When compared to other avenues for internet users to make money online (e.g. YouTube videos, social media platforms, and live-streaming), blogging may seem old-fashioned and outdated. The written word nevertheless still has a powerful pull factor. The world’s most popular blogs like The Huffington Post, Engadget, Moz, Mashable and TechCrunch each earn millions of dollars in revenue each month. Most bloggers earn nowhere near these amounts of money, of course, but blogging can still serve as a powerful – and monetizable – way to deliver value to a worldwide audience.
As an online tutor, you certainly do not expect to invest as much time and effort in your blog posts as a full-time blogger. However, there are many ways for you to leverage your blogging presence to increase your income (both directly and indirectly) if you approach it in a strategic manner:
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Blogging can connect you with more potential students (and their parents)
With over a billion websites on the internet and countless other online tutors each marketing their skills and expertise, standing out is certainly not easy. Online tutors can boost their visibility by creating profiles on tutoring platforms such as ours, being active on social media, paying for advertising, and creating their own websites.
A high-quality blog post can get you noticed in a highly significant way. If it becomes highly ranked in Google’s search results, you will be able to catch the attention of the very demographic that will probably be interested in your services. You can also gain exposure to a much larger audience if your blog post goes viral (or semi-viral) on social media. By consistently publishing high quality blog posts, you can maintain high amounts of traffic to your website and easily attract as many students that you can accommodate.
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Branding
Online tutors do not just compete with each other in terms of their subject knowledge and teaching experience. Apart from boosting your visibility, high quality blog posts can also help you establish your expertise as an educator and help differentiate you from your competitors. A stronger personal brand can help you set higher rates and convince parents that your services are worth the additional expense. If you intend for blogging to boost your market value as an online tutor, be sure to pay attention to the quality of your content and the quality of your presentation. Professional-looking fonts, images, illustrations, and website layouts can go a long way in establishing yourself as a leading online tutor. Think of your blog as the online equivalent of a business card or a test lesson – and remember that first impressions can be even more impactful in the online world.
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Passive income
Apart from helping you to make more money from online tutoring, your blog posts can also make money for you. By displaying advertisements from Google AdSense or other advertising networks on your blog, you can earn passive income based on the amount of traffic to your blog posts (Cost Per Impression, or CPI) or the amount of clicks on the respective advertisements (Cost Per Click, or CPC). You should be careful to select advertisements that have synergies with your brand (e.g. for books, learning aids, scholarship programs, etc.). Automated advertising platforms like AdSense and WordPress Ads take less time and effort to establish, but these platforms will also take a cut from your advertisement revenue.
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Affiliate marketing
If your blog has sufficient traffic, you can also earn passive income by promoting another company’s products or services. You will receive a commission whenever a reader clicks on your link to buy the product or service you promoted. You may also make an arrangement with an advertiser to be paid a fixed amount for promoting or reviewing a particular product or service. As with website banner advertising (no. 5), you should carefully screen the products and services that you promote to protect – and even enhance – your brand value.
If you end up promoting irrelevant, off-putting, or offensive products and services, you risk damaging your reputation and perceived integrity as an educator. Products like calculators, books, industry-approved health supplements, consumer electronics, learning software, and local universities are all “safe” options.
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Selling advertising space on your blog
Advertising managers can also purchase advertising space (usually in the form of banner ads) on your blog if you are (1) attracting significant amounts of web traffic and (2) are compatible with their product or service. You also do not want to create a situation where there are too many banner ads on your blog, which then distracts from your own service as an online tutor. Try to make the ads as discrete and non-intrusive as possible. You can negotiate different payment rates and conditions with each buyer.
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Paid articles
Another way to monetize your blog is by allowing other bloggers or tutors to pay you to publish their articles. Once again, you should be careful to ensure that their message, product or service is compatible with your professional and personal values. You should also be sure to maintain good editorial standards. Make sure that the post is well written and edited, and that all facts and claims are well-supported and argued. You should also check that the author has the copyright for any images used (or that the images a free for commercial use).
Blogging can thus help you earn additional income in several ways, but this is income certainly does not come easily. It can take a long time for your blog to establish its presence among a large audience and gain the favour of search engine algorithms. You should be prepared to dedicate a consistent amount of time, energy, and ingenuity to your blogging endeavours each week, over a long period of time. With patience, hard work, creativity, and dedication, your blog can become a valuable asset to your career as an online tutor and a money-maker in its own right.
Author Bio:
Robert Wilson was born and raised in Malaysia. He is working as a blogger and Online Tutor for ChampionTutor. He’s hardworking, competent and trustworthy. His role within the company is to manage a team of Tutors. In his spare time, he loves to read, write and watch movies.