blogging – Alan Spicer – YouTube Certified Expert

YouTube and blogging are two powerful ways to earn a fairly passive income online. YouTube is a visual platform that relies on video content while blogging gives you a little more licence to deep dive into ideas with writing, images and videos blended into a comprehensive article.

But how can you monetize your youtube channel and blogs, and what one is more profitable?

Lets look into making money online in the first place. You can make your site a profitable business by monetizing it in the following ways:

Affiliate Marketing

It’s one of the most popular ways that bloggers use to make money. with this type of marketing, you need to promote certain products that belong to other businesses. So, every time a person buys the product through your affiliate link, you earn a commission.

Some of the most popular affiliate programs include:

Amazon associates
Commission junction
ShareASale

Publish Sponsored Blog Posts

You can get paid to write and publish a blog post on your site. This is simply sponsored content, and it offers one of the best ways to improve your blog monetization strategy. A business organization, company, or individual can pay to create content about their products. In some instances, they might prepare the content themselves and then give you for publication. Some of the best blogger networks that can provide you with such opportunities include:

BlogDash
ValuedVoice

Sell Ad Space

If you have ad space on your site, you can sell it at a set price to an interested buyer. This sounds better than getting a small amount of money every time someone clicks on your ad, and you simply charge a flat rate.

Write Product Review

Once you have built your site and become a reputable writer, you can get paid to write reviews. You can try out a sponsored product, write a product review about it, and get paid to do that job. But it’s important to find a niche that you understand and products relevant to your audience. For instance, if your blog is about health and fitness, it will make sense to review supplements, smartwatches, wellness applications, and fitness apparel.

Get AdSense

When you start writing and publishing content for income, advertising is usually at the back of your mind since you want to profit from your work. The easiest way to monetize your blog is by using Google AdSense, i.e., an Ad Network run by Google. AdSense usually displays adverts on websites, and when a visitor clicks on it, you make money.

YouTube.

Just like blogging, there are several ways you can use to monetize your YouTube channel. If you are in the YouTube Partner Program, then you can earn money through:

If you meet YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines, then you can turn on ads. You can check your eligibility by checking out the self-certification examples and guidance found on this platform.

But understand that choosing to turn on adverts doesn’t mean they will automatically appear on your video. Your content must go through the standard ads process that includes human and automated reviews to determine if it meets the guidelines. Besides that, you need to have all the rights to the audio and visual elements in the video. YouTube has two types of ads options; hence you can turn on ads for:

Individual videos
Multiple videos

Merch

YouTube has a merchandise shelf that allows interested creators to sell their branded merchandise on this platform. Note that this feature usually appears on certain video pages that are eligible channels.

Memberships

Allow viewers to join your channels via monthly payments. However, you should be ready to give them members-only perks such as emojis, badges, and other types of goods. YouTube has policies and guidelines to help eligible account holders.

Chat and Super Stickers

You can turn on this feature and connect with your fans during live chat. Making super stickers and chat content can earn you up to$500. Viewers can purchase the super chats option to highlight your message in the live chat.

Premium Revenue

YouTube premium revenue will automatically turn itself on. If a viewer is subscribed to YouTube Premium, then every time they watch what you publish, you will earn part of the fee they pay for their premium account.

In this blog vs YouTube earnings overview, it’s clear that both platforms offer multiple channels of earning money. However, more people prefer to watch videos rather than read blogs, and this is because they have a better chance to view content in a “live” way.

Q: When to get AdSense

If you are a blogger, you can apply for AdSense once your site starts receiving at least 100 unique visitors daily. Blogging rules have changed, and it may be quite difficult to get accepted, especially if your site doesn’t generate a reasonable amount of traffic every day. Besides that, you need to have a Google account, e.g., Gmail, to use AdSense. With YouTube, you need to have at least 1000 subscribers with a total of 4,000 watch hours.

Q: Does AdSense Pay Per Bloggers Per View?

