So you want to learn how to make money blogging huh?
Perhaps you’ve got a blog and you’re ready to monetize your content?
Or you haven’t started blogging yet and you’re wondering, how on earth do bloggers make money?
Whatever your reason might be, I’m going to help you understand exactly how you can make money blogging.
Okay, so how do you make money blogging?
Well, I’ve been making money from my blog for over 15 years now and how I make money is the number one question I’m asked when people find out I’m a full-time blogger….
…that and “so what do you do all day hun?”…..
Usually, I answer the first question with “Uh, I make money through advertising”…
I used to explain a bit more but honestly, I started to notice people’s eyes would glaze over with confusion when I did, so now I just keep it simple.
But, in today’s post, I will dig deeper.
First off, I want to reassure you that bloggers do make money. They can make enough to ditch the 9-to-5 (myself included).
And they can make enough for their hubbies to retire and get in on the blogging journey.
Lisa over at Farmhouse On Boone started her blog as a stay-at-home mum in 2015. She built it up to become a multiple six-figure business and after 3 years retired her husband. Now they both work together as full-time bloggers.
Mum-of-2 Abby Lawson of Just a Girl and Her Blog started her blog as a hobby in 2013. In 2015, after being laid-off, her blog was so profitable, her husband, Donnie joined her to work full time.
And while some bloggers make 6 figures and others make 5 figures, the fact is money can be made and you don’t need lots of traffic to your blog to monetize it either.
You’ve just got to know-how, be dedicated to learning, and be committed.
Right, let’s get this show on the road.
Here are 5 ways you can make money with your blog
1. Sponsored posts
One of the most popular ways bloggers earn an income is via sponsored posts. So basically, you partner with a brand and create a blog post featuring the brand’s products or services along with a link to their website.
If you choose to opt to make money with sponsored posts it’s best to build relationships with brands that are relevant to your niche. Because the last thing you want to do is lose readers and their trust.
How can you get sponsored opportunities? Well, there are a number of ways. You can reach out to brands and tell them about your blog and what you do.
I tend to pitch blogger outreach agencies directly as they have a wide roster of clients, which you can have access to. You can also join blogger networks like Real clever, ACTIVATE, and Valued Voice.
If you have a large and engaged social media following you can also monetize that too. Often brands will ask for a social media mention along with a sponsored post which you can charge extra for.
2. Affiliate marketing
Imagine making money whenever your reader purchases a product you recommend? That’s essentially what affiliate marketing is.
You feature a product and insert a tracked affiliate link. When your reader clicks the link, and buys ANY product from the website you’ve featured, you make money.
But wait, there’s more!
The beauty of affiliate marketing is your reader doesn’t have to make a purchase on the same day. It could be 30 days or 45 days later depending on the terms. Just as long as they make a purchase using the link on your blog, you’re all good.
Affiliate marketing can be a serious moneymaker and you have bloggers like Michelle Schroder Gardner that earn over $50,000 a month.
If you have a strong niche and an audience that trusts your recommendations, it’s worth giving affiliate marketing a try.
To get started you’ll need to join affiliate programs to find products you’d like to recommend to your readers.
Some good affiliate programs to join are ShareASale (my personal favourite because they have a large portfolio of brands in lots of different niches), Affiliate Window, Amazon Associates, Linkshare, and Commission Junction.
Skimlinks is also another good affiliate program that I really like. It’s different from the rest because Skimlinks checks your content and automatically adds affiliate links in for you.
If you have a fashion or beauty blog this is especially useful as it means you don’t have to manually add affiliate links.
3. Selling products
If you’ve got some experience under your belt and have enough knowledge of a particular subject you can always package up what you know and create a product.
This could be online courses, printables, and eBooks.
Digital products have the potential to produce a nice amount of passive income.
If you like the idea of launching an online course, Teachable provides an excellent and easy to use platform for content creators to host their courses.
And for printables and eBooks, Etsy and Gumroad are great places to sell your products.
It’s important to really make sure that what you’re offering is of high quality and value to your readers.
Providing an outstanding product means readers will recommend you to others and won’t hesitate to buy more.
4. Banner advertising
Banner ads are one of the first ways most bloggers earn money.
With banner ads, you can either earn a flat fee every time someone clicks on the ad (CPC), for every 1000 views of the ad (CPM), or when someone clicks the ad and takes action. This can either be by signing up or making a purchase (CPA).
Ad networks you can look into signing up to include Google Adsense (which is one of the most popular), Mediavine, Propeller Ads, SheMedia, and Revenue Hits.
If you’re a newbie, many networks like Google Adsense, Mediavine, and SheMedia require a certain number of page views before you’ll be accepted.
However, Propeller Ads and Revenue Hits don’t have a minimum requirement to apply. So it doesn’t matter when you started your blog or how many page views you have.
5. Offering services
Last but not least, you can also offer your expertise by providing a service.
For example, you could consult or coach a few select clients or freelance as a side hustle. If you’d like to freelance Upwork and Fiverr are great places to market yourself to potential customers
Another option? Speaking at events.
This is a fantastic way to share your knowledge for a fee. And if this appeals to you, I’d recommend starting a website dedicated to promoting yourself and your services.
To sum up…
You can use all 5 ways to make money or you could use just a couple.
Either way, you should definitely have more than one way to make money on your blog. It’s best to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket.
Take the next step by deciding which opportunities you think will work on your blog and start implementing each method one at a time.