This weekend I had the opportunity to not only attend the Women in Travel Summit (WITS), but also to speak on How to Be a Social Media Rockstar!  I had a fabulous three days filled with meeting new people, sharing what I’ve learned about social media, and soaking up incredible amounts of helpful information.  And now I can’t wait to share a few of the most important blogging lessons I learned while at WITS.  (p.s. here’s a look at what I’ve learned from previous conferences I’ve attended)

Lesson #1 – If you want to successfully monetize your blog, you need to treat it as a business.  This is one of the blogging lessons I heard during several presentations and in various conversations throughout the weekend.  Just like anything else, if you want to be paid as a hobby than you should treat it like a hobby.  But if you want to be paid as a business, than you need to treat it as business.  This might mean investing in your blog (sometimes you have to spend money to make money!), taking the time to sit down and actually create a business plan, or taking time to reach out to potential blog mentors.  Treating your blog is not going to be easy and as keynote speaker Hey Nadine shared, “There’s money to be made but it’s not going to fall from the sky just because you started a travel blog.”  Just like any other start-up business, it will take a lot of hard work but it is absolutely possible!  I think Erin Bender, of Travel with Bender, articulated this lesson incredibly well in her session…

Lesson #2 – Just say yes!  While conference organizers spend a considerable amount of time assembling a great line-up of speakers, one of the blogging lessons I learned is that sometimes you’ll learn the most between conference sessions.  The learning and connections happen when you say yes to impromptu dinners, picnics, conversations outside the bathroom or at a charging station.  And I think the same applies to between conferences.  While you will likely learn a lot whenever you attend a conference you can learn a lot between attending conferences by just saying yes.  Say yes to blogging meet-ups, collaboration opportunities, and the chance to connect with other bloggers and your readers.

Lesson #3 – Networking is not just about quantity, it’s about quality.  You could easily go into a conference determined to walk away with hundreds of business cards, BUT how valuable will this collection be for you after the conference?  If you are challenging yourself to collect as many business cards as possible you’re most likely not going to learn much about the person behind each card and I think it is an incredibly valuable blogging lesson to remember that making connections with people and understanding how you can genuinely help them, is going to help you the most in the long run.

Lesson #4 – Be YOU!  I think this is one of the most important blogging lessons I learned.  In this big, fabulous world of blogging you are going to meet and come across so many absolutely amazing bloggers, but here’s the thing… you don’t need to be just like them to be successful.  You need to the best, most sparkly version of YOU to be successful.  Don’t blog about topics you aren’t passionate about, or try to create a social media feed that looks just like the feed of your favorite blogger…do you.  And do you well.

What blogging lessons have you learned recently?  

This post about how to make money blogging contains some affiliate links. That means some of the links you click on will earn me a little money…to buy cupcakes and running shoes. Of course.

One of the questions I hear most often from other bloggers is, “How do I make money blogging?” Because let’s be honest, blogging is a lot of work…creating content, managing social media accounts (and their ever changing algorithms), networking with other bloggers, staying on-top of the latest trends…and so it seems like it would be really nice to get paid for all of your time. And you hear of bloggers making money, maybe even lots of money, and it makes you think about how you can turn your little space on the internet into an income-producing business.

So you decide to research, “How to Make Money Blogging” and your Google search yields 17,893 results…where do you even begin? What’s the best way to make money? Are some of these methods scams? Which of these ways will help me earn 6-figures a year? And ultimately your search just leaves you with more questions.

And so I decided to do a little research. Well actually, a LOT of research. Because here’s the thing…if I had just looked at five or six blog income reports that wouldn’t really be a big enough sample size to find any generalizations about how to make money blogging. So I looked at income reports for bloggers making $100,000+ per month (WOW!), and I looked at income reports for bloggers making $157 per month and I looked at TONS of income reports for bloggers making every amount between there.

And here’s a look at what I learned…

Disclaimer: 1. There are obviously exceptions to these trends (like this report), but overall these trends held true across all of the blog income reports I studied. 2. This data comes from blog income reports made available to the public.