Blog: No. AdSense doesn’t pay bloggers based on ad views. Instead, people get paid using cost-per-click (CPC). This is an established payment system that allows you to receive a portion of your payment when a person from your target audience clicks on the targeted ads by Google AdSense. So, if one of your users clicks on your ad, you should receive 68% of the payment as the publisher.

Q: How Much Does AdSense Pay Per Click/View?

Blog: Your commission is 68% of the total click amount, but this can go down to 51% in AdSense for search. Generally, the amount you get in terms of the commission depends on the existing competition on the Google Search engine platform and the CPC in that niche. The commission per click usually ranges between $0.20 and $15.

YouTube: according to various sources, you can earn between $0.01 and $0.03 per view with YouTube AdSense, but this amount usually averages out at around $0.18 per view. Like blogging, Google will pay you 68% of the generated AdSense revenue, and so for every $100 that the advertiser pays, you get $68 as the publisher.

Q: How Can You Improve Your AdSense Earnings?

For bloggers, AdSense earnings matter. To maximize your AdSense revenue after monetizing your website, here’s what you need to do:

Craft High-Quality Content

Your content is what will make you stand out. Valuable content will always get more clicks, which will organically raise your revenue. This is because it will generate more traffic and leads. By doing so, your chances of getting more clicks will increase, making your site attractive for product or service advertisers.

When crafting content for a specific niche, look at what your competitors are doing first, including their writing styles. This way, you will know what’s expected of you and how you can uniquely craft your content for your audience.

Use the Right Keywords

A combination of engaging, high-quality content with the right keywords will be highly effective in revenue generation. Look for those keywords that people commonly use when searching for specific content. Optimize your keywords so that search engines can easily crawl on your site and rank your content on top of search results.

Of course, more traffic will lead to more clicks, and the result will be more earnings from Google AdSense.

Consider Best Ad Placement Best Practices

Ad placement is important in maximizing your earning. On your homepage, you can increase the click-through rate (CTR) by:
Using 728 x 90 leaderboard ad image unit just right above your homepage’s fold and below the main bar navigation.
Consider testing different ad units, i.e., 300 x 250 medium rectangle or 160 x 600- a wide skyscraper in your sidebar.

On your main blog page, use:

A 336 x 280 large rectangle image for your ad unit right on top of your article.
Consider using a similar type of ad unit before the comments section at the end of your post.

Ad size and style all matter in boosting a blogger’s AdSense earnings. This gives your visitors several chances to notice and then click on your ads. When considering ad style, understand that the goal is to make them more visible while simultaneously reducing ad blindness.

That’s why google usually recommends that you consider using different colors for your links and ad text to make them stand out.

There are three main ad styles that have been proven to be technically effective, and they include:

Color contrast: use ads with colors that easily stand out against your website’s background.
Blend: ensure that your ad units are the same color as your site’s borders.
Complement: use colors that preferably already exist on your website even though they don’t exactly match with the borders or background but easily blend.

Use a Plugin for Ad Management

Ads that generate good revenue must be managed. This makes it possible to group ads depending on the content and where they can be inserted. Some of the useful features of an ad plugin include:

Ad rotation: you can opt to use a timed or on-page rotation for your site’s ad group
Adblocker: it checks if the browser has an ad-block software and then issues notification for it to be disabled.
Expiry date: you can set an expiry date for your ads.

For YouTubers, you can only make money with your YouTube partner account to get AdSense Revenue. The best way to increase your YouTube earnings include:

Publish Quality Videos

In content creation, quality will always sell. There is more to creating videos, which means creating content that can easily captivate the viewer. There are already several other creators in your niche; hence, you should create videos that people can watch. But how can you effectively do this?

Create videos that meet YouTube guidelines

Create a schedule for your video posts- it is important to upload videos to create a schedule that your audience will be in-tune with. Do you want to upload videos twice weekly, 5x monthly, etc.? You can learn more about scheduling here

Create your Thumbnails. Even though YouTube offers you the thumbnail option, it’s great to create your own since you can customize it to meet specific user preferences. You can use a graphic editing app to do this.
Briefly describe what happens in the video in the description area. Note that the summary of the information you provide here should be accurate, and you can even add blogs or websites that you are affiliated with.
Ensure that you sparsely use the relevant keywords to fill out all the details outlined in the title, tags, and description. SEO is also relevant in YouTube.
Create a quick but captivating intro that highlights what the viewer should expect.

