Blog earnings vary wildly, from a few dollars a month to six-figure incomes. While there is no 100% guarantee that you will be able to earn a full-time living by blogging, there are many bloggers in all sorts of niches who are making a great full-time income online!
There are also bloggers who make no money at all. So you need a strategy and a plan on how to start and monetize your new blog.
Blogging isn’t as easy as it looks from the outside. You need to learn how to start a blog and make money blogging with the tips in this post. My first blogs were not profitable at all!
So I had to learn what I did wrong, adjust my strategy, and start over again. I have to admit it was more for fun when I started, and this time I’m serious, prepared, and dedicated.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Please read my disclaimer for more info.
It is possible!
There is a huge difference in how to start, what to do, what not to do, and how you blog. I will share my tips and experiences here with you, so you can start the right way and not waste a lot of time like I did.
It’s so much fun to have a blog, and it should be, because it’s not gonna be an overnight money-machine. Keep going, and after about a year and 50+ blogs, you should see results.
Make sure you get it right from the beginning, so you are able to monetize it.
When you just started blogging to make money, it’s a great goal to consistently make $1,000 or more per month from blogging. Bloggers who have shared that they make at least $1,000 per month online all have a different way of going about making that much.
Some bloggers have an income of $10,000 to $20,000 per month just from Google AdSense! If that’s how much they make from AdSense alone, I can’t imagine what they are earning from other revenue streams!
I can tell you that blogging success doesn’t come overnight, but it’s an achievable goal to replace some or all of your income with a blog if you are dedicated.
Choose a topic that works for you, something you can write about at least a few times per week. If you are ready, let’s take a look at the monetization possibilities.
How to Make Money Blogging
There is not one way to earn money from blogging; there are many ways to increase your income from writing blogs. All it takes is the right blogging strategies. The best ways to earn money blogging are:
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Display advertisements
- Selling (digital) products
- Email list
What is affiliate marketing and how does it work?
Affiliate marketing is very interesting for bloggers. You, as an affiliate, earn a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products.
You simply search for a product you enjoy, then promote that product and earn a piece of the profit from each sale you make.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money online because when you like a product or company, all you have to do is review the product, and hopefully, others will be interested in buying it as well.
You place your personalized link to a product or company on your blog, website, or social media platform. When someone clicks it and purchases something through your link, you will earn a commission.
This link is called an affiliate link. Affiliate marketing is my absolute favorite way to earn money blogging. I love it because it’s passive income.
Affiliate Marketing
With just one or a few blogs or social media posts, you can potentially earn money years down the line. You do need to maintain the post or blog, and keep getting traffic to it.
Most bloggers who do well with affiliate income will share their affiliate links in more than just one post.
Affiliate marketing can allow you to relax a little and enjoy life more, all while knowing that you’re earning a living by promoting products that you use and enjoy.
You can do affiliate marketing with many different companies, such as Amazon. It’s always a good idea to use many different companies for affiliate marketing, as there are millions of products out there to share with your audience in your blog content.
For the most part, all the work is done, and the traffic that is generated to your email list and blog posts passively converts people into buyers with minimal work required.
Affiliate marketing and blogging
Affiliate marketing and blogging go together like cookies and milk – they’re made for each other. It is a powerful combination for generating income. Here are some tips on how to make money blogging with affiliate marketing
My # 1 tip would be to clean up long affiliate links with the ‘Pretty Link’ plugin. You can use this for all of your affiliate links because it looks much better than the long links that affiliate programs usually give you.
You should always be honest with your reviews and provide real reviews. If there is something you don’t like about a product, either don’t review the product or mention the downside in your review.
Either be honest or don’t work with companies that have products you don’t like using. It’s no surprise that this is why it’s better to find products you actually like to use, it makes it much easier to write about and create a positive article.
Readers want to know how they can use a product, so it’s great to publish tutorials. Showing them how to use it, how it can benefit their life, and more are all very helpful.
Show how you use it yourself, in your own home.
Blogging with affiliate links
First rule for blogging with affiliate links is: don’t go overboard with your links! There is no need to include an affiliate link 50 times in every article.
