If you’ve ever wondered how to make money as a blogger, this post is for you! Whether your aim is to make a few hundred bucks on the side, or build it into a full-on career, this post will walk you through some of the most commonly asked questions and give you a good insight on how to make money as a blogger.
Before I began this blog and web design business, I was actually a full-time blogger myself and over the years, built my hobby into a 6-figure business. Blogging success does not happen overnight—you’ve got to be passionate about what you’re writing about and committed to growing it. With some work and planning, you can make a nice little chunk of change, even without a huge following!
So, let’s dive in!
How to Start a Blog and Make Money
First thing is first, to start making money as a blogger, you’ve got to have a blog. To get started, I recommend you read this post, 10 steps to launch a successful blog. Deciding on a niche, picking a domain name and actually getting your website set up are the first steps you’ll take.
And, if you’re thinking, “I just want to have a lifestyle blog!”—I urge you to niche down! There are zillions of blogs out there now and if you want to grow your site into something profitable and do it faster, creating a blog about a niche topic is the absolute way to go. Here’s a post on the most profitable blog niches that you should consider when picking yours.
Can Blogs Make You Money?
When I started my first blog over a decade ago, it was completely for fun. I had no idea that you could even make money from a blog, but when I realized it was possible, I became obsessed with making a living online. Eventually, I was able to build my blog to 6-figures a year!
So, yes, blogs can most definitely make money. I think a big determiner here is how profitable and niche your topic is, and how dedicated you are to growing it. I recently listened to a podcast about a personal finance blogger who started her blog 2 years ago and has grown her business to $20,000/mo in that short amount of time.
How Much Do Blogs Make?
It varies…wildly! Some will make $0, some will make $1000/month and some will make tens of thousands a month. The thing that attracted me to blogging in the first place was just that—the sky was the limit. There was no cap on what you could possibly make. Is it guaranteed? Heck no, but if you’re the self-motivated type and are really passionate about your blog’s topic, then you can do really well!
FREE DOWNLOAD: Blog Launch Guide
How to Monetize the Blog
Traditionally, there are three main ways most bloggers make their income:
- Sponsored Content
- Affiliates
- Ads
I always say its good to have multiple income streams with blogging because every month fluctuates. When you have money coming in from multiple different places, you’ll be able to create a more sustainable income than you would if you just had one. Let’s break these three down!
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content, or brand collaborations are when a brand offers you a fixed rate in exchange for content. These can be one off partnerships, or they can be ongoing, where you get a fixed payment every month for a certain period of time. Securing those ongoing partnerships is a great way to create more reliable and sustainable income for your blog.
If you’re looking to add this income stream to your blog, you can reach out to brands you already use and love, that make sense for your business, and see if they have any opportunities. The best way to approach this is to organically feature their brand or product in your old content, so when you pitch them the idea, they can already see that you use it.
There are also different networks out there where you can apply to different campaigns with brands. As a good rule of thumb, your campaigns will see more success when it’s already a brand you’re familiar with and use yourself! Your audience can see straight through when you’re promoting some random company that you don’t even use.
Affiliates
When you’re a brand affiliate, you get a percentage of a sale when your readers use your links. Usually this is only going to make you meaningful money if you are getting a large commission percentage (20% and up is great), or you have a really high volume of traffic that’s clicking and purchasing.
When I was a full-time blogger, I never relied on affiliate income for the bulk of my earnings, instead framed it as extra money. Some months it was a few hundred, and some months it brought in a few thousand!
Advertising
Running ads on your site is another great way to earn extra on the traffic you already have coming to your site. There are a bunch of different networks out there, some have traffic requirements, so do your homework before applying. I remember 50,000 page views a month being a common requirement for many networks.
Again, like affiliate networks, ads will likely not make up the majority of your income unless you are getting hundreds of thousands of page views a month. But, it’s extra money, and that’s never a bad thing in my book. My lifestyle blog had around 100K pageviews a month and usually made anywhere from $700-1500/mo in advertising. Again, not life-changing money, but also meaningful!
Other Ways to Make Money from Your Blog
The three income streams I mentioned above are the most traditional ways to make money blogging, but they certainly are not the only ways! If you really want to know how to make money as a blogger, it’s all about getting creative!
You can get create and offer your own products or services too. What I love about this is that these things don’t force you to rely on outside brands or programs to monetize. You own these 100% outright! You set the prices and create the marketing strategy, and with a dedicated niche audience, you can have HUGE success.
So, here are a few other ways to make money from a blog:
- Create an online course
- Create & sell digital products
- Sell physical products
- Create a paid membership or subscription
- Offering 1:1 services
- Freelance write for other publications
When it comes to blogging, your best bet is to not put all your eggs in one basket. Focus on the income streams that interest you most and build out products or services you can offer so you’re not solely relying on other brands to hire you for sponsored content for the bulk of your earnings.
Test things out, try new things! Because so much of blogging is just time, you can try out different things like selling a digital product without investing much money up front.
How Earning Money Online Can Benefit You
So many ways, really—maybe it allows you to save more, pay off debt, invest more, travel more frequently! It might give you more freedom with your current job, or allow you to bring in money while you stay home with your kids.
When you have a reason for why you want to make money online, it helps you stay focused and motivated to keep building! After building one blog to 6-figures, it seemed a little intimidating to start fresh with this blog, but it’s been a fun challenge, and it’s super niche. I get to help people, and it brings more clients and customers into my world. Even if you don’t want to be a blogger, blogging can be an incredible tool to bring in new clients and customers to your business.
Can YOU Make Money with a Blog?
Yes, definitely! The key is picking a niche that you’re interested in and can see yourself writing about at least once a week (or more), and making sure that niche is something that other people are interested in too.
Over the years, I’ve found that the blogs that are teaching other people how to do something—for example: how to improve your personal finances, lose weight, create and grow a side hustle, etc. are the ones that grow the most dedicated audiences fast.
Why? Because people want to be helped!
And, if you can help them create results in an area they’re interested in, you’re going to be golden!
We’re so lucky to live in a time when there are so many creative ways to make money doing something we love. It’s not necessarily the easiest path, but if freedom is what you crave, blogging can be an incredible way for you to earn some extra cash, or even a full-time income.
If you haven’t yet, make sure to download my Blog Launch Guide that walks you through everything you need to get set up!
I hope this post helped you realize how to make money as a blogger and even gave you some ideas of how to start building your own side hustle!
BTW, how to write blog post titles that don’t suck in record time, and how to use header tags in your blog posts to improve SEO.
