Can you really make money from blogging?
And if so, how?
In 2024, blogging is a lucrative career path that can bring in thousands each month. If you want a slice of the action, this is the ultimate guide for finding out how.
How Do Bloggers Make Money With A Blog in 2024?
As of May 2024, there are more than 600 million blogs on the internet, based on activities reported by WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, and Medium (and this number is constantly growing).
- Affiliate Marketing: Bloggers earn commissions by promoting products or services and including affiliate links in their blog posts. When readers make purchases through these links, bloggers receive a percentage of the sales.
- Sponsored Content: Bloggers collaborate with brands and create sponsored content, such as product reviews, sponsored posts, or brand endorsements. They get paid for featuring and promoting the brand’s products or services on their blog.
- Advertisements: Bloggers can monetize their blogs by displaying ads through ad networks like Google AdSense. They earn revenue based on the number of ad impressions or clicks generated by their readers.
- Digital Products: Bloggers create and sell their digital products, such as eBooks, online courses, or templates. They leverage their expertise to provide valuable content and earn income from their audience.
- Services: Some bloggers offer services related to their niche, such as consulting, coaching, or freelance writing. They use their blog as a platform to showcase their expertise and attract clients.
- Membership or Subscription: Bloggers can offer exclusive content or membership programs where readers pay a recurring fee to access premium content, community forums, or special perks.
Bloggers combine these monetization methods based on their niche, audience, and goals. It’s important to focus on providing valuable content, growing an engaged audience, and diversifying income streams to maximize earnings from a blog.
Examples of People Making Money Blogging
| Blogger | Income |
|---|---|
| Adam Enfroy | $812,718 (annual income in 2020) |
| Ryan Robinson | $23,205.48 (in the first month of 2021) |
| Create & Go team | $135,985.02 (in January 2021) |
These bloggers have achieved significant success and generated substantial income through various monetization strategies such as affiliate marketing, selling online courses, and creating valuable content.
How to Start a Profitable Blog
Here’s the bottom line: Your blog won’t make money if you go into it as a hobby.
In order to make money blogging, you need to focus on strategy. Go in with your business hat on.
The bloggers above didn’t make their blogs into journals in their spare time: They grew their blogs by having a clear strategy from the first time they hit publish.
- Define Your Niche: Choose a specific topic or niche that aligns with your passion and expertise. This will help you target a specific audience and stand out in a crowded blogosphere.
- Research and Plan: Conduct market research to understand your target audience, their needs, and the competition. Develop a content strategy, including topics, keywords, and a posting schedule, to provide value and attract readers.
- Set Up Your Blog: Select a reliable blogging platform, such as WordPress or Blogger, and register a domain name that reflects your blog’s brand. Customize the design, layout, and navigation to create a user-friendly and visually appealing blog.
- Create High-Quality Content: Write compelling, informative, and engaging blog posts that cater to your audience’s interests and address their pain points. Focus on providing value and establishing yourself as an authority in your niche.
- Monetization Strategies: Explore different monetization methods, such as affiliate marketing, sponsored content, ad placement, selling digital products, or offering services. Choose the strategies that align with your niche and audience, and implement them strategically.
- Build an Engaged Audience: Promote your blog through social media, email marketing, guest blogging, and SEO optimization. Engage with your audience by responding to comments, encouraging discussion, and building a community around your blog.
- Track and Analyze: Use analytics tools to track your blog’s performance, including traffic, engagement, and conversion rates. Monitor which strategies are working best and make data-driven decisions to optimize your blog for profitability.
- Continuously Improve and Adapt: Stay updated with the latest trends, SEO techniques, and industry developments. Keep refining your content, marketing strategies, and monetization methods to stay relevant and meet the evolving needs of your audience.
Step 1: Choose the Right Blogging Niche (a Profitable One)
What should I blog about to make money?
The first step to starting a profitable blog is finding a niche.
It might be tempting to select a topic like ‘shoes’ if you’re into fashion, but if you’re serious about making money from blogging, you need to find a niche that’s actually profitable from the get-go.
How?
