How to Make Money from a Blogging Site

How to Make Money from a Blog Site

Have you been looking for how to make money from a blogging site?  Then you’ve come to the right place, as our in-depth guide will take you through everything you need to know.

Many people, like you, have considered starting a blog or maybe you’ve already started a blog as a way of earning some extra money.  But you’re still not exactly sure how you can make money from your blog, or maybe it hasn’t worked out for you yet and you need some help.

Either way, we are here to help anyone looking for help and support to getting your blog up and running, and finally making money for you…

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How to Make Money by Helping Others – 3 Ideas to Get You Started!

How to Make Money by Helping Others - 3 Ideas to Get You Started!

We love helping people, and it naturally leads to people searching for how to make money by helping others.  Everyone who logs and writes a search into the search engines is typically looking for help with something and that is where the opportunity arise to help others.

We take a huge pleasure in helping people achieve their goals, and no matter how you want to offer your help there is a way of doing it online.

There are over 4 billion people online these days, and most of them are looking for help… and what do you have to offer that can get you started helping and making money online?  Your knowledge, your guidance and wililngness to help!

Gem and I have compiled 3 great ways on how you can make money by helping others. We have started with our favourite way – Blogging.

Start Blogging – Our Favourite Idea

It seems an odd choice, but the opportunity to help people and make money is huge.  It also means you can specify what you are going to offer help in.  No matter the subject you are offering help in, there is an audience out there looking for help with it, there is also an opportunity to earn money from it too.

On our site, we offer help and advice in Affiliate Marketing, you could start a blog in any niche that you want to and thereStart a Blog - How to Make Money by Helping Others will be an audience just as interested in learning about that subject, or interested in purchasing products or services in that niche too.

Think about the niche you are wanting to offer help and advice in, think about what you could write about in that niche and that is the starting points for a blog.

Blogging is all about helping people, so whatever niche you choose there is people who are looking for help.  Whether that be, how to get started in that niche, a product review in that niche, helping making the right purchasing decision.

People are searching the web, because they want help.  The beauty of blogging is that by picking a niche or subject you already know a lot about, the help you provide will come across very genuine.  That is a key factor!

If the reader does not trust you, or think you are not offering genuine help or advice – they will leave your website/blog and you have lost the chance to make money from blogging.

If you are ready to get started with your blog, then Wealthy Affiliate offers great training in getting started, you can also benefit from 2 free websites.  Get Started Here.

There are two ways you can monetise your blog once you have got going, which we will go through now.

Affiliate Marketing

You may not have heard of the term affiliate marketing, but it is a great way of helping others and promoting products and services within that niche using affiliate programs.

Related Post: How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate Marketing allows you to promote products and services on your blog, with the reward of a commission if someone goes from your blog and purchases said product.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Imagine if you have wrote a really helpful guide on wedding photography for example.  That audience that is looking for guidance on how to get started in wedding photography will also be interested in the best cameras, accessories, courses, whilst taking in all of your help within that niche.

All of these products and services can allow you to earn money from Affiliate Marketing.

It has been proven time and again, Affiliate Marketing only works if you start from the point of helping people.  People do not want to be sold to, but if you can gain their trust through helping them – they will be more inclined to follow your advice around purchases too.

Think about Amazon, they started out as a small bookstore.  Didn’t have a huge marketing budget, so they launched an affiliate program, and they still use it today.  There are huge benefits to both the company and the affiliate marketer.

Does it take hard work to earn money from it – Yes!  But nothing was earnt in this life without a bit of hard work.

I won’t lie to you, it will take hard work to get to the level it is earning you good money.  But the amount you learn whilst on the journey and the point where it does start earning you money – it makes all the hard work worth it.

The reason I say it is worth it, is because it is so rewarding to know you are helping people.  When it starts earning you money, that is the icing on the cake.  Both helping people and earning money online.  A win-win situation.

There are four stages to reach the point where you are earning money:

Four Stages to Affiliate Marketing SuccessNow, if you are looking at helping people online, you will hopefully know what Step One is, Choosing an interest!

Step One – Choose an Interest

This is an important step, and many get it wrong because they choose something they think will be profitable, rather than something they know something about.

Whatever interests, hobbies, skills you have – there will be others looking for help and that is where Affiliate Marketing is awesome, because you are helping people who share a common interest with you.  It also means you will not get bored with the concept in the early stages when you are not receiving enough visitors to your blog to earn you revenue.

Step Two – Build a Website

You need a foundation for your online blog to help people.  Your goal is to become an authority in your niche.  That way people will know that if they want help or to learn and engage in that niche, you are the authority to go to.

You can get a free website, with the tool below.  See if your chosen domain name is free:

Step Three – Attract Visitors

Once you have your website, you are going to want to start your mission on gaining traffic.  Regardless of good your content is, know that the reason why most affiliate marketers fail is because they give up too soon.  I am not going to say that affiliate marketing is a quick way to earn money, because it isn’t.

This is all about building a business with the long game in mind.  I did not start getting “organic traffic” on this blog until the 5th month.  It also happened to be the point where I made my first sale.

Honestly, this is not an option for people looking for a quick way to earn money – and I must say, there is no quick way to earn money online, unless you are wiling to invest heavily.

Now, there are examples where it can be done naturally quicker, but they will depend on the niche you chose.  If you find a diamond niche, without much competition you can achieve it much sooner.

But once you have constant traffic coming to your blog via the search engines, that is what organic traffic is, then you will soon start to see us achieving step four.

Step Four – Earn Revenue

If you have created a blog that is full of interesting and helpful guides all around your blog, have included some relevant product reviews with your affiliate links included and the traffic is coming in nicely – that is when you can start to see affiliate marketing having unlimited opportunities.  If you have one blog that is converting well, that same blog could earn you money for years.

You also achieved it all from something you were interested in and from HELPING PEOPLE.  Which is a great feeling, trust me on that.

