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3 Tips to Save Money on Blogging Expenses
Are you a new blogger and you don’t earn any money from your blog yet? Then, you may find blogging expenses overwhelming for you. Thus, you need to find some ways to reduce blogging expenses and save money as a blogger!
Don’t get me wrong, I strongly support investing money in your blog if you can.
But if your budget is tight and you don’t earn money from your blog, you should look for ways to reduce your blogging expenses and save money.
In this post, I will suggest 4 ways to save money without affecting your blog’s performance.
1. Reduce Blogging Expenses on Web Hosting Services
The most important blogging expense that you cannot avoid is buying web hosting services.
Almost all web hosting providers offer discounts if you purchase their service for 1,2 or 3 years.
Before you renew your web hosting service, do market research to find out if there are better deals.
Then, send your current company an email or a ticket asking if they have a better offer for you (and mention the better offer you found).
Surprisingly, many companies offer better deals if you contact them, especially if you’re in the Blogging, Digital Marketing, or Web Hosting niche.
If you’re not satisfied with your current company, don’t hesitate to switch to a better host with better pricing as well. Some companies offer free migration (and they handle it by themselves). Ask them beforehand if they’re willing to transfer your blog for free if you migrate to them.
2. Save Money as a Blogger on Email Automation Marketing tools (Autoresponders)
To be honest, you don’t need to pay for email automation marketing tools if:
- You’re still a new blogger
- You have a few subscribers
- You haven’t managed to successfully monetize your list yet
In other words, if your email list doesn’t offer you an ROI (return on investment), then you shouldn’t spend money on email tools.
Not because you shouldn’t focus on email marketing. It’s one of the most powerful tools to grow & make money from your blog.
But because there are some free email tools that are perfect for beginners too like MailerLite or MailChimp.
Check this post to learn how to create a lead magnet for free (step by step guide) & the best Lead Magnet Ideas to skyrocket your email list!
I strongly suggest using MailerLite that is free up to 1,000 subscribers. It doesn’t lack any premium tools’ features and it’s beginner-friendly too.
The majority of new bloggers can’t monetize their email list in their first year blogging.
For example, if you were using a paid email marketing tool with an average price of $20/month, you would have spent $240 in your first year.
You can save that money to invest them on more important things, like a premium theme.
If you ever wish to migrate to another email marketing tool, don’t worry! All popular companies offer free migration services. You can even do it by yourself by transferring your contacts list.
3. Reduce Your Blogging Expenses by Using Free Social Media Schedulers
Social Media schedulers are powerful tools, that’s why they are somehow expensive.
Being active and consistent is key to grow your traffic, but it’s too time-consuming as well. I’m not against using Social Media schedulers.
I’m just saying there are some free alternatives for new bloggers or those who can’t invest in paid tools.
Fortunately, Facebook has its own built-in scheduling tool for pages and groups. On the bottom right corner of the post’s box, click the “Clock” button next to the “Post” button.
Then, choose the exact time and date you wish your post to go live.
That’s it!
Anyway, you don’t need to publish more than 1-2 posts per day on Facebook, so this tool is enough to schedule your posts.
Many bloggers aren’t aware of it, but Twitter has its own scheduling tools as well:
- The built-in tool is available after you enter your credit card details for enabling Twitter ads. However, you don’t need to pay for ads.
- The other totally free tool is called TweetDeck and it’s officially owned by Twitter.
These tools work great, but they have one important disadvantage. They don’t offer bulk scheduling (via spreadsheets). You have to schedule your tweets one by one.
That’s why I use Postcron to upload spreadsheets of tweets. It saves me so much time. Within minutes, I can schedule the whole month’s tweets for two different accounts.
After you create a spreadsheet, you can use it again and again by only changing the date of your tweets.
Unfortunately, there aren’t good enough free schedulers for Pinterest.
However, you can use Tailwind (the most effective scheduler) through this link to receive 100 free pins (if it’s your first time using the tool) and get $15 free credit. It’s enough to get started!
Tailwind has a referral option as well, so you can recommend it to your friends to get both $15 free credit (it’s enough to pay for a month).
Instagram has officially stated that it’s against using schedulers on the platform. Anyway, you don’t need to publish too many posts daily as a blogger on Instagram, so you won’t need any schedulers.
A daily reminder is enough to remember that you need to post on Instagram!
4. Save Money as a Blogger by buying in bulk
This might seem like an obvious tip, but you should pay a little more attention to it.
Almost all online tools offer a discount if you purchase them for 1+ years and some even offer a one-time purchase.
Make a list of all the online tools you’re using for your blog. Then, note which of them you’re probably going to use for a long time and check if they have relevant offers.
For example, if you want to invest in a premium fast/SEO optimized theme like Divi/Extra from Elegant themes, you can pay annually to save a great percentage or even buy it for a lifetime for using it on multiple blogs!
After 2 years, you will have already covered the difference!
Of course, you’ll pay more money this month if you pay annually, but by the end of the year you’ll have saved money.
If you want only to test a tool, it’s ok to pay by the month. If you want to keep using it for a long-time, consider paying annually.
How to Save Money as a Blogger & Reduce Blogging Expenses
The first step to saving money as a blogger is to make sure you’re on the right web hosting provider along with their best offer. Don’t hesitate to negotiate your web hosting pricing, especially if you find out a competitive offer from another host.
Then, make sure your email marketing efforts offer a decent ROI or change to a free email marketing tool like MailerLite. You don’t need to pay for autoresponders if you still can’t make enough money out of your email list.
Social Media schedulers are expensive & powerful tools. Fortunately, there are some decent free or cheaper alternatives.
If you want to get some high-quality blogging resources without spending a penny, check out this post with free resources for bloggers: The Best Blogging Freebies for New Bloggers
Last but not least, make sure you buy in bulk if you’ll save money that way. Check all plans and options of the service/tool and find out which one is better for you!
Let us know on the comments below what methods you use to save money as a blogger & reduce your blogging expenses!