Well, a niche that has new products or services launched regularly will help. Marketing these products will help you earn money through affiliate marketing.
In Ryrob’s income report for January 2021, he shows that from a single affiliate brand – Bluehost – he earned a huge $10,425. Bluehost and other services that require a monthly subscription are great for making money through affiliate marketing, as every time someone renews their subscription, you earn a commission. As such, you can be profiting from the same referrals for years.
You should already have experience in your niche.
It is a good idea to use your own professional expertise to start a blog. By doing so, you can leverage your own professional network of contacts to create daily content about the market, as well as find the guest posting and backlinking opportunities. Choosing a topic you’re already knowledgeable about will also give your blog a level of integrity against the competition.
Keep your favorite hobbies as, well, hobbies.
Hobbies are where we turn when we need a break from work. Turning your hobby into your main income stream will quickly put pressure on the activity. As such, you might find you start to lose interest as it is no longer something you just do for fun.
That’s not to say profiting from a blog about your hobby isn’t possible, it’s just important to find a balance between writing for fun, and writing for business.
Use a keyword tool like SEMRush to research keywords in your field. From here, you’ll be able to see which topics are bringing in high traffic volumes, as well as related keywords that are coming up popular.
What type of blogs makes the most money?
Source: successfulunscrambled.com
- Food and personal finance blogs can make around $10,000 a month
- Travel blogs have become a popular career path for those looking to earn a living while traveling the world. Travel bloggers are often paid to review travel gadgets or even accommodation.
- A huge 21% of marketing bloggers – including those that blog about blogging itself – are earning more than $2,000 a month.
- Mommy blogs can be a great little income earner for stay-at-home mums who have turned to blogs to allow them to spend more time with their families.
Step 2: Be the CEO of your blogging business
The most important part about starting a blog to make money is business strategy.
The blog owners that are the most successful are less hands-on than you think.
Think of your blog as a business, of which you are the CEO.
Ever wonder how bloggers bring out so much content every day? Well, the secret is that they hire other writers to help. That’s right, one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming you have to be writing 24/7, and all the content has to be your own.
By providing a detailed outline to an outsourced writer, you can achieve the right messaging and content you want, but pass the work onto someone else.
If you want to drive traffic to your site, you need to be publishing a huge amount of content as well as promoting that content through Link Building and marketing. This can be difficult to do alone.
Hiring ghostwriters will keep your blog fresh and follow-worthy.
Whether you post an ad for a content writer or work with a content management agency, there are plenty of ways to hire a writer for your blog.
Your job as CEO is to delegate, budget, and lead the business strategy.
Regularly taking part in keyword research to understand what people are searching for and what type of content will drive traffic will help you create a killer content calendar.
Prepping yourself and your writers with a content calendar will help avoid burnout or inconsistency. Your content calendar can be all about writing, or also include your marketing plan and social media scheduling. There are plenty of tools that can help you plan, too.
When you’re just starting out your blog, it’s a good idea to have a budget, a plan, and an expectation for your first year. You can check how much some bloggers are making monthly or annually by reading their income reports, to gauge a better idea about how they did it.
From this, you can scope out your own rough idea and create goals for your team.
Step 3: Set Your Budget
What budget do I need to start a profitable blog?
As part of your role as blog CEO, you need to plan out a budget.
“Why do I need a budget to sit at home and write articles?” you might ask.
Well, in order to draw in the traffic you need for a profitable blog, you’ll likely need to hire some writers.
Blogging experts like Adam Enfroy recommend outsourcing blog posts and found that native-speaking writers usually cost between $0.03-0.06 per word.
As a blogging CEO, you can’t afford to spend 10 hours on a 5000-word article. But you can pay a writer to do so. All you have to do then is spend an hour or so editing and proofreading before publishing.
So, say you’ve got a 10,000-word article or eBook idea in mind. Outsourcing the work will cost $400 and save you tonnes of time which you can be working on other content.
While this is an extreme example, and most articles will cost a lot less to outsource, it’s worth making sure you have a small budget set aside for ghostwriting. This will save you time as you can hire writers for longer, detailed articles and improve your chances of ranking on page 1 of search engines.
