Make Money Blogging (No, Seriously!)
June 10th, 2009
Email this article to a friend
Think it’s practically impossible to make money blogging? The statistics would support that premise.
But Ali Hale, freelance blogger extraordinaire, pays her rent and all her bills from blogging. Not by posting on her own blog, but by writing paid posts for other people. And she’s put together a Staff Blogging Course to teach you how to go from zero paid blogging experience to having a nice side income or even a career in blogging.
It’s much easier to make money from someone else’s blog than from your own blog. With your own blog, you need to spend lots and lots of time building up an audience before you can hope for an income. But when you’re a staff blogger, you’re working for blogs that already have an audience, and just need a steady stream of posts to keep their readers coming back. You write quality posts for them, and you get paid.
I know Ali from several different blogs including Pick the Brain, where we both work as staff bloggers. So when I heard that she was coming out with this course, I knew she was well qualified to do it. But it turns out she’s doing even better with her staff blogging than I thought. She’s not making a ton of money in an absolute sense, but she pays all her bills by working just 6-7 hours a week!
Her Staff Blogging Course covers everything you need to get started in your staff blogging career and keep going strong when most people would fizzle out. With detailed information on topics such as finding jobs, keeping records and receiving payments, writing and formatting posts, and staying inspired and motivated, this is an indispensable resource for aspiring freelance bloggers.
Ali includes a variety of tips from other staff bloggers, including four from me. Since I made a small contribution to the finished product, I thought I’d ask Ali if she’d offer a discount to my intelligent and good looking readers. Use the discount code HNreader for $5 off the already cheap price. Any questions? I’m sure Ali will be happy to answer them in the comments.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Now that course makes too much sense. I think I’ll send a few folks to her website to sign up. I get tons of questions about MMO, all of which I have had no experience with.
I am barely keeping up with how to get my site to generate leads for me BUT I guess when you have success in one area of life people assume you have the answers for other areas as well.
This just might be the perfect “system” for those that can write and want to make a few coins in the process.
Ron´s last blog post..Meet Ron Hitson.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Thanks for the review, Hunter!
The course was fun to put together, and it was great to have extra expertise from you and a few of the other fantastic staff bloggers I’ve worked alongside.
Ron, if you know anyone who’d benefit from the course, please do send them my way!
I wrote the course with myself as a complete newbie in mind … it’s all the stuff I wished I’d known 18 months ago. There’s a 90-day money-back guarantee: I know what it’s like to hover on the sales page of potentially useful ebooks, thinking “will it really work for me?”
Good luck to anyone who is dipping their toes into the world of staff blogging – it’s a lot of fun (and rather lucrative!)
June 11th, 2009 at 5:30 am
I definitely recommend this. I added my tips during its creation so received a review copy from Ali. I also write with her on a few sites so you should have no doubt that she knows what she’s talking about.
Glen Allsopp´s last blog post..Five Ideas I’ve Implemented to Get More Done
June 11th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Awesome recommendation, Hunter. I developed/stumbled into a gig a while back writing for two company blogs that pays me a healthy monthly retainer, with no issues concerning readership or subscriber stats. Instead they are part of external and internal company marketing activities. It definitely can be done! I’d like to add another similar gig, so Ali’s material on finding them is definitely of interest. Thanks.
Betsy Wuebker´s last blog post..FROM THE ROAD: ALASKAN GOLD
June 11th, 2009 at 11:37 am
This sounds to be a solid way to make money by blogging / writing. It’s like ghost writers, right?
My only concern is this is not for everyone. Some people take pride building their own castle, even if it would be a small one. But if someone likes working in the back, and have a solid writing skills, this is very viable.
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..Akashic Record Reading vs Past Life Regression
June 11th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
@ Ron, people who work with one aspect of computers are sometimes assumed to be experts in all aspects of computers, which is rarely the case. Likewise, there are many different aspects of MMO, and an expert in one is not necessarily an expert in another. It always makes sense to refer people to relevant experts.
@ Ali, hopefully Ron and I will send some people your way. I’m not aware of anything similar to your course out there, and there are definitely people who need this info.
@ Glen, you’re in a good position to judge this product, so I think your recommendation really means something here.
@ Betsy, very often freelance bloggers will start out with a small number of gigs, then decide to expand later. I think Ali has good advice both for complete newbies and for people who have moved past that stage.
@ Akemi, ghost writing (allowing someone else to put their name on your writing) is one type of freelance blogging, but not the only kind. It’s probably more common to put your name on your work. But ghostwriters probably make more money because without a byline, extra incentive is needed. The byline helps you build your castle, even if it’s hosted on someone else’s site.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Glen, thanks for the recommendation! I really appreciated your contributions to the ebook, and I love seeing what you come up with on various blogs (in fact, your name seems to have been EVERYWHERE in my RSS reader over the past few days — are you on a blogging spree?)
Betsy, my experience was pretty similar to yours: I got one paying gig, then a second one, and then it just snowballed!
Akemi, I completely take your point about wanting to build your own castle — but I’ve found that my staff blogging is a bit like sending out hundreds of troops with flags to advertise my castle! A lot of my other work (eg. editing ebooks for people) comes on the back of staff blogging. I have done a bit of ghost writing, but 95% of my work has my name on. (As Hunter hints, many writers charge extra for ghost writing – I know I do).
February 27th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
[...] reviewed her Staff Blogging Course nearly two years ago. (Has it really been that long?) Whenever someone asked me how they could make [...]