Last Updated on July 24, 2023 by Vishnu Nambiar
When it comes to students, making money online is something that they really look forward to! There are various genuine methods to make money online. One such way is Blogging! But, can students really make money blogging? Is it an entirely free process? How can students make use of this excellent money making opportunity and earn decent revenue while not compromising with their studies and other day to day activities? I’ll answer all these questions in this post. In this article, I’ve mentioned some frequently asked questions and doubts. Along with the questions/doubts, I have also provided satisfactory answers too!
What is a blog?
Earlier, they used to be known as Weblogs. They are web based properties where the webmaster can post articles, post images or other kind of content. A blog can be created easily using CMS (Content Management Services) like WordPress, Blogger, Drupal etc.
Is it really possible to make money from a blog?
Of course it is possible! When it comes to blogs, there are many ways in which one can monetize it. For example- making use of AdSense ads, Affiliate marketing, Selling services using blog etc.
What does it takes to create a good blog and make money from it?
First of all, a blog will only be successful if it gets traffic, decent amount of it. To get traffic/visitors to a blog, the blog must provide some really valuable content.
To make sure that a blog is successful, do publish useful content on it regularly. This will attract visitors towards it and thus will help monetize the incoming traffic.
An easy way to get started is starting a blog on a topic that you are very knowledgeable about! Doing so will help you come up with good blog posts/articles. Since you are naturally interested in the topic, you will have no trouble in writing top quality articles/content. This makes the entire blogging process an easy task!
Does creating a blog costs money?
If you want to build a blog with custom domain name (like xyz.com) and want to give it a thorough professional look, you may have to spend some money towards purchasing hosting, theme (depending on your CMS) etc.
But what about creating a free blog and monetizing it?
Yes, very much possible, I must say! There are different platforms and CMSs that allows users to create blogs completely free of cost. The most prominent ones are- WordPress and Blogger.
Since we will be dealing with the topic of monetizing free blogs, we will be focusing on Blogger only! Because, personally, I feel that Blogger provided a better chance at creating a free blog and monetizing it at the same time!
One may easily access Blogger using Google account (Gmail account, since for Google, one account ensures access to all their services). Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that Blogger service belongs to good old Google!
One may login using Google account on Blogger and create a free blog within minutes. All one got to do is register a unique ‘domain name’ which has not already been used by someone else!
When it comes to creating a free blog using Blogger, you won’t be able to flaunt a custom domain name. You will be able to get hold of something like this- xyz.blogspot.in/xyz.blogspot.com.
After creating and setting up the blog, you are ready to publish contents on it. Do make sure that you publish good quality content regularly.
Also, while selecting domain name, make sure that the name is related to the niche/topic about which you are going to blog about. For example, suppose you are planning to start a blog about used cars, then go for domain names like- usedcarsmania.blogspot.in or usedcarsworld.blogspot.in etc. You may try out different variations and choose a catchy domain name.
After creating blog, what about monetizing it?
The reason why I recommend Blogger platform is that it is quite easy to integrate Google’s AdSense ad program to it. After you publish enough content on your blog, apply for AdSense right from your Blogger Dashboard.
If your application gets accepted, your AdSense account will get approved and you will be able to place AdSense ads on your blog! Now, the incoming traffic/visitors will see those ads placed on your blog. Some of them tend to click on it too, if they find that the ad is relevant and useful. For each such click, you will be paid money! That’s how this monetization method works!
The more the traffic, the more the CTR (Click Through ratio) will be. The more the Clicks, the more your earnings will be!
Apart from this method, there are other ways of monetization too, namely affiliate marketing, paid posts etc.
Also read: List of trusted paid survey sites to make money from
But I don’t have technical knowledge about HTML, Coding and Web designing!
Worry not, you don’t need to know much HTML or Coding stuff to maintain a blog using platform like Blogger! The user interface is really cool, when it comes to Blogger. Creating and designing a blog is as easy as drag and drop. You will be able to change the layout, appearance etc of the blog without having to deal with a single line of HTML code!
The main aim of such CMS platforms is to make blogging an easy experience. They are meant to make blogging possible for laymen, who don’t have much design or coding skills!
So, if you are a student and are looking forward to making money blogging, starting a free blog should be a ideal first step for you. After gaining some revenue and experience, you may take the next step and go for custom domains and even paid hosting! I agree that students are not in a financial position to make investment towards blogging right from the start. In such cases, it is always a good plan to start free and small and gradually climb the ladder.
I am Vishnu Nambiar a career and educational blogger from India. I am also a full time educational consultant having more than 12 years of experience in the educational sector.
I share articles related to courses, colleges, careers, exam tips and more here.