Category: Start a Blog

How to Get Freelance Writing Jobs

20 Ways to Turn Crafts into Profits

10 Ways to Earn a Living on the Internet

Blogging Basics- Starting From Scratch

Posted on May 31, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

Blogging has gone from a hobby, to a 6-figure income for me, in less than a year. It has allowed me to pay off student loans, pay down our mortgage (and hopefully pay off!), travel with my family, quit a miserable job, and be my own boss. It has far surpassed my wildest imagination, and because of that, I want to share what I have learned. When I started, I was at the very bottom. I had no knowledge about how to do this and I was starting from scratch. I would say that one of my strengths is that I have persevered and spent hours and hours researching, testing and learning new things. This is the reason that I have been successful. I literally googled “What is hosting” when I wanted to start a blog. The reason I tell you this, is to give you the hope you need to get started. I am no genius. I do not have a background in web development and I am not a web coder or master marketer. Everything I have learned, I have googled, researched, tested, tried, read and learned on my own. So, if I can do it, you can do it. Let’s start at the beginning. You want to start a blog. You have no idea where to start. You have read blogs and you enjoy blogs, but you don’t know how to start a blog. Let’s start with some simple vocabulary. You need a domain name. This is what your website is called, or your URL. Mine, is FlippingPennies.com. When choosing a domain name, pick something easy to remember. Avoid hyphens, misspellings and anything that is hard to tell people. You will be hopefully saying it often, and telling your friends, so make sure you like it:) Bluehost is giving my readers a FREE domain right now, if you sign up for hosting! This is at least a $15 value, and they have been soooo easy to work with. If you are considering starting a blog, this is a great deal! You can also read more about starting a blog and walking through the process step-by-step on my previous post, How to Start a Blog. First, if you ever want to make money on your blog, you need to be self-hosted. This means, that you must purchase a hosting package. PLEASE resist the urge to use free platforms, such as Blogger. Every blogger I know that started there, has had to go through the laborious process of switching to a self-hosted WordPress blog. You do not have the freedom with advertisements on a free blog that you do on a self-hosted blog. Hosting: This is a little piece of the internet. You are literally buying space on a server to store the data from your site, so that your website can be accessible via the internet. Your hosting service stores a database with your website files and keeps it online at all times, so that your website is accessible online. These plans start out at anywhere on the low end ($7-$8 a month) but right now, Bluehost is giving my readers a special price of $3.49 a month and a FREE domain. This is only available through my link so act now if you are interested. This is a super low price and probably won’t last for very long. Next, you need to install WordPress. There is a reason that most bloggers use WordPress. It is the most user-friendly platform out there. It is free to download through your Bluehost hosting plan. What is WordPress? This is the platform in which you will make your posts, add the pictures to your site, etc. It is the software you use for your blog. As I mentioned before, it is free and very user-friendly. Once you have your domain registered and hosting package, you can download WordPress. It is super easy to do and I walk you through it step by step in my post, How to Start a Blog. Once you login to your website through WordPress, you are ready to start blogging! First things first, I would choose a theme. “What is a theme?” you ask? It is a template that determines what your site looks like and how it is laid out. Do you have a sidebar on the right? on the left? both? How are your menus set up? Is there a large slider at the top? What does it look like? Now, keep in mind, that even when you choose a theme, there are still quite a few options within each theme that will help you organize your blog the way you want to. Wordpress offers many themes for free. There are a lot of other paid themes as well. Genesis Theme is a pretty popular theme and it has a lot of options. I have also used free themes and have been very happy with them. Next, on the right side of your WordPress interface, you will see “Posts.” This is where you will write and publish your blog posts. It is very intuitive and easy to figure out. There are options such as bold, italics, bullets, etc., just as you would see in a Microsoft Word document. You can add links by highlighting words in your post and clicking on the link on the menu above and pasting the URL in which you want to link to. You can choose headings, numbered lists and so much more. I would recommend getting familiar with this page and all of your options. When you are ready to publish your post, you can find the “publish” button on the right of the screen. Be sure that as you write your post, you “update” or “save” it all along the way. I have had plenty of situations where I am halfway done with the post and the power goes out or a toddler turns off the computer. NO!! So, now I am trained to save them as I go. There is a backup save on WordPress, but it is easier to just be sure that your post is saved as you go along. Now that you know a few basics, you are ready to go! If you are interested in starting from scratch and want to start blogging, get step-by-step instructions on my post How to Start a Blog! I hope this changes your life like it has changed mine. Also, if you have any questions along the way, feel free to contact me or email me and I will help in any way that I can. What other “Starting From Scratch” questions do you have? Fee free to post them and I will do an update and answer all of your blogging questions!

To learn more about How to Start a Blog, read my step by step tutorial to get you started.