In order to gauge a better idea of how much budget to set aside for content writers, do your keyword research, check the length of the articles ranking on the first page and calculate this based on cost per word.
While others are ghostwriting for your site, you can spend more time backlinking and writing guest posts on others.
According to BlogTyrant, 60% of bloggers write 1-5 guest posts a month.
Guest posts are a great way to start backlinking – something that does wonders for your organic page ranking. By posting content onto other people’s blogs – or hiring someone to write content for another blog – Google will see your blog as a more reliable source of information and rank you higher within searches.
If you’ve already decided on your niche, take a look at what your competitors are doing with guest posts. From here, you can create a plan for the number of guest posts you want to pay for in the first year. Guest posts are typically anywhere between 1000-2000 words long, so you will need to calculate the cost for each one.
If you’re a lifestyle blog, you might also need to budget for products to review while you start up, or props for making your photography more appealing.
When starting a blog to make money, the goal is to gain high levels of traffic consistently. Therefore it’s also worth budgeting for a hosting service that’s equipped to handle your high traffic. This can often cost a little more than a standard hosting package.
What if I don’t have a budget to start a blog?
Unfortunately, creating a lucrative business through blogging requires a lot of time and effort.
To start, you’ll need to be producing thousands of words of content a week, while also managing your social media, and content calendar, and – if you’re not ready to fully take the plunge – you’ll have to manage all of this around your current job.
Even if you think this seems doable at first, you will very quickly suffer from burnout.
If you’re serious about making money from your blog, you’re going to need help.
And help costs money.
So, you can either work with the small budget that you do have and see where you get, or you can continue with your current job and start saving.
But don’t be disheartened.
It might cost a bit to set up, but blogging can earn you thousands. So the small initial investment is definitely worth it.
There’s nothing to say you can’t start putting in the foundations: Create your content planner, organize your keyword strategy, and maybe even write some blogs for when you’re ready to launch. That way, when you have saved your initial budget, you can get the ball rolling with a clear direction.
Be B2B oriented
Whether you’re planning to work with affiliate marketing agencies or hope to sell ad space and promoted content, you need to be business-to-business (B2B) oriented.
The way budgets work in professional and personal environments are completely different. People, in general, have much less money, and as a result, are cautious about where they spend it. Therefore, if you’re trying to target individuals with affiliate marketing or ads, the return will be quite low.
On the other hand, if you review B2B products and services, you can earn a lot more through affiliate marketing. Businesses have budgets to spend on improving their operations, processes, and products.
And unlike individuals who want to save as much as possible, business budgets have to be spent each year, otherwise, they’ll be reduced the year after. Therefore, if you can target businesses with your affiliate marketing links, product reviews, and social media ads, you’ll likely make more money.
Being B2B oriented also requires savvy negotiation skills.
Your blog could be a useful tool for many businesses, so it’s vital you know your own worth, and negotiate for the income you want.
Affiliate marketing sometimes has a low start-off commission, but by showcasing the success of previous links, or sending over a presentation about your traffic and engagement, you can quickly turn a set rate into something that’s negotiable.
Step 4: Get organic traffic to your blog
The success of any blog comes first and foremost from organic traffic.
If you focus solely on paid traffic, and visitors find your content isn’t relevant to what they were looking for, or worse still, just isn’t good quality, your blog will quickly die out.
So how can you increase your organic traffic?
- Focus on Keywords
Almost every page on your blog should be focused on keywords.
Use keyword research to find out what types of wording and phrasing you should be including in your blog titles, subheading, and content.
- Understand user intention
What’s the intention of the user’s search?
Understanding user intention ties into your keyword research, and can show you the types of content that are the most popular.
Google ranks web content on relevancy. Searching for your chosen keyword will allow you to gauge what type of content is being ranked highest. Is it Youtube links? Infographics? Blog posts? Online stores?
