Make Money Blogging: How to Make $1,000 Blogging
- Simon Zaku
- Sep 1, 2023
- 13 min read
Updated: Jul 31, 2024
How do I make money from this blog?
Hello and welcome to my blog. In this blog post, I show how to start, run, and manage a blog that makes you $1,000.
My name is Simon Zaku and for the past 8 to 10 years, I've started countless blogs and have been able to squeeze out a living from it from my hostel bunk here.
You see, most of these blogs I started have failed before even making a dollar, but through trial and error, I started this blog, simonzaku.com.
This is me sharing my personal story and experience with you on how I went from zero to making $1,000 (and even at some point I was making $2,500) a month from this blog.
This is more like a Q and A blogging resource.
Make Money Blogging for Beginners: How I Make $1,000 to $2,500 Per Month Blogging
How Did I Get Started Blogging 10 Years Ago? | What Type of Blog Did I Start and Why Did It Fail? | What are the Technical Aspects of Creating a Blog? |
How Did I Select the Domain Name for this Blog? | Which Web Hosting Provider do I Use for this Blog and Which do I Recommend? | Why is WordPress the Best Blogging Platform for Blogs? |
How Did I Go from $0.00 to $1,000 Monthly from this Blog (simonzaku.com) | How to Create and Design an Effective Sales Funnel for Your Blog? | How Do You Create Content that Attracts the Ideal Customers/Clients You Need for Your Blogging Business? |
What are my Top 10 Blog Web-Hosting Platforms that I Recommend? | How to Create a Blog Sales Funnel in 5 Steps | What is blog web hosting? |
My Top 10 Blog Hosting Providers to Try:
1. Hostinger
2. Bluehost
3. Hostgator
4. Namecheap
5. eUKhost
6. Contabo
9. Wix
Starting with the first blogging question;
How Did I Get Started Blogging 10 Years Ago?
It was on a beautiful Friday evening here in Taraba, Nigeria.
I stepped out and decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. I was barely 13 years old and while walking I met an old friend and someone I regard as a mentor, Job Benedict.
He looked so excited and I couldn't wait to ask the reason behind his excitement.
He replied; “I just cashed out $60.00 from Google Adsense!”.
Now I can still recall the shocking feeling I had realizing this was someone in Taraba state, Nigeria getting paid in USD just by using his computer. And guess what?
At the time, I didn't know what a blog was so I replied;
“What is a blog?” He said.
“A blog is a platform where you could make money from Google Adsense”.
“What is Google Adsense and how can I get started too?”
He said; “A platform you connect with your blog to display adverts and make money”.
“How do I get started?”
He said, "Google it out".
I told myself I had to learn about this to make money on my own. At the time $60.00 was a good amount of money converted to Nigerian Naira.
I got excited and wanted to go into blogging from that moment.
The next day I immediately created a pretty scrappy (and free) blog running on Blogger Blogspot.
What is a Blogger Blogpost?
If you don't know what Blogger Blogspot is, it is a free blogging platform where you can start a blog for free hosted by Google.
The next day I came back to Benedict and said I now have a blog; what's next?
How can I begin earning $60.00 just like you did?
I was already geared up to start earning even though my blog was just a day old.
If you think about it, the mindset was the first thing I had gotten right.
Which was to start a blog AND make money.
Most beginner bloggers I see today just go into blogging to write as a journal, send a few tweets, write about everything, or even publish plagiarized content.
But the first thing is you need to get the mindset right.
The mindset is to start a blogging business, not to start a writing blog journal where you can just write what you want to write.
My mindset was to create something that would turn into a side income, so I was focused on generating revenue.
Fast forward five to seven years, I had a blog running and earning $1000 monthly.
And what got me even more fulfilled was that Benedict (my old-time friend) turned out to be a student in one of my coaching programs for bloggers and freelancers.
Even though it took a long, long time for me to start earning, I never stopped.
If you look again, it took me six to seven years before I earned my first dollar as a Blogger.