Here are a few other good reads to help in your blogging adventures:

10 Ways to Earn a Living on the Internet

How to Get Freelance Writing Gigs

7 Easy Ways to Make Money Blogging

15 Work at Home Companies that Pay $12 an Hour or More

Posted on May 11, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

There are a lot of different ways to work from home, and I listed a lot of different companies that will allow you to do so on the post 25 Companies That Pay You to Work From Home. A lot of those ideas are temporary or extra side money, but I wanted to make a list for those of you who are looking for a good job making a decent extra income from home. So, here are 15 companies that you can work for from home making at least $12.oo or more per hour (Some are repeated from my other article).

Brighten Communications– They hire telemarketer callers, and pay between $12-$18 per hour. You need high speed internet, a land-line that can call long distance, a printer, and fax machine.

The ACT– They are always looking to hire readers to read and score the essay portion of the ACT. Pay is based on experience, but starts at $12.00 per hour. You do need at least a bachelor’s degree, and they prefer teaching experience, but it isn’t required.

Hilton Worldwide– Work for this well known hotel chain from home doing reservations and customer service. They are a very reputable company and offer great benefits for employees!

Blue Zebra Appointment Setting– Cold calling appointment setting. Start at $15-$25 per hour based on experience!

Executive Scheduling Associates– Work from home scheduling appointments for financial wholesalers starting at $12 per hour.

American Express– Visit their page and search “virtual” in the “search for job” box, and all of their work from home options will appear. I have heard a few of them start at $16 per hour.

Working Solutions– They hire independant contractors to do sales, technical support, and customer service. Looking for experienced and well educated employees, and start you at $20 per hour!

Virtual Office Temps– Hire virtual office assistants, and pay up to $28 per hour. Looking for committed, long term, part and full time employees.

Panda Tree– Starting at $12 per hour training students in Spanish and Mandarin.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel– A travel company that hires you to help customers with their travel plans. Starts at $15 per hour.

Harris Connect Fundraising– Pay $12-$15 per hour for at home fundraising and sales.

Alorica– At home agents doing customer service calls. It’s not an hourly rate, but you get paid a per minute, or per call rate.

Rosetta Stone– Work from home as a language coach. Pay is about $17 per hour.

Zero Chaos– Conduct search evaluation ads and quality ratings. Pay is $15 per hour.

Blooms Today– Assist customers with their purchases. Earn an average of $15-$25 per hour with unlimited potential based on performance.

I have said it before, and I will say it again… The best way to earn a living from home is to start a blog. You are in complete control of your income and you have a flexible schedule. You can work when you want to and do something that you love. If you are more interested in working from home for yourself, visit How to Start a Blog and learn how to Make Money Blogging.

7 Easy Ways to Make Money Blogging

Posted on March 22, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

Years ago, I would hear that people were blogging for a “living” and I always wondered HOW are they making money? How does blogging give them a substantial enough income that they can live on it?

Blogging has changed my life. It has paid off our student loans, paid off cars, credit cards and we even bought a new camping trailer, yay! It has also sustained our family through a career transition for my husband. So, if you are like I once was, and are wondering how you can make money blogging, this is the right place for you. There are a lot of revenue streams, but I have outlined the most popular sources of income for bloggers.

If you are interested in starting a blog, you can find step by step instructions on how to start a blog for really cheap! You can start a money-making blog for as little as a few dollars a month through my special Bluehost link discount, so hurry and take advantage of this opportunity before it expires! In order to make money blogging, you want to have a self-hosted blog, which means buying a hosting package. You will even receive a free domain if you sign up for hosting with this new deal. In order to maximize the money you can make, you need to be self-hosted. So, if you are interested and want to start a blog, I can walk you through it.

Ad networks like Google Adsense and others are a great place to start. They are easy to use, have great analytics and reporting and will be a perfect first step in making money blogging. To get started, apply for an account (that is after you have started your blog. You need to have a domain name and hosting, which you can get here for a very special discount for my readers.) Once you have been approved by Google Adsense, you create ad blocks. You choose the size, color, font, etc. and then you literally copy and paste the ad code into your website. There are plugins (I like ad inserter) that make it especially easy. You can choose where to place your ad block (in your post, on the sidebar, at the bottom, in the header, etc.) Take some time and look through different programs to find the one that fits you best. AdSense is common, but you may find one you like more. The way Adsense works, is that advertisers go to Google and sign up with Google Adwords. They then place the ad on your site, and when someone clicks on an ad, you get a portion of that click. It is called PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. Google gets a cut and you get a cut. And it is a win-win.

