What's the difference between a blogger hobbyist and a pro money-making blogger?

The answer's in the question, the pro blogger gets paid for blogging.

Would you like to learn how to get paid for blogging? Stick with me and I'll show you.

Here's the deal:

It's easy to start a blog but not so easy to make money with your blog. Most bloggers simply don't know how to get paid for blogging.

The guy on the right makes it look easy right? But the fact is you can get paid for blogging if you just have the right know-how and skill set (which can be learned) to do it.

In fact, there are literally hundreds of ways your blog can start making you money, the problem is knowing where to start. Keep reading because in this post I'm going to break down the best way to profit from your blogs and point you in the right direction.

The number one way bloggers get paid is through affiliate marketing and it's simpler than you think to get started…

By doing what I did, YOU CAN achieve the same level of success

Before I get into the meaty stuff, I just want to give you a quick background into who I am and how I make $6,000+ per month from my blogs.

Why?

Because you'll quickly realise I'm no one special and help you see that you are no different than me and success within blogging is 100% possible for anyone, even you.

My name's Simon and I've been blogging since March 2014 after signing up for the free affiliate marketing training at Wealthy Affiliate.

I started out because I was desperate to make serious changes to my life and I knew being tied to my call centre operative job just wouldn't work for me.

I'd been scammed a few times by self-proclaimed gurus promising me make money online foolproof systems which failed to deliver every time.

I was frustrated and I knew I had to get past all of the hype and find a real online business model I could follow. I was willing to put in the time and effort needed to make it successful if only I had the right know-how.

I will never forget my first day at Wealthy Affiliate; it was refreshing and different (here's my full review). I devoured a week's worth of training in two days and took action on the action steps of each lesson and started setting the foundation for my online business.

Now let's jump forward a couple of years. I'm now an independent blogger and I live off what I get paid from my blogs.

You can read my full story here but let's just say everything has changed – I moved from the UK to Thailand and I now work with slum kids full-time as a volunteer and get to travel around southeast Asia.

I can't emphasise this enough:

I owe all of my success to the community of friendly and supportive bloggers at Wealthy Affiliate.

If you really want to know how to get paid blogging – create yourself a FREE account, join the community and get started with the training

Without coaching of some sort, it could take you years of meandering and thousands of wasted pounds/dollars to finally get to where you want to be.

Getting paid blogging sounds like a great idea but unless you get the write technical and creative training and develop the right skills you need to be successful, it can be very easy to waste your time and money.

I see it happen to many – so if you've got a blog but you'e not getting paid yet, or you've never set a blog up in your life (that was me) – get yourself into Wealthy Affiliate where you'll in safe hands, put on the right track and start building your online business.

Now you know more about me and where I'm coming from, let's get into the juicy stuff and talk about how you can get paid for blogging.

The best way to monetise your blog and how you get paid

Here's the deal – forget about advertising or sponsored posts or any of that other nonsense. Affiliate marketing is by far the best way to get paid by blogging.

It's been around since the dawn if the internet but is a bigger opportunity now than it ever has been for people looking to start an online business.

People like you and me! Can you imagine what your life would look like if you could take control, fire your boss and have the freedom to make to make your own choice in life?

Affiliate marketing is the easiest and simplest route you can take to get there.

Here's a quick video that shows you step by step through how you can get paid from your blog:

Getting paid from your blogs mean you'll be working for yourself instead of someone else. You get to keep all of all the money you earn and have the freedom to work as much or as little as you like.

Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to transform any blog into an income generating asset.

You see, there are 10,000's of companies online that are willing to pay you a performance-based commission for promoting their products and services.

You (the affiliate) get paid every time someone clicks on your link for the companies website and makes a purchase.

From Amazon to Nike, Samsung to Avon – and commissions can range from 4% to as high as 75%.

Your blog could be in any niche (here's: some ideas on what you can start a blog about) and all affiliate programs are free to join.

So if you're looking to make money with a food blog , let's say you write posts and upload videos showing off your latest culinary creations, showing people how they can do it to, complete with recipes and walkthroughs – how do you get paid?

Sign up to any one of the plethora of baking and cooking affiliate programs out there and include recommendations to baking equipment and recipe books within your content and start to get paid as your blog builds a strong and loyal readership.

Billions of dollars are spent online each year and if you've ever bought anything online, the chances are you did through an affiliate link.

The opportunities are limitless and only growing as the number of daily internet users surpasses the 3 billion mark and set to rise to 4 billion by 2020.

Three things you need to start getting paid for blogging:

1. A Blog (obvious right?!)

Your blog is your online platform, your virtual storefront open 7 days a week. It's the foundation you'll be building on going forward.

This could be on any topic, it's better to pick a topic you're interested in and knowledge in.

Build your blog by writing posts, creating images and videos sharing your expertise, helping people solve problems and answer people's questions.

Don't worry, starting a blog is not as tricky as you think and your first blog can be live as quickly as 20 minutes from now. Here's your step-by-step guide to starting your first blog.

2. People actually reading your blog

Here's the deal: you could have the most beautiful blog set up and live, but without readers you're not going to get paid.

Simple.

So how do you attract throngs of readers?

There's 100's of ways: search engines, social media, advertising, YouTube, podcasts, pay per click to name a few. All these are covered in the Wealthy Affiliate training courses.

But don't worry, it's best to start with one kind of traffic source first, master it and move onto the next one. That's what I did.

3. The fun getting paid part

Once you've got a blog with helpful posts with a steady stream of daily readers, it's time to move on to menetising your blog so you can get paid.

So what's the best affiliate program to promote? It depends what your blog is about.

Why?

Because you only want to promote products or services that will actually help your readers.

(Don't sell them a spammy for a quick buck – it just wrecks your reputation and your readers won't trust you again.)

As well as helping your readers, it stands to reason whatever you're promoting is relevant to your blog.

Relevant because someone reading your “caring for a pet snake” blog is far more likely to click on a link for a snake tank than for women’s moisturising cream, makes sense right?

And beneficial because the last thing you want to do is undermine your blog’s integrity by promoting some half-baked, sham of a product. Sure you could make some quick cash but at the expense of losing the trust of your readers.

The Bottom Line:

Whether you've started a blog before or have an established blog that's not paying you yet, go ahead and create your free starter account at Wealthy Affiliate.

Add a profile pic, a quick bio and dive into the Online Certification Course.

This will guide you through the money making process and have you blogging like a pro!

This is just the start of your online entrepreneurship career and there's lots of exciting milestones ahead of you.

I know that if take the time to invest into your training and ask for help when you need it, set online income goals and push yourself to achieve then there's nothing you cannot do.

To your online success!

If you've got questions, be sure to drop me a comment below and I'll always get back to you.

I'd love to hear from already full-time bloggers on there, anything I've missed? What's the business model you use to get paid from your blogs? Encourage aspiring bloggers by sharing your experiences with us! 🙂