How to Make Money By Blogging on Free Blogging Platforms

How to launch your first blog

If you want to create a blog you have two options:

Free blog

Self-hosted blog (Paid blog)

If you want to create a free blog, you have numerous options such as blogspot, wordpress, wix, etc. However, I suggest you try blogspot. Blogspot is the only blogging platform that allows you to use adsense, infolinks, and amazon ads to make money. On other free blogs, you do not have any chance of making money. Free blogging platforms also have paid options. In order to create a blogspot blog, all you need is a Gmail. It offers a drop and drag tool to build a blog. 

In order to create a paid blog or self-hosted blog, you need to buy a domain and hosting. When you buy hosting, you are given a web hosting control panel manager. By logging to your control panel manager, you can install blogging software like WordPress and start your blogging journey.

How to get the most from a blogspot blog

Blogspot is the only free platform where you can use adsense. That’s because blogspot and Adsense both are Google’s products.

Apart from blogging and making money, you can also this free blogging platform to showcase your freelancer portfolio, connect with clients, etc. Since this is Google’s product, you can be easily found on Google search if you are using this as your online resume.

The best way to use Blogspot is by connecting your own domain (that you register on domain registrar) with your Blogspot blog. This is called domain mapping and if you map a custom domain with your blogspot blog, you will have a custom address for your site. In other words, your blog will be without the blogspot subdomain. You will have your own address for your website, yet you are not paying for hosting. What you are actually doing is hosting your website with Google.

The benefit of Using Medium for Blogging

When it comes to using a free blogging platform, a lot of people frown upon this idea. A professional blogger will always suggest you use a self-hosted website. If you want a self-hosted website, you need to pay for a domain and hosting, but you can use free blogging platforms and still benefit from free blogs. Here I will teach you how to make the best use of free blogging platform called Medium.

Medium is not an ordinary free blogging platform. This is a content publishing platform used by big businesses, entrepreneurs, influencers, professionals, as well as common individuals. Medium is just like having a facebook page where a lot of informative contents are published. Medium profile and medium articles will help you establish your brand and market to your potential clients. Interestingly, Medium also offers money-making opportunities but this program is not available worldwide.

How to earn by Blogging on HubPages

HubPages is one of the oldest blogging platforms that has been paying users since 2007. If you want to earn from blogging but do not want to spend money in creating your own site to blog, you can try HubPages.

If you want to blog on HubPages, here are some tips.

Publish at least 500 words article, the longer the better

Publish regularly, if possible, publish at least 2 articles in a week.

Be active in the community by commenting on other articles. Fellow writers will reciprocate and will comment back on your articles, which will help your articles gain exposure.

Also, promote your articles on social sites to build traffic.

You can earn from HubPages earning program based on views generated by your articles and amazon affiliate marketing.

Can You Rank Free Blogs/Websites on Google?

If you follow all the SEO strategies, will your free website rank high on the search engine?

This question can be a little tricky because technically speaking SEO does not matter what domain you are using, or whether it is a subdomain instead of the main domain. However, in theory, it is not possible to rank free websites high. I mean it is not possible to see a free website on #1 on Google.

In other words, yoursite.com will be ranked high compared to yourwebsite.wordpress.com. Possibly, yoursite.wordpress.com will be buried deep down, in the 30th or 40th position.

You can also use free blogging platforms and website builders such as wordpress, weebly, wix, simple site etc. to build your blog or website. However, the problem with these platforms is it will be difficult to rank on search engines.

First published on Trendri, in author's name