If you feel that Affiliate Marketing is the way you want to help people and you want to create your own blog, then I highly recommend that you get the correct training to ensure that you are following the right direction and get the same support that Gem and I did.  We followed the training at Wealthy Affiliate and it has led us to having businesses that are there to help people, just like you want to.

Read our review for more information, or if you would like to see what they have to offer with a free starter membership (no credit card required), then check them out here.Free Wealthy Affiliate Starter Membership
Creating your own blog is awesome, and once you start getting that traffic we mentioned in step three, you can also start benefiting from other ways to monetise your website, like Paids Ads.

Paid Ads

Selling advertising space on your blog is another great way of earning money from your blog.  But again, this will require traffic to your blog to be able to earn money.  This is because you earn money based on impressions as well as clicks.

Impressions are from when someone sees the ad, but doesn’t necessarily take any action from it.  Clicks are from when someone clicks the ad.

Most new bloggers will try out Google AdSense, which is easy to get started with.  But when you start seeing a high number of visitors to your blog, that is when you can start explore better paying options like MediaVine.

Write an eBook

Another tactic to help people and make money online is by creating an eBook and selling it.  If you are a subject matter expert, and can write a downloadable book for people to buy, it is a great idea on two fronts.

The one is, that you could offer it on platforms such as the Kindle Marketplace, or another option is something you offerWrite an eBook people who join your mailing list on your blog.

Email Marketing is still a very effective way to earn money online, and offering them an eBook is a great way of getting them to join your mailing list.  Once they have joined, you have the trust factor and the fact that you can keep sending them useful information.

Many self-published authors are supplementing their earnings from their blogs with eBooks.  It will again take time to earn money with this route, although that depends on how much you can sell your eBook for.

You need to ensure the subject is of interest, will be something that they will want to pay for and you need to ensure you design a captivating cover and title to get them hooked and wanting to buy it.

Teach – Create a Course

The other option is to create an online course with a site like Udemy. Online Courses are really popular at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you cannot do in-person courses too.  People are looking for help in a multitude of different ways and you could definitely find an opportunity.

The options could be:

  • Online Courses
  • Presenting at Conferences
  • Teaching Seminars
  • Holding Workshops

All of these are great options to share your experiences, help people and make a difference to them and earn money from helping them too.

Which Direction is the Best One for You?

Honestly that is decision you need to make, but before you do I would suggest that you do not only pick one.  The reasons I say that are, blogging is a great idea and having a website is also a great foundation.  But not just a foundation for a blog, it is a foundation for an online business – it could be a blog, a chance to create and use eBooks to create value, even use a course to again explore another avenue to monetising and helping people.

Using any of these options to create an email marketing campaign, using social media to share your knowledge and build your authority.

The options are endless when it comes to an online business. Gem and I loved starting an online business that helps people get started with an online business and affiliate marketing.  It isn’t for everyone, but that is where your unique knowledge will help you create your own direction.

If you truly want to create your own online business, and get out and help people, plus earning some money. Wealthy Affiliate offers great training, help and support with 2 free websites with a free starter membership. The training is not all about affiliate marketing, like the name suggests.  The training covers all aspects of an online business and is how we got started.Free Starter Membership - Wealthy Affiliate

Whatever you decide to do, you need to get out there and get busy.  Get learning, get creating!  Share your knowledge and go earn yourself money too!

Thanks for reading this guide, please tell me which option do you think you might take or is there any others that you are considering.  We would love to hear from you, just add a comment below and we will definitely get back to you!

How to Create Your Own Blog Website – Step by Step

How to Create Your Own Blog Website – Step by Step

If you have been looking for how to create your own blog website, then let me assure you that by the end of this post you will fully understand the benefits of having your own blog website, how to get your own free blog website up and running in minutes and learn some of the benefits from the platform we recommend for that blog website.  Plus, some features that will help you achieve the goals you have set out with your new blog website.

Let’s start by clarifying what exactly a blog is?

What is a Blog?

Wikipedia states that a blog is an informal or conversational type of website that shares information in a more casual way.What is a Blog - How to Create Your Own Blog Website

But when you start exploring the opportunities that lie with a blog website, it can be so much more.  The main aim with a blog should be to help others.  Whether that is sharing your experiences in a topic, helping people with how to guides or helping people with buying decisions and that is typically why most people explore the blogging route as they can start to earn money online with their blog through Affiliate Marketing or CPA Marketing.

Most websites that you land on with a search will be a blog, this website is a blog website helping people online.  But the key to your own blog is a that it can be in any subject and be something that you want to write about.

But some argue you do not need your own website to have a blog? I think that having a blog without a website is so limiting, so let’s explore why you need a website for your blog.

Why Does Your Blog Need a Website?

Like I said, some will state that you don’t need a website to blog or make money, I’ll just use social media or write articles and submit them via a blog website.

But the problem is, you start limiting your reach by doing this and then there is the risk that the website that you were using to submit your articles closes down or dramatically loses their audience.  You have just lost your audience and any money-making opportunities.

Design a Website - How to Create Your Own Blog Website

I have also found that social media is quite unreliable when it comes to whether people will click on your links or not.  I am not saying that social media is bad, it is a good way of getting your blog out there but there are examples where it can be really hard if you use it as your only avenue.

But if I give you the example of Instagram.  Due to their focus on paid ads, you will struggle to get your posts out to the type of audience that you were able to in the past.

Your Own Blog Website becomes a foundation to your business.  It also becomes your brand.

That brand is what you can sell on all the social media channels, link back to when submitting articles to other blogs, etc.  It also means you have full control over your blog business.

That is why you need your own website, getting a great brand name and creating awesome content will bring people to your blog.  To achieve anything with your blog, you need traffic coming to it.  Then they can engage with your content, and maybe follow some of your recommendations to earn money from those links.

Your own blog website starts with the right Content Management System, we highly recommend WordPress.