*As a blogger’s income increased, the percent of their income that came from sponsored posts decreased. That’s right, the more money bloggers made, the less they made through sponsored content…because that’s a one-time paycheck! In all of the income reports I studied, I noticed the biggest shift as a blogger’s income crossed over the $10,000/month threshold. Simply put: Bloggers making $10,000+ per month made very little of their money through sponsored posts.  So if you want to make a lot of money blogging, don’t spend all of your time doing sponsored posts!

Tweet: “As a blogger’s income increased, the percent of their income that came from sponsored posts decreased” – @jmdenouden http://bit.ly/21Fqndl

*It’s important to spend a little time reading through blog income reports, especially if you are new to blog monetization! If you’ve ever wondered how to find blog networks that pay, you can find tons of ideas for how to make money blogging in various blog income reports. You’ll also get other ideas for how to increase your number of income streams. Read through blog income reports and jot down a list of money-making ideas that would also work for your blog.

Also, if you are new to blogging, I’d recommend checking out this Bloggy Bootcamp for additional resources for taking your blog to the next level!

Follow Girl on the Move’s board Blog Income Reports on Pinterest.*Establish your self as a value-added expert, and then share affiliate links! As I looked through income reports I found some astonishingly high incomes for affiliate links. In a recent month, Pat Flynn, of Smart Passive Income made $79,927.94 from affiliates (that’s 74% of his income!!!!) and $40,800 of that came from BlueHost affiliate income alone.   For every income report I studied where the blogger made a significant amount of money off of affiliate links I could also browse through their blog and see how they had established themselves as an expert…in something.   Here’s the thing, people are busy. They don’t have time to read 373 blogs a week. They are going to make the time to read the blogs that add the most value to their life. So be that blog. Offer value to your readers. And then share with them the products and services you use by sharing affiliate links. (But please, disclose correctly!!!!)

*Low page views doesn’t necessarily mean low income. And high page views doesn’t necessarily mean high income. There are a lot of other factors that help determine how much money bloggers are making. There were some bloggers that only publish one blog post a week, but have built up incredible email lists and social media followings so whenever they offer a product or service they have a committed group of people ready to click, “Purchase.” They don’t need to create 12 blog posts a week, because they create one really good…and add value to their readers’ lives.

*Diversify, diversify, diversify. I can tell you that this is the one piece of advice with ZERO outliers. I did not find one single income report (at ANY income level) where all of their income came from the same source. Most income reports had at least 4-5 sources of income, and many had 15+ sources of income. If one income stream doesn’t do well that’s okay because you still have multiple other income streams bringing in money.

*BIG blogging incomes come from creating products or offering services. Y’all after looking at countless blog income reports I decided that this is my biggest takeaway. Remember how I said bloggers make big money weren’t doing sponsored posts? Well that means they have to be making their money another way. And they are! By creating products or offering services. Podcasts, webinars, e-courses, e-books, consulting services, design services, speaking engagements, etc. And I’ll even take it a step further…the bloggers making the most money have created products or services that don’t require their one-on-one time and attention. That means they spend the time to create a webinar (or something similar) and then it sells over and over again. Month after month.  Bottom line is that if you want to make big money blogging you’ll need to create some type of product or service.

Tweet: “BIG blogging incomes come from creating products or offering services” – @jmdenouden http://bit.ly/21FqndlSo what does this mean for you right now?

Action Steps to Make Money Blogging

1.Establish yourself as an expert and determine how you will add value to your reader’s life. And then include affiliate links for your readers! Again, just remember to disclose correctly!

2.Brainstorm a list of products and/or services you can offer through your blog

3.Take one item off that list and make a plan for how you’re going to make that happen. Don’t make a list of excuses for why you can’t create the product or service. Instead make an actionable plan and get it done!

How do you make money blogging? What questions do you have about blog income reports? What is your next step to begin making money with your blog or increase the amount of money you make with your blog?