If you’re asking on how to earn or make some extra $500 a month from blogging online, here is my answer based on my own experience.
Firstly, you have to understand that a 500 US dollar extra income that is regularly received monthly is somehow a form of passive income. Take note that it is earned every month. In other words, it is an income that comes from an asset that is continuously generating that amount throughout the years. That asset would be your blog – and to build such blog is not accomplished overnight.
So how do you build a blog that averagely makes $500 every month? There are several ways to do that, but what I did were the following:
1. Invest in building a professional blog
I saved money to buy my own domain name and web hosting to host my WordPress blog. I used WordPress because I am comfortable with it and it helps me a lot when it comes to SEO (see #3). Having my own domain name also promotes my own brand and having a self-hosted blog enables me to fully control my site.
A dotcom domain name only costs around $10 for a 1-year registration, while a monthly web hosting for a starting blog can costs around $10 or more per month. I chose to spend some money than to create a free blog. Well, what is $20 or even $100 dollar to spend on first month for your blog that you wish to earn $500 dollars a month? If we can buy high-calorie hamburgers and soft drinks and buy unnecessary gadgets and accessories, then why not invest in a blog that is built to last?
I’m not a rich person, so I saved money and even escaped some of my favorite meals just to afford buying my domain name and web hosting. I believe that if we want to achieve something big, we have to make a lot of sacrifices.
Remember that we need to create a blog that will last long and will also be consistent in generating income for us. That is why we have to start a blog that we can stick to it for a long time, and not just for a while. In other words, we have to think for the long term rather than the short term. A professional blog will also earn the trust and confidence of your readers because they will think that you are sincere and you are there to blog for a long period of time and not just there to make some quick money from blogging.
2. Create quality content
The starting phase of blogging is tough. This is because you still don’t have visitors and people who have even heard about your blog. What I did is to write a number of articles that only I can write and nobody else can. To do that, I wrote blog posts on the topic that I am expert of or at least on the topic that I can do extensive research to support those posts. I have to do these things to get the attention of my target audience and to make my blog more competitive among the other blogs in my category.
We cannot escape this quality creation process, especially in the early stage of blogging. If you will start a blog with poor quality content, your blog will only be eaten alive by your tough competitors, not to mention you might also be kicked out by Google for publishing low-quality posts on the Internet.
If you want to create the best content for your blog, you have to blog on the topic that you can be the best. In other words, you have to blog your expertise or your specialization.
3. Implement Internet marketing campaigns
Great content is great. But if you can promote it to a wider audience, it would be greater. SEO or search engine optimization is a mover and a shaker that will bring more organic traffic from Google and other search engines to your blog. By doing some SEO strategies and techniques, I was able to make a number of my blog pages landed on the first page of Google – and these are giving me tons of relevant traffic.
You don’t need to buy SEO software or spend money on buying links to land on the top SERPs (search engine result pages). However, if you have a lot of money to invest, then you can try. You can even hire a SEO specialist to help you. But in my case, I did not spend any dime for SEO. All I do is to spend time on reading SEO blogs, forums, and other materials out there – then do some experiments. You can check out some of my SEO techniques here.
Aside from SEO, I also promote my blog on social media places, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and every social media websites that come to my attention. But honestly, I am only active on my Facebook Page. Well, you can do more social media marketing than what I do to achieve better results than mine.
4. Publish more and more content
Great content plus promotion equals traffic. However, this volume of traffic may still not enough to give you $500 passive income every month. If you are monetizing your blog through Google AdSense, you need a lot of traffic to earn even a $100 a month. If you are targeting $500 a month, you need at least 5,000 visitors on your site every day, especially if your visitors are coming from low-paying advertising countries, like the Philippines.
So how do you get those 5k traffic daily aside from having quality content and promoting them on search engines and social media? The answer is multiplication. You have to multiply your content – you have to publish more and more blog posts on your site.
