I guess you’re looking for ways to save money while building your blog?

Who wouldn’t??!

Are you also wondering why blogging is becoming more and more popular every day?  

More often than not,  It’s to make money.

This is the motive behind every business, and blogging is serious business.

As an online entrepreneur, you want to find the magic point between serving your readers with the right knowledge they need and making money.

Inability to do this will not only lead to failure but demotivation.

The cost of building a blog could be quite enormous – if not checked.

However, it’s assumed you did a good feasibility study to enable you to spell out your projected cost before starting your blog.

Otherwise, you’ll be unable to come up with smart ways to save money in your business.

Every business is expected to experience cash outflow for the first two to three years of its inception.

Having that in mind, you should look for smart ways to save money.

1. Consider getting affordable office equipment

One of the ways to save money is to avoid buying equipment for your business at budget bursting cost. Buy your equipment with minimal cost. You may even consider buying nicely use equipment such as laptops, printer… Everyone desires to buy big brands, but you can make do with cheap brands that are not so known but equally as good.

2.  Swap your blogging skills for another.

I’m a firm believer in the trade by barter system as one of the ways to save money in life.  This system allows you to exchange goods and services instead of money. This is an old system that has been for ages, and it’s still effective today.

What can you swap as a blogger?

Here are ways I have swapped my skills to save money in blogging.

I have built a website design in exchange for brand building opportunity.

I have also, traded my comment for a backlink to my site.

Also, I have provided social media services in exchange for recognition by influencers in my niche.

You can also trade your skills, such as trading your content writing skills in exchange for graphic designs.

There are so many other trade arrangements you can take advantage of, but you must possess the needed skills for the exchange.

3. Free course online

Take advantage of free online courses if you need to improve yourself in blogging.

Search the web and you’ll be amazed at the huge offers of free courses.

4.Outsourcing

You can outsource just about any service you require. You’ll ever get a better bargain than employing staff because you only pay for what you need. And you are not saddled with the cost of downtime.

5.  Look for affiliate partner to sell your products

This is a great way to conserve cash because most of the advertising is taken care of by the affiliate partners. Moreover, your affiliate partners only get paid when sales are made. This is one of the ways to save money while getting your products sold.

6. Work from home

There are so many ways to save money working from home. You can save money on commuting. And it’s not difficult to figure out how you save money by working from home.

Clearly, there’s a lot of money saving whether you’re travelling by rail, bus, in a carpool or on your own. You even save money on wear and tear on your car because you don’t drive it all the time.

Other ways to save money working from home are to claim home office tax deduction (this may not be applicable in your country), cut eating out, and save on professional wardrobes.

7. Guest post as a blogger

This is free advertising for your brand. It allows you to get free exposure in your niche.

To land a guest posting opportunity find influencers in your niche by putting in the search engine “guest post +niche”. This influencer commands a lot of respect from your target audience and they have a lot of followers.

By guest posting, these followers may eventually become your followers too. This is a great way to quickly get readers to your blog without paying for it.

8. Offer to speak in conference and seminar in your niche for free.

This is another way to your blog in front of a large audience without spending money. Do a search for conferences and seminar coming up in your niche.

Since you’re willing to work without pay, they’ll most likely give you the opportunity to get free exposure.

9. Use free tools

We are exploring ways to save money while building your blog without jeopardising success. Right?

Here are some ways we’ve covered so far: Save money on equipment, offer your service in exchange for your needed service, guest post as a blogger….

In addition, I want you to know there are free tools available online for you to use.  

Such as autoresponder service providers for email list building.

1. Mailerlite allows you an unlimited amount of campaigns to up to 1,000 every month for FREE before you start paying. I don’t know the exact amount of campaign you’ll be allowed free of charge,  but I got 500. However,  I’ve heard some saying they got 1000.

Anyhow, I’m of the opinion the 500 I got is a good enough leverage for anyone just building his blog on a lean budget. What’s super about mailerlite is that with the free version.you enjoy full access to all features, including automation

It’s really wise to be frugal when your blog has not started bringing in income.

2. MailChimp is another one. This one offers Up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month free to new business.

Use the free version until your bank account is good enough for you to upgrade.

Social media scheduling

It can be crazy trying to keep up with happenings on social media, and at the same time with other tasks that blogging demands.Therefore, social media scheduling tools cannot be overlooked. They’re like the loyal staffs that faithfully help you to build your business and increase your income.

You may not get a social media tool that you can use without restrictions. But the limits set for these ones – Buffer, HootSuite – are really good enough till you can afford to upgrade. In fact, some people never really upgrade.

Essentially, there are tools you can’t avoid paying for. For example, your hosting service provider. I’ll not recommend you go for the free hosting service because you run a risk of downtime and they may close down anytime without any obligations to you.

There are quite a number of reliable hosting service providers such as Bluehost. As a matter of fact, this site –theonlinecompass.com – is hosted on Bluehost and I have not experienced any hitch with them so far. Siteground and name cheap are also very efficient.

Conclusion

The above are 9 inspired ways to save money while building your blog. It’s important to be extremely frugal while building your blog, otherwise, you’ll run into financial difficulty even before your blog starts generating money.  

Finally, know your priorities and avoid spending on what’s not necessary.

Which way have you reduced cost in building your blog? Please let us know in the comment below.

And don’t forget to share this post on your favourite social media.