I made so many mistakes and I failed countless times, but that never stopped me. I was determined to build a side income, just like my friend Ben.
I never had a guide, mentor, or a comprehensive walkthrough just like this. So I did this all on my own which caused my blogs to fail several times.
I didn't know what products and services to create and sell on my blog.
(I ended up selling e-books) - I’ll be publishing an entire blog article on how I was able to write and sell ebooks on this blog that generated good money in a few days so be sure to subscribe to my blog.
And if you have any more blogging questions that I haven't answered in this blog post, you can feel free to use the comments section and I will reply to every single one of your questions.
What Type of Blog Did I Start and Why Did it Fail?
The second question here is;
“What type of blog did I start that never made a dollar in six years?”
You see, when I started blogging I was not fortunate enough to have a tutor, mentor, or a guide to help me through my blogging journey.
Throughout my blogging journey, I depended on my (mediocre) knowledge as a beginner and it turned out to be a huge mistake that took me years.
Here’s the story of the first-ever blog I started;
Earlier on I started an entertainment blog which was hilarious because I stole other people's content and published it on my blog. This is what bloggers call the 'Copy and Paste' Blog.
The first blog I started was zakxloaded.com (a pretty funny name).
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What content did I publish on my first-ever blog?
At the time, there was a famous Nigerian Blogger Linda Ikeji (Lindaikejiblog dot com) who made billions of Naira from blogging.
On zakxloaded.com, what I did was I went to Linda's entertainment/celebrity blog and copied every single thing she posted and reposted on my blog expecting to get as much traffic and revenue as she was making, which was the biggest mistake I made.
As a result, I never got any leads or traffic. I was barely getting 5 to 10 clicks from my shares on Twitter and Facebook.
Even though I published so much content, I was also never accepted to Google Adsense because I was doing ‘copy and paste’.
Google Adsense says every one of your content must be unique for you to be accepted to the Google monetization program.
My traffic never scaled above 10 clicks per month so I couldn't convert any traffic to sales or leads.
I stole content from other websites and pasted it on zakxloaded.com which negatively affected my SEO.
During my first blogging year, I sent more than 50 Google Adsense applications from different emails and all were disapproved.
Here's the thing;
I didn't grow this blog to $1,000 monthly through Google Adsense.
(We'll be discussing this later in the post)
But if you're looking to make money from your new blog as a beginner, you can try the Adsense program just like I did.
Now the next most disturbing question new bloggers ask is; “What are the technical aspects of starting a blog today?”
What are the Technical Aspects of Creating a Blog?
“I am ready to start a blog but what are the technical aspects of creating a blog from scratch?”
You see, unlike when I started blogging, there were technical things to do before you could get your blog online.
Today you can have your blog up and running in less than 5 minutes. Yes, I repeat, in less than 5 minutes your blog would be up and running.
There are three basic technical aspects of starting a blog today.
The 3 Technical Aspects of a New Blog:
- Domain Name (or blog name/URL)
- Web Hosting
- Blog Host (WordPress, Wix, etc.)
The first is a domain name, the second is your hosting and the third is the blogging platform or blogging host.
1) BLOG DOMAIN NAME:
What is a blog domain name?
Your domain name is what your audience types in the browser search to land on your blog.
For example, this very blog's domain name is SIMONZAKU.COM.
This is what you, my target audience, and clients type in a web browser to land on this blog.
Other examples of domain names include blogginwizard.com, Wix.com, Ryrob.com, Neilpatel.com, Wordpress.com, Google.com and so many more.
Get the idea?
How Did I Select the Domain Name for this Blog?
How do you choose a domain name for your new blog?
The easier your audience or customers can remember your domain name and easily type it in a browser, the better for your blog brand.
I try to avoid things like hyphens (-), special characters, numbers, or long difficult names that aren't easy to remember.
I wanted to build a personal brand around my new blog which could easily be remembered with my name so I picked my first and last name which is Simon Zaku for my domain name. Hence, simonzaku.com.