- Longer articles with longer tails
Rather than just focussing on your chosen keyword, take a look at other relevant phrases or titles others are using. You can use tools like SEMRush to analyze the URLs of your competitor’s pages to see which keywords they’re ranking for, too. This will help you plan the keywords you’ll need to use to outrank them.
Your primary keyword should be included in your title and throughout your content. But additional keywords can be integrated into headings and subheadings within the content to target other topics and niches. This is called long-tail marketing and helps you build relevancy that can be recognized by Google.
Source: orbitmedia
The average blog post is now around 1,236 words. This gives you plenty of room to incorporate as many keywords and phrases as possible. To rank on the first page of search results, however, posts usually have to be much longer in order to increase keyword density.
- Promote yourself, take part in link building
The easiest way to gain organic traffic to your blog is to promote yourself.
Sure, family and friends will be more than happy to support you, but in order to really grow your blog, you need support from further afield.
If you really want your blog to be successful, you need to believe in yourself. So set aside the cringe feelings that come with self-promotion, and get marketing yourself just about everywhere you can think of.
Link building is also a great way to get your name out there. Guest blogging opportunities and outreach projects will help to build relevancy and you’ll rank higher in search engines.
- Check out the competition
Nobody says you have to reinvent the wheel to be a success.
You can create a lucrative blogging business by copying what your competitors are doing.
Just do it better.
Take a look at what others in your niche are doing
How often are they posting on their socials?
How frequent are their posts?
How long are their blogs?
Do they guest post?
Research your competitors as much as you can and start following suit.
Step 5: Start building your email list from day 1
You should start building your email subscriber list from day 1.
Email subscribers are highly engaged and are a great way to gain more traffic, and earn money.
Isn’t email a dying communication form?
Absolutely not.
Just to show you how effective email lists can be, here are a few statistics:
- Email marketing has an ROI (return on investment) of 3,800% (Campaign Monitor)
- 87% of marketers use email to distribute content (Content marketing institute)
- Blog posts are 3.5x more likely to be shared on social media by email subscribers (Ryrob)
Platforms like MailChimp will help you start building your email list from day 1.
You can gain subscribers by including a signup form in the footer of your blog or creating a pop-up to ask people to subscribe when they land on your home page.
Next, segmentation is key.
Grouping together contacts will make your email marketing more effective.
Scenario:
You own a successful blog about looking after pets with a subscriber list of 140,000 people.
Open rates are dramatically inconsistent. Why?
Well, that email all about caring for cats probably isn’t going to be opened by your dog-loving subscribers. And vice versa.
By segmenting your readers into groups of cat lovers and dog lovers, you will be able to send more relevant content to them.
This will help you not only improve your open rate but also avoid coming off as spammy or impersonal to your subscribers.
Step 6: Find alternative methods of traffic
Self-promotion is one way to bring in traffic.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to bring in new traffic:
Pinterest is a great way to direct traffic to your blog.
Although some see Pinterest as another social media channel, it’s actually more like a visual search engine.
Visuals are vital for drawing attention to your blog, so a few Pinterest assets, all tagged with the right keywords, will quickly gain a new stream of traffic.
Facebook can provide both new organic traffic as well as paid-for.
Like Google, Facebook offers its own Ads Manager to help you boost your traffic.
Setting up dynamic ads on the platform will do most of the work for you, and display your ads across Instagram stories, Facebook threads, or even in a banner format.
Lastly, there’s Google: The main event.
Google is where most people will start a search online.
Whether you go in with a killer keyword strategy or not, it’s likely you might need the help of a tool like SEMRush to analyze the competition and find the right keywords to help you reach all the relevant people for your blog’s niche.
According to GrowthBadger, Facebook, Google, and Email are the three most important marketing channels for high-earning bloggers.
Step 7. Build a community around your brand
For rapid growth, you need to start your own internet tribe.
Whether that’s through Slack, or creating a Facebook group, creating a community for your brand is a fast-track ticket to success.
Within your community, you can support one another and provide your followers with tips, tricks, and advice on their own ventures.
You might not feel comfortable classing yourself as an ‘expert’ in your field, but really, you only actually need to be one step ahead.