If you want a bigger portion of the profit and are willing to put some extra leg work in, then you could consider direct advertising. There are a few ways to go about this, but you’ll need to have a pretty good base of followers and traffic before you start searching for direct advertisers. This version of advertising is a little bit more work, because you have to find the advertisers yourself, but you then get 100% of the agreed upon rate for your advertising. Some bloggers choose to have a set monthly rate for certain sizes of advertisements, while others track performance and charge based on clicks, customers, etc. Find companies that don’t directly compete with your brand, but are very complimentary to your blog niche and reader base.

You could also work with affiliates on your site to get some extra money out of your blog. Affiliate programs are pretty simple and used by quite a few bloggers. Pretty much, you endorse or write articles about why you like a certain product in hopes that your readers will go out and buy that product. The more followers that use your link to buy the product, the more money you get from the company. While this is a good way to make money, there are a few guidelines I would suggest if you do this. First, don’t endorse all sorts of products just so you can make lots of money; endorse quality products you actually like and use. If you don’t, your viewers will know and you run the risk of losing your audience. Secondly, be open and honest that you’re an affiliate for a certain product. Make sure your reader knows that and don’t force the product down their throat—that will get obnoxious quickly and, again, your audience could diminish. If you like the product and really do want others to know about it, then you should feel excited and confident to begin the affiliate program!

Some companies will actually pay you to just do a product review; you don’t even have to be part of an affiliate program. This is really similar to affiliate marketing, but instead of promoting and endorsing the product on your blog, you simply write a review about it. Tell your audience what you liked about it, what you didn’t like so much, and why you prefer that product over other similar brands. Again, make sure to be honest and straight-forward with your readers. You don’t want them investing in your word and then getting upset when the product isn’t as good as you said. Don’t sacrifice immediate cash for long-term followers and trust.

Actually, you actually don’t even have to have your own blog to make money off blogging. Sound crazy? Well, it’s not. If you love writing, but all the other marketing aspects of a profitable blog don’t interest you, you can be a freelance writer. You can send your material to blogs you think would be interested in publishing your content. It may take a while to build up a reputation as a freelance writer, but once you have it then you can get a pretty solid income from it.

Ghostwriting is a little different; instead of having your name posted to all the articles that you submit to blogs and get published, your name won’t be seen (hence the “ghost” part of ghost writing). Pretty much, you can be employed by a blogger to write content for them and they just assume it as their own. You can actually make this a part-time (or even full-time) job, especially if you work for numerous different bloggers. It can kind of be hard to get into this business at first (unless you personally know a professional blogger), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it! If you’re a really good ghostwriter, you can make up to $50 per article you’re assigned, and some articles take less than an hour to write. That’s a good deal!

If you’re a successful blogger, why not become a successful author too! You can actually repurpose your old blogs and sell them as books (or, more likely, e-books). Of course, you’ll need to reformat your blogs to fit into a professional looking book, but if you have content that people want quick and constant access to, you can make some good money off this. Some really successful bloggers have made over $70,000 in a week from e-book sales, so it obviously works. If you’re having problems selling your blog content, then you can made a related e-book to your blog and then advertise it on your blog! It’s similar content that your followers love and you have a platform that gives free advertising. The perfect combination!

If you want to know more about How to Make Money Blogging, or How to Start a Blog, visit my other posts and learn how you can make 6 figures at home, working on your own schedule!

How to Become an Amazon Product Reviewer

Posted on February 3, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

Set up your profile

You can’t become a product reviewer if you don’t have an account set up, right? So, get an Amazon account and then go to amazon.com/profile and you’ll go to your profile page. Keep this professional looking and up-to-date, because this is where people will go to contact you and see your reviews.

Join a reviewer website

There are a few out there that you can get involved in. iReviewHome and Reviewso are just a few. These websites get you access to products and promo codes that usually discount the item by 50-75%. You need to be a part of these sites because it gets your name and profile out there so you can have access to more deals and products.

Stay on top of your reviews

Don’t buy or get a product and then wait 2 months to put up a review. This sets a bad standard for your work and will also repel future companies from you that are looking for product reviewers. Usually a time span of about 2 weeks is ideal to get the product, use it enough, and then provide a decent and well-thought review.

Be Helpful!

Putting a star rating on Amazon and then just having text like, “it was good” or “it didn’t work as well as I thought it would” is not helpful! Tell them what you liked and didn’t like about the product, how you most effectively used it, and it what sort of situations it’s a good buy or bad buy. The more helpful you are, the more people who will follow your reviews, which means the more products companies will want you to try out for them.