WordPress + SiteRubix = Awesome Blog Website

I have used a few content management systems in the past, and some you need a degree in computer coding to be able toWordPress website - How to Create Your Own Blog Website achieve anything, others like Joomla are not simple to use either.  Then I started using WordPress and I found it is so easy to use that it means you can focus on more important stuff, like creating content and getting it found by the search engines.

Another factor to consider is the web hosting that comes with your chosen CMS.  There are some free providers out there, but the more traffic you get you then start having to pay higher levels to keep using their hosting.

I also think WordPress is preferable to sites like Wix, as again the more traffic you receive will start to mean you have to start paying.

Our Preferred WordPress web hosting is SiteRubix.  It is the web hosting behind Wealthy Affiliate, and with a free starter account you gain access to 2 free websites using WordPress on their hosting.  It also comes with some great training, to help you get started on the right path, gain traffic and customise your blog website.  Learn more in my Wealthy Affiliate Review.  Between Site Rubix & Wealthy Affiliate you will have an awesome start to your own blog website.

How to Create Your Own Blog Website for Free

If you want to get started with creating your own blog website for free based on the subject or niche that you want to blog about, follow the steps below.

Step One – Choose a Relevant Website Name (URL).  You can use the tool below to check whether your preferred URL is available.

Step Two – Complete Your Free Account Setup.  Create your free account to continue onto the website builder. (You are minutes away from your own blog website)

How to Create Your Own Blog Website

Step Three – Choose a Title for Your Website. This will be displayed on the header of your blog website.

How to Create Your Own Website - Website Title

Step Four – Choose Your Theme. Choose from the available themes to get the look you want for your website.

Step Five – Click Build Your Site. Within seconds you will have your own blog website.

That is it, you now have your very own blog website.  From then on, you can start creating content, and start working on achieve your goals that you had set out.

But at this point, having a blog website is not the end of the stages you need to progress through to reach those goals.

That is where the partnership between Wealthy Affiliate & SiteRubix come into play.

You need to learn how to grow your blog website…

How to Grow Your Blog Website

From experience, I know some will think that having a website is all they need to start making money.  But in reality, having a website without some key elements means that no one could find your blog website.  If no one can find your blog website, it would be like talking to the wall.

If you have completed the steps above, you will have gained access to the training available on Wealthy Affiliate that explores the key steps you need to take in the early stages of your blog website.  It will teach you how to achieve the follow things that are so important, that if we do not do them, there is no point starting a blog website.

Creating Content on your website starts with effective keyword research, if you are not entirely sure what I mean by keyword research, I have written this guide to help you out.

The training included within Wealthy Affiliate, will cover keyword research and these other important factors:

  • Search Engine Optimisation – If the search engines cannot find your blog website, you will not have any traffic to engage with.
  • Content Creation – Writing natural conversational articles becomes easier the more you write, but there are some key tips in the training to make this easier for you.
  • Getting the Most out of WordPress – Training on all the features of WordPress.
  • Getting Traffic – How to promote your website to gain traffic
  • Using Social Media Effectively – Use social media the right way will also help you gain traffic.

One of the other key factors in Wealthy Affiliate’s training and tools is the art of monetising your blog website.

How to Monetise Your Blog Website

Let’s be honest, the majority of people looking for how to create your own blog website for free will be looking to make money from their blog.

There are a number of ways to monetising your blog.  Affiliate Marketing, CPA Marketing, PPC Marketing, and Wealthy Affiliate has training that helps you understand and fully utilise those methods to earning money from your blog.

If you have not heard of any of these methods, I have included guides in the links above to each of those methods to help you understand.  But most associate bloggers with Affiliate Marketing, so I will go through this premise below.

Affiliate Marketing is a great way of earning money online, especially if you do not have any of your own products or services to sell.  You can use this model to promote other people’s products or services and earn a commission from the sale.  It can be described as a passive income route, as you could have written a review on a product that makes you money for years to come.

There are 3 parties involved in Affiliate Marketing – You (the blog owner), the owner of the product/service and the Buyer (visitor to your blog).  You write a review that promotes a product/service and the buyer decides to buy it based on your review.  They follow your affiliate link to the product sale page and buy it.  The owner of the product or service rewards you for the sale by giving you a percentage of the sale price as a commission.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

You will all of heard of Amazon, and they offer an affiliate program.  So many bloggers promote products available on Amazon and receive a commission for every sale they introduce.

Companies offer this as it is a much cheaper way of promoting themselves than multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns.

Wealthy Affiliate offers training, help and advice towards being accepted by these affiliate programs and writing articles and reviews that correctly promote products and services so you can earn commissions.

If you want to fully explore the benefits, help and tools available with a Wealthy Affiliate membership, I highly recommend you read my review.  If you would like to get started with your blog website then you can get started with a free Starter Membership with Wealthy Affiliate.

If you have any questions or would like to add your experience with blogging, then please add them to the comments below and I definitely respond as soon as I can.

If you would like more information about any of the topics below, you can always drop me an email to john@bestaffiliatemarketingtools.org. Thanks

Best Part Time Jobs for Retired People

Best Part Time Jobs for Retired People

Averages show that we are living longer, so naturally many of people reaching retirement age are ready to leave the job, but not necessarily hang up their boots.

Whether you are looking for a part time job to supplement your pension or something that is going to ensure you stay active – both physically and mentally, or even just to pay for holidays.  We have a number of suggestions for the best part time jobs for retired people.

There are the more obvious choices, which you might expect.  But then this is one that you might have never thought of and will allow you a lot more freedom than the others. But let’s start with the obvious choices:

Retail/Seasonal Jobs

When we think of part time jobs, we can often just think about the retail sector.  Offering shift work, which is quite flexibleRetail Work and can often be close to home. This makes it an obvious choice, as we all have experience with customer service and their expectations are typically – Flexible and Offer Great Customer Service.

Will this be suitable for all retirees, not quite?  Some of you will find that this is a great option, it will keep the mind active and will mean we aren’t sitting around, which again is a great thing.  Active Body & Active Mind is always something my Grandad used to say.