If your brand is all about marketing, your community group might have questions about building their email list, finding content ideas, or even how to create a content calendar. As these are all things you’ve already done within your business strategy, you should have no trouble offering advice.
In order for your blog business to be a success, you need to share your expertise outside of your blog posts too.
Without doing so, it’s difficult for people to know that you’re the real deal, and not just copying your information from others.
Sharing income reports or print screens of your own keyword research to your exclusive community group will help you build integrity within your field.
Step 8. Develop your social media profiles
We’ve mentioned social media a little bit, but these channels are essential for anyone running a blog business.
The quickest way fashion and lifestyle bloggers make money is through sponsored social media content: A quick product review on their Instagram stories or #ad posts on their feed are all ways bloggers work with brands to bring in income.
In fact, a lot of bloggers in this field now update content on their actual site a lot less frequently. Most of their money can be made from a few quick snaps on their social media, and as such, they have much less focus on their written content.
Of course, in order to start working with brands, you first need to build up your following – which can be done with the help of your blog content.
Creating beautiful imagery, as well as using the correct hashtags and keywords is the only way to build your social media channels. In the past, some influencers have been found to buy followers to boost their earning potential, but brands no longer just look at your follower count: They want to see the attention to detail and high levels of engagement.
If your brand has thousands of followers, but nobody is actually commenting or engaging with your content, this will definitely wave a red flag to brands.
To keep your followers engaged, make sure to comment on other people’s content, as well as reply to direct messages or comments.
It can be hard to grow your social media following, but with a little time, effort, and patience it can be done.
Proven ways of making money from a blog
So, we’ve already shared a tonne of information with you about building your social media, finding your niche, and how to have the right mindset for actually making money from your blog.
But how are people actually bringing in money?
The below list is proven ways people make money from their blogging business. We’re going to dive deeper into each one to give you a real insight into how to use each method for your own venture.
- Offer consulting services within your area of expertise
- Sell ad space on your blog
- Publish sponsored posts – both written content or imagery can be sponsored
- Sell your own digital products on your blog – like eBooks or courses
- Sell Memberships
- Get Public Speaking Gigs
- Sell physical products on your blog with Dropshipping
- Job Marketplace website
- Accept Donations
Offer consulting services
If you’re starting a blog for business, chances are, you already have some serious skills and knowledge that are valuable to others.
Consultancy is a great way for beginners to make money from their blogs.
You don’t need a large audience to be able to provide this service, just an active following that is willing to learn.
If you’ve been in the finance field your whole career, and have now taken the plunge to become a full-time blogger, you already know your stuff.
So why shouldn’t you be making money from day 1?
Consulting services can also easily be done over the internet through video conferences, 1 to 1 live classes, or pre-recorded content.
If you’ve already built up your brand community, you can advertise your consultancy services to them, and you’re bound to get some immediately interested customers.
How to find clients for your consultancy services?
- Emails
Sending out emails to interested audiences will allow you to really sell yourself.
If you’re yet to build up your email list, don’t worry, there’s still a way to find clients.
- Promote your services on freelance sites
Freelance sites are not just a great way to find writers for your blog, they’re already a good place to advertise your services.
Sites like Fiverr have clients come to you, rather than you having to apply for jobs and compete against hundreds of other candidates.
On the Fiverr platform, you can create your own ‘gig’, and produce a price list. From here, potential customers can reach out to you to find out more about what you can offer. Of course, you can also advertise your Fiverr gig through social media to get more traffic.
- Apply for consultancy jobs as a freelancer
Take a stab at applying for freelance roles in consultancy.
Freelance sites like Freelancer and Upwork are great places to find jobs in a whole array of fields. You can still negotiate prices, too.
- Get networking on LinkedIn
Lastly, reaching out on professional sites such as LinkedIn will help you network with all the right people, and bring a level of professionalism to your blog.
There’s nothing stopping you from sending a few cold-call emails to connections on your LinkedIn profile, either.
Use your blog as a portfolio
If consultancy is your thing, use your blog as a portfolio for your work.
Write a few case studies from your previous professional roles, or ask your consultancy clients if you can share data and results from your lessons.