If the quality of your blog matters, so is the quantity. Apparently, blogs with a thousand quality posts outnumber blogs with a hundred quality posts when it comes to traffic. I have achieved the $500 dollar monthly earnings from this blog when it got more than 500 blog posts. If you are not contented with $500 every month, then you can simply write and write more. You can have a thousand blog posts on your blog if you are determined to earn. It’s not impossible because I know bloggers who have thousands or even tens of thousands of blog posts on their blogs – and they are earning even more than $1,000 on a monthly basis.
5. Follow the rules
Attaining the passive income in blogging and enjoying it takes time. That is why you need to stay in the game. That is also why you need to follow the rules of Google, the law, and your visitors so that they will not kick you out. You cannot earn steady income from spamming – it is deteriorating. You cannot earn passive income by defying the law or fooling your audience – you’ll be a fly-by-night blogger that lacks integrity and trustworthy. If you will not follow the rules, the hard work you will put on your blog may only be wasted and you cannot expect long-term asset that can generate regular income from it. Thus, I guess, I did blogging with good faith.
6. Wait till the real money comes
If you want to harvest fruits regularly, you have to plant a fruit tree, not a grass that grows quickly but also dies quickly. Thus, if you want to build a blog that generates stable income monthly in a consistent manner, you have to learn how to wait. The real money in blogging is the money that is caused by your patience and diligence. When my blog was still new, there are advertisers who are offering me to put their links on my site in exchange of quick cash. But I refuse to accept them because they tend to hurt the search-engine-friendliness and user-experience of my site even though I need money on those times. Well, as I said, I want real money that multiplies through time rather than quick money that diminishes quickly.
If you have already built a blog that receives a lot of quality traffic, you can already earn money without exerting great effort, whether it is through Google AdSense, direct advertising, affiliate marketing, and other blog monetization schemes. Hence, you can forget about making money for a while, and just wait for the real money to come.
If you want to earn an extra $500 or even and extra $1,000 a month from blogging, you have to invest extra time, energy, patience, hard work, and even some extra money to achieve it.
Victorino Q. Abrugar is a marketing strategist and business consultant from Tacloban City, Philippines. Vic has been in the online marketing industry for more than 7 years, practicing problogging, web development, content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and consulting.
Gerbie Razon says
Thanks Vic. I am getting new knowledge/ideas every time i’m visiting this site and reading your newly posted articles. That is why visitors are also coming back to check for what’s new and latest tips coming from you. Again many thanks!
Victorino Abrugar says
Thanks Gerbie. I think I still need to discuss more specific steps and procedures for that. Just drop me a question here for more specific discussions. 🙂
semidoppel says
This post is a booster! Inspiring and my favorite part is this… “I believe that if we want to achieve something big, we have to make a lot of sacrifices.” Actually this is my problem now, I tend to overdo some stuff. I think it’s time to properly manage my daily routine as well as my online habits. Thanks Sir Vic!
Victorino Abrugar says
Thanks John for reading and also sharing what’s on your mind. Cheers! 🙂
Gil says
Vic, I definitely agree with this post. Earning money in blogging is not overnight. You should be persistent in creating good content. Congrats to the earnings your receiving now. Is the $500 from Google Adsense only?
Victorino Abrugar says
Actually AdSense + one banner ad. I have not really worked yet on sending proposals to direct advertisers. I hope I can someday. 🙂
Ira Katherine says
Hello Sir Vic,
This article is indeed very insightful. I would like to ask if there is passive income with personal blogs as well? I have recently set up a blog, and I want to focus on parenting, marriage, green living, personal finance and faith; something that I hope would inspire other homemakers like me out there. Thank you for the response in advance.
Victorino Abrugar says
Yes, as long as your blog is already receiving consistent traffic (traffic received even without working or exerting more effort), you can monetize it through advertising (e.g., AdSense) to enjoy passive income. Some personal bloggers create products and eBooks then sell it on their blog.