How Do Bloggers Make Money? And How Do Bloggers Get Paid?
If you are here, then you are probably curious about how bloggers earn money from their blogs. Blogging has been around for quite some time, but it is just now hitting the mainstream and more and more people are hopping on the blogging train. As a blogger that blogs full-time and runs several blog sites, how do bloggers make money is at the top of my list of questions I’m asked. Show me the money!
People want to know how bloggers become successful. I will tell you that blogging is not for the faint of heart. Blogging is a Marathon, not a sprint. If you put best practices in place, you will soon be on the path to blogging gold.
Every day, new ways pop up that bloggers can earn additional streams of income from both their blog sites as well as other products and services that they may offer. These are what I consider the top 7 blogging money earners.
I may earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase and sometimes if you just click on at link at no additional cost to you. Please read my disclosure page for more info.
SIDENOTE: If you are interested in getting your own blog site jumpstarted, then check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog for beginners. This straight-to-the-point blogging guide will show you how to get your blog up and running in under 45 minutes for under $5.95 per month!
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to make money in blogging you have to understand that everything and I do mean everything starts with having incredible content. Google’s recent updates to its algorithm have made it crystal clear. Content reigns supreme! Before you get into the weeds with trying to make money, make sure that your content is flawless.
The Fastest Way To Make Money Blogging
Utilize affiliate marketing: Hands-down affiliate marketing is the fastest to make money with your blog site. You can get started on day one with Amazon Associates by incorporating a few affiliate links into your very first blog article. Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn passive income through your blog. By promoting products or services that tie into your blog articles, you can earn a commission for each sale made through your unique referral link.
Create Multiple Streams Of Income
There are a ton of bloggers. The super-successful ones will all tell you that you have to have multiple streams of income. Diversifying your income is key to the long game of ensuring that your blog is a business and not a hobby.
Luckily, there are a number of ways to make money through blogging. In this article, we’ll explore the top 7 ways bloggers make money so you can start earning too!
As A New Blogger, There Are Several Ways You Can Increase Traffic To Your Site
- Use social media platforms to promote your blog: Share your blog posts on social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to reach a wider audience. You can use an automation tool such as Tailwind or Simplified to make the process easier.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Use SEO best practices to optimize your website and blog posts for search engines. This includes using relevant keywords, creating high-quality and informative content, and having a clean and easy-to-navigate website structure.
- Engage with other bloggers: Comment on other blogs in your niche, share their content on social media, and reach out to them to collaborate or guest post on their site.
- Promote your blog through email marketing: If you have an email list, send out newsletters to promote your new blog posts and engage with your audience.
- Utilize long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are specific and longer phrases that people use to search for content online. By including these keywords in your blog titles and content, you can attract more targeted traffic from search engines.
- Use visuals to grab attention: Include compelling images and videos in your blog posts to grab the attention of your audience and increase engagement.
- Update your blog regularly: Consistently publishing high-quality, informative content on your blog will not only keep your audience engaged, but it will also signal to search engines that your site is active and relevant, which can help improve your search rankings.
Remember to be patient and consistent in your efforts to increase traffic to your blog. It takes time to build an audience and establish yourself as a trusted source of information in your niche.
1. Affiliate Links | Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is another popular way for bloggers to make money. It’s one of the easiest things to implement on your blog site. Affiliate marketing is when a blogger promotes a product or service on their blog and receives a commission from the sale. The commission varies from product to product but is typically a percentage of the sale price. Sales are tracked through a unique link – referred to as an affiliate link. When a potential customer clicks on your affiliate link, a cookie is generated and stored in their browser, this cookie in turn is used by the company to track where the sale came from. Just know that the internet is very, very smart and knows where the sale came from.
Affiliate links are by far the easiest way to earn money when you are just getting your blog up and running. Coming out the gate you won’t have a ton of traffic or page views, thus you can still earn money by writing solid content that incorporates a few affiliate links. One of the easiest ways is to do either a review of products or top products or services – such as what I did on the Resources Page
On Brag Differently, Opulence Manor, and 750 Credit Score, I am an affiliate for a variety of companies, hence if you click on a link for an affiliate and make a purchase, they will pay me a commission. My commission does not increase the cost of the product or service you may purchase. If you were to click on my link for Bluehost and sign up for hosting, I would earn a commission. You also want to make sure that the affiliates that you promote are somehow tied into your blog site.
Easy Affiliate Programs To Join
Amazon
If you don’t know who Amazon is then you really have been hiding under a rock. Amazon sells everything on the planet. Most bloggers start out with Amazon Associates when getting started as it is one of the easiest programs to join. You can recommend a multitude of products via Amazon.
Bluehost
Bluehost has a simple affiliate program that is easy to implement and you can start promoting Bluehost from day one. It is also the hosting company that I use for hosting all my blog sites. The current payout starts at $65 per sign-up. The easiest way to incorporate Bluehost is to provide a tutorial page (just like this) that shows bloggers all the steps to get up and running. Make sure you share your affiliate link all throughout the post. It is that simple. Take a look at this very paragraph and you will see that I have shared my affiliate link. It really is that easy!