Your blog is the perfect place to prove you know your stuff.
In a similar way to bloggers who write out their income reports, you can write out your methodology and techniques, or even display testimonials from your clients.
Sell ad space on your blog
When you build a small following, there will be opportunities for you to sell ad space on your blog.
But tread lightly.
Heavy ad displays can be distracting for your readers.
But a few strategically placed ads are great for a small income stream. When you start making money from other sources, a lot of bloggers choose to reduce the amount of ad space on their sites for a clean and professional look. However, incredibly popular online publications like Forbes suggest readers aren’t too affected by it.
Below are a few ad brands that can help you sell ad space on your blog. Most have requirements such as a set number of unique monthly visitors. The more visitors you have, the more earning potential.
Ezoic – 10,000 sessions/month
Ezoic accounts are easy to set up and usually be approved within 24 hours.
The platform offers a site speed accelerator that is available for everyone. However, if you want to stay monetizing your blog, you’ll need a minimum of 10,000 sessions on your blog a month to be accepted as a partner.
Mediavine – 50,000 sessions/month
Mediavine currently provides ad services to over 7,000 sites. Unfortunately, the site has seen a huge influx in applications, and around 72% of applicants are turned down.
To be able to use Mediavine’s services, you’ll now need 50,000 sessions per month.
RPM (Cost per thousand): $15-20
Adsense – Unique content
Adsense is probably one of the easiest ad services to set up if you’re new to blogging.
Unofficially, requirements include that your blog must be over 6 months old, but this is just a general rule of thumb.
You can apply to Adsense as long as you fully own your site and are over 18 years old. As it is powered by Google, you also must only publish unique and original content and provide really easy-to-use navigation on your pages. The only downside to Adsense is its low RPM in comparison to its competitors.
RPM: Heavily varies. The average CPM is $0.30-3
Taboola – Unique content
Setting up your account with Taboola will require you to speak to one of their team. You can complete an online form and then they will contact you within 48 hours.
Similar to AdSense, Taboola just requires that its service users provide unique and original content and must be over 18.
RPM: Starts at $1
PropellerAds – Unique content
PropellerAds is a popular alternative to Adsense. It’s a respectable ad service but doesn’t require huge audiences to get started. In fact, this service doesn’t require information about how many visitors you have at all and can be quickly integrated into sites like WordPress.
RPM: Around $3
Sell ad space directly
The final way you can place ads on your site is by selling the space directly to companies yourself.
This is an ideal way to sell the space as you can tailor the ads to your niche. With other ad services, you may find the ads that pop up on your site aren’t necessarily very relevant. But by selling ad space yourself, you can ensure the quality of ad partners is high.
It’s worth mentioning that if you want to sell ad space you will need to showcase your blog’s stats to the company. Everything from unique visitor counts to demographics will need to be discussed, therefore you’ll likely need a large following before any brands take you up on the offer.
Publish sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are a highly popular way to make money from your blog. Whether it’s written content, photography, or a video, sponsored posts are perfect for those interested in selling products or working in the fashion and beauty niches.
In order to work with brands on sponsored posts, you’ll need to have decent metrics on your site.
It’s not just unique visitors and engagement that will be taken into consideration either. Brands will also need to know your domain rating and domain authority.
- Domain Rating: Domain rating is based on the number of backlinks your site has. Brands offering sponsored posts will likely require you to have a DR of around 50/100
- Domain Authority: Your domain authority is a ranking that predicts how you will rank on search engines. Again it is heavily dependent on the links to and from your blog. Out of the highest ranking of 100, brands look for domains with a DA of 40 and above.
When publishing a sponsored post, it is crucial you tag it with #Ad, Sp*, or Sponsored. This is a legal requirement and provides a level of transparency and honesty for your followers.
Also, don’t forget to mark the outbound links as sponsored. Paid links must either use the nofollow or sponsored attribute. [source MOZ]
You need to be picky with brand partnerships.
When starting out, it might be tempting to take every opportunity you can get, but this can actually lead to less success.