I went for a dot com (.com) because it is easier to remember and is the most popular domain suffix.
We have numerous like .net, .org, .site, etc.
With my first blog, I used zakxloaded.com, and now simonzaku.com for this blog, and simonwritesagency.com for my content and blogging agency. And freelancebeginnertraining.com for my freelance coaching services and products.
Let's say, I want to start a blog around books. I could use something like Simonbookreviews.com or Dailybookreviews.com.
Your domain name could be anything at all. Just focus on getting a domain name that can easily be remembered and can be typed and searched by your target audience or customers.
2) BLOG WEB HOSTING:
Now the next thing is your blog’s web hosting which is as crucial as your domain name.
I’ve lost some of my blogs due to poor web hosting services. This caused me to switch to different web hosting companies to find the perfect one for my blogs.
What is blog web hosting?
A blog’s web hosting is the company or service on which a blog will run or be hosted.
It is called the hosting service provider which provides all the necessary technicalities and features for websites and blogs to run on the Internet.
They are also responsible for backing up your website data.
Here’s the catch;
You can get your domain name from one hosting company (say nameservers.com) and get your hosting from a different hosting company (Hostinger.com or Hostgator.com).
For example, I could get a domain name from GoDaddy and get my hosting from HostGator and then map or connect it.
You could also get your domain name and host on one platform (say Hostinger, Hostgator, or Bluehost).
Which Web Hosting Provider do I Use for this Blog and Which do I Recommend?
For this blog, I use Wix.com for my blog hosting while my domain is hosted on HostGator.
There are other hosting sites like Nameserver.com, Bluehost, etc.) where you can get your domain names, blog hosting, etc.
Map your blog’s domain name to your preferred host.
Where should I host my new blog?
As I said, your blog can be hosted on your hosting provider through Wix, WordPress, Hostgator, or Hostinger.com.
I use Wix. I moved from WordPress to Wix months ago but don't get me wrong, I still have some of my sites hosted on WordPress because there are so many features on WordPress that Wix does not have.
But for now, this very blog is running on Wix.com.
WordPress is a tool that runs your blog. It is the largest blogging platform in the world with billions of websites and blogs running on it.
Other competitors are Wix, Hostgator, Namesavers, and all of that.
Why is WordPress the Best Blogging Platform for Blogs?
Why I love WordPress to be specific is that WordPress offers millions of blogging features that come in the form of WordPress plugins.
What are WordPress plugins?
WordPress plugins are additional services and add-ons that help bloggers or website owners run successful blogs effectively.
For example, there are blogging plugins that help you create pop-up plugins.
There are WordPress plugins that help you secure your WordPress sites and more.
These plugins help you gain more control over your blogs or your websites. Some examples of WordPress plugins are Google Analytics, Wordfence, etc.
How Did I Go from $0.00 to $1,000 Monthly from this Blog (simonzaku.com)?
The next and one of the most disturbing questions is how do you take your blog to $1000 per month?
In short, here is the thing; I didn't grow a $1,000 per month blog through Google Adsense or Ads.
What I did was I grew a $ 1,000-per-month service-based business.
In other words, I grew a $1,000-per-month freelance writing business through my blog.
I want you reading this to start looking at your blog as a marketing channel or a marketing tool rather than a business on its own.
This blog is a marketing channel that I use to promote my freelance service business. What I do is I write for businesses across the globe, especially startups in the B2B space.
I want you to ask yourself this;
“What are you normally good at and you know you can write consistently about?”
This approach helped me grow a $ 1,000-per-month blogging business off freelancing with just a few blog posts.
I didn't even need to create tons of blog posts.
What I did was I researched, wrote, and promoted a few blog posts targeted to my b2b freelance writing audience and I promoted them properly.
I landed SEO and content writing clients paying me anywhere around $150.00 to $1000 a month to create SaaS blog content for them.
Having a sales funnel is why I converted my blog visitors into clients and customers.
