This post may contain affiliate links
Last updated: October 25, 2023
Are you wondering how to make money blogging? Perhaps you already have a blog, and want to start earning money from it. Or maybe you are planning to start a blog so you can earn some extra money from it.
Either way, blogging is a valid and legitimate way to earn extra money.
Many bloggers have been able to earn enough money from blogging to give up their ordinary jobs and blog full-time.
Many other bloggers use their blogs to generate additional part-time income.
It is possible for everyone to monetise their blog at any stage, and start earning money.
Related: advantages and disadvantages of blogging
Here are 8 ways you can earn money from a blog:
Affiliate sales are when you promote a product or service on your blog, and a reader buys it through your personal link. It is similar to someone earning a commission in a regular sales job.
There are lots of affiliate programmes that you can sign up for to start promoting items and earn money from their sale. Some companies have their own affiliate programmes, such as eBay (called the eBay Partner Network) and Amazon (called Amazon Associates). Others are members of affiliate networks, one of the most popular being Affiliate Window. Within Affiliate Window, you can request to become an affiliate for those brands (for example, Boots, Waitrose and New Look are all part of Affiliate Window). When you become an affiliate, you can access links to a brand’s products and webpages which contain your own affiliate ID. Purchases made through these links are tracked back to you.
An affiliate link does not mean that there is any extra cost to the buyer who clicks through and purchases something via one of your affiliate links. Instead, the company whose product was bought pays you, the affiliate, a commission for the promotion and sale of the product.
Learn How To Make Money Using Affiliate Links
Some bloggers earn tens of thousands of pounds each month from affiliate marketing. For example, you link out to your favorite vegan gym clothing using an affiliate link that earns you a little cash if someone buys through your link.
One of the highest affiliate earners out there is Michelle Schroeder-Gardner from the blog Making Sense of Cents. Michelle really knows her stuff, as is evident from her income reports.She makes over $50,000 a month from affiliate sales alone! Her affiliate marketing course, Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing, has taught other bloggers how to start doing the same. It’s a step-by-step guide to earning money from affiliate links, and she shares the precise strategies she uses to make money in this way. I am an alumnus of her course, and highly recommend it if you are serious about making money through affiliate marketing.
Tip: affiliate links must always be disclosed. I also recommend only promoting brands and products that you generally have an honest regard for and truly recommend.
Bloggers can earn money by publishing sponsored posts on their blogs. Sponsored posts come in different forms. Sometimes, a blogger will publish a pre-written piece of content which has been sent to them. Generally the piece of writing will include a link back to the brand’s website or product. Alternatively, bloggers are paid to write their own content about a brand or product. The companies are paying for either the promotion, the backlink to their website, or both.
Sometimes, bloggers will also be paid to review a product they have been sent. Some bloggers also charge to run giveaways for brands. While receiving free gifts is of course nice, they don’t pay bills and therefore bloggers will also charge the company a fee to cover their time.
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Tip: any blog post which has been paid for must be disclosed as such. You must also disclose a product that was received for free. Certain free gifts are also counted as income in tax terms, so keep accurate records of any products you receive. Again, I also recommend only posting relevant and quality content to your blog.
A blog is a great platform for a blogger to sell their own products. There are many types of products you could sell, and different ways to do it:
Selling Digital Products
Many blog themes these days come with the capability to set up an online shop. Buyers can instantly download the product from your site. Examples of digital products you could sell are e-books, recipes, stock photos, WordPress themes, plugins, planners, calendars, meal planners, fitness guides and e-courses.
Selling Physical Products
You can also set up an online shop on your blog. You could sell your own handmade items, arts and crafts, books, clothing, accessories, audioguides, CDs, artwork and photographs. The list goes on, really.
Linking To Another Shop
You can link from your blog to a shop held elsewhere, such as your eBay store or Etsy shop. It’s also possible to promote your own direct sales online store (Avon or Stella & Dot, for example).
