Times are tough these days for many people. As living costs rise and working hours and overtime diminish, it is becoming more and more difficult to make ends meet for some people.
The rising burden of taxation does not help either, leaving us all less money to take home after we do get paid. Also many companies are only hiring part time and it is difficult to get the hours needed to earn a full time income. What options are available to people in these circumstances?
There are tons of resources online offering options to bring in extra income or cut expenses to try and make ends meet. Most of the advice they give is pretty standard and obvious. In this article we want to dive into one specific option that is under-utilized but offers a potential for significant extra income if the person is prepared to put the work in and be patient.
Building passive income sites or blogs and monetizing them through a number of different means – such as affiliate links, adverts and ebooks – can over time bring in significant extra income if the process is done right. It is an excellent opportunity for anyone who has spare time on their hands and wants to supplement their current income with online earnings.
With the introduction of content management systems like WordPress and countless resources online taking you through how to set up niche sites, there has never been a better time to get into building your own websites.
It is a great opportunity to monetize your passions and can bring you in some good extra money over time.
There is no longer any need to understand complex code in order to build websites, like there used to be. WordPress can take care of all of that and the process of getting hosting and domains is also much easier than many people might think. Let’s take a look at the process in more detail below.
Passive income sites can earn a good income if you pick a good niche and follow the right process
NB – This video is a few years old now, so making money off Amazon Affiliates is harder as they have continued to cut commission rates. However, the general point still remains – it is very possible to make significant extra money online if you build blogs the right way.
Blogging as a Solution If You Want Extra Income
Wanting to work but not having enough work at your current job is a really frustrating experience. In your free time you find yourself twiddling your thumbs, knowing that your money you will bring in this month isn’t going to be enough but you can’t get any overtime. How about being able to put this time to use?
Building your own blogs or niche websites is a fantastic way of putting this spare time to use in planting a seed which can, if done properly, bring in some fantastic passive income over time. If you have the spare time to do this and an interest or hobby which you know enough about to write some good content on it, then it is an option seriously worth considering.
The process does take work and effort and only delivers results over time and not instantly, but can be a superb way of earning a full time living in it’s own right if you persevere with the process. Let’s look at how to get started.
If you are naturally full of ideas then blogging can be a great way of monetizing your interests
What Do I Need to Get Started Blogging?
Getting started with your own website is easier than you might think. This site was designed to provide all the steps you need to get up and running.
The process has been made more accessible by the fact there are tons of people online who show you how to do the process step by step. We have embedded a video by Alex at WP Eagle below as an example.
To get started you need a domain name, hosting, a WordPress theme and some good ideas for content. That’s pretty much it.
Your domain name is the name of your site, your hosting is where your site lives, and the content is what will drive the traffic to your site to start earning some money.
In terms of cost you can get up and running with 3 years of hosting, a domain name and a free WordPress theme for around $150 or less. If you buy hosting for a shorter time you can get online for even less, though the monthly rate for hosting is far better when you buy in bulk.
Of course this is difficult when the problem is precisely that you are not earning enough to begin with. How are you meant to afford even this small investment when you are struggling to make ends meet anyway?
Creating your own websites does take time and effort and a little money, but the initial investment is tiny compared to other ventures like starting your own business or purchasing real estate. Moreover it is capable of producing a decent income if you follow a certain process such as that laid out in Income School’s Project 24 program.
If there is a way in which you can be resourceful and find the $150 you need to get started, then we recommend taking the chance and doing it.
We suggest selling anything that might be a distraction from you putting the time required into building the site and the content, like video games consoles or extra TVs lying around, or cancelling Netflix subscriptions.
If you have some old stuff lying around that you don’t use, like golf clubs or skis for example, then think about selling them to get the money you need.
Most people can find a way to get together the $150 or less which is, given the potential returns if you do it right, a tiny investment for a massive potential return over the long run.
Before you set up a niche site, it is a good idea to do some research there to make sure it isn’t too competitive, by which we means already covered by big, authoritative sites which will be difficult to outrank on Google.
See our article on keyword research for more on this. If you can find enough of an opening in a niche you are interested in, then you are good to go.
Then get set up with a domain name, hosting and WordPress Themes – links are in the next section below. Once you have these, the video below takes you through how to get your site up and running. Once you have done this, it is simply about producing high quality content related to your niche that ranks on Google.
A Quick Beginner’s Resource Guide To Get Started Blogging
There is so much content out there now about how to get started making money online. Let’s try and boil it down to the few simple things you need to just get up and running and publishing content on a blog.
1. Idea For Your Site – You need to decide what your blog is going to about. It ideally needs to be an sweet spot between something which you are interested in, isn’t too competitive online, but is popular enough that you can make money off it. See our article on picking your blog niche for more on this. Generally avoid the health, fitness, finance and recipes niches; most others are fine.
2. Getting Set Up With a Blog – These are the three technical things you need to actually get to the point where you have a website online and can start publishing content – a domain, hosting, and theme.
- Domain – Decide on a name for your site (eg. pokercorner.com) that isn’t already taken, and purchase off GoDaddy or another registrar. Go for shorter names, and usually .com only unless it’s a local blog. See our domains page for more on this and links to domain name providers
- Hosting – You can get cheap shared/web hosting from a number of providers. See our hosting page for some links. Buy as much hosting up front as you can, preferably 3 years, since you get better value for money this way.
- WordPress Theme – Pick a clean, nice looking WordPress theme. Free and Paid ones are available. See our themes page for more details. If you have money for a paid theme, Income School’s Acabado theme is great. If you need to save money then the free versions of Astra and GeneratePress are fine to start with.
