How to Earn Dollars in the Philippines from Blogging by following these 10 Steps

So you want to earn dollars without going abroad? You may have heard that blogging can be a great way to make money at the comfort of your home. You have probably learned that there are already many Filipino bloggers who are earning and cashing in some bucks without even going to office to work for their bosses. But how will you do it? How will you follow their steps?

Making money from blogging is not an easy feat. It requires patience, practice and the right strategy to succeed. Thousands of Filipinos have already tried to make a blog to taste the passive income it might give, but many of them failed. However, by following the right steps, you could actually make it a success. Here are 10 steps you may follow to earn dollars while blogging from the Philippines.

1. Find out your forte in writing.
Identify your best talent, skill or profession where you can excel and crush your competition. Don’t start a travel blog if you can’t travel. Don’t be a business blogger if you don’t know anything about business and finance. If you’ll choose a topic just because it’s what’s hot right now, you might just end up fading along with the topic. In other words, choose a niche where you have a rich supply of knowledge, experience and expertise. Choose something which is matched with your career and even lifestyle – something that you can do consistently even for a long period of time.

2. Analyze your competition.
Do a Google search about the topic or niche you’re planning to blog about. Identify a list of top blogs on that niche. Visit those blogs to observe and analyze their content and the strategy used to attract and retain readers. Determine their blogging tactics and styles. Then go further by visiting their social media profiles to analyze their social media engagement. From there, you can already have a good idea of who your competitors are and what you should do to outshine them.

You may also join groups of bloggers on Facebook and other forums to observe how blogging works. Visit Facebook and search for groups using the query “Filipino bloggers” or “pinoy bloggers”.

3. Create a plan.
Don’t fall into the entrepreneurial trap. Don’t just jump in without a smart plan just because you see yourself as a brave entrepreneur who could take whatever the risk is. You don’t need to create a very formal and detailed plan like you’re getting a bank loan. Just write down your strategy, procedures, competitive analysis, SWOT, funding, timeline, and other important information that will guide you to your goals. Remember that blogging requires you to spend money and time. You don’t like to waste them, do you?

4. Develop your blog.
This one is technical. If you are serious with your blogging career, invest in a quality, professional and marketable blog. This step involves registering your own domain name, setting up your web host, and developing your blog. You will have to pay your annual domain name registration fee (12USD to 35 USD/year, depending on its extension) and monthly web hosting plan (5USD to 100USD/month, depending on its size). And aside from that you will also need to install, design and develop your actual blog using WordPress, which is the most popular blogging platform now.

If you don’t have any idea how to do the procedures above, we offer a Php 10,000 Blog Development Package for aspiring Filipino bloggers. This package already includes:

• Free 1 year .COM domain registration worth P600 (just add P1,000 to register a .PH domain)
• Free 1 year web hosting worth P6,000
• Premium WordPress theme worth P5,000
• Search engine optimized WordPress framework
• HTML5 and mobile responsive blog
• Google Analytics and Search Console Installation
• and more.

To inquire about this solution and leave to us the development of your blog so you can concentrate on blogging, you can reach us using our contact form at Optixor.

5. Publish evergreen and engaging content.
Write evergreen content or those articles that can still be useful even after 3 years or more. Creating unique and high quality evergreen content is the best way to generate organic traffic from the search engines. This kind of traffic, once earned, could last for years and help you generate passive income. Evergreen contents include:

• How to articles
• Ultimate lists articles
• Ultimate guide articles
• Case analysis
• Research and studies

Evergreen and other high quality content require time and patience to create. But once you have them, you can relax and sit back while watching your traffic coming. They also naturally become viral on social media. Thus, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on advertising just to get some traffic.

6. Optimize your content for search engines.
Once you have high quality content, it won’t be too hard for your pages to rank on search engines. However, to further increase your search engine rankings and make your blog more visible to the right audience, do some basic search engine optimization techniques. These SEO techniques include using the right meta tags, such as page titles, descriptions, and keywords. Using engaging images with the right alt texts (the alternate texts read by search engines on images) will also enrich your content and become more visible on search engines.

7. Promote your blog and content in social media.
Create profiles and pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and other applicable social media platforms to build up your brand and attract followers. These social media profiles will also help your blog increase its authority in search engines. Moreover, share your latest blog posts in your social media network so that your followers will be updated with your latest content.

If you want to increase your Facebook Page likes quickly, you can try Facebook Page Ad with a minimum budget of P40 per day. If you believe that your latest blog post has the quality to become viral, you can also buy Facebook Page Post ad to reach more audience and boost engagements. However, remember that not all niches work with Facebook Ads. If your niche tackles the latest and hottest issues on the Internet, then Facebook Ad will probably work.

I haven’t used Facebook Ad in this blog. This blog’s traffic, including its Facebook Page likes, are all organic. However, I’m using Facebook Ad in other blog niches, such as travel, politics and society.

8. Monitor and analyze your blog’s performance.
Install Google Analytics and Google Search Console in your blog to monitor traffic, search visibility, site health, performance and other important information about your blog. This will also help you determine if your blog is already ready to make money. Remember that you have to wait for your blog to have enough quality content and generate at least 1,000 unique visitors per day or 30,000 UV per month to start generating income. To give you an idea, this blog is generating 100,000 UV per month. Hence, focus on publishing more quality content to generate consistent traffic before thinking of earning dollars.

9. Apply and implement available monetization schemes.
If you believe that your blog is already eligible, join advertising programs that are most applicable to your blog. AdSense is one of the most popular and easiest monetization schemes available for bloggers. Once your application is approved by Google, you can already start using AdSense to make money from your blog according to their terms and policies. If your monthly earnings reach or exceed the $100 threshold, you’ll get paid by Google every month that follows thru bank check or Western Union.

Earning your first $100 with AdSense could be challenging, but once you got it, it will give you motivation to do better and earn more. Aside from AdSense, you could also earn from affiliate programs, blog sponsorship, direct advertising and other monetization schemes available for Philippine blogs.

If you’re wondering how much this blog is earning from AdSense every month, I can only tell you that it ranges from $100 to $500. 🙂 I can’t disclose it in detail because of security concern and since it might be against Google’s TOS.

10. Continue blogging and wait for your earnings.
Be patient and consistent. Blogging as a startup small business could be tough and competitive. You will normally face a lot of hardships and challenges. However, if you have a good plan, just implement it. It could take 3 to 6 months before you can generate enough traffic, which can be converted into blogging profit. Aim for your 100th quality blog post. When you have already a hundred blog posts in your blog, it’s already a great milestone, which you can be proud of. So just continue providing quality content to get more traffic, and eventually, more profit.

Final thoughts
If you’re serious in earning money from blogging, you have to invest quality time and even money to accomplish your goal. Ten thousand pesos for your blog’s development may be a big expense. But remember that it’s not actually an expense – it’s an investment for your blogging business. It’s even cheaper than the cost of a fancy cell phone. The only difference is that, if you will consistently blog with quality and strategy, your blog can generate passive income for you. What is P10,000 initial investment if you can earn $200, $500 or more every month from your blog someday?