For Other Ways to Make Money From Home, See These Other Related Posts:

Top 54 Side Hustles to Make Extra Money on the Side

10 Ways to Earn a Living On the Internet

50 Ways to Earn Extra Money on the Side

7 Serious Ways to Add $500 To Your Income

How to Budget when You Don’t Make Enough Money

Posted on January 27, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

Learn to Cut Back

Make a list of the money you have flowing out into different expenses. If you have cable, or streaming networks you pay for, such as Netflix or Hulu, put those on your list next to how much money it costs you each month. If you have smartphones in your family write those down as well. List magazine subscriptions, gym passes, art classes, or anything that comes to you as a regular expense. Then you need to look at your list and decide how to cut back. Maybe you can just eliminate a few things, or maybe you need to cut it all out for a little while until your bank account becomes more stable. There is no point in paying for a huge cable bill, or random magazine subscriptions that you never read, while you’re struggling to make ends meet. The more you cut the better off you will be.

Get into Survival Mode

Don’t spend money on things you don’t need. You have to get into a survival mode and focus only on the essentials. Avoid eating out, shopping sprees, going out to movies or events, or anything that is unnecessary. If you can control your spending habits and you can cut back on these things, you will be amazed how much money you save. It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun though. Start making a fun meal plan with ingredients you already have at home, look online for free date ideas that can still get you out of the house, and find ways to mix and match pieces in your closet to wear them in ways you never have before. Overall, just make sure you are only spending money on the things you have to have to survive.

Make More Money

To help you feel more fluid in your budget, you’ll need to find ways to make more money so that you can attack your financial situation from both ends. There are a lot of ways to make money from home on the side. You can pick up extra shifts at work, or get resourceful and see if any of these 50 Ways to Make Money on the Side are good options for you. If you don’t have a job that pays well enough and you are having hard time getting ahead, consider finding a new job, improving your skills or even getting educated in a new trade or field to improve your quality of life.

Top 54 Side Hustles to Make Extra Money on the Side

Prioritize Your Bills

If you have a lot of bills to pay, make sure you decide which ones have to be paid off first. Hopefully you cut back on everything from the list you made, but now it is time to sort through what important bills are MOST important. Take care of things like your house payments and energy bills first and then keep moving down through the things that are most important for you to keep surviving and having your basic needs met.

Keep a Positive Mindset

Overall, remember to stay positive. Of course this is easier said than done, but it is so important when trying to get out of a financial bind and start to plan effectively. Negative thoughts are destructive and won’t help you moving forward. Try to think each day about good things that happen to you, opportunities that come your way, connections you have with other people that could help, and really anything that keeps you positive and focused on your ultimate financial goals. If you can’t master a positive mindset, you other strategies could fall apart.

8 Legit Ways to Make Money From Home

Posted on January 19, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

So, you’re looking to make a few extra bucks, but you are hesitant to get involved with an online money making scheme. Your concerns are valid, there are “bad businesses” everywhere,and it can be difficult to weed out the good from the bad. Fortunately, we have researched these websites for you, and now it is our duty to share these wonderful opportunities with you.

Ebates

Ebates doesn’t exactly make you money, it helps you to save money! Merchants pay Ebates to refer customers to them. Then ebates used the money from the merchants to offer discounts and deals to their shoppers. Visit the ebates website before making any purchases online, and use the link that ebates provides. When you do so, ebates will pay up to 25% of whatever you purchase. It is free to sign up, so get started!!

Inbox Dollars

Inbox Dollars is basically an online rewards system that offers cash payouts. All you have to do is use their search engine, print coupons, and online shop. You get money each time you use their search engine. Really, what could be easier? You even get an instant $5 bonus just for using your email address to sign up! Of course it is free to sign up, so sign up now and start earning at Inbox Dollars.

NCP Nielsen

NCP Nielsen pays you to scan your grocery store purchases to your phone. Start your free account and scan the barcodes of the items you buy at the grocery store. Record where you shopped, how much you spent and NCP will reward you with points that are redeemable for money.

Ipsos Isay

Sign up for free and take surveys over the phone on different sorts of products. You take surveys, earn points and then cash them out for rewards via PayPal.

SwagBucks

This is a free site that gives you rewards (points redeemable for money, gift cards, or other rewards) for answering polls, taking surveys, trading in old video games, and playing games on their website. They’ve paid out over 78 million dollars to their reviewers. This is totally legit and a great way to earn extra cash. Register free for Swagbucks here and get started.

Blogging

Start a Blog focused around your likes and passions. Focus in on this niche, and use it to make money. Successful blogs receive thousands of visitors every week, and you can use affiliate networks and ad networks, such as Google Adsense to earn a really great income blogging from home. For more information about blogging, please read our step by step instructions on how to start a blog for only how to start a blog for only a few dollars a month.

Sell Your Products Online

If crafting is your passion, consider opening an Etsy shop. Etsy is a place where individuals can sell their homemade goods and shop for unique items. Many shop owners do so in their spare time, and some can even turn it into their main source of income.

