My journey into making money off a blog

Below is a guest post by Felix Wakweika. He is a passionate blogger who writes mainly about his personal experiences. For more of his work, visit the address www.wakweika.comxa.com. You can also connect to him via Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/wakweika).

Felix Wakweika

I have always wanted to write about anything but mostly write about things I experience in my life. I tried making a journal but I realised I was missing lots of  days and finally I gave up. Then I discovered blogging. With my fascination for computers and technology, this was a really awesome fusion of my two passions; writing and technology. I set one up recently. I was told by a friend who is more versed in the field that I could blog and make some money while am at it so I ventured into finding different ways of making money off a blog. As I read various posts on how to succeed in this field I noticed that when most people think of monetization, they think AdSense, sponsored posts, affiliate sales, or text links. But the biggest sites in the world don’t use any of those techniques. They get more creative than that. Here are two examples I can illustrate this with...

First, take a site like Zen Habits http://zenhabits.net/ by Leo Babuta. It’s a popular site on simple living that probably gets over 500,000 visitors per month. But it didn’t start that way. Leo grew the site every day, and he has made it a point to never sell advertising on the site. It is completely ad-free, and his site eventually allowed him to quit his job and focus on what he loved doing. What did he love doing?  Ebooks. Leo created a trusted brand and now people buy his books to learn more. The site even got him a real, physical-book deal. By focusing on delivering what his readers wanted, Leo was able to develop a following of loyal fans that supported him by buying his products. Secondly, look at the lifecaster, iJustine http://www.ijustine.com/. All she does is video-blog her life. She didn’t just start a website and think, “I’m going to sell text ads.” No, she did something unique and cutting-edge. She thought outside the box. (And the fact that she is a beautiful blonde certainly helps!) She started doing crazy stuff online like singing and dancing in Apple stores and she got a great following. Now, she gets sponsorships and speaking deals. (After all, you can’t put text links on YouTube!). 

Guest blogging is another way to go. I was reading a guest post by Matthew Kepnes and he says " I focus on travel, but I guest blog on finance blogs, life hacking sites, and a wide range of other topics. I do this to leverage my knowledge into other fields, because, after all, everyone likes to travel and everyone likes to save money. So when I blog on other niches, I let people know I’m an expert in travel to people who would never have come into my own niche on their own. But many bloggers never do this. They only stay in their niche—but if you do this, you have nowhere to grow. 

Think laterally. Blog in niches that are similarly related. Don’t always get stuck in your niche." He further says "There are many ways to make it online. Those who have made it have done it by bucking conventional wisdom and thinking outside the box. They got creative. They went right when everyone was going left. If you also want to make it with your blog, you must do the same. Narrow thinking won’t help you last on the Internet. Be bold. Be daring. And when you are, you’ll be successful." Am planning to apply all this wisdom and you are welcome to join me in this journey. Let us both BE DARING AND GET CREATIVE!