However, this will not be an option for everyone. So, let’s explore some real opportunities where your experience and knowledge will be a key element.

Consultancy Jobs

Whatever industry you worked in, you will have a whole lot of experience that people are interested in gaining from you.  This is where a consultancy job could be an ideal choice for you.  A consultant is defined as “Someone who is an expert in a particular subject, who provides that knowledge”.Consultancy Jobs

Businesses are always actively seeking consultants and understand the need for such roles.  US businesses spent about $12 billion on them last year!

All industries won’t lend themselves to this option, but you will know from your industry if it is something that you could pursue.

There are a few things you need to consider prior to going with a Consultancy Role:

  • 1.Do you need any certifications/qualifications or a special licence?  Some industries will require you to have at least a BA in that subject before being signed onto a consultancy agency
  • 2.Are you an organised person? Organisation is a key attribute to successful consultants.
  • 3.Do you like to Network?  You will need to be able to build up a good contacts list to be effect in that given industry
  • 4.Set Long-term & Short-term goals. Any business model requires this, it also allows you to track successes against the amount of work you are putting in.

Here is a list of the top industries seeking Consultants.

  • Accounting
  • Advertising
  • Auditing
  • Business
  • Business Writing
  • Career Counselling
  • Communications
  • Computer Programmer
  • Editorial Services
  • Executive Search (Head Hunting)
  • Gardening
  • Grantsmanship
  • Human Resources
  • Insurance
  • Marketing
  • Payroll Management
  • Public Relations
  • Publishing
  • Taxes
  • Writing Services

If you have experience in any of these given industries and feel you still have something to offer in it, then becoming a consultant is a great direction to go with.

Offering your services out via freelancing or starting your own consultancy firm could be the next step for you.

Subject Matter Experts – Tutoring and Content Development

On a similar vein to the Consultancy roles, you could offer your services out just as a subject matter expert.  Becoming a freelance tutor, rather than committing to what would end up becoming quite a lot of work – consulting could take a lot of time up.  Whereas tutoring would be and could be based on your time available.

The pay looks reasonable and you only offer it when you are available.  The industries listed above would also be relevant to this topic.

Or an Option Where You Work from Home

Both options above are fine choices, you could easily earn some decent money and not have to work as much as you usedWork from Home to.  But do you really want to still work from someone else?  Work to a rota system. There are many benefits to a retirement, including some well-deserved time to yourself.  So, my final option is one where you could work from pretty much anywhere.  You can also use your knowledge and experience, like the other options.  But the only boss is yourself.  Work when you want to, wherever you want to, and you will also benefit from meeting a lot of other like-minded people online doing it to.

The third option is a combination of blogging and affiliate marketing.

I know, this might sound like something that isn’t for you.  But hold that thought, let me describe it to you first.

We have talked about your experience and your knowledge being a prime ingredient in consulting or tutoring – Well that is exactly how you are going to earn money from home.  There are plenty of people out there online, looking for help with something.  Whether it is help with a product purchase. Help with a problem they have.  How-to guides. You name it someone is looking for help with it.

So, the third idea is you starting a blog in any niche that you are already experience in.  It doesn’t even have to be with something from your old job.  If you would consider yourself enthusiastic and knowledgeable around caravanning or the outdoors – that is an ideal choice for starting your own online business.

How does that lead to earning money, John?

This is where affiliate marketing comes into play.  Affiliate Marketing is where you earn a commission for introducing a buyer to a product. A prime example is Amazon.  The world’s biggest marketplace offers you a reward for referring someone to their site to buy an item.

To use an example, I am going to use an example I could use.  I am an enthusiastic photographer, I am doing wedding photography for Gem’s wedding business and I know a lot about digital cameras, photography and photoshop.

I could start a blog on this subject.  By incorporating a number of different guides, I could build trust with anyone visiting the website to show that I am someone they can trust.

As part of this blog, I also write a post about the ‘best digital cameras for beginners.  If someone came to my blog post about the best cameras for someone getting started and decided to follow my advice and clicked on my link, they would be taken to Amazon to purchase that camera.  My reward from Amazon is a percentage of the purchase price. So, if it is a $100 camera, I could earn $6, every time that someone follows my advice.

Just to expand on the opportunity, there are over 4 billion people with access to high-speed internet all searching online for help with pretty much anything and are often helped by bloggers and Affiliate Marketers.

Can I Get Help & Support?

First off, I want to say it might seem really complicated and difficult and this could put many people off.  But that is the one thing I want to dispel.  People of all ages are achieving success from affiliate marketing.  Regardless of their abilities, they all succeed because they have one thing in common.  Great Help & Support available at every step of the way.

Whether you feel you are not great at the computer, or I can’t write articles.  How do I research a niche?  These are all obstacles we can do together.

There is a training platform that I want to recommend that will offer you everything you need to get started and to continually grow your business until it is something where you would never have to consider a real job again.

Wealthy Affiliate offer great training, that is ideal for anyone of any skill level.  They offer websites and tools to get you started.  You will also gain access to a community of like-minded individuals all striving for the same goal. I often talk to members who at first stated they felt too old to learn again.  Then they come back to me, saying you were right.  I could do it.

The only barrier anyone has is themselves.  Doing it alone, it is easy to get lost.  But having access to people anytime of the day for help does make a massive difference.

Regardless of what niche you choose, there are ample opportunities from affiliate marketing.

If you want to learn more about what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer, then I highly recommend you read my review.

Or you could try out their platform with a free starter membership account. You will not need to enter any credit card details, unlike others.  Get a free starter membership account here.

Final Word

Enjoying your retirement should be your main focus.  If you need to get a part time job, then there are the usual opportunities out there.  But for the few, that really want to enjoy their retirement and not feel like they are working – I hope you explore Affiliate Marketing and blogging. You will find it really rewarding and not feeling too much like work.
If you have any further questions or want help with anything, please leave it in the comments.  I will come back to you as soon as.