Manage your Channel

Only a great channel with a reliable number of viewers will earn you a good income. YouTube success doesn’t come easily, so you must build and manage your channel. Ensure your channel’s description, including colors and logos, matches your niche and user profile. Besides that:

Fill in all your profile information
Customize your site’s color scheme and background
Use a captivating cover photo
Use a captivating cover photo

Channel management also requires you to vary the presentation of your videos. There are those subscribers that love short videos while others love longer versions. Analyze the performance of different videos based on the length and use that information to create relevant content. This way, you can:

Publish video content of varying lengths to cater to the different needs of your target audience

Create your playlist featuring a series of various videos

Lastly, consider your community in content management. There isn’t any successful YouTuber who doesn’t have a community. How can you build your community?

Directly interact with your fans by replying to comments
Ask them to give you their opinions
Make them feel like they are part of your content creation journey

Improve your AdSense Ads

Use your YouTube partnership account to improve your AdSense. Do keyword research to drive more traffic and result in better showing ads. The more traffic you get and the better the quality of the ads, then the more money you will earn.

In this case, consider the type of tags you use. Tags should be ideally used to connect videos with similar characteristics. So, the more connections you get, the better your chances of getting more views.

Market Your Channel

It would be nice for your channel to get more exposure on YouTube and other platforms. A high level of exposure guarantees you more leads and traffic, which leads to more views that generate revenue.

Q: How Many Views Does a Blogger/Youtuber Need to Get Paid?

Blog: There isn’t a specific fixed number you need to get paid. You can get paid with as little as 100 visitors. However, you should understand that every page view generates $0.01 and $0.25. That means that you would earn $1 -$25 monthly.

If you want to make money from blogging, you need to get around 10, 000 views unique visitors monthly. This way, you can monetize your blog easily and use it nicely for a revenue stream. However, the biggest challenge for most people is getting these numbers. For a YouTuber, the views you need can be equated to 4,000 hours of watch time.

Q: What Kind of Blogs/Channels Make More Money?

You can flourish in any niche and earn a modest income if you put in the work. However, there are niches that if you invest in, you are guaranteed more revenue. This is because such niches are popular, and their content is highly demanded.

Popular Blogging Niches with Top Revenue – The top niches that guarantee bloggers more revenue include:

Finance

We “interact” with money almost every day. Whether it’s buying food, transport, paying for accommodation, or even accessing the internet, so, money is an important factor for the sustenance of our livelihoods, and that’s why starting a finance blog will put you a step ahead in ensuring you earn more.

People are always looking for effective ways to handle money, and finance blogs are the best in providing actionable insights that the user might need. Whether it’s a busy professional, a retiree, or a young college student, finance content will never go out of style as it appeals to most people. Some of the aspects of finance you can focus on. Include:

• Passive income – blogging is one of the best ways to earn a passive income or use it as a side hustle.

• Frugal spending

• Investing

• How to save for a side hustle

• Mortgage and early retirement, among others

Marketing Blog

It is currently one of the best niches to focus on since most people are actively looking for ways to make passive or active income through marketing.

With your marketing blog, you can help your target audience learn how they can master e-commerce skills before starting a business. Some of the areas that seem to be attracting big numbers include:

• SEO

• blogging

• Email marketing

• E-commerce marketing

Travel Blog

Travel blogs have become a necessity in this era, with more people keen on exploring their locals, regions, or even international areas.

Travel blogs are quite popular, and you can always make good money, regardless of the zone you decide to focus on. You can make money through affiliate links, accommodation reviews, etc. Additionally, you sell travel apparel on your blog.

Food Blog

If you are a foodie, this is a new area for you to flourish. Food blogs are popular currently, and you can make yours the online recipe book. Teach your target audience how to prepare different tasty dishes, and you can even use some nice photos from your kitchen.