Include them at the beginning, middle, and end, and readers will notice it. More is not always better 😉
What I see a lot of bloggers do is create a recommendations page. I always like checking out a blog’s recommendations page because it helps me learn about new products and services.
For the blogger, your recommendations page is a great way to list affiliate links and valuable resources that readers may need or want.
Furthermore, it’s a good idea to have a good relationship with your affiliate manager. This way, you might give your readers extra discounts or coupons.
These things help you earn more money from your blog. This also opens the possibility to ask for a raise.
If you are doing well with a particular affiliate program, then ask for a raise. The worst thing that can happen is that your affiliate manager says no. The best is that they say yes!
Sponsored posts
One of the first ways the average blogger begins to earn money blogging is when they have a company advertisement on their blog.
Sponsored posts on blogs are a form of advertising where a brand pays a blogger to create and publish content that promotes their products, services, or brand message.
These posts are typically marked as “sponsored” or “paid” for transparency.
This form of blogging income is when you partner with a company and advertise their brand on your blog. You can reach out to companies yourself, or companies can find you and approach you directly.
It’s good to know that it doesn’t matter if you are a brand-new blogger or have been blogging for years; you can start with sponsored posts right away. Even with your new blog, you may be able to find a successful sponsored partnership.
You can even find high-paying sponsored partnerships at the very beginning of your blog.
How to get a sponsored blog
Start with an easy pitch email to approach the company. Many brands are moving toward working with bloggers and social media influencers due to the kind of traffic and customers a sponsored post can bring to a brand.
Brands can reach their desired audience with sponsored posts, then gain authentic customers. As the online world continues to expand, so will the opportunities to earn money blogging.
Brands are starting to understand the power of blogs and social media accounts. This is why we are seeing ads and sponsorships moving toward bloggers and Instagrammers.
Before working with bloggers and online influencers, brands would often rely on celebrities to promote their products. But in today’s world, people are more likely to be influenced by a blog or social media account they really like.
This is because online influencers are real people who build a loyal community by just being themselves.
There are many different types of bloggers out there, and we all make money in a slightly different way.
Bloggers are needed
The sponsored post market is just starting, so there is plenty of room for new bloggers to grow now and well into the future.
The fact that companies and advertisers are only starting to realize the value in online influencers, such as bloggers, means that the blogging world will keep expanding and offer more opportunities for sponsored partnerships, and sponsored posts.
Your ability to earn money blogging with sponsored posts will definitely continue to grow in the future. With a variety of bloggers with their own stories and niches, the sponsored partnership opportunities are endless!
Display advertising
Display advertising is another popular way of making money from a blog. It’s usually the fastest way to make money blogging. Display advertising is a passive form of blog income because all you need to do is place advertisements on your website.
The advertisements usually come through an advertising network. You place them on your blog’s sidebar, below a blog post, or somewhere else on your website.
Once you place the advertisement, you’re work is done. It’s there, and all you need to do is keep getting traffic to your page for people to see the advertisement.
Your display advertising income will increase or decrease based on your page views.
If you want to make money with blogging through display advertising, then take a look at these, they are popular: AdSense, Media.net, MediaVine, and Raptive.
Create and sell your own digital product
This is what I love most! I’ve learned how to create eBooks, guides, and courses (and much more!) from my Digital marketing courses like this beginner course “Simply Passive”, and this marketing course “UBC”.
I have two online shops (on Etsy and Beacons) where I sell my courses, eBooks, pre-written emails, and many more digital products.
With my courses and guides, I was able to help many people improve their online income as well, which is such a great feeling!
Unlike affiliate links, you are now in control of how you earn money blogging. There are many digital products you can create and sell on your website, such as eBooks, courses, consulting services, coaching, etc.
Once you’ve created and finished the product, it’s a nice form of passive income. You can also create a physical product such as a t-shirt, candles, or cards. But this is not so ‘passive’ because you will have to keep stock, and ship the sold items.
What would you like to create and sell online? To find that out, you can start with my free “Digital Products Starter Guide”; you will get it when you sign up for my email list (you can unsubscribe at any time!). Get the free guide here.