How to Make Money with Your Passion

How to Make Money with your Passion

Making money from something that you are passionate about is ten times more likely to be successful than trying to pick something because it looks profitable… It also allows you to showcase being a subject matter expert which builds trust and mean that you remain motivated even when it is going through a tough patch.  But most of all, it means that you will totally enjoy it too.

Regardless of what you are passionate about, there are definitely ways to monetise it.  Gem is really creative and took her passion around arts and crafts and took it to a profitable business selling wedding stationary.  But that doesn’t mean we are all able to create products to sell.  But we don’t need to.  To make money, all we need is our passion and the help and support to turn it into an online business.

In this post, we will share with you how you can make money with your passion – with all of the help and support you will ever need.

I use affiliate links to maintain bestaffiliatemarketingtools.org, for more information click here.

How Does a Passion Lead to Making Money?

For starters, you will not be the only one in the world with a passion for the same subject, I’ll use myself as an example.  I am not the only person who likes:

  • PhotographyHow to Make Money with your Passion - Digital Photography
  • Sci-Fi
  • Technology
  • Helping People

Let’s just take those four subjects, I am not the only person who likes these subjects.  But the key will be is that if one of them is a passion, you will find that you are something of an expert in that subject.  But then again, there will be people who are looking to research a lot into these topics and that is your opportunity to make money from them.

But these topics on their own are quite broad and do not lead themselves immediately to an easy way of earning money online.

Let’s be honest, if it is a passion, you will find that if we dug deeper into one of those four you will find that there is a fantastic niche to target in one.

  • Photography – I am a wedding photographer for Gems’ Business, so I have a lot of knowledge and passion around photography, so wedding photography would be a niche
  • SciFi – (I’ll admit it) I am a big Star Trek fan, I would not describe myself as a subject matter expert, But I enjoy engaging in the ST community and enjoy the conventions.  I could utilise this niche as a target for making money.  I would probably narrow this one down to start with and start with ST Discovery, as it is the fresh content.
  • Technology – This is the broadest subject on the list. I love computer technology, so could focus on that one, but would need to narrow it down further, maybe to gaming laptops or accessories for them.
  • Helping People – This is the passion that is letting me earn money online. But is still quite broad, I focus on helping people get started online.

Every Passion or Interest Has an Audience

My point is, that whatever your passion is you will have an audience.  Why is that important, to make money online you need to create a brand that draws an audience in, to give you the opportunity to earn money.Every Passion has an Audience

There are over 4 billion people online with access to high-speed internet and they are always looking for useful articles, useful content, product reviews, how-to guides and an honest person who you can trust to provide these things.

That is where you come in.  I am really passionate about helping people get started online.  I am really enjoying being able to provide helpful information that allows people to leave the day job behind and do something that you really enjoy and are passionate about.

I love it, honestly!!

How Do I Make Money Online from My Passion Then?

Let’s go through the stages that you need to make money. You have your passion, that is a great start and many people are so unsure of which direction to go when picking the topic that their online business will be about.

But to the be honest, you may need to narrow it down to a niche, the broader the subject the harder it is (in the early stages).  This doesn’t mean that you will not end up with a business that covers a broader subject, but you will find the broader you start, the longer it will take to establish it.  If you target narrow, you can get a great start and get Google to love your business, then you can start to branch out.

An example makes it easier to explain.  If I chose Technology, then went down the computer route.  I would still be so broad, by a mile.

Yet, if I really thought about it I could do the following:

  • Computers (Broad)
  • Gaming PCs (Broad)
  • Gaming Laptops (Broad)
  • Gaming Laptop Accessories (Getter Better)
  • Gaming Laptop Mice or Gaming Laptop Decals (Niche)

By starting with the narrowest of let’s gaming mice for gaming laptops – it allows me to target the whole gaming PC market, but by starting with just the mice it gets you traffic, you can then expand and build up that traffic.

Traffic is your ultimate way to earning money for your Passion.  But you do need to fully understand how to get started.

Making Money from Your Passion comes from building up your audience and traffic, to give you the opportunity to earn money.  There are a couple of ways of earning money online and I’ll go through this now.

Ways to Make Money Online with Your Passion

There are two really good ways of earning money online.  But first, I do need to state that the best way of earning money online with your passion is by starting a blog website. You can then utilise the two ways to make money with your passion:

The first way is by selling advertising space on your blog website.  Google AdSense or other similar advertising companies pay you every time some clicks on an advert on your website or if you get a high number of impressions.  (Impressions are people seeing the ad, but not clicking it).  Like I said, this will take traffic to make it worthwhile, but there is a natural step in your business where this becomes an obvious direction.  Some companies like MediaVine, will not accept you until you are reaching a high amount of traffic.  But as long as your website is worthwhile, AdSense is a good choice.  I have it live on another website and it works.

The second way is from Affiliate Marketing.  This is by the far the best way to earn money from your passion.  You may not have heard of it, or you may be unsure of how it really works but it is a proven model and is the most common way bloggers earn money online.

How Affiliate Marketing Really Works

You have to remember that as most people are buying stuff online, there are actively doing research before they buy a product.  They are looking for subject matter experts to help them with their purchase decisions.  Was it the right product or service, how do they really work?  Someone I know is always out hiking every weekend, they are always active and they go through hiking boots like nobody’s business – until he started researching online.  He found a blogger who was always active too.  He followed his advice and bought his current boots from a recommendation this guys recommended and has never looked back.  He is now regularly checking out what this guy is writing about.  Where is hiking to, any recommendations for things to do with hiking, etc.  There is a real trust factor with this blogger now.

But this is the key – every time Paul (my friend) buys anything this blogger recommends; this blogger receives a commission.  That is Affiliate Marketing.

There will be people who are looking for your advice and help that you offer in and around your passion.

