to you being able to make a commitment to your own success and being willing to invest the work, the time, and the money needed to make it happen – or it never will.
This is true for online opportunities and it is true for offline opportunities too. The difference is that the overhead and overall costs to start an online business, and especially a blog based business is almost nothing compared to what a traditional brick and mortar business of any kind costs – and I know that because I have done both.
You can try a free membership and you can begin learning the foundation skills you need, and you can even begin marketing some products – all for FREE – in the end, you are going to need to invest some money too to get more efficient and advanced tools, resources and support.
For example – you need to buy a domain name. That’s a few bucks. You will need hosting on a quality platform – and that is a few more bucks. The beautiful thing is that you can start NOW where ever you are and with whatever you have – then as you can afford it, and as you need it you can add additional resources one at a time to keep growing your business.
So if you want to make real money then you need to know the truth – and that may not be what you want to hear. You are going to have to learn some new things, you are going to have to work both hard and smart, and it is still going to take you some time to start to make real money on any kind of consistent basis that is predictable and at any amount that really matters.
That is the truth.
With that in mind – if you are looking for a pie in the sky guru “secret to making big money online while doing no work” then I can’t help you – and neither can anyone else because that program does not exist.
While many promise you that – they will never deliver on the promise because those things are all just lies and scams seeking to separate desperate people from what little hard-earned money they have.
Do as you like – and keep chasing those types of programs – or change course, and choose a better course in a new direction and start making real progress over time.
If you are willing to do that, and if you are willing to put in the work and the time to build your own blogging business then I have just shared with you how you can start making real progress TODAY. Join Wealthy Affiliate now.
Do that, and I will personally invest my own time and effort to help you too.
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L.D. Sewell