5 Ways New Bloggers Leave Money on the Table

There are so many new bloggers out there now. But did you know that many of them won’t make it a whole year? While there are so many free blogs, I assume you are on this post because you want yours to make money. So, I’m here to show you how to avoid being one of those new bloggers who leave money on the table.

The honest truth is that I can understand why so many blogs don’t last that long. I’ve seen it firsthand as my blogging buddies drop from the radar after only a few months.

Writing a blog is simple, but it is far from easy.

It takes a lot of work. But the real difficulty is ensuring you’re working on the right thing. You can work for hours on end and even full-time on your blog. But your blog will never grow if you work on the wrong things.

You know what they say, it is not practiced that makes perfect, but rather, it’s perfect practice that makes perfect.

I’ve been blogging for nine years now. And in this post, I plan on describing from my experience the top common blogging mistakes new bloggers leave money on the table. If you find that you’re making one (or more) of these common mistakes, no worries: I will highlight what you should be doing instead.

Mistake # 1: Not Monetizing Soon Enough

Many successful bloggers give blogging tips and tricks about the value of making a quality product for your blog. They always say that you want to ensure quality articles and a good theme behind your blog before you even think about monetizing.

To this advice, I call bullshit. These bloggers are either delusional or trying to keep all the money themselves!

While you should have high-quality content on your blog, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with thinking about how you’re going to bring in money with it from day one.

Here is a scenario I have seen again and again when it comes to other bloggers:

You have a new blogger who spends a couple of years developing quality content for their blog without making a damn dime.

And then when they reach a point where they can clearly monetize because they have the traffic and engagement, they don’t do it because they don’t know how or they’re afraid of disappointing their audience because they haven’t been monetizing this whole time. They’re worried they’ll lose their audience if they start monetizing.

Let me start by saying there is nothing wrong with earning a decent income with your blog.

You can simultaneously create quality content and make money at the same time. Here are a few ways to do so:

1. Publish sponsored posts to make money even when you don’t have a considerable following.
2. Utilize affiliate marketing. Again, you can do this no matter the size of your audience.
3. Run ads. You should be putting ads on your website from day one. You’re not gonna make a lot of money initially, but you’re gonna make something much better than nothing.
4. Anyone can sign up for a Google Adsense account, no matter your blog traffic. Check it out.

Starting to monetize from day one not only sets the expectation for your audience but allows you to keep things in perspective. Making money with your blog is just as important as creating quality content for your blog. One cannot survive without the other.

You cannot continue to write great content without making money over a long period. And you cannot expect to get high traffic and engagement if you are not creating quality content.

Mistake #2: Not Writing Quality Content with Affiliate Links

Remember how I said many people create quality blog content for a long time without thinking about monetizing? Well, they’re also missing out on excellent affiliate income. You should have affiliate links if you have written a great article that is getting lots of traffic.

If you’re curious about affiliate links, they are pretty links with your unique tracking code. You get paid a commission when someone purchases a product using your link. Commissions can range from a couple of dollars to 50% of the sale. And the best part about affiliate income is that you do the work once (when you write the article), and then you just watch the money flow in.

Another great thing about affiliate income is that you don’t need a lot of traffic to make good money. All you need are people reading your content and then clicking through your links to buy because you did a good job explaining why they should. This is a great way to make passive income on your blog, but it does take a certain amount of skill!

If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, I highly recommend you take this free workbook from Tasha Agurso called The Quick-Start Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers. She shows you how to start making affiliate income with your blog quickly! And the best part is that it is free. So sign up for it today.

Mistake #3: Not Tracking Stats From Day One

This one is a big one for me personally with my own blog. I had my blog for a couple of years and never really sat down and tracked any stats. I was not following my social media following, Google Analytics traffic, or how much income I was making. It was just busy work here and there, going through the motions.

So I sat down and looked at my traffic and my income. I noticed I had not grown for the two years I worked on my blog. I was getting between $50-$200 a month, which was inconsistent. But after two years, you would expect it to grow and not be such a roller coaster. 

So I decided to begin tracking my stats.

I made an excel sheet to track my social media following and income, and then I became somewhat obsessed with it. As a result of updating my data every week, I became more concerned about growing them. As a result, I began to spend more time asking myself: How can I make my numbers grow more than they were the week before?

