by kevsworld
Hello everyone, my name is Kevin and I’d like to share my story of how I made over one thousand dollars in one month by blogging. I think the best way to do it will be to divide it into four chapters:
Chapter 1: A Novice in a Crowded Niche
I’ve been a student of fitness, weight training, and bodybuilding for over twenty years. I’m not a professional—just a passionate practitioner. I’ve trained a few of my friends and helped them get in better shape. I’ve also answered the questions of younger guys in the gym.
One night I had a conversation with a young man who was interested in putting on muscle. I told him some of the basics and cleared some of his misconceptions. Then it hit me: why haven’t I ever blogged about this?
I already had a personal blog with a loyal following (my personal blog is more about my spiritual journey and reflections). I had even authored a book. But I had never thought much about writing fitness articles. I decided to go ahead with it–I started strongandfit.net. I never thought about the fact that that the fitness niche was super crowded. I just knew I was passionate about this topic and I enjoyed writing.
Chapter 2: Adsense/Monetization
At some point I added adsense to the blog. I experimented with different arrangements and made some important discoveries:
1. A square ad directly above the content is the best placement.
2. The ad should be blended in with the colors of your blog.
Adsense was doing pretty well—I was earning about 200 dollars a month as traffic was growing.  But there were two problems:
1. I had limited control over what appeared in the adsense ad. My blog exposes a lot of fitness scams, and sometimes the very product I was criticizing was appearing in adsense ads.
2. I felt like there were other ways to make the blog more profitable (turns out there were).
Chapter 3: Affiliate Marketing
The next big breakthrough came when I discovered clickbank products. They had some great workout programs I could sell. I eventually decided to switch entirely to affiliate advertising. There were two distinct advantages:
1. Affiliate marketing was much more profitable than adsense. Sometimes I make more in one day than I did in a whole month with adsense.
2. I had complete control over what kind of products showed up on my blog. I felt good about what I was selling (still do).
Chapter 4: New Year’s Resolutions
All these factors came together back in January. You guessed it—New Year’s resolutions. It was the time of year when everyone was thinking about making positive changes, such as losing weight or putting on muscle. Those who visited my blog were referred to high quality products and honest reviews. Many of them decided to invest in some of the programs I promote.
The end result was over a thousand dollars in one month.
Epilogue:
I’m still training at the gym and writing posts on over at strongandfit.net. Profits go up and down, but that is to be expected.  But blogging has been an exciting journey, and I’ll keep writing with passion and integrity.
Kevin is the author of Strongandfit.net: Lose Fat, Build Muscle
View the Original article
Filed under: Motivation, 000, 1, Dollars, Month
Amazon Affiliate Profits 