Besides that, you can prepare specific meal recipes that target a certain group of people e.g.

• New moms

• Those struggling with weight loss or weight gain

• Diet time limits

• Fitness enthusiasts

Some of the other areas you can focus on include:

• Restaurant reviews

• DIY meals

• Food and traveling

• Affordable outdoor dining

Fashion Blog

You don’t need your clothing line to write a fashion blog. You can still express your unique sense of style on your blog through product reviews. There are new fashion trends almost every month, and this means that people are always trying to keep up to date with what’s happening in the fashion world. The best thing about being a fashion blogger is that you can link your site to your social media page, become a social media influencer as well, and add affiliate links.

Not all YouTube videos are the same, and there are certain types of videos that tend to perform better than the others, regardless of the publisher. These videos generate more income, and they include:

How-to videos

They are quite popular since people are always looking for popular solutions to fix and do things. How-to videos top the charts since they are better off than instructional manuals. You can cover a wide range of topics ranging from education, travel, and photography.

Product Reviews

These are videos that involve a YouTuber testing out a product then giving the target audience a review, including the downsides and pros, based on their personal experience. According to Google, product reviews have generated more than 50,000 years of YouTube watch time in the last couple of years only.

Vlogs

These are videos that cover a wide range of niches depending on the creator. You can vlog about basically anything but lifestyle topics, including music, comedy, and entertainment

You can learn more about YouTube side hustles here

Q: What’s Easy Monetize, YouTube Channel or a Blog?

It depends on your content and the effort you put in. it takes about six months to start earning from your blog. With YouTube, your channel needs to have t least 1,000 subscribers and a total of 4,000 watch time hours within the last 12 months.

It will take you roughly a year to get to 4,000 watch hours, i.e., 240,000 minutes, if you maintain an average watch time of 20,000 minutes per month. But YouTube divides watch time across the whole channel, and so you can achieve the watch hours in less than a year if you produce a few high-quality videos.

To get quickly monetize your channel and get up to 4,000 hours of watch time, here’s what you can do:

Create fresh content

To be discovered on YouTube can be easy if you upload fresh content that appears on top of YouTube’s search results. Your goal should be to publish videos that remain relevant all year round, and this means that you can continue to earn revenue from the same video for months to come.

The best way to make evergreen content include:

• Interacting with your viewers and asking them about which content they prefer

• Answering their questions as much as you can

• Consider trending topics and offer valuable information regarding them

• Create videos that offer solutions or give deeper insights

Do Livestreams

Of course, your community of fans wants to know and interact with you on a one-to-one basis. The best way to boost viewership and improve your target audience’s confidence is by hosting live stream sessions. Understand that the numbers might be small at first, but the more you do, the better your chances of growing your channel and earning more revenue.

consistently Upload Your Videos

More hours mean that you need to have more videos under your belt. Create viral videos that will quickly give your channel the needed boost to attain those 4,000 hours. Don’t forget to be consistent. There’s a lot that goes in during video creation. Hence you must be ready to put in the work.

Go for Quality

The length of your YouTube video matters in attracting and retaining your target audience. But sometimes, to hit those high numbers, you need more quality content than quantity. A popular video with your audience will generate more traffic, and your channel will quickly hit those hours.

Q: Blog vs YouTube Earnings: Which One Should You Consider?

It all depends on what you have in your hands at your interests. There is a whole blog vs YouTube earnings debate that never seems to go out of style. But here are a few tips to help you consider the right type of platform that suits you:

Rate of earning income

A blog will quickly earn you a reasonable income, especially if you can monetize your ads and work with affiliate links. While YouTube has a better-earning potential, it’s more volatile and only seems more profitable for people who have fully established themselves with short- to medium-term goals. Overall, getting your foot in the blogging field seems easier, and you can get the job done within 3-4 months.

