Money is such a taboo subject.

When bloggers talk about it, it can get icky and just feel weird.

First of all, I want to assure you that I have 3 other blogs that are not related to finance, health, or blogging.

They are in the niches:

  • Personal development and relationships (www.mindspacecafe.com)
  • Drawing (www.drawcartoonstyle.com)
  • Hair (URL to be revealed later)

The reason I state this is that I want you to know that it is possible to earn money via a blog that is not about blogging. Earning your trust is important to me.

Mind Space Cafe is my highest-earning blog at the moment in the above list.

And no, it doesn’t talk about blogging or business in any form or fashion.

I’ve been in this industry since 2018 and in my experience blogging, I can tell you that money is very important.

Yes, everybody says that you should be blogging because it’s your passion.

But if you’re passionately doing something for years and don’t earn a dime – you are going to lose interest eventually.

When you combine a passion for writing and sharing a wealth of information with money – you’ve struck a diamond.

You’ve found fulfillment.

And that’s why it’s so important to monetize your blog in the first 6 months so that you get a taste of how beautiful blogging really is.

  • When you see that first dollar hit your bank account, you’ll feel motivated to blog the next day.
  • When you hit your first $5, you’ll feel that blogging is a positive sign.
  • When you earn your first $100, you’ll know that you just need to replicate this 10 more times, to hit your $1K goal.

my newest blog is making me good money

And now you know why I am writing this post.

I want you to understand that it’s actually quite easy to hit that first $1o0.

That first $100 a month is going to motivate you to push your blog to $1K a month.

So, in this post, I’m going to cover the quickest ways to earn your first $100.

This post includes affiliate links to products I truly (from the bottom of my heart) recommend and use, meaning at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small percentage which I will use to pamper my pups and myself. This gives me more time to experiment with strategies so I can help you.

The money earned from affiliate links are used to feed my poor, hungry dogs.

7 Quick Ways to earn your first $100 Blogging

Let’s get started!

1. Create a tripwire

It doesn’t matter if you’re getting 10 people to your blog or 100 people to your blog.

What’s a tripwire, you ask?

A tripwire is a low-price extremely tempting offer that aims to convert leads into customers quickly.

Let’s say you run a food blog.

You set up a freebie (maybe 10 vegan recipes) and when the person signs up, they are redirected to a tripwire page where they have the option of buying a 50-page recipe book of 15-minute vegan meals for just $7.

Within 15 minutes the page will expire and the person is then redirected to the shop page where the product is sold for $15 or more.

The tripwire shouldn’t burn a hole in their pocket – it needs to be quick and satisfying.

So, what do you need to set one up?

  • A freebie (Once the person signs up for the freebie, they are redirected to the tripwire page)
  • A tripwire (this needs to be a juicy product that you can make quickly)
  • Free WordPress plugin (you will need a plugin so that the page expires in 15 minutes – I use Evergreen Countdown Timer, it’s free)
  • An email marketing software to collect all the emails. You can use Convertkit – it’s free for up to 1000 email subscribers.

And that’s it?

Is this too confusing for you?

No fear!

I’ve broken down my tripwire process step by step in this lovely eBook. I don’t use any complicated systems or paid software – everything is free. Check it out. I do explain how to step it up technically as well so you can follow the eBook and by the end, you’ll have your trip wire set up!

learn how to build a tripwire

I make between $500-$1000 a month just selling tripwire products.

What are some examples of tripwires you can create?

  1. E-book or guide: You can create an e-book or guide on a specific topic related to your blog niche. This could be a how-to guide or a collection of tips and tricks. Maybe you can group together a couple of posts to create 1 eBook.
  2. Course or training: If you’re an expert on a particular topic, consider creating a short course or training program. This could be a series of videos, webinars, or a combination of both.
  3. Templates or Printables: Consider creating templates or tools that your audience would find useful. For example, if you have a blog about skincare, you could create a skincare printable.

The choice is up to you!

2. Apply to Ezoic Ads

Yes, I know ads aren’t pretty.

But if you have over 1K pageviews, join Ezoic Ads.

Ezoic Ads is a little messy, I won’t deny it – but it gives you a good taste of small earnings.

You learn how ads work and you’ll learn what pages are highly monetizable on your website.

And although the ads aren’t as smooth or pretty as She Media or Mediavine, it’s the only ad network that takes in beginners and pays a good price.

I would never recommend Google Ads because they are very slow and pay peanuts.

Ezoic pays way better and they are an entry-level ad network that really caters to beginner bloggers.

Some niches do exceedingly well.

So give Ezoic a shot and even if you’re earning $10 a month, it will motivate you to earn more.

JOIN EZOIC HERE

I joined Ezoic with Draw Cartoon Style and earned about $4 in my first month.

Within 3 months, my earnings went up to $100 per month, and I got the confidence to apply to She Media Ads. Once I hit 50K sessions a month, I will apply to Mediavine.

It really is a huge motivation boost for bloggers looking to earn their first few dollars!

It also gives you the motivation to write more posts and gain more traffic.

3. Promote a product you genuinely love

When I say this, I mean, becoming an affiliate for a product that you genuinely love.

For instance, if I had a website all about dogs, I can promote a dog bed for which I am an affiliate, and make money on commissions.

This means I sign up for the company that sells dog beds (because I love this company’s dog beds) and promote it on my blog that’s all about dogs.

Every time someone buys a dog bed through my affiliate link, I make a tiny commission at no extra cost to the customer. I get paid directly by the company because I am helping them sell their dog beds.

This is how affiliate marketing works:

What is affiliate marketing? How does it work? And is affiliate marketing worth it?