Design an efficient sales funnel that syncs with my blog content marketing effort.
How to Create and Design an Effective Sales Funnel for Your Blog?
As for your business, your blog content should be the starting point of your sales funnel.
Your traffic should be the pillar of your content pieces which will attract the right audience, build trust, and convert readers into subscribers.
Email marketing is a huge channel for every blogger - successful bloggers making thousands of dollars online leverage email marketing to generate sales.
Email subscribers then into raving fans and then they trust your business through emails and value-added content and if they are interested in your service, business, or product, they become customers.
Your content will showcase your expertise in whatever niche you are in.
How Do You Create Content that Attracts the Ideal Customers/Clients You Need for Your Blogging Business?
You see, publishing educational blog posts tends to convert your visitors into email subscribers way more easily.
If you look at the Buffer blog for example, you will notice that they put more effort into producing and publishing educational blog content around their niche (b2b, marketing) rather than company-related posts.
Here’s the thing;
This depends on the type of blog you want to start.
Educational blog posts, how posts, listicles, guides, etc. are posts that educate your audience on a specific topic, and unlike company-related posts, they teach users and build trust and relationships that convert your readers into buyers, clients, and customers.
And don't forget email marketing is a huge part of your sales funnel and should not be left out.
I use the Wix email marketing feature for my email marketing campaigns but you can also use a free platform like MailChimp which is completely free for your first 2000 subscribers.
Finally, without effective blog marketing or promotion, every content you publish will be forgotten.
Like I always say, content isn't king; Content with effective promotion or marketing is king.
Do you get the idea?
If you do not design an effective content marketing plan for your blog and implement it, then your content pieces won't generate traffic, leads, or sales because no one will even see it.
I mean, what is content without marketing?
How to Create a Blog Sales Funnel in 5 Steps:
How do I build my first blog sales funnel?
Here is my five (5) step plan for running a blog that generates sales on autopilot:
The first step is to use Google Keyword Planner, which is completely free to generate lucrative and educative content ideas to publish.
The second step is to write or create lead magnets using these ideas (from Google Keyword Planner) and create a landing page if you want.
The third step is to write 3 to 7 high-converting emails and plug them into your email service provider like MailChimp or Wix.
The 4th step is to build trust through these emails and send leads to your products or services by promoting them.
The 5th and final step is to continually send traffic through SEO, Pinterest, or other social media platforms to your blog content pieces.
This is called a blog content marketing funnel and is where most bloggers get it wrong but let me quickly explain how Google Keyword Planner works.
Google's Keyword tool allows content creators and marketers to research and find keywords and key phrases that people are searching for online.
The first step is to use this free keyword tool to find lucrative content or keywords to create blog content your customers/clients want rather than just creating random content you think your audience wants.
Starting, I was creating content I felt people needed, but with these tools, you will be creating content that people are searching for on search engines just like Google.
This will help you attract the right traffic that your business needs.
This is why you don't need millions of traffic to make $1000 a month blogging.
You could create good content that attracts the right traffic and then convert this into sales or leads and make your sales as a Blogger.
The first thing you need to do is to go to the Google Keyword Planner account.
This will take you to the main Google Keyword Planner dashboard.
There you will need to navigate to tools and select keyword planner.
You can input your related/target keywords and Google Keyword Planner will bring out related keywords and the details for every keyword you have inserted.
You can also manually run some of these searches on Google AutoComplete to find related keywords to include within your content.
Create pillar content that fits perfectly into your blog sales funnel.
I prefer to make a quick funnel plan before I begin writing and publishing my blog content.
This way, you don't waste hours writing content that doesn't fit or convert into sales for your new blog.
My Top 10 Blog Hosting Providers to Try:
1. Hostinger
2. Bluehost
3. Hostgator
4. Namecheap
5. eUKhost
6. Contabo
9. Wix
Best,
Simon Taki Zaku
Founder, simonzaku.com, simonwritesagency.com
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