Sell Yourself

This isn’t as bad as it sounds! Offer your skills as a freelance writer, public speaker, or blogging guru. Charge for your services by the hour or by the session, don’t sell yourself short! Your opinion matters! Use social media platforms to promote yourself and create a strong website base.

If none of these things interest you, maybe there are other ways you can side hustle extra cash and stay legit.

50 Ways to Earn Extra Money on the Side

7 Easy Ways to Make Money Blogging

15 {Legit} Ways to Make an Extra $1500 a Month

How to Get Freelance Writing Jobs

How to Make Money Blogging

Posted on January 19, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

Blogging has changed my life, and therefore, I want it to change yours. If you have been wondering how to make money blogging, well, buckle up, because today, I am going to tell you. Blogging often starts out as a hobby or a release of sorts, but it can be so much more!

My first blog was about logos. I was interested in the industry and I started blogging about graphic design and logos and their origins. I didn’t know the first thing about blogging, but it was a fun adventure and a great place to get started. I made about $1,000 a month, and worked about 3-5 hours a week, at most. Not bad money, for the effort put in.

Fast forward 7 years and I am making $70k+ a month and I can travel the world, work on my own schedule, raise my children at home and be my own boss. Pretty good little setup, no? I have spent my time finding new revenue streams, traffic streams and ways to monetize my blogs. You don’t need gobs of traffic to make money. You need to be thoughtful and deliberate. Nothing I have done is rocket science or requires a crazy IQ. I have spent hours and hours researching how to make money blogging and now I want to share my findings with you.

I often get asked from bloggers or readers things like “I have been blogging for a year and a half, but how do I actually turn it into money?” Or something like “How do I make money blogging? Where should I start?”

Great questions. Today, I am going to go over a few ways to make money blogging.

Bloggers *working from home* are some of the highest paid internet marketers in the industry right now. Some people think that unless you are famous, there is no money to be made. Have no fear. There is a big enough “piece of the pie” for everyone. And fortunately, it doesn’t matter how many bloggers are out there, you can still make money blogging from home.

It is a dream come true, truly.

“How do I make money blogging?” you ask? Here is the skinny:

Number 1

Advertisements to Make Money Blogging

This is probably the easiest way to start. Google Adsense has been good to me. It takes some time and testing, but all in all, it can create a fairly consistent revenue stream. I have focused mostly on ad revenue the past 7 years, but have gotten into other things that I will discuss in a bit. There are a lot of different advertising networks. Here are the things I like about Google Adsense:

It is super easy. You create the ad based on what you want it to look like, fonts, colors, size, etc. You copy and paste that ad code right into your WordPress blog. There are plugins that make this easier, if you are not comfortable with hard-coding. Look for Ad Inserter or Ad Injection. Both are pretty user-friendly.
Real-Time reporting. I love to see what my revenue is for that day. Very reliable reports.
Accepts most blogs- You may have to apply again later, if you get rejected, but they approve most blogs as long as you are self-hosted and are in compliance with their Terms of Service.
You can place the ads anywhere you like on your page. Be sure to read terms of service so you can see what is accepted and what is not.
100% Fill solution (they place ads in your ad spot 100% of the time. Other networks may not have the ad capacity to do that.)

Other Advertising networks:

Most work the same general way. Create the ad, copy and paste the code, and voila!
Look into Medianet, BlogHer, Sovrn, Taboola, just to name a few
Look for networks that don’t have a minimum traffic threshold. Some require a bazillion page views a month. Maybe you have them already, whahoo! Especially if you are just starting, look around for the right network. Read reviews and get educated. Do they pay based on PPC (pay per click) or CPM, which is based on impressions the ad unit gets?
Try to find networks that offer the highest payout or has the highest “fill” rate. A fill rate is how often that ad spot is filled with an ad on your page. You may choose an ad network that only has enough ad network to fill your ad 30% of the time. You will want to find another ad network to work as a “backup” to fill the other 70% of the time, to maximize your earnings. Leaving it blank the other 70% of the time is just a missed opportunity.

Ok, now here is the most important thing. Placement, placement, placement! This requires testing and trying new ads. Don’t throw up some ad code and leave it, thinking that it is the most you can possibly make. Sometimes, changing the color of the font and the size of the ad can have a huge effect on your earnings. The experts always recommend testing ad units for no less than 2 weeks, but I have totally bailed on an experiment that makes my numbers dive. Maybe you will be more patient than me:) Every time you try something new, it takes some time to get some good, concrete stats, to be able to compare. But I chicken out on experiments when numbers drop.

Other Advertising tips:

Don’t be afraid to try multiple ad networks and see what works best. Some networks are best for certain niches, while others will have more inventory for a different topic. This is something you will constantly be working on, and if you are like me, it is fun!! I love running numbers and comparing stats to find what is working the best.