Build an email list
Should you start a newsletter? Yes, you should! Building an email list is yet another way to increase your overall income from your blog.
Many professional bloggers choose to share new content with their readers via email as well as affiliate links.
It’s best to start building your email list from day one, even if you don’t send out a newsletter yet. You can always look into this further down the road, when you are ready to start.
You can create a completely free email newsletter via platforms like Brevo, Mailchimp, or ConvertKit. You can also offer sponsorships and ad space in your newsletter as an extra stream.
Or, you can use a platform like Substack and charge a monthly fee for your newsletter. This will be a great way to make money from your blog!
An email list is important for bloggers
Not having an email list is a huge mistake when you want to earn money blogging.
I started my email list right in the beginning. I work with Brevo, it’s easy and automated. And even I, as a not very tech-savvy person, could set this up pretty quickly.
I have a free guide that helps me build my email list. People sign up, and in return, they will get a free digital guide.
Actually, starting an email list is important for anyone who wants to make money online.
Why you need an email list for your blog
I honestly believe that every blogger should have an email list. This is the place where you have your readers’ undivided attention.
You don’t have to worry about some social media algorithm not showing your content to your readers. Newsletters and email subscribers are all yours, and your email subscribers see only you.
People on your list trust what you have to say and enjoy hearing from you. This is a great way to grow an audience and to grow a loyal audience (and customers!). I believe that a newsletter is the best way to promote products, from affiliate products to ones you create.
Your email subscribers signed up specifically to hear what you have to say, so you definitely have their attention. Your email list will always lead to more sales.
Learn about digital marketing to grow online
I’ll be very honest here, I used to have a blog that didn’t make any money, even though I tried for a year. Zero, nothing, no income despite all my efforts to make it work.
So I thought blogging just wasn’t for me, and I quit. Years later, I started learning about digital marketing, and it finally hit me: I was doing it all wrong!
My favorite digital marketing courses, Simply Passive and Digital Wealth Academy (DWA), are where I learned my online (selling) skills.
Having this knowledge helped me finally make money online, and it helped me monetize my blog.
It is such a great feeling when you wake up and see that you have made a sale while sleeping! Digital marketing was the solution I had been looking for!
Get rich quickly - Or not?
Someone asked me: “If blogging is so easy, why don’t you just start multiple blogs and make even more money?” Well, it’s not like printing money, there’s no “get rich quick” in blogging, but building a solid income over time through smart strategies is possible.
Making money with a blog is hard work, and just like with all jobs, not everyone wants what you want.
If blogging were easy, then everyone would do it, and everyone would make thousands of dollars a month. But as you know, that’s not the case.
Blogging is great, but not for everyone
For every successful blog out there, there are probably hundreds of bloggers who will never earn money blogging.
While you can earn money blogging, not all bloggers will. Not everyone is going to earn money blogging because it is work.
Most new bloggers quit just a few months in. A few months is not enough time to see if your blog will be successful.
It takes six months to a year before you start to earn money blogging, and it could only be as little as $10 a month.
It’s funny to think about what life would be like if I had not quit back then. If I had taken the time and spent some money on a course to teach me how it actually works.
Those blogs could have been huge by now!
But, at least I started again, and I’m constantly learning something new when it comes to blogging, and that’s why I enjoy it so much.
Start blogging today!
Once you realize that blogging is hard, you will be ahead of 99% of everyone else in the game. Don’t assume, like most people do, that blogging is easy or a get-rich-quick scheme.
Starting a blog can be difficult. But all bloggers start at the same point. Give it at least a year! Do the work! It’s a lot, but it’s definitely possible. Just start!
I remember being so lost when I first started my blog. I had to learn everything the hard way.
Now that I’ve learned so many new skills and decided to get the help I need, I now have a blog that works!! I have always really enjoyed blogging.
I think that is so important when it comes to this type of business – you either need to have passion in your blog and/or passion in what your blog allows you to do in your free time, such as travel or spending more time with your family.
Make sure you also read these articles about making money with blogging:
How To Start Earning Money With Blogging