Affiliate Networks
To find affiliate programs, you can search for them online or contact the company directly. Many companies have affiliate programs, but not all of them advertise them.
The vast majority of companies use third-party vendors to handle their affiliate programs. These programs are known as affiliate networks, they essentially consolidate affiliate programs under one roof. My Top Affiliate Network programs that I work with are:
Affiliate programs pay a flat rate or percentage commission per sale. Amazon pays from 1-10% based on the product and product category. When using an affiliate network, each individual advertiser sets their commission rate in their terms and conditions. I’ve received commissions ranging from 1% up to 100% of the first year of service!
For example, let’s say you have a blog about fashion. You could include affiliate links to clothing items in your blog posts. If a reader clicks on the link and purchases the item, you earn a commission.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money because it’s a passive income stream. That is, you can continue to earn money from a single blog post even after it’s published.
Who Pays The Blogger?
The vast majority of affiliate networks will pay you on behalf of the advertiser. Most bloggers opt to get paid via their PayPal or stripe accounts. It can vary from program to program. You may also have the option to receive your payment through direct deposit.
Affiliate programs typically pay on a monthly basis with a minimum threshold (ex. $25, $50 or $100) and they normally have a 30 ton 90 payment delay to ensure there are no chargebacks, returns, or refunds.
2. Advertisers
Advertising is the most common way that bloggers make money. Advertisers pay bloggers to display their ads on their blogs. The amount of money that a blogger can earn from advertising varies depending on the size of their blog and the amount of traffic they get.
The most common form of advertising on blog sites is called CPM advertising via an ad network. The ad network handles all aspects of the advertising for you. They find the advertisers, negotiate the fees and install the ads on your site for you. Hence all you have to do is sit back and continue to write great content and drive traffic to your site. The more traffic you get the more money you will make. You do have some flexibility where ads are placed on your site. You can visit Opulence Manor or any blog site and chances are you are going to see advertisements.
I personally, don’t like to see a million ads pop up on a blog site, however, I fully understand the money that is involved. There are tons of blog sites earning real money from ad placement. You normally get paid based on how many people view the ads. This is simply known as RPM (Revenue per one thousand impressions) If you had 50,000 page views per month and an average RMP of $25, you could earn $1,250 per month, just off of ads on your website.
The most popular ad networks that you will see on blog sites are as follows:
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is a program that allows you to place ads on your website or blog. When a reader clicks on the ad, you earn money. Adsense is a popular way to make money because it’s easy to set up and you don’t need to sell ad space or participate in sponsored posts. However, the downside of Adsense is that you don’t have much control over the ads that are shown on your site. And, the earnings can be quite low.
The benefit of Google Adsense is that it open to anyone. You can start with them as soon as your site is up and running.
AdThrive
AdThrive is considered the holy grail of advertising platforms when it comes to blogging. You need to achieve 100,000 page views monthly. They handle all aspects of placing the ads on your blog site, thus you just need to sit back and continue to write great content and let the money roll in. AdThrive really is amazing and they work hand in hand with you to ensure that you are maximizing your ad revenue.
Monumetric
The moment you reach a minimum of 10,000 page views, you are in it to win it. You can sign up with Monumetric’s Propel Program and they will do all the heavy lifting for you. Money begins to roll in the moment they are live on your site. Monumetric offers a tier program that enables you to grow your revenue as your site visitors increase. To qualify for the monumetric Propel Program, you will need to meet the following:
- Must be a WordPress or blogger site
- 10k-80k pageview per month
- Implement 6 ad clots on both desktop and mobile
- Sidebar must be 300px wide
- Minimum 50% traffic from the US, UK, CAN & AUS
- The site must be approved by major Ad providers
Ezoic
Ezoic offers a free trial for all products and features. No payment method or commitment is required to sign-up to use Ezoic. I think that Ezoic is a good way to test out ads on your site. I like that I am able to decide where the ads go.
- Site size. A minimum of 10,000 site visits per month. …
- Google Policy. Adhere to Google’s Publishers Policies that require attributes such as original content, no keyword stuffing, and no invalid clicks or impressions.
- Site Content. …
- AdSense Supported
I currently work with Ezoic. You typically need an established threshold of page views in order to qualify. My goal is to qualify with Monumetric next and then move on to Mediavine at some point.
In addition, you could work directly with an advertiser and have them pay you a flat rate to have ad placement on your blog site. For example, you could charge $50 per month for a small banner ad on your blog.
Or, you could charge $0.10 per view, meaning you’d earn $10 for every 1,000 people who saw the ad. This option is often more lucrative but it generally requires higher traffic levels.
Who Pays The Blogger?
Most if not all ad networks will pay you directly. As with the affiliate networks, you will have a delay in receiving payments for 30-90 days and you will also have a minimum payout that you will need to reach. You should expect to get paid via direct deposit or PayPal.