In order to have a level of integrity behind your blog, your audience needs to trust you. And trust can be built by screening and content requests before accepting the contract.
Any sponsored posts for brands and products you choose to advertise should be genuinely valuable to your audience. Perhaps you already use the product or already love the brand. Whatever the company is offering, it’s important to take into consideration whether you actually like the product or service.
If you don’t, you shouldn’t be advertising it.
Advertising any old thing can quickly turn off your audience. Your product recommendations need to be honest and relevant to your brand. It’s okay to turn opportunities down; more will follow.
If there’s a certain brand you want to work with, feel free to reach out. Just because they haven’t directly contacted you, doesn’t mean they’re not willing to collaborate.
They may offer an affiliate link, a discount code, or a set price – you might be the candidate they’ve been looking for.
Sell your own digital products on your blog
If you have a blog and have already built up your brand image, chances are, you’re pretty creative.
And there’s a lot of money that can be made from creativity.
One way successful bloggers make money is by selling digital products on their sites. Digital products are a great way to keep income ticking over while you sit back and relax. Plus, because they are digitally delivered, it means you can set up shop without having to deal with the difficulties of logistics.
Sell online courses
A lot of bloggers sell online courses. If you’re a foodie blogger, you could sell a cooking 101 course, that covers all the basics of navigating the kitchen. If you’re a marketing blogger, there are plenty of online courses you can create – from email marketing to social media, to even launching your own successful blog.
Creating an online course will take a lot of planning and setup. Some courses are created through live video conferences, where a reader would sign up for the next available event. Other courses are pre-recorded, and users will be able to access course content after finishing the previous part.
Selling courses is a great way to start earning money, no matter how small your audience is. And, it’s a good way to build your brand community.
Most course sellers start with a free nugget which can help them sell the course to the viewer. That way they’re more likely to want to pay for the service if they know the information will be valuable.
Sell an Ebook
Another way to turn your knowledge into profits is by selling an eBook. eBooks can be sent unofficially via email when someone purchases them. Alternatively, you can use Amazon’s self-publishing tools to upload your own eBook which readers can pay for. If they want a hard copy, this can be arranged through Amazon too.
Sell Memberships
You can add a level of exclusivity to your blog by selling memberships to VIP content. Alternatively, you can create a brand community that requires users to pay a membership fee.
Slack is a great tool for creating a community for your brand. On the platform, you can share content, comment on other people’s ideas, and answer questions from your members.
Rather than just trying to navigate a chat room, members can search for previously discussed topics as well as post their own questions.
It’s like an exclusive forum.
It’s also the ideal place for members to network and create their own contact lists for their own ventures.
One of the most popular, and renowned Slack communities is Traffic Think Tank. This is actually run by three marketing experts from HubSpot, From the Future, and Lending Tree. If there’s a trio that can answer all your traffic-related questions, it’s these guys.
The group focuses on all things SEO with hours of video content on the topic. They also dive into topic suggestions, analytics, and even post jobs. Members of the TTT community are expected to pay $119/month, but the insight is invaluable.
Get Public Speaking Gigs
Although this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, you can make money from public speaking. If you’re an expert in your field and have the knowledge to share, conferences are always on the lookout for public speakers.
Workplaces might also hire public speakers for team-building days or motivation, and if you’re comfortable doing it, this can be a great place to earn money.
There are plenty of platforms that allow companies to search for a public speaker – like SpeakerHub – where you can post your profile, your expertise, and some past gigs you’ve completed.
If you’re not fully confident in speaking in front of a crowd, you might also be able to access digital speaking gigs – where you will pre-record your content or take part in a video conference instead.
Sell physical products on your blog with Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an easy way to transform your blog into an E-Commerce business. Rather than taking a risk and buying in stock of products, managing orders and deliveries, dropshipping is much easier.
This form of E-Commerce means that the logistics of selling online are all managed by a different company; all you have to do is choose the products you want to sell, market them and the rest is done for you. This is a low-risk way of making money as the stock is only bought once an order comes through.