Your Passion turned into a blog website offering help, support, recommendations and reviews will lead you to the way of earning money online.  You will build up the traffic and then you can add ads.  They are also both passive ways of earning money online.  This means, unlike a physical shop, you do not need to be there to seal the sale.  You just add affiliate links to products or services you recommend and continue writing other articles all around your passion.

If you think writing is not your thing… seriously, don’t worry about it.  You should have seen my writing when I first started blogging – You can get help with that and I did.

If you are worried that you haven’t got a clue about building a website or anything to do with that – again, seriously do not worry about that I will show you where you can get all the help and support you need.

All the Help and Support You Need to Get Started!

I know what you may be thinking… it all sounds great John, but I haven’t got a clue how to do all that.

But, let me share with you my experience.  When I first started, I didn’t have a clue.  I didn’t know how to build a website, or even what affiliate marketing was. I wasn’t great at writing and knew nothing about how the search engines worked or keyword research.

But what I did know is, a lot about digital photography.  I could talk about it all day, I would consider it a passion and something where I could share a lot of helpful information from it.

What I want to introduce to you is a training platform that will take everything you can offer within that passion and teach you how to get your dream started.  Within every lesson is an easy to follow step-by-step guide that will take you through every step required to turn that passion into an online business.  By lesson 4 you will have your very own website.

Follow the training and you will learn how to utilise everything that is taught and offer to share your essential knowledge from your passion.

Whatever your passion is, someone else will also share it – but they want to engage with you, learn from you and see your recommendations.

But that is not all that is on offer.  No one gets anywhere on their own.

You will also gain access to a community of like-minded individuals who will be there to help and offer advice or support at any point.  If you ever have a question about your business, website or the direction you should go – the community will be there to help.

But I also offer my personal help and advice, any time you are stuck or need help reach out to me on the platform and I will there to help.

Turn a Passion into a Successful Online Business – with Wealthy Affiliate

2 years ago, I wasn’t online and didn’t have a clue how to get started.  But then I found the most helpful community, that has awesome training, websites and all of the tools needed to get online.  That platform is Wealthy Affiliate, here is my review.

I accepted an invitation to their platform and have never looked back.  The training is so easy to follow and will allow you to build a brand and business that will earn you money, if you invest the time and effort needed.

I will stress that this will take time and effort and is not a get-rich-quick scheme.  I am sorry, but I am yet to find a genuine scheme that allows you to earn money online overnight.  Any product that promises that is not worth even reading about.

But by building an online business from a passion, it will make you more likely to succeed.  The reason I say this is, it will take time.  It will be about 3 months before the search engines really take notice of your blog – that is the line where it starts to grow to where you need it to be.

Your passion in the subject will keep you going, when most Affiliate Marketers who fail are those that leave at this point thinking it hasn’t worked.

Trust in yourself and the training and you will definitely build an online business that will mean you will be doing it full-time within the right timescales.

If you would like to know more about Affiliate Marketing or Wealthy Affiliate, check out the posts below.  Doing your research is an important step in anything you do.

Related Post: How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

Related Post: My Wealthy Affiliate Review

I will admit, I am fully loving helping people find genuine ways of making money online and building a business based on something they love.  That is the key to this and it works. Stay motivated, stay informed and follow the training and you will soon realise your own potential.  Good Luck


If you have any questions about starting an online business or affiliate marketing, then please leave them in the comments below.  If you want to share any experience or offer advice to people looking for ways to make money with your passion, please write them in the comments.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

What is the Best Web Hosting Service for Small Business?

What is the Best Web Hosting Service for Small Business_

Getting the right web hosting service for your website is a really big decision.  Ensuring your website is protected from security risks and ensures your readers gets the best experience from it.

But then you also see that there are often strings attached to some web hosting and means that you end up having to pay over the odds to get the experience that was advertised with upsells.

But there is more to think about than just the features that are on offer, you need to consider whether you can trust the hosting and that they will ensure you experience no issues with your website.

What is Web Hosting & Why Does it Matter?

A web host is a service that allows to you put a website onto the internet.  They host your domain (your website) providing all of the technology and systems needed to make this happen.

Think of it as the foundation that you build a house on.  The better the foundation, the better the house will stand.

Picking a web host is an important decision, if you just pick the first one you see as it is free, could have a big impact on your business.  Some web hosts start free, but then as you start to grow your business, you find that the prices start to drastically go up as you grow.  Email addresses can sometimes be an additional product and SSL certificates are really important these days, but most still charge you an additional charge for this too.

You will also find that many will charge you per website for hosting, so if you have a couple of websites that are getting high traffic levels and need SSL certificates (you cannot do e-commerce without it) then you will easily see the prices shoot up.

What I want to share with you is the web hosting service I use, why they are a great partner to have for WordPress hosted websites.  I will also share the fact of how you can host 25 WordPress websites on their hosting platform for less than a dollar a day.

The WordPress web hosting service I recommend is SiteRubix.  It is a cloud-based web hosting platform with plenty of reasons why you can not only trust them, but really push your online business forward with them.

SiteRubix WordPress Web Hosting

Here are the features available with SiteRubix hosting.  They focus on implementing a lot of the features at the server end, which means it will not affect your website.  Whilst they take security seriously, it will not slow your site down.

Security Features

There is no compromise when it comes to security.  Websites become targets for hackers in the hope they can steal your information.  But you have nothing to worry about with SiteRubix.  They use their extensive knowledge of WordPress to prevent attacks, they prevented over 27 million hacking attempts last year, alone.  You never have to worry about your website.

SiteRubix Security

Backups Are Standard

What if you had an issues with a plugin, or you do something that ends up crashing your website… Would you be able to retrieve your information?  With SiteRubix, they realise that everyone can make mistakes.  But with your website backed up every 24 hours, you can remain calm and get it resolved easily and quickly.

Website Backups - SiteRubix

This is typically a paid advanced option with some hosting services but comes as standard with SiteRubix.

