How to make Money with your Blog without Selling Out

If you’ve been keeping a blog for a long time, you’ve no doubt thought about the prospect of actually turning it into a business, or at least making some cash with it. After all, so many people are using their blogs to make money these days, why not take advantage of this opportunity yourself?

However, you’ll have probably come across blogs where you feel they’ve lost a certain something they had before now it’s become more of a business to the owner, and that’s a huge shame. Selling out can be a huge problem when monetising your blog, and if you want to avoid doing that, here are some tips. 

Never post something you wouldn’t write yourself

Guest and sponsored posts are a great way to earn cash with your blog as they are a way of advertising a company or service in the form of editorial content. However, when money is a little tight or if you haven’t had many interesting offers lately, it can be quite tempting to host something that you feel doesn’t really fit your blog, just to earn some money. Resist this as much as you can, because this is a sure fire way to lose valuable readers as they’ll begin to no longer trust you as a reputable blogger.

Be honest with your reviews

If you’re sent something to review or given a ticket for something to go and review, it’s tempting to say how great it was just so you can be sent more and so that other companies won’t be put off from sending you something as they’ll see you’ve given bad reviews before. However, if you want to retain your blogger’s dignity – be honest with your readers. Honesty goes a long way when growing and advertising your blog, so resist that temptation. 

Host relevant giveaways and competitions

You may also be sent some info regarding an item that a company will send you to use as a prize for a competition, but it’s important to think about whether it would actually be relevant to your blog and your readership. For example, if your blog is about pets, your readers probably wouldn’t be too interested in entering a competition where the prize is baby products. The occasional one may work, but as a rule, keep it relevant to keep your readers.

Know how many adverts to host is too many

Many bloggers sell advertisement space on their blogs to earn some cash, so it’s not uncommon if you’re thinking about doing it. If you’re unsure where to start, there’s a useful guide about blog advertisements here. However, you’ll want to keep an eye on how many adverts you’re displaying on your blog and things like the size of them and if they’re too distracting or not. Hosting lots and lots of adverts on your blog is likely to make it look less appealing so may start to switch readers off as a result.