Blogging For Money Online: 3 Fatal Mistakes

If you're blogging for money online but struggling to pull in any cash, it's most likely down to one of several common mistakes. In this article, I'll talk you through each mistake, and what you can do to avoid it – thus ensuring your writing pulls in the maximum amount of profit.

Mistake No. 1 – Writing on the Wrong Topic

If you're blogging for money online, you need to make sure you're writing on the right kind of topic. There's absolutely no point writing about something that only a handful of people are interested in, because even if you then optimise your blog to pull in 100% of potential interested readers, you still won't be getting enough traffic to convert into a solid income. You need to pick a topic which plenty of people are searching for every month.

However, you also need to be writing on a topic where you can compete with other bloggers/writers. Millions of people every month might search for Spanish lessons, but even if you're an accomplished language teacher, you most likely won't be able to compete with the thousands of other websites already offering Spanish lessons. There are methods you can use to strike the right balance between competition and traffic, but those are beyond the scope of this article (this is covered in more detail in my free online writing course).

Mistake No. 2 – Targeting the Wrong Traffic

In order to make money through blogging, you need to “convert” a percentage of your readers into paying customers. The single best way to guarantee high conversion rates is to target search terms which indicate the searcher is already considering buying something. For example, someone searching for reviews of a product is already considering buying that product. If you target those kinds of readers, all you need to do is advise them on the best product to buy, and point them in the right direction.

You might be getting thousands of hits a day for your blog about how to care for your pet, but how many of your readers are going to part with their money? They're searching for information, you're providing the information. That's the whole process. Now, if you start targeting searchers who are looking for advice on the best pet care products, you can tap into a large market of potential buyers. Often, you can put a small spin like this on your writing, and use your existing knowledge to convert readers into buyers.

Mistake No. 3 – Using Pay Per Click Ads

Pay per click programs like Google adsense might be an easy way to monetise your blog, but the revenue you'll earn is so low that you'll need billions of clicks to be earning anywhere near a decent wage. If you want to use pay per click ads as a way to supplement your income, then sure, you might make some extra beer money. But you'll never earn big bucks.

A far better way of monetising your blog is through affiliate programs like ClickBank. Affiliate marketing is where you agree to promote somebody else's products, and in return you get a percentage of the sale. Often, this percentage is between 50 and 75 percent of the sale. If you use ClickBank, it's free to set up an account, and you will receive your earnings as a cheque in the post.

Even large, established companies like Amazon have affiliate programs, so it should be easy to find products you already like and endorse, and then make money by directing your readers towards them. If you avoid these three common mistakes, pick a good topic, target the right traffic for high conversions, and point your readers in the direction of affiliate programs, you can't fail to make money online.