Can you make money blogging without blogging about blogging?

I'm saying blogging a lot in this intro, right? Blogging, blogging, blogging. Ok, I'll stop. Blogging. (Sorry, can't seem to stop!)

‍We started this journey when we were in Spain, in March 2017. Back then, I, being Maya, was a stay at home fiance, with a lot of time on my hands, a thirst for making a contribution, helping people, and making some money on the side, of course.

Andy was stuck in an overworking soul-sucking job that kept him busy 6 days a week, for 12 to 16 hours a day. Those were terrible times, and I knew we had to get out and fast. Blogging came in as an escape and was my way of contributing to our budget, as little as it made.

I knew from the get-go that this wasn't going to be easy and that I would not get to make 1000$ per month from the start. Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme or a pyramid scheme (freaking MLMs, am I right?).

Blogging is work, hard work.

You need to find topics to talk about, write a ton, come up with catchy blog post titles, create the social media graphics, proofread, publish, promote, socialize.

Let's not forget - build a following, a mailing list, learn and learn and keep on learning as much as you can about it, and evolve with the blogging platforms as well.

It can be challenging sometimes.

But no matter how hard it gets, blogging has the most amazing good parts of all the jobs out there.

• you can do it from anywhere as long as you have access to the internet (where are all my digital nomads at?)
• you are your own boss (YAAAS! the one and only)
• you can work anytime (I'm writing this post in the middle of the night, from the bed, while my beloved snores like a bear on my right)
• you can make a decent living out of it (even if you won't make 10000$ from the beginning)
• you will leave a positive mark on this world (even if it's a teeny tiny one, you could change someone's life forever)
• You can heal a broken heart, a metaphorical open wound, you can enlighten someone's day( even if it's just your own)

Also, blogging does challenge you creatively and helps you evolve as well. For me, for example, my English has improved drastically, especially in writing, as it is not my native language. I found that writing soothes me, and keeps me smiling, even in the darkest times, when my depression doesn't let me do pretty much anything else.

We know that since moving to Scotland, our blog fell down in the list of priorities, from the first thing to the last. This affected our blogging income, our credibility, and our following BIG TIME.

Having full-time jobs, and also adapting to a new country was an adventure that we had to focus on. Unfortunately for our jobs, we're two butterflies with life too short to be wasted in companies where we are underappreciated and underpaid for our work, so we are re-shifting our focus to what matters.

OUR PROJECTS. OUR FUTURE. OUR BLOG. OUR DREAM.

This means getting into blogging mode, for me. Research, write like there's no tomorrow, and help people. This brings me to the biggest questions on everyone's mind when it comes to blogging.

But enough with the chit-chatting! Let's get to it!

What are the ways to actually make money blogging?

First and foremost, you have to get your hands on a blog hosting service that you trust and create a self-hosted blog. (not one that looks like yourname.blogspot.com, for example, but yourname.com).

Related: What the Hell is a Blog Hosting Service? (and how to choose one)

This is very important if you want to monetize your blog properly because you can't actually monetize it if it's not self-hosted. And now, the juicy bit.

How do you monetize the blog from the get-go?

1. Ads

The fastest way to start making money with your blog from the get-go is to install ads. You can opt-in for Google Adsense, Media.net, or similar programs to get you started.

These two programs usually don't care that much about the amount of traffic that you generate to your blog and don't have minimum requirements when it comes to views.

If this is something you want, make sure that do have at least 20 articles already published on your blog, some in the process of publishing, and that you have some constant traffic coming in, or else you won't make much - or at all.

Tip. Your blog theme can help with this issue as well. Our theme from Theme Forest is completely customizable and includes a section for the ads - so you don't have to stress about where to put them and all that madness.

2. Affiliate marketing

In short, affiliate marketing is simply promoting other people's products and/or services, and making a commission on the sale, without affecting the price for the buyer.

There are several programs out there you could join to help boost up your blogging income, such as:

• Amazon Associates Program – This is one of the first affiliate programs created, launched in 1996. It’s free to join and easy to use. It also gives you access to their own education center, where you can find anything you need to know. Earning fees differ for each product category, and range from 1.5% to 20% (or more).
• eBay Partner Network - as you may have guessed, this one applies to eBay and gives you the opportunity to share products and pages found on eBay. Commission earnings range to as high as 70%, depending on the category of products.
• ShareASale – They have been in business for 17 years, exclusively as an Affiliate Marketing Network. Unlike Amazon Associates or the eBay Partner Network, they don’t offer you the possibility to promote products but apply to other merchants programs that have their own affiliate agreement. For example, ShareASale offers a huge sale commission of $150.00 for each merchant that signs up through your affiliate link, and lead commission of $1.00, for each affiliate that signs up.
• Other bloggers and course creators - Think of the last online course you invested time and money in. Chances are you can apply for an affiliate program designed by the creator. Help them fulfill their dream, while you earn a commission yourself.

2. Sponsored posts

Even as a small blogger, you could enjoy the perks of sponsorship. Like getting free stuff to review without other pay except for the product, or you could start earning some money for your opinion plus the product for free or get even get a giveaway.

Newer companies(and not only) like to invest in smaller bloggers, create partnerships and evolve with certain bloggers if they share similar interests.

3. Selling your own products

You don't have to be great at blogging to be an expert in your field. If your life is drawing, for example, and you love talking about it and are great at it, you could create your own online courses on the topic and share your knowledge with the world.

Even if you think that your subject of interest already has enough guides, tutorials, and courses out there, you might want to think about your approach to the subject. What's that one thing that makes you special and gets you excited about the subject? Maybe it's how you say it, or you know more about a specific area of a larger topic, no matter how tiny. Market that.

4. Offering your services

Related to the point above, you could also offer you services, even with a product. You could offer 1 on 1 consultancy, become an assistant for someone, or more advanced and in-depth help about a subject, and you can charge accordingly.

Can you make money blogging without blogging about blogging?

There's a very simple answer to that. Yes. Yes, you can. But I guess you figured that out already. It all comes down to what type of blogger you are, or want to be when you start a blog.

The most important thing that I can tell you is to be authentic, and share the love for a certain topic.

Or if you're like us and simply can't decide on one subject to focus on (the ADD is strong with this one), become a lifestyle blogger.

Most bloggers actually start as lifestyle bloggers, and later shift their focus to a certain subject, so don't be discouraged about that.

But, if you already know a bunch about a subject, and you love talking about it, build on that.

As we said earlier if you like drawing for example, and are really good at it, talk about that. Share techniques, interesting DIY projects, use different tools and talk about them and how they work in different situations.Or maybe you're a massage therapist, or a nutritionist, a fitness instructor, a dancer, a programmer, a designer, a fashion designer, world traveler, DJ, photographer, filmmaker, writer. And so on, and so on.The possibilities are endless. No matter what your profession or interest is (because you don't need a degree to blog about a topic), or whatever you can think of, it can be turned into an interesting, money making blog.

If you are driven and are persistent in your journey, you will turn it into something great.

A fine example is the couple behind Chasing Foxes, Silas, and Grace. Lifestyle bloggers, now making over 20000$ per month, while traveling the world and enjoying life.

So what are you waiting for? Start your own blog today for as little as £3.13/month!

Aaaaaaand that's all for today, lovely dreamers! We hope you enjoyed our discussion about how you can make money blogging without blogging about blogging(and I'm doing it again! :)). If you did enjoy it, please share it, pin it, tweet it!

P.S. A huge THANK YOU to Jordan for inspiring me to write this and if you're reading - what are you waiting for?

Our question for you is: What is your blog about? Drop a link below, we'd love to read it!