Fast forward six months later, and I had my first month, where I made $6,000.

I know that’s a massive jump from years of only making $100 here and there. But it’s the truth. Tracking your numbers is so important. And it can mean the difference between your blog succeeding in a year or failing.

Take a little time, at least once a month, to measure your numbers and see if you’re growing or declining. Let it help guide you in making decisions on what to do next.

Mistake #4: Not Signing Up For Social Media Accounts and Influencer Networks

I’m hoping that before you bought a domain for your blog, you researched to make sure that that name is available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. This is important because your social media accounts are like your little army getting traffic for your blog.

Ensuring you will have individual social media accounts might sound like a no-brainer in 2020, but new bloggers leave money on the table all the time by not checking this before they create their site.

Not only do social media accounts help with search engine optimization (SEO), but they are also great for making sure that your website has links to reputable sites.

Also called backlinking, this is a pretty important strategy when it comes to SEO. While you don’t get many points for being on a website like Facebook, it makes your blog more legitimate in Google’s eyes.

Another place where I see new bloggers leave money on the table is by not creating profiles on various influencer networks or websites where you can apply for sponsored articles. Instead, for every sponsored post website you have a profile on, another link goes back to your website.

While these sites are not as strong as having a link on a website like BuzzFeed or the Huffington Post, you still benefit from having various links to your blog.

Not sure where to find influencer networks to join? You can get my list of over 150 for free when you sign up for my email list!

Sign up for our List of 150 Sponsored Post Opportunities

 As long as the sites are legitimate and have a decent Alexa rating (meaning a score lower than yours), you can post the link from your blog there.

If you’re unsure which sponsored sites, you should focus on. But first, I highly recommend you join the Blogging Money Update.

Blogging Money Update is an email newsletter that sends the best-sponsored post opportunities to bloggers three times a week. Options range from $50-$5,000 each, and we only share from legitimate sponsored post sites.

You need to have an account on various sponsored post websites to apply. But after a couple of emails, you will find that you can sign up for many profiles reasonably quickly. Sign up for the Bogging Money Update here!

Mistake #5: Not Collecting Email Addresses

Bloggers who collect email addresses make money.

It is that simple.

Why would you start a blog and not collect people’s email addresses? The reason is that most people don’t know how to make money from that email list. 

There are a lot of ways you can make money with your email list. Because of the size of many bloggers’ email lists, they can get more traffic to their blog posts, get more eyes on their affiliate links, and make more money because they have people they can sell to.

If you don’t have an email list or are struggling to grow yours, I highly recommend you sign up for the Free List Building Pep Talk by Covertkit. This free training shows you how to get your first 1,000 email subscribers.

Even if you have over 1,000 email subscribers, I promise you will get something out of this training. And the best part is it’s free! So you’ve got nothing to lose. Sign up here!

Bonus Mistake: Not asking for help!

I said I would do five great tips here, but there’s one that is just nagging at me that I felt I just had to share. And that is not to ask for help.

I can tell you exactly how many bloggers have succeeded with a blog alone. Are you ready for it?

The answer is zero.

Every blogger who is doing big things has had help at one point or another. Some bloggers have had coaches. Some have joined mastermind groups. Others have taken courses that show them step-by-step what they should do.

ANYONE who has had success has also had help. 

So, my advice is to get some help. Find other bloggers who have been there and done that. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel; instead, take a shortcut by asking for help.

This is precisely why I am currently developing the Blogging Money Formula. Some bloggers have got it going on. They write content that engages their audience, makes them click, and, ultimately, makes them buy. I you want to create content that does these things, you need the course.

You can expect to learn the following:

• Establish yourself as a professional blogger
• Properly apply for sponsored posts so you get selected for more opportunities.
• Get brands to reach out to you
• Build long-term relationships with brands
• Write content that appeals to your audience and the brand
• Drive traffic to your blog posts so that brands want to work with you over and over again
• What to do once your blog post is published so that you get consistent traffic to your blog
• Build your Instagram account to over 10,00 followers so you can qualify for more Insta opportunities
• Set a blog schedule that you can stick to once and for all.

You get all of this and so much more! Sign up below to join Blogging Money Formula.

Have questions about your new blog? Feel free to leave them in the comments below. We love helping other bloggers out!

Good luck, and I wish you much success on your blog!