Here are a few other ideas for making money from home:

Number 2

Use Affiliate Marketing to Make Money Blogging

Affiliate marketing is a great way to increase your blog earnings and make money from home. In case you are new to affiliates, here is how it works. Jane is a blogger. She loves Kat Von D makeup from Sephora. She posts all about it, so her readers know why her skin looks so amazing. Her readers like it, too! They like her face and now want to buy that makeup. They click on her affiliate link to purchase Kat Von D makeup and they buy it. The affiliate network/brand then pays her a commission on the sale. Pretty sweet gig, right? I use affiliates, such as Bluehost and other companies that I really like and want to recommend to my readers. Here is what you need to know about affiliates:

There are a bunch of affiliate networks and the payouts range drastically. Some are as little as 1% (that is a lot of makeup you have to sell to buy a yacht!) While others are a set $ amount. Shop around, find products you like and decide which way to go.
There are affiliate networks like Shopstyle, Commission Junction, Reward Style and more that have all the products already in their system and they work as the affiliate platform. They provide the stats and numbers and you use their platform for your affiliate marketing. It is as easy as creating a link to a product and copying it into your WordPress blog.
You can also go directly to some companies and sign up to become affiliates directly through their business.
Some pay out on a net 30 basis, some take as long to pas as net 90 (30 days, 90 days, respectively.)
Some affiliates (most?) have a payment threshold. You have to earn X amount of dollars before you can be paid out on anything.

I never recommend pushing a product you don’t ACTUALLY like or believe in. This will create distance and mistrust with your readers. Only push products you truly like. Don’t sell your soul for that yacht. It won’t get you anywhere in the end. 🙂 Here are some other affiliate programs you can check out. Avant Link Commission Junction Flex Offers EJunkie Shopstyle Reward Style Swagbucks Amazon Link Vehicle It’s important to work with affiliate companies that are similar to the theme of your blog. For example, if you are running a beauty blog, use affiliates to health and beauty products. Your readers trust your opinion, and will look to you for expertise. Here

Number 3

Sponsorships as a Way to Make Money Blogging

This is actually referred to as direct advertising. This is when a company contacts you to represent them in your blog post. Sometimes you will write the post (and they approve it) and sometimes they provide a post and you can edit it to make it your own, etc. This is usually a product review or something of the like. The more traffic you have, and the more relevant audience you draw, the more the post may be worth. There is a wide variety of prices that you can charge for this. Be sure you charge enough to make it worth your time. These can be some of the most tedious posts you do, as you need to submit for approval, etc, so be sure you aren’t working for free. A Few More Tips

Don’t settle on one method of monetizing, and call it quits. You may be able to make money blogging through multiple revenue streams. Test some different things out and see what works best.
If you have a particular expertise, consider writing an ebook on that subject and selling that through your blog. It is a great way to make a recurrent money from one-time work.
Freelance writing for other blogs or charging other writers to post to your blog

**If you are interested in learning how to make money online, or making money blogging, check out this post on How to Start a Money-Making Blog for 4 Easy steps to make it happen.

How to Start a Blog

Posted on January 19, 2016 by flipping Pennies Contributor

Blogging has quite literally changed my life. My husband graduated with 25k in student loan debt (which I realize is even on the low side!) and I was staying home with our daughter as we both looked for a job in 2009, a long time before the job market had recovered. I started blogging as a hobby, and very soon I was making a 6 figure income working from home while raising my (now) 4 children. Check out my Income Reports here! You can earn thousands each month by blogging and working from home. Here I have included discounted pricing on hosting and domains through ” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>Bluehost that can help you set up a WordPress blog for just a few dollars to get started. If you are considering this, you should be quick and start soon, because these prices probably won’t last long!

Start your blog on wordpress here, and then I will personally walk you through each step to get set up with your new WordPress blog.

Blogging has completely changed my life. It is truly a dream come true to work from home, doing something that I love. I can work on my own schedule (bedtimes and naptimes!) as well as travel and work from any location. My schedule is flexible and I make more money than was ever possible at my “real job.”

Anyone can make money blogging. is something anyone can do, as long as you get started the right way. A lot of people that start to dabble in blogging want to start out as inexpensive as possible, which I totally understand. But pleeeease, resist the urge to sign up with a a free platform like Blogger. The problem with this, is that it really limits the money that you can make on your blog. Many money-making blogs started out there, and they had to go through the laborious process of switching their website to a self-hosted WordPress blog in order to really be able to monetize their blog. It is an extra step and a pain in the neck. If you want to start a blog, you definitely want to make money from it. You need to start out on the right track.

When you start any business, you want to do it as inexpensive as possible. ” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>Bluehost is probably your best bet when it comes to hosting services that are both reliable and cheap.