Double Hosting

You might be wondering what double hosting means, but first think about the fact that anytime your website is down, you are losing money.  If a customer cannot reach your website, they cannot make a purchase.

SO, double hosting means they always run a second copy of your site.  Which they can swap in anytime that your website is down.

SiteRubix - Double Hosting

Again, there are few hosting services who offer this included as standard.

Site Speed – SiteRubix will not slow you down

If you don’t realise the impact a slow website can have, then think about anytime you have logged into a website that takes ages to load… Most will not wait and will find an alternative.  SiteRubix ensures all of the hard graft is done at the server end, so you get a website that loads quicker than websites on other hosting.  Their average Site Speed score is 1.3 seconds.

Is Your WordPress Hosting Mobile Friendly?

Google has made the switch to monitor mobile friendly sites over desktop sites.  If your website is not mobile friendly, it will impact your rankings and your potential.  All websites hosted on SiteRubix optimised for any medium.  No need for additional plugins or anything to ensure your readers get the best experience.

SSL Certificates as Standard

A recent survey showed that only 51% of websites online have an SSL certificate.  Why is that an important figure.  Everyone is very conscious of the need to keep their personal data secure, but most people will not trust a website without it.  If you are planning on having an e-commerce business or want people to trust you – having an SSL certificate is paramount.  Google has also stated that it will rank a website with SSL on over a non-SSL website.

But many choose not to pay the high price most hosting services charge.  SiteRubix offer SSL certificates on any WordPress website you host on it within the premium membership.

Some charge over $100 per website for this.

Reasonable Priced

SiteRubix is offered from the guys who run Wealthy Affiliate.  A training platform that helps people with aspirations of an online business.  Even experience internet marketers will benefit from the training, but the key element that is great is the fact that you can host 25 full domains with all of the features above and 25 subdomains on their hosting with SSL included on each for the low monthly price of $49 or an annual price of $359.

That is the cost for up to 50 websites!! You could spend $300 dollars on one website with SSL for one year with some hosting services.

Web Hosting - SiteRubix

SiteRubix - Web Hosting

Other Cool Features

SiteHealth is a great feature that allows you to see how your website is getting on with regards to the search engines.

SiteComments is a great feature for getting high-quality comments to your posts, this can be a key factor in improving your rankings in the search engines.

SiteFeedback, this allows you to get some quality feedback on your website to help you improve your business.

Get Access to extensive training and classrooms via Wealthy Affiliate

You might think that by joining Wealthy Affiliate you would get access to a lot of training that isn’t relevant to you… But you would be so wrong.

Whether you are blogging, wanting an e-commerce platform or looking to build a business empire – the training available is second to none.

I have used the techniques I have learned from Wealthy Affiliate to grow both my affiliate marketing business, but also grow Gem’s Wedding Stationary e-commerce business.  Both our websites are hosted on SiteRubix and I have never had an issue.

Related Post: My Wealthy Affiliate Review

What is the Support Like?

There will inevitable be a moment where you need to contact support about something to do with your website, and the support at Wealthy Affiliate is second to none.  Send a support ticket to them and within a matter of minutes, they have typically fixed the problem and replied to tell you what to do or that everything is sorted.  Their support is awesome.

Final Word on SiteRubix & Wealthy Affiliate

If you are looking for the Best Web Hosting Service for WordPress, then you will find no better place than with Wealthy Affiliate.  There is enough hard work to do with an online business, without having to worry about your web hosting going down.  If you are new to the online world, you will find no better training platform than that on offer at Wealthy Affiliate.

But even if you are experienced, but have had enough of your current web hosting, then you will find that WA will offer you a high-quality website experience allowing you to scale your business effectively.

Their WordPress classroom will ensure you have all the knowledge you need to know about WordPress and get the best out of your WordPress website.

You don’t need to make any decisions, at this point.  Wealthy Affiliate offers you a free starter membership where you can experience the premium membership for 7 days without any commitment.  It gives you the chance to experience what you would benefit from with a premium membership.  If you already have a WordPress website, transferring it to the SiteRubix hosting is really simple to do with a premium membership.


If you have any further questions about Wealthy Affiliate or SiteRubix, then please leave them in the comments below. I will respond as soon as possible.  If you have any experience about the hosting, I would love to hear what your opinion is.

How to Make Money from Blogging Online

How to Make Money from Blogging Online

Have you realised the potential from blogging and want to also realise how you can start to make money too?

Blogging has become a common route for people to earn money online and with the right help and support it can be also mean you can real money and leave the day job behind too.

Over 4 billion people have access to high-speed internet and they are always looking for help and guidance on a number of different topics.  This is where your opportunity from blogging lies, so let’s get into How to Make Money from Blogging Online by starting with “What Exactly is a Blog?”

What Exactly is a Blog?

The simple premise is – a blog is described as a regularly updated website or post written in an informal or conversational style.  It is a way of communicating with others information or opinions/reviews on a given subject.How to Make Money from Blogging Online

That is the technical term, but the reason why people love reading blogs is it is written so anyone can understand it.  You are sharing a story, you are sharing your thoughts but also helping people understand something they are searching for the answer.

They don’t always have to focus on written articles too, if you are really comfortable in front of the camera, you could always start a Vlog, which is a video blog.  You see them on YouTube all the time.

What Can I Start a Blog About?

This is the best part, you can write about something you are really interested in.  There are some that state you have to target a specific niche if you want to earn any money.  But I believe any niche is viable.

What will stand up to the test of time?  A blog on a niche that is supposed to be good for making money, but you haven’t got the first clue about and have no real passion to write about…

Or a blog that is in a field that you already know a lot about and love – meaning you can write naturally for weeks and months to come – where you can engage into the community that is also interested in this niche too and is likely to invest into products you suggest and they take you up on it as you prove to be an Authority in this niche???

I know which one I would choose, all day long.

It isn’t just about picking a niche, based on metrics.  It is about picking something you can build an Authority Blog in.

