All freelance writers have at one point wondered where all the content they create go to. Some usually check where their content gets uploaded to once they are paid – and many discover that one of the popular destination for content pieces such as articles is blogs – run by individuals, small businesses, media companies and startups.
So, how are these blogs able to make enough money to be able to hire freelance writers / freelance bloggers?
The path most blogs take to make money
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If you see any blog hiring writers online, usually they follow a path similar to the one I am about to describe to make enough money.
Target a niche where people buy a lot of stuff.
It can be any niche. As long as there is some interest in it, some products being sold, some services being offered, a person can setup their blog to target the audience seeking those products / services.
Blogs are usually creates to answer questions consumers have. Or to provide consumers with insights to help them get the most out of the products & services they pay for.
You see this with sites publishing lots of tutorials or sites publishing lots of product reviews.
And so, you will find people starting blogs in the B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) space on a variety of topics.
Some are just general (multi-topic) blogs while some focus on a few topics (niche sites / niche blogs).
Popular things blog cover usually fall under parenting, leadership, relationships, health, marriage, money / finances, investment, property, cars, consumer electronics, e-commerce, web hosting / domain names / blogging, design, farming / gardening, software, tools, fashion, personal development, small business, marketing, education, jobs / careers among other things.
Build traffic.
The blogs that are able to hire freelance bloggers are also usually able to attract good traffic. Some will attract thousands of people per day to their pages while some will manage only a few hundreds per day. And yes, there are also mega blogs that sometimes attract more than a million visitors per day.
Traffic sources usually vary, with some relying on search engines, like Google Search, for the bulk of their traffic, while some rely on social media sites, like Facebook, for their traffic.
The top places most blogs get their traffic are usually platforms such as Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest and Instagram. And it is always free traffic (organic traffic) from search engines that appeal to most blog owners.
Some will depend mostly on social media traffic but the majority usually prioritize getting more unique visitors / pageviews from people typing different keywords in search engines. Some also pay for traffic to their sites using Google Ads or Facebook advertising.
Monetize that traffic.
Once these blogs start getting consistent traffic, they will monetize the content they publishing using a variety of methods.
Display ads. So, getting paid for clicks and page impressions from ads they insert in their blog posts / sites using ad networks such as Google AdSense, AdThrive or Mediavine. They will make money every time someone clicks on an advert on their site (legitimate clicks) or whenever an ad on their site registers a thousand impressions.
Affiliate links. So, some blogs will link out to products or services with unique links and get paid for every successful sale / referral.
One of the popular affiliate programs that bloggers outsourcing content writing like using is Amazon Associates. This is because Amazon converts well for most of these sites (turning readers into buyers) plus they sell almost everything on their platform.
Then there are affiliate networks like ShareASale, CJ, Click Bank, JVZoo, Rakuten and Impact Radius. These are mostly used by businesses that don’t want to handle their affilate program needs on their own sites.
Some of the blogs that hire writers use these networks to find relevant products and services to promote within their blog posts (and email lists). They then get paid commissions for every successful sale (lead) they bring to a business. Commission rates vary from business to business.
Then there are people who run their own affiliate programs. Some blogs sign up to promote products and services sold by these people as well.
In the WordPress niche for example, you will find bloggers monetizing their review content with affiliate links to all manner of keyword research tools, online courses, ebooks, membership sites, WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, web hosting and domain registration services.
So, a blog can get 25% commission on a 50 dollar product (which is $12.5) and make enough money to outsource one review article if they just make 3 to 5 sales.
Some get 50% commission rates on $100 products, making it easy for them to be able to raise enough money to outsource some writing to freelance writers from the commission they earn from just one sale.
eBook sales. Another way blogs use to make money is by selling digital books (ebooks) to their readers using their own shopping cart software, hosted shopping cart software or right on Amazon.com via the KDP / Kindle Direct Publishing program.
Online course sales. This is also another way employed by some blogs to make enough money to be able to afford writers. Some blogs launch really profitable courses and they are able to take some of the money from the sales to hire bloggers to write articles, manuals, emails and tutorials from them.
These are just some of the common ways blogs are able to make enough money and hire writers. It is all a combination of choosing a niche, creating content (initially the owner can write all the content himself), promoting the content (to get more traffic / customers) and getting paid for their hard work via some of the monetization methods I have already listed.
Why am I telling you this
So, you know that even some of your favourite multi-author blogs might be looking for writers. If they are making good money, they probably can hire one more writer. If you pitch them, they might say yes to having you work on a few articles for them.
So, you know that even blogs that accept guest posts (blogs with Write for Us pages) also hire freelance writers from time to time. Even if they are not in the habit of paying for content, if you make a good pitch, you can be hired to write some posts for them.
So, you can keep growing your freelance business / career while thinking of ways of starting your own blog, so you can diversify your revenue streams – make some money by monetizing your own content with affiliate links, display ads and digital products you create.
If you are a freelance writer, place your ad listing (for free) in the Freelance Writers / Content Creators category on Niabusiness Classifieds page.
Let potential clients know about you and your services when they browse through the listings published on the site.