SEO Benefits for Growth

You stand a better chance to grow exponentially if you start with blogging. Blogging can help your YouTube channel to grow. Some of the benefits of starting a blog before a channel include:

• Understanding keyword research and its benefits in content creation

• Improving click-through rates

• Content length and what appeals to your audience

• How to describe photos and videos

With this information, you can create SEO-friendly videos that increase watch-time and more audience retention, leading to more revenue generation. Besides that, you will learn the importance of creating longer videos because they give you more watch time, a better chance of retaining viewers, and provide your target audience with more values. Lastly, you can use your blogging skills to caption and describe your videos using the right keywords. You can learn more about YouTube captions here

Startup Costs

Before you start blogging or vlogging, you need to invest a sustainable amount of money. While there are cheap ways to do this, it remains a fact that you need to put some money aside for content creation.

Blog costs

You will mainly invest in services. Here is a brief overview of blogging costs:

• Hosting: you need a host for your website. Expect to pay at least $60 annually, but this depends on the host you choose.

• Domain name: your blog needs a unique identifier in the form of a domain name. a basic domain name will cost you around $13.00. remember that you should choose a unique domain name that complements your site’s profile.

• Paid theme: while this isn’t a requirement, remember that you want to use your blog to generate revenue. Some bloggers may avoid this and opt to use free themes with limitations. To be on the safe side, ensure that you get a paid theme, and this can cost you around $30.00

YouTube Costs

You need a camera and a good microphone to start a YouTube channel. However, some may argue that you can use your smartphone. However, your success with a smartphone is quite limited based on the 720p to 1080p standard. You will be disadvantaged if you don’t produce high-quality content because your competitors are, and that’s why they are earning more revenue. On average, here’s what you need:

• A camera- a good one should be around $450+

• A camera stand – $15

• A microphone – $60

• Video editing software- $60

You can find more information regarding the tools from alanspicer.com

Starting a blog is cheaper, and you can leverage that to create a good YouTube profile. You will probably have better deals initially as a blogger, and the whole setup process is cheaper.

Selling Your Work

If you need a platform with a good exit strategy, you should probably consider blogging. People sell their websites all the time, which can generate up to 50x of the platform’s monthly average profit. Overall, it’s easy and quite profitable to sell a blog.

Meanwhile, how many times have you heard a person sell their blog? This is because it’s highly unlikely for that to happen. In fact, if you do so, then you will be going against the terms and services of YouTube/Google.

This doesn’t mean that people don’t sell their YouTube channels, but the whole process is complex and involves many backdoor deals.

In conclusion, if you want to grow your target audience quickly with a moderate income, then you should consider starting a blog. But if you are patient, want to build a community, and earn a significant amount of money in the long run, then YouTube should be your go-to solution. To learn more about starting a YouTube channel, here’s what Alan Spicer, a certified YouTube Expert, offers.

You have decided you want to start a blog with no money but don’t know where to start? Well, you’re in the right place – here is my beginners guide to blogging!

How To Start A Blog with No Money?

You can start a blog for free with companies like WordPress, Blogspot and Medium. WordPress is free to use and can even be free to customize with free themes. They offer free hosting but I was suggest upgrading to shared of dedicated hosting should you want a little more freedom.

Blogging is a wonderful thing; it gives you an opportunity and voice. You can write about anything you want and share it with your readers. If you turn your new blog into a success it can even provide an extra source of income.

I’ve put together a super-easy guide to start a new blog from scratch to turning it into a success. This guide will help you with everything you need to know from getting started, to the correct setup to attracting traffic and building your audience to make this a success

Why do you want to start a blog?

The first step on your journey to start a blog is the ‘why’. Why are you here? Why do you want to start a blog? What are you hopes and dreams of what the blog will do?

It’s important to have a good idea of your why before you start. If your reasoning is to write for fun, without a real business plan then your steps would be different to someone wanting to start a blog as a business venture to make money.

I’m going to assume at some point you want your blog to make money, because everyone would like more money, right?

Your next step once you have a good idea of why you want to start a blog is deciding what to write about. Before you do anything at all you should have decided on a niche and have around 10 – 15 blog post ideas around that niche that you can write straight away.

Deciding on a niche

A mistake a lot of people make is assuming you should write about everything, wear many hats and try and solve all the problems – this is not sustainable, nor will it make your blog a huge success.