That is the key to making money from Blogging.  People need to believe and trust in you to make any decisions that lead to them buying something.  If they just feel like you are there to make money – it will be game over, regardless of the niche you have chosen.

So, my key advice for picking a niche is simple:

  1. You know what you are talking about in this niche or are willing to learn what you are talking about in it.
  2. You have experience in and around this niche, ideally.
  3. It is something that you will not get bored of, easily.

There is no point starting a niche in something that you haven’t got the first clue about.  Take gaming laptops, this is a massive growth market at the moment, and easily could be a great niche to target.  But if you have no idea about GPU’s or why the frame rate matters to a gamer – you have no business starting a blog about it.

Pick something you love, you will be writing a lot of content about it before you start making money with it.

What Do I Need to Know Before I Start Blogging?

What Do I Need to Know Before I Start Blogging?Before I describe the ways to make money from blogging, I want to ensure you understand the time and effort that will be required to make this work.  Many people walk away from blogging because it didn’t make them any money.  But when you break it down, it was because their expectations were way off of the mark.  Do not expect this to make you any money within the first 2 months.  It might even be the 6-month mark.  To realise the money-making potential from blogging, you need to sign up for the long-term.  I didn’t make any money for 6 months, but if I had given up in month 5, I would not be where I am today.

Your website/blog needs to be noticed on the search engines, and also get to page one of the search engines to make any real money.

This will take time and effort, but if you keep that in mind and work hard at it, you will find that you can make some real big numbers with Blogging.

You will also need to focus on helping the readers and not selling to them.  People will always be asking why.  If you just tell someone to buy a product because it is awesome.  People are going to think; this person is just interested in selling a product.

But, if you help them understand why you think this product is awesome, and it helped you because…

Think about why people are searching the internet.  Before they buy a product, they want to know what other people’s experiences have been.  How is the product used? What benefits will this product have?

You might identify problems in your niche that do not identify to a product, this is great as it builds up your authority.

Constantly look for the questions that are being asked and answer them.  They will start to trust you, and that is what is needed to promote products.

Becoming an Authority is the way to make money blogging online.

How Do I Make Money from Blogging Online?

There are three ways I want to share with you on how to make money from blogging online.

  1. Advertising – Once your site becomes established and you are receiving high levels of traffic, you can utilise services such as Google’s AdSense.  By having ads on your website, you can earn money when people click on the adverts. Be mindful, you will need a high level of traffic to even make this worth it.  There are other platforms, like MediaVine, but you need to be hitting high levels of traffic before they accept you.
  2. Offering Your Services – If you are not ready to start your own website, you could start offering your services via freelancing sites like Fiverr.  You get hired by other website owners to write for them.  Although you will tend to find that you will not always be writing about stuff you want to write about
  3. Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate Marketing is an awesome way of earning money from blogging and is the way I have been earning money for the last couple of years.  It isn’t a new concept, you just might not have heard of it – but Amazon started using it and still is.  You earn commission for introducing a buyer to a product.

Affiliate Marketing is a tried and tested premise to earning money from blogging, and many retailers sign up for it.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Related Post: How Affiliate Marketing Really Works

By using this model, companies do not need to pay huge amounts for advertising.  People often research products before buying them online.  Where do they go??? People’s blogs about their experiences with these products.  They read your review and decide to buy it, they follow your link to the retailer and buy it.  You have just earned commission!

By building up your authority in your website, with quality content you can start to introduce Affiliate Marketing, then as the traffic starts to hit your website you will start to earn commissions, then you can introduce ads and earn additional revenue.

That is the opportunity with blogging. So how do you get started.

How Do I Get Started with My Own Blog?

There are a few things that you need to get started on the right path.  First off, you need to know this will take time an effort.  It will take longer than you thought, and you will need to work hard to make it work.

You also need to be willing to learn everything there is to know about an online business.

This path is so rewarding, and when it starts to pay you will feel such a great feeling, but it is not for everyone.

Then to get started you only need to read what I can offer you

What I Can Offer to Those Willing to Invest the Time & Effort

I wouldn’t be where I was today, if I didn’t get the help and support, I can offer you today.  Before I signed up, I didn’t know a thing about websites, affiliate marketing, online business, nothing.  All I had was a niche idea.

With the help and guidance of Wealthy Affiliate, Gem and I now have 2 successful online businesses.

There are 3 things you need to get started and this is what Wealthy Affiliate offers:

  1. Education – A Step-by-Step guide on how to get started with a blog using Affiliate Marketing
  2. Websites – WordPress is so easy to use and is used in over 50% of current websites, you will learn everything there is to know inside Wealthy Affiliate
  3. Expert Help & Support – You will join a community of Internet Entrepreneurs all there to help you – You will also get me as a personal coach.  Whenever you get stuck or need advice, I will be there to help you.

You can get started with Wealthy Affiliate for free, with a free starter membership account.  If you would like to read my full review, check it out here.

I said earlier, that it is important to explain why you are recommending something, so here goes.

I have reviewed a lot of training platforms out there around online business, affiliate marketing, etc.  and I have never comeWealthy Affiliate Starter Membership across such a supportive platform ever.  You get direct access to the owners of the platform, Kyle & Carson.  They get involved every day. They work hard to ensure their training stays current, their websites are second to none.  They truly believe in the ‘Pay-it-forward’ mantra and focus on that key element I described earlier – Help the Reader.

If you truly want to start making money from blogging online, you will find no better companion that Wealthy Affiliate, and if you follow my lead – I will always be there to help you too.

Blogging is such a natural way of expressing yourself and being able to do it full-time and earning passive income from affiliate marketing, means you can spend more time doing what you love.  Good Luck to you, whatever you decide!!


If you have any questions around blogging, affiliate marketing or anything else to do with online business, please leave them in the comments below and I will come back to you ASAP.
Have you any experience with Wealthy Affiliate, I would love to hear your opinions about the platform, just leave them in the comments below.

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