Most dropshipping sites require you to sign up. When you find a product you like, you add it to your site with a markup. When someone orders it, the cost of the product and shipping does to the drop shipper, while you earn an additional profit.
But. Dropshipping can be difficult if you don’t find the right products. Some services will only offer low-quality, cheap products that are difficult to actually make a profit on.
Hypothetical Scenario:
The price to manufacture a bamboo toothbrush: is $0.7
The drop shipper will add their own markup to this price to make a profit: $1.2
You’ll then need to add your own markup, as well as the cost of delivery and tax: $3.2
Now the product is quite expensive. And, it’s pretty low quality too. No customer wants to overpay for a low-quality product…especially when they could buy a multi-pack of toothbrushes on Amazon for the same price, if not less.
This is a very simplified scenario but highlights the importance of selling high-quality products at a price that works for you and your customers.
Create a job board on your blog
When you’ve started to gain traffic on your blog, you can create a job board. Here, companies can pay to publish their job ad on your site, which then will be seen by your highly engaged and relevant blog readers.
Sites like ProBlogger allow brands, companies, and other blog owners to post jobs or projects they need to complete.ProBlogger charges upwards of $75 per job ad, so there’s real potential to earn money by launching your own board on your blog.
Accept Donations
An income stream that’s popular with Youtubers, in particular, is accepting donations. You’ve probably seen YouTubers link to their Patreon account, and there’s nothing to say you can’t do this too.
Patreon allows readers and followers to donate money to you either as a one-off or on a monthly basis. Depending on the niche, this could be a really nice way to earn money.
Typically a Patreon donation grants the user access to other content. With monthly donations, you can provide your donors with a tiered system that gives them access to different rewards depending on their subscription.
For example, your premium tier might offer patrons a free copy of your eBook, a discount on your online course, or access to an online community of support.
How to make your first $100/day with a blog?
You might be thinking ‘why $100?’.
Well, simple: It’s easy to have a comfortable life on $100/day. If you’re traveling the world, $100 a day can easily pay for accommodation and food in cheaper countries that have found a special place in the heart of digital nomads. If you’re already set up at home, $100 a day can quickly turn into thousands of savings for a new house or car.
To make your first $100, get as many of the techniques we’ve mentioned on the go.
Affiliate marketing and Ad services will start ticking away as soon as you’ve built your traffic. Similarly, drop shipping can be set up from day 1. With this, and the opportunity to earn money from freelance sites and marketplaces, you’ll quickly be on your way to earning 100 bucks a day.
What is the fastest way to make money blogging?
- Set up your consultancy services with a minimal budget.
- Reach out to past clients or leverage your LinkedIn network to find potential clients.
- Start with one client and provide valuable consulting services.
- Earn income and build a portfolio from your consulting work.
- Continuously expand your client base and expertise to increase your earning potential.
You might be interested to check those related posts as well:
- How Much do Bloggers Make in 2024? [Based on Stats, Facts and Figures]
- How To Start a Blog in 2024 and Make Money from it? [Detailed Guide]
- How to Grow Your Blog in 2024? 7 Steps for Massive Growth
FAQs
Can you make a living blogging?
Absolutely.
If it’s not clear by now, you can 100% make a full living through blogging. Our guide should have provided you with plenty of inspiration and income routes that are available to you as a blogger.
How do beginner bloggers make money?
As a beginner, it can be difficult to start making big bucks immediately, as a lot of income streams require you to have a good level of traffic coming to your site each month.
However, setting up consultancy services, selling an eBook, or creating an AdSense account can definitely get you on your way.
What is the best blogging platform to make money?
There’s no right or wrong blogging platform to choose for making money. Once you’ve got your own domain and hosting sorted, you can do pretty much anything – no matter which platform you use. That said, WordPress – a popular blog platform – currently hosts a huge 36% of the internet.
How do I start a blog with no money?
It is possible to start a blog with no money. But it will take a lot of time and dedication. We recommend at least having a small budget set aside to help you with content creation while you work on your larger strategy.
Final Words
If you think that Blogging is not for you, you may want to check other more ways to make money online in 2024. They’re all legit and well-tested ways.