- Repoint Domain Name – Once you’ve got your domain and hosting, you need to repoint that domain over to your host. It’s very easy and is usually done within the domain registrar’s settings. See the video below for a demo of how to do this.
- Install WordPress – All big hosts have a free WordPress install as part of their package. Again very easy to do from the cPanel of your hosting account. See the video below.
- Done – That’s it! You’re now ready to actually start creating content for your blog.
Getting set up with a Domain, Hosting & WordPress – for complete beginners
3. Start Producing Content – This is what is actually going to make you money. Here are some resources:
Once you’re set up, here are some other quick resources to use for getting started blogging:
- Use Pixabay for a great library of free images to use in your blog posts.
- Make sure you set up the correct permalink structure for your blog. Can save a lot of time later.
- See here for a guide to signing up for Amazon Affiliates if this is part of how you plan to earn money.
- See here for a guide to connecting your site to Google Analytics to analyze traffic (not necessary in the very early days).
- See our plugins page for some other excellent free plugins you can use with WordPress to do common things bloggers want to do when starting out.
Getting pages to rank at the top of Google simply boils down to writing the most useful and definitive article for a given search term
Making Sure Your Blog Content Ranks At The Top of Google
If you want to succeed in making money online, then you need to write content that actually ranks at the top of Google. If your articles rank anywhere other than the top half of the first page on Google, then you won’t be able to draw in any traffic, and you won’t be able to make any money.
This why being interested and/or knowledgeable on the topic of your blog is so important, because you can put yourself in the mind of searchers and create content that is really informative and useful, and helps readers solve a problem.
We have already linked to some of our articles on how to create good content for blogs; here are some other pointers to bear in mind when creating content:
- Always look to answer queries actually being typed into Google, not just writing about topics you are interested in, but which no one else is searching.
- Do not bother with keyword research tools, since they don’t give accurate volumes. Just play around with Google Auto-suggest on searches in your niche and analyze the competition for search results.
- Look to create super useful, detailed blog posts that are a better resource than what currently ranks for that term. Cover the topic from as many angles as possible. Give the readers as much relevant information as possible.
- Start with posts on smaller, less competitive, super specific search terms, building up to more competitive terms as your site grows. Do not start off going after competitive keywords on a new site, because Google won’t rank them until you build some trust. See our article on this.
- See the video below for a common sense SEO strategy from Income School.
- Check out their Project 24 program if you want to follow a great recipe for success with blogging.
- Binge watching their YouTube videos, especially the older ones from 2018-19, will also give you an excellent grounding in how to approach SEO and blogging in general.
How to Get to Top of Google in 2020/21
How Long Does It Take To Make Money Blogging?
The major negative here for someone wanting money right now is that making money from websites does not happen overnight and takes a lot of time and patience.
Even if you produce high quality content, it takes an average of 35 weeks for that content to rank well on Google for a brand new site (Income School stat).
Once you build a site with at least 30 articles on it, you need to be prepared to wait 9-12 months to build traffic to it to the point you can start to make some significant income.
In some cases it can happen sooner but in almost all cases it takes time and effort and you have to be prepared to be patient.
This also assumes that you did a good job researching the keywords and titles you should pick for your article, not picking phrases which are overly competitive and will be very difficult to rank for.
It is a good idea to produce content which targets under-served and less competitive search terms in your niche if you want to rank more quickly and start getting traffic.
However, if you are prepared to put the initial work in and wait for Google to trust that content and start ranking it, building your own websites can be an excellent way to make some extra income in the long term.
The people who are more successful at it can make a full time living off it once their sites are developed with good traffic.
Sure, it takes time to get there, and is a much longer term strategy to sort your finances out. However, if you have multiple interests you think you can monetize and are prepared to put the time in, why not build two, three, or more of these websites in your spare time?
If done properly these can pull in some serious extra income 18 months to two years down the line.
Starting out blogging you need to be patient and wait 9-12 months for the results to come
What If I Want to Make Extra Money Online Right Now?
We get that some people’s money troubles are more urgent than that, and they don’t have the time to wait up to a year or longer to see success. They want a solution right now to their tight finances. What options are available to bring in extra income more immediately?
The first of these is Freelancing, where you sell a certain skill you have online for money.
These skills can be anything, such as:
- building websites
- writing content
- accounting work
- PA services
- VA (virtual assistant) services
- Proofreading
- Editing
- Producing or editing videos
- A number of other skills and services
If you have skills in these areas that you could put to use, perhaps from previous jobs you had, then it may be worth checking out some freelancing sites to see if you can find extra work on there. The more popular ones are Upwork, and Freelancer. They have many different categories you can sell your skills in and are worth checking out.
The downside here is that you are competing against people from countries who can charge much lower prices than standard Western prices. In some categories of work this may make the pay unattractive.
This is not the case in all areas though and indeed some people hiring on these sites will demand native English speakers only based in the United States for example.
These sites also tend to take a commission or cut out of whatever you are paid as a fee for connecting you up with the gig. However, freelancing is an area worth checking out for people who have certain skills they are not putting to use at the moment.
Another good way to make extra money online is through product testing and surveys. These are both areas that can pay decent money and there are sites set up to allow people to exchange their time in these areas for money at very good rates.
See this video from Caffeinated Blogger below for more on this. The product testing often involves testing out websites or gadgets like iPhones and providing recorded feedback for the companies to use.
As long as you can speak English and have an internet connection you can make extra money doing this.
The survey sites like User Testing, Testing Times and Respondent can offer very good money for filling in specialized surveys on certain topics like banking, technology and other areas. If there is a survey up that you can participate in then they can pay very well for a short amount of your time.
