The Key to Making Money Blogging

Admit it, you've dreamed about it. You're the current big thing, sponsors are pounding down your door, your significant other has quit work to join you, and most importantly you are working to your own schedule.

We've all dreamed it, but it's become a reality for very few people. So how do bloggers with more modest numbers make a living online? How does anybody stand a chance, if they're not the next Heather Armstrong?

They diversify!

Bloggers who are successful at making money look past just the sidebar ads and find additional avenues of income:

• Sponsored posts
• Giveaways
• Paid contributor positions

A year into my blog, I started monetizing it with sidebar ads, making a couple hundred dollars a month - nowhere near the income point I wanted to reach. Then I started assisting Design Mom and learned firsthand how even a popular blogger was diversifying, not solely relying on her sidebar ads to supply income. She was working with an ad network, working with sponsors in various ways, and contributing as a writer to other sites.

If somebody as successful as she is diversifying, I should too. I took action and landed a couple paid contributor positions and started working from home full-time!!! I did it. My income is still modest, but I do have an incredibly flexible schedule and right now I’m writing this while sitting in my pajamas.

If you’d like to learn more about alternative income opportunities, I go more in depth in my class, Bringing Home the Bacon When Your Blog Isn’t Huge.

Post written by Melanie Blodgett. Photography by Anna Williams.