 

I’ve found this method works beautifully when:

  • The product you are trying to promote is directly related to your niche.
  • You are seriously passionate about the product and actually use it (this is the only way to make good sales)
  • You promote very few products (your focus on value and only talk about the product when you believe it will help your reader’s lives)
  • You aren’t very sleazy about it and talk about the pros and cons equally.

I am not going to get into detail about affiliate marketing because I actually have 2 blog posts that discuss this in detail, so read these if you’d like to learn more:

4. Offer a service

Not many people know this but I started out building tiny websites for tiny companies and startups when I first moved to India.

I had a small dog (she’s big now and has a sister) and I needed to pay the bills.

I had a degree in Computer Science and I learned how to build websites and offered it as a service in 2015.

When I was not designing websites, I was drawing little sketches with pen and paper and scanning them into my computer, and coloring it via a mouse. I didn’t have a graphic tablet.

I saved up for 6 months before I got my drawing tablet.

But how did I earn that money?

I built websites. I did graphic designing. I freelanced.

After I got my graphic tablet, I started taking illustration commissions. I made comics, instruction comics, illustrated banners, eBook covers, stickers and so much more for companies and clients all over the world.

I worked for clients

I got most of my clients through my website and Instagram.

People would see my comics and reach out to me asking me for my rates. My whole portfolio was my comics.

This is underrated, but if you have a service, promote that service.

  • If you know how to take good photographs, and love shooting weddings, run a wedding website. Pair up with events and get more clients.
  • If you love baking, build a blog around baking but start a small online store so you can start selling your baked goods in your local area. Start a Google Business. Post recipes on your blog so that you can grow your traffic and monetize it via ads too! Promote pots and pants from Amazon Business so you can make an affiliate commission as well!
  • If you are a writer, join websites like People Per Hour or Blogging groups on Facebook and offer your services to bloggers who are looking to grow their blogs.

You can easily make about $3-5K per month via your services alone.

The only downsides to this are:

  • It’s active income, as long as you work, you get paid. It’s not like blog ads and affiliate marketing, where the income is passive.
  • It’s a lot of work, you have to work with clients continuously and constantly try to get more clients – the initial years are hard, I won’t deny it.
  • You will have to reply to a lot of emails and more than working for the client, you have to do marketing to get clients. That’s hard work.
  • It’s unpredictable in the first few months because your whole income is dependent on getting clients.

I have a blog post here that talks about getting clients online – I hope this helps.

5. Create and sell digital products

Make sure that you inform your readers that your eBook is digital in nature to avoid any confusion.

Once upon a time, this was something that not many people did.

But now, everyone can create digital products easily via Canva.

I have a pro subscription to Canva and it’s so easy for me to create Pin Templates, Workbooks and so much more!

It’s absolutely wonderful, and I suggest that if you’ve always wanted to create mockups, templates, and more and sell them on your blog – go for it.

But please note:

  • You need a lot of traffic to make ongoing sales – you have to promote your work on Pinterest or write blog posts related to your niche to get constant traffic.
  • You have to build a large shop of multiple types of digital products (see what’s working and make more of that!)
  • You have to be willing to go a few months without sales – it takes time to see traction and you have to work at it 24/7

Here are some posts that will help:

6. Write sponsored content

Once your blog gets a lot of traction, you can start writing sponsored posts or content.

Because I had a huge following on Instagram once upon a time, I worked with brands to post their content on my Instagram page.

It was mainly related to drawing and hair because that’s what my account was about.

I was paid upwards of $500 for each post.

Now, if you have a huge email list or a huge blog with thousands of readers, you can write sponsored content – a whole blog post around a certain topic and get paid upwards of $500-$1K or more for each blog post.

This method is for more established bloggers and creatives but I thought of including it because some bloggers do have large audiences but aren’t monetizing them yet.

7. Create a Paid Virtual Event

If you have the expertise to talk about a certain topic, hold a paid webinar.

Going live will show people that you are a real live person!

If you’re doing it for the first time, keep the price low – this is to show people that you are proficient in talking and you actually know your stuff.

It’s a great way to make your first $100.

Email your list, and promote it on your social media. You can also prerecord the webinar in case you feel camera conscious but please let your audience know that it’s prerecorded or at least show up live so that you can answer questions via the chat box when people are asking questions.

Here is a nice article I’ve found on creating paid webinars. 

Conclusion

I know I’ve covered a lot of information.

But I have personally done all of this and that’s why I feel so confident to talk about it.

Some monetizing strategies worked well for me and some I wasn’t a fan of.

Working for clients and selling eBooks have been extremely profitable but these 2 monetization strategies require complete 100% attention.

I personally prefer ads and digital product sales because I am passionate about providing a lot of information for free.

My websites are all free to read and I earn a lot of my money through ad networks.

So, my readers get 99% of the information for free. I prefer this. And if you want to make passive income via ads, then please work on your SEO. I discuss everything you need to know in my eBook – Grow your Blog to $1K.

This eBook specifically talks you through the strategies I’ve personally used to build Mind Space Cafe (a blog about personal development) to $1K a month via ads in a single year.

I’ve used the same strategies for my drawing blog and now my hair blog.

grow your blog to $1K eBook banner

Do not try to do multiple monetization strategies at once unless you have a lot of experience.

Focus on 1 thing at a time.

This is the only way to grow your blog and make money blogging.

Focus all your efforts on 1 monetization method and until it becomes passive, do not start another.

For instance, ads and affiliate marketing can be done side by side.

But if you are writing and promoting an eBook, don’t do the others – let it be just that 1 activity.

I wish you the best and if you have any questions related to blogging or monetization, please leave them in the comments below, I will answer them ASAP.