Tip: it’s important that the product you’re promoting on your blog ties in with your blog’s niche. Selling recipe books on a technology blog, for example, is unlikely to be of much interest to your regular readers.
If you have a skill or relevant experience, you can sell your own professional services via your blog. Perhaps you work in a certain field already and want to take your work freelance, or you just have a certain skill set that you know people would pay for.
Examples of the types of services you could sell from your blog include social media management, IT assistance (PowerPoint or Excel, for instance), freelance writing, graphic design, life coaching, virtual assistant, consulting, seminars and search engine optimisation.
Before I left my job to go self-employed in February 2017, I had mainly worked in administrative and secretarial jobs for many years. Consequently, I learned a lot about IT and diary management. People are always looking for virtual help in these areas. Have a think about what you could offer others, as there will definitely be a problem out there that you can solve for someone with your specific set of skills.
Tip: many of these skills are ones you can learn through blogging!
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Your blog’s sidebar or footer are good places to place adverts. You can display ads in these areas that can earn you money over time. The most popular and well-known ad networks are AdSense (from Google) and Media.net.
You use a piece of code generated from the ad network to display the ad on your site.
There are different ways to earn money from displaying ads on your blog. CPC (Cost Per Click) ads earn you money when someone clicks on the ad. CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) ads pay you a certain amount every time an ad unit is viewed on your site that many times.
Displaying ads is not a quick way to make money at all, as payment amounts are usually very low. Generally, the more traffic that visits your blog, the more money you will earn through ad networks. It can be worthwhile, therefore, if you generate a lot of traffic to your site.
Tip: display ads in prominent positions on your blog. I don’t recommend displaying too many ads, however, as this can be distracting or annoying for your readers.
Instead of going through an ad network to display ads on your blog, you can sell your blog’s advertising space directly to others. This could be to other bloggers, who want to generate more traffic to their site, or to companies.
Many bloggers offer advertising space in their sidebar area, for example, and have set rates for doing this. Other bloggers or brands can usually pick the duration the advert will run for.
There are also websites and plugins you can use to find advertisers, such as BuySellAds. These link you directly with advertisers who are looking to display ads on a website.
Tip: you will be more likely to get approached for direct advertising the higher your blog traffic. As always, I only recommend running adverts which are relevant to your blog and its readers.
This method of earning money from your blog is becoming more popular. Sometimes, if you have something of value to offer, people will pay to access more of your content. Creating a members-only section of your site which people pay to have access to is a good way of earning money.
Your members-only site could include a community forum, premium content blog posts, downloads, images, webinars, podcasts, videos or other learning resources that you don’t otherwise offer for free on your blog.
Within your members-only area you can promote your own products and affiliate links to earn more money from your blog.
Tip: there are many ways you can pay to set up a members-only site on your blog. If you want to give it a go and try it out for free first, try the s2member WordPress plugin.
This way of making money really fascinates me, and it’s actually something that happens a lot. Some bloggers make money by building up their blog to the point where it is earning money, and then sell it. You can sell an existing blog which is already fully monetised for a decent amount of money. The hard work is already done so it’s an instant earner.
If you know how to monetise a blog and start earning money from it, then you have the potential to make money selling blogs. This could be a really lucrative way to earn extra money, as starting a blog is very inexpensive in the first place.
Tip: if you want to sell your blog, try Flippa.com. You could also pick up a blog here for a bargain, monetise it, and flip it for profit!
Go For It!
There are so many ways to make money from a blog, and anyone can do it if they know how.
A few things to remember:
- you need a blog to earn money from (of course).
- it takes a while to start earning money. You can do it as quickly as possible if you optimise your site for money making from the start.
- passive income is the goal. Meaning your blog earns you money while you go about your daily life. However, not all of these methods are passive and it does take a lot of work to getto the stage where it looks good, has great content and communicates its trustworthiness to its readers.
I hope these pointers gave you an insight into how bloggers make money.
Blogging is completely worthwhile, whether your goal is to earn money or not, so I highly recommend blogging to everyone.
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Have a look at my other blogging tips.