You need to define a niche and your ideal reader who you want to write for. Your ideal audience will have their own set of interests, problems and struggles which your posts will help them solve.

By niching down and writing around one topic area you will help your SEO (search engine optimization). This is because when Google crawls your website it will see content around one area, keywords that link together and will therefore see you as an expert in that field and will show your posts higher in search results

It will also keep your readers longer, if there are lots of other similar posts that answer more of their questions then the reader is more likely to click around your blog and spend longer reading rather than leaving after reading one post.

Make sure your niche and topic area are ones you love. If you’re not in love with it then keep thinking, if you start writing on an area you are not passionate about chances are you won’t continue with the blog and you will get bored of the creation process

Deciding on a blog name

By this point you should have decided why you want to start a blog with no money and what niche you’re going to write about, you’re almost ready to start the technical aspect of starting a blog but first you need to decide on a name.

This is important because you will be stuck with this forever, so make sure it’s what you really want. Brainstorm a few ideas, think about keywords and what people might Google to reach your blog.

Try and pick a short catchy name, one that will still resonate in years to come and one that will not age. Once you have a name you need to check the domain is available, you should also check the social handles are free too it’s important you maintain consistency across all platforms.

If your name is available as a domain, and all the key social platforms then you are all set to start your blog and claim them as your own.

Where to host your blog

So, you have your niche, your ideal audience and you have now picked a name. Now you need to decide where to start your blog with no money and where to host it. There are many options out there but two of the more popular options are Blogger and WordPress.

If you’re brand new to blogging, I’d say to open a test account on both to have a look around the interface and system to decide which you prefer.

You will read a lot out there about how you must use WordPress if you plan to monetize, which isn’t strictly true.

There are a lot more options for customization and plugins to help your journey but personally I found the interface on blogger simpler. There isn’t a right or wrong answer on who you should host with, and it doesn’t need to be a final decision.

If you decide to start with a Blogger platform (which is free) there are many tools out there to migrate across to WordPress at a later time.

One thing you absolutely must do if you start with blogger is to buy a vanity URL, this will get rid of the .blogspot.com and make your blog look more professional

Alternatively if you do have a tiny bit of money behind you and want more freedom then check out BlueHost for cheap, reliable, fast hosting from less than $5 per month.

Content is always king

You should now have the bare bones of a blog; you should have a platform where you are running your blog with a name you’ve chosen and an idea on a niche.

As I mentioned earlier before officially launching you should have 10 – 15 blog post ideas in the pipeline, this is so your readers have something to read when they land on your blog.

Your content is the single most important thing to focus on, it’s the reason people are visiting and is the reason whether they stay or bounce straight off your blog.

By already having a minimum of 10 blog posts it gives your readers a good feel for you and your content and what to expect in the future, this gives them a reason to subscribe to your blog and want to come back.

You should also try and have a regular posting schedule and editorial calendar. If you post at the same time / day regularly your readers will come to expect a post and visit your blog at that time thus increasing your traffic.

An editorial calendar helps you plan ahead, it gives you an idea of what you’re going to write so you know what research to do, pictures to take etc.

You can plan evergreen content to keep readers returning and any key holiday dates that may come up, I recommend keeping a month in advance on your calendar so you can plan and publish accordingly

Final step before launch – Google Analytics

Your blog is almost ready, you’ve got your 10 draft posts ready to publish but your last step before going live is making sure you have Google Analytics installed, this is crucial from the start.

It may not seem it as your traffic will be smaller to begin with, but it will provide you with so many insights such as how people are reaching your blog, which posts are doing well, and which search queries people are using to reach your blog.

These are all helpful for further refining your niche and helping you create new blog posts to answer the questions your audience is searching for.

You now have a blog with a clear defined plan and niche, social channels all consistently with the same handles, 10 draft blog posts you can push out and a method to track all your new traffic to help you decide on your next 10 blog posts – you’ve officially started a blog!

Congratulations.

What else would you like to know about starting a new blog?