*If you are wondering “What is hosting?” then you are not alone. If you have never had a website or blog before, you may not know. I remember actually googling the term “What is hosting” when I was starting my very first website. We are all at a different place in this process. Some are just starting, some have had blogs before, and some people don’t know where to start at all. This is where I come in:) I explain all the blogging lingo in THIS post.

Bluehost is one of the best options for a hosting company. The hosting is reliable, customer service is prompt and it is definitely the cheapest program out there, especially for new bloggers. I have had a great experience with Bluehost. They have given my readers a very special rate and you can ” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>start your own blog for as low as $2.95 a month with my link! That is crazy low and I don’t know how long it will last. If you are considering starting a blog, this is the best deal you will find. Register your domain with them using my special link, and get a fantastic discount! Bluehost and their 24/7 customer service line saved my life when I started blogging. I was full of questions, and they had all of the answers!

If you ever want to make money on your blog, you must be self-hosted. You can run advertisements, affiliate links, work through sponsorships and any other advertising that you wish. When you are self-hosted, you have the power to make those choices. I know it can be scary to put money into something, hoping it will work out, but hosting plans at Bluehost are so cheap, that it is easy to earn that money back and so much more.

Blogging, for me, started with a self-hosted website. I have never had to make the switch, but have many blogger friends who have. It is a huge pain. If you start out on the right track, you will be ready to make money blogging much sooner, without all the hassle. It is so inexpensive to use Bluehost (they are even giving a free domain with my link this month!) that you can make that money back so fast, and it is well worth it. If you are wondering what kind of money can be made blogging, check out my Income Reports page. I will report my monthly income blogging, each month with a breakdown of how it is made. I will also be interviewing other bloggers, to get their tips and tricks to making 6 figures blogging. I will also report on other bloggers’ income, so you can get a feel for the community, and what is working and what isn’t. I hope this is helpful.

If you want to know more about hosting and other website and blog lingo, read my post Blogging Basics-Starting From Scratch.

Bluehost is super easy to set up. There are a ton of reasons that I choose to recommend Bluehost and there are a few:

Chat support that goes above and beyond. There are times that I had a question about my site that I thought was related to hosting, and even if it had nothing to do with them, they have pointed me in the right direction. I love their chat support and I rarely wait very long for a representative.
Self-hosted blogs are the best way to make money blogging. Definitely get a hosting plan instead of a free platform.
WordPress comes with Bluehost hosting, so there is no charge. You get WordPress for FREE!!
Bluehost will walk you through the entire process of setting up your hosting and installing WordPress. It is so easy!
Bluehost is the best option for cheap web hosting. Hosting plans through other providers can be as much as $8-15 a month, and Bluehost is offering it to my readers for only $3.49 per month.
No Risk! I always trust companies that allow you to cancel at any time. There is no contract and you can cancel and move to another hosting company any time you want. This tells me that they stand by their service and trust that you will stay, based on having a good experience. It is cheaper to pay for a year at a time, but you can still cancel any time, even if you choose to do that.

The Process is super easy, so click here to get started.

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First things first, what is your blog name? This is the fun (and kind of hard?) part! What do you want your blog name to be? This is where you choose your domain. I recommend doing something that is easy to spell, with no hyphens or unusual spellings, unless you are already well-branded. It can be a pain to have to spell your blog name every single time you tell someone. I know, my last name is spelled CRAZY! It might as well have a silent 7 in it.

Step 1

Register Your Domain Name

Choose something timeless. Choose something that you like to say (strange, but you say it so much! Make it easy!) Also, it can be tricky to find names that are still available. I have come up with a few *what I thought was* original names, only to find out they were taken. So, you probably won’t get your first pick. But keep looking. Don’t be tempted to do anything but a “.com”- for a lot of reasons.

You can get your domain from Bluehost and then the process of setup is extremely easy. You can even get a free domain through my link, which usually costs about $15 or so. You get a cheaper monthly price on hosting the longer you sign up for, so consider that when choosing your package. To check if your domain is available, just go to Bluehost and type them into the domains section to check. It will tell you if it is already taken or available.

Starting out, the basic package should give you everything you will need. As traffic increases and your needs become more complex, they can upgrade your plan anytime.

Here is the detailed information for when you are comparing packages.

Once you have your domain, you are ready to buy hosting for your blog.

Step 2

Buy Hosting for Your New Blog

Hosting is the first (and most significant) expense for blogging. The cheapest route to go is to sign up for a 12 month plan, which gives you the free domain as well as the cheapest price per month on hosting that you will find. There are add-ons that you probably won’t need right now, but I definitely recommend doing the Domain Privacy Protection. This is very cheap, and keeps your personal information from being public (associated with your domain.) Some may not mind, but I like to have that protected, when I am already putting so much out there on my blog:)

The basic plan is all you really need, so I would just choose that for now. As I mentioned before, if you need more later (and let’s hope you do) you can always upgrade your current plan with no penalties.

