How to Earn Money with a Blog

For many of us, once we learn we can earn money with a blog, we want to learn how we can do that too. This guide should help you understand a few of the ways you can use your blog to make money. I’ve broken down 5 basic ways you can make money blogging; ads, sponsored posts, guest posts, affiliate promotions, and selling your own products.

Ads

Placing ads on your blog is probably one of the easiest and most well-known ways to monetize your blog, but it’s not necessarily the best way. Unfortunately, ads aren’t too effective unless you have a lot of people reading your blog already. The rise in usage of ad blockers, both on mobile and desktop hardware, makes it even more difficult to profit purely on ads alone. You can use ads to make money blogging, but you need the appropriate traffic before you can make a lot.

PPC ad networks

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click, which means when someone clicks on an ad from your site, you get paid. The benefit of using these types is that users are shown advertising directly related to their own Internet usage. They’re shown ads that they’re most likely to click.

Just about everyone knows about Using AdSense to display ads on your site, but there are other options as well. If your blog doesn’t comply with AdSense standards or if you are rejected for whatever reason, look into alternatives.

Sell ad blocks directly to advertisers

You also might decide to offer ad packs directly from your blog. Allow people to apply for space via email contact, or sign up for a network that will handle the transactions for you. This will allow you to control what advertising appears on your site.

I think this works very well for niche communities. If it’s a well-known source of information in your community, selling ads can be a quite lucrative way to earn money with a blog. Brands that cater to the audience of your niche will be lining up for ad spots on your blog.

Sponsored Posts

A sponsored post is a review of a product that you got for free for at a discount in exchange for writing the post. Sometimes you’re paid cash in addition to receiving the product for free.

When writing sponsored posts, remember that you need to tell people that you’ve been paid in some way for the review. FTC guidelines require you to disclose that you are being paid for endorsing a product or service. You need to have this clearly displayed on every page with affiliate links, and before you address the paid content. For social media, you can add tags like #ad or #sponsored to show that you’re being paid in some way for your post.

Guest Posts

Yes, there are blogs out there that will pay you for a post! You just need to find them. A lot of the time these are big blogs that need the articles to keep flowing in. They pay other writers (you!) to help them keep their site running. Depending on the blog, you could earn an average of $50-150 per post. Some are a little less, some are a little more. If you’re planning on doing a lot of guest posting to promote you own blog, you might want to try with websites who pay for articles.

If you’re looking for a place to start,

• this post at All Indie Writers lists blogs that pay over $100 per article,
• Make a Living Writing shares 79 sites that pay $50 and up, and be sure to check out
• Guest Post Tracker’s list of 121 blogs that pay for guest posts.

Affiliate Programs

When promoting affiliate products, I suggest you have actually tried the product first. If you haven’t, it’s going to be a lot harder to answer any comments or questions that your reader may ask before buying in. If you’re knowledgeable about your recommendations, you can build trust. More trust means more sales!

Affiliate posts are also subject to FTC guidelines. Make sure your disclosure is made clearly on every page/post with affiliate links, and that it’s made before you start linking to products.

Physical products

Sign up for affiliate programs or networks to promote products you love. A good place to start is with Amazon Associates or Share A Sale. Typically, you will review a product and have links included in your post that will track the user until they make a purchase.

Online tools and services

There are affiliate programs for online services as well! Some have offers available through affiliate networks like Share A Sale, but a lot work off their own system. Look for affiliate or referral offers on the websites for your favorite services or programs.

Products & content from other bloggers

Promote the products from other bloggers. This could be physical products or digital. If you’re unsure if a blogger has an affiliate program, just ask. They may have a private network of affiliates that isn’t displayed publicly on their website or blog.

Your favorite eCourses

Online course sites like Skillshare and Udemy offer affiliate programs. You may also find some courses from other bloggers, too, that have affiliate programs.

Have you taken a course on blogging that has an affiliate or partner program? Make use of that! You may have readers who are inspired by your success, whether they are already bloggers or want to become bloggers. Share with them what helped you break into the scene.

Your own products

Why spend so much effort trying to get people to come to your blog only to tell them to head off to somewhere else. You can develop your own product and keep 100% of the profits. This is probably the best way to earn money with a blog, or even to make money online, but it also requires the most upfront effort. Eventually, you can find your groove and things will be a lot easier.

Physical products

If you have anything to sell, a blog can help you market it. Use it to show how your product works, invite customers to share their experiences, and to provide customers with information on how your product can fit into their life. Educate your current and potential customers with information related to your industry. That way, people will have a reason to keep returning to your website even after they’ve made a purchase.

Downloadable content

In my opinion, This is probably the easiest way to get started with your own products. You could create anything from an ebook that’s built around the content you’ve already written on your blog, to a series of video courses on just about anything. You can sell graphics, printables, information, videos; anything that can be offered via download.

Membership site

If you have a good amount of DLC available, you may consider offering an all access pass to all your products, billed on a monthly basis. Be sure you don’t commit to providing new monthly content if you’re unable to keep up. Make it clear what you’re offering, be it monthly updates or just the ability to access current content with updates as a bonus.

Club membership

Offer private access to you and a group of other clients with a like-minded focus. Private Facebook groups are a popular option. You may even offer access as a bonus for purchasing another product of yours.

Client services

A blog is a great way to attract new clients to your services. Spend 1-on-1 time with a client for coaching, consulting, or creating custom content for them. Allow people to book time with you either through chat, a voice or video call, or a phone call.

Are you ready to earn money with a blog?

Now you know of some ways you can make money with your blog. Hopefully, you’ve got some info to help you start, as well. Decide which method you’d like to implement on your blog. You could use 1 or all if you like. Multiple income streams is always a good idea.

Remember that it does take time. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t earn money right away. In most cases, you won’t. Just keep on going and one day you’ll find yourself there! You’ll have to put in the work if you want the reward.