3. Selling Courses or Ebooks
If you have expertise in a specific topic, you could create and sell a course or ebook. For example, you could create a course on how to start a blog. This is a great way to make money because you can sell your course or ebook over and over again. Once you create it, it’s generally a passive income stream.
Here are the courses that I’ve created and sell on this very blog site.
Brag Differently Course
4. Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products is another way that bloggers can make money. Many bloggers create and sell ebooks, courses, or other digital products. The price of these products can vary, but most bloggers charge between $9 and $95 for their digital products.
In addition to courses and ebooks, you could also sell other digital products, such as templates, graphics, or stock photos.
This is a great way to make money if you’re creative or have experience with design. For example, you could create a template for a resume and sell it on your blog.
I sell VIP Lifetime Access to my products – Check it out here – Lifetime VIP Access
5. Sponsored Posts
Another way to work with advertisers is to participate in sponsored posts. This means you write a blog post about a specific product or service and the advertiser pays you for it.
Typically, you’ll need to disclose that the post is sponsored, but sponsored posts are a great way to earn money because you’re essentially being paid to write about something you’re interested in.
As we mentioned earlier, sponsored posts are when you write a blog post about a specific product or service and the advertiser pays you for it.
This is a great way to make money because you’re essentially being paid to write about something you’re interested in.
6. Brand Partnerships
Brand partnerships are when you team up with a company to promote their products or services on your blog.
For example, you could team up with a clothing company to promote their new line of clothing. In exchange, they would pay you a fee or give you a percentage of the sales.
Brand partnerships are a great way to make money because you’re usually paid a lump sum upfront, which means you don’t have to wait to get paid.
Take a hard look around, there are probably brand partnerships that you haven’t thought about that would benefit you and your co-brand partner. Hubspot has a great article on examples of Successful Co-Branding Partnerships.
7. Selling Services | Products
Last on the list of ways for a blogger to make money is through selling products or services.
You can sell both physical and digital products as discussed above. Physical products could be anything from t-shirts, mugs, journals and so much more. It really is up to you, just make sure that your products do tie back into your website. Take a look at other bloggers’ websites and see what types of products they sell. There are tons of sites that can provide done-for-you services and products – check out Fivver.
You can also sell services. You may offer SEO services or coaching services if those are things that you are great at. You will see tons of bloggers that offer courses about blogging or coaching. Here are a few ideas of services that you can offer as a blogger:
- Coaching
- Consulting
- Canva Templates
- Social Media Management
- Virtual Assistance
- Blog Audits
- Pinterest Pin Creations
You can start selling products and services with a very small presence and audience. I highly suggest that you start your mailing list in order to ensure your success.
How Does The Blogger Get Paid
You as the blogger determine how you get paid for the products and services that you offer. It is your responsibility to obtain payment from your customer. There are various platforms that you can incorporate into your blog site so that you can process payments for services and products. For example, I use ThriveCart for my courses. I use Stripe when someone wants to schedule a paid consultation with me. See here for an example – individuals can pay directly through my Stripe product link. I also use Convertkit for digital downloads
You can have payment terms that require payment in full, monthly, half up front, and half at completion. It is completely up to you to establish your payment terms and or payment plans.
Here Are A Few Bonus Options On Additional Ways To Earn Money On Your Blog:
- Paid Webinars
- Donation Button
- Patreon membership
- Hosting Workshops & paid retreats
- Speaking engagements
- Sponsor an online summit with other bloggers
- Sell your blog site – I’ve seen bloggers sell their blog sites for six figures. Penny Pinchin Mom was sold for six figures
- Create a podcast to complement your blog site
- Create a Youtube Channel and embed your youtube videos on your website.
Using Social Media In Blogging To Make Money
- How do bloggers make money on Instagram – One way is by promoting products or services as an influencer and earning a commission for each sale. Another way is by partnering with brands for sponsored posts or sponsored Instagram Stories. You could also sell products or services, such as ebooks or courses, through their Instagram account.
- How do bloggers make money on Facebook – Similar to making money on Instagram, you could share your affiliate links. I also recommend having your own Facebook group for your blog site, where you can promote your content, products, and services.
- Pinterest is both a social media tool and a search engine. I would suggest making Pinterest Pins that also link directly to your products and services in addition to linking to blog articles. Do not sleep on the power of a Pinterest Pin!
Final Thoughts
There you have it! These are the top 7 ways bloggers make money. As you can see, there are a number of ways to generate income through blogging.
If you’re serious about making money through your blog, it’s important to understand the various options available to you. Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of the ways you can make money from your blog. If you are ready to get started, then check out these two resources – Blogging 101 is a quaint E-Book that will walk you through all the basics. It is a living document, thus you will want to save the link as I make updates on a monthly basis.
If you still need help, then consider joining the waitlist for my upcoming 31 Days To Blogging Heaven! It will walk you through everything that you need to do in order to have a successful blog in 31 days.
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