You can sign up for a 12 month, 24 month, or 36 month hosting package, but don’t worry! There is no contract, but you get better rates the longer the package. I would definitely sign up for at least a 12 month package, to get the better monthly price. The 36 month package offers the very best price and you won’t find a better price anywhere else. This also comes with the free domain, which pays for itself very quickly, with the savings from the more expensive plans.

You can always get a refund, but I don’t think you will need one:)

It is time to buy hosting for your blog! Here is how you do it.

1- Go to Bluehost now, and click on the “Get Started Now” button

2- Click on the Basic package, or whichever package you are interested in (again, just getting started, basic is probably sufficient.)

3- Enter your domain name that you already registered or get your domain name here.

4- Fill out the forms with your contact info as well as payment information

5- Choose a password

Step 3

Choose Nameservers

This only needs to be done if you Register your domain through another provider. Skip this step if you Registered your domain through Bluehost

You might be thinking “…nameservers, whaa?” This is where you connect your domain name and hosting plan. It is basically pointing your domain to your hosting plan and communicating between each other. Sounds complicated? It’s not:) It is super easy.

First, You need to go to “manage domains” wherever you bought your domain. Again, if you bought it on Bluehost, skip this whole step.

Once you go to manage domains, you want to “set name servers” and you want to change these to the nameservers that you get from Bluehost. There are 2, ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com. Once you log in to your Bluehost hosting account, you can add this as an addon domain. It is very easy to do. Just follow the steps and you are set. Also, if you run into any trouble along this way, this is the best time to chat with Bluehost. They will personally walk you through the whole process. If you still need help, feel free to email me. I would be happy to help:) Honestly, nothing makes me happier than to help someone start a blog that helps lighten a financial burden or helps pay off debt, etc. It has really become a passion for me!

Step 4

Install WordPress

One of the things I love about ” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>Bluehost is how easy this process is. It is so easy to create a WordPress blog and it is free, too! You can literally be a blogger and have the opportunity to create a very substantial income with only a few bucks a month! Once you have registered your domain name, and bought a hosting package, you are ready to install WordPress and start blogging:)

Check your “welcome” email from Bluehost and click on the link that will take you to your cPanel

Click on the “One Click Install” button

On the second page, you will see a section that is named “Blogs.” Find a button that has a WordPress icon and click on that.

Start the installation process. Choose your domain from the dropdown box (maybe the only one there, unless you are ambitious and want to be a super blogger!)

Click on the “Advanced Options” button and choose your login info for your WordPress blog. Admin is the common “default” but don’t use that! You want it to be something secure. Choose something you will remember, but that isn’t too common.

Choose “Automatically create a new database for this installation”

Click “Install Now”

Congratulations! You now have your very own WordPress blog! How easy was that? Be sure to save passowords and any info that you need to login to your CPanel, as well as your WordPress site. I have made a super secure doc that I keep with passwords and usernames, etc. Hopefully, you are logging in enough to remember it after a while, but I hate it when I can’t log into something!

If any of these steps are confusing or hard, Bluehost chat is SO helpful. Also, I am so happy to help point you in the right direction, as well.

If you want to learn a few tips about WordPress, read WordPress Tips for the New Blogger.

Here are a few highlights:

After signing into your WordPress Blog, you can now choose a “theme” or template. There are thousands upon thousands of themes. Some you can purchase, and some are free. To find themes, go to appearance and click on “Themes” and then choose “add new” at the top. You can scroll through many themes to choose something that has the layout that you want. I have used Genesis in the past and really liked it. Be sure to pick something that is user-friendly or has good reviews. And don’t be afraid to change it once you get started, if you decide that it doesn’t work the way you want it to. Some themes have a lot more options than others.
On the left side, you are going to see a lot of options. “Posts” is where you will be adding your blog posts. It is really intuitive, almost like a Microsoft Word document. To add pictures, use the “add media” option at the top of the post. There are bullets, page breaks, font sizes and more. You can add links by highlighting a word and clicking on the “link” button above, and copying and pasting the URL that you want the link to go to. There are endless options, so get in there and play around with it!
Widgets will add items to your sidebar, header, etc. There are a lot of widgets there to help you achieve the look and function you are going for.

And now that you are a bonified blogger, you may want to start researching and learning everything you can about blogging! I have been blogging for 7 years+ and have recently been earning between $60,000 to $75,000 per month blogging, and I want to help you! Here are some other blogging posts that can really help you, too.

Blogging Basics- Starting From Scratch