How Bloggers Make Money
This is a question that I get a lot: “how do bloggers make money?”
There’s no right or wrong answer here, as many different bloggers have their income from many different sources. Bloggers make an income through so many different ways.
It can really seem overwhelming if you’re a beginner. Even a year after I started blogging, it still seems overwhelming at times! But I promise that once you get started and get into the swing of things, you won’t feel so overwhelmed.
First, a little bit about me:
A less than a year ago, I thought that it was a joke to be a “full-time blogger.” And now here I am trying my hand at it and earning a rapidly growing income. I made $1,286 in June from blogging 20 hours a week less than 4 months after “getting serious” about blogging.
If you’re thinking about starting your blog for profit, you need to check out Elite Blog Academy for amazing free resources from Ruth Soukup who has become a New York Times Best Seller and a millionaire thanks to her blog.
And don’t forget to read Abby Lawson’s book Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook. If I had this book when I was starting out, it wouldn’t have taken me so long to figure out what I was doing!
Back to how bloggers make money…
I want to reiterate, there are many, many, MANY ways to make money from blogging (or “monetize your blog”). And no one does it the same way. What worked for you might not work for me, and vice versa. Different niches see better results from different types of monetization strategies.
Most bloggers make money through “passive income,” or income that you set up once and then don’t have to do anything with every again but it keeps making money for you.
Here are the top 5 ways how bloggers make money.
1. Ad revenue
These are the ads that you see in the sidebars, tops, and bottoms of a site. The way that they work is that you, the blogger, join an Ad Network and they pay you to show the ads on your site.
You get paid based on
- “CPM” or “clicks per mille,” also known as “paid per impression,” which translates roughly to “for every 1,000 people who show up to your site, you’ll make some money.”
- “PPC” or “pay per click,” ads that pay you a certain amount for each time someone clicks on the ad, taking the reader to another site.
The ad revenue might be as low as $0.57 to as high as $10.98. But just starting off, it will be fairly low. But it still adds up! Here are the best places to start monetizing through ad networks:
Neither one of these ad networks have minimum pageviews per month to join, so you can join them the day after you start your blog. Adsense might actually be the more difficult Ad Networks to set up, so here’s a super helpful step-by-step guide to setting up Adsense.
A great piece of advice I read was that if you plan to monetize your blog, you should start off with ads on your site to get your readers used to them. I felt that was reasonable so I applied for Adsense the day after I started my blog.
I’ve always made most of my blogging income from ad revenue. It’s a very easy way to make passive income that only increases as your blog grows.
2. Paid Ads
These are similar to the Ad Network ads, but instead of being paid per impression, you get paid a lump sum. Think of it like an ad renting a spot on your sidebar. You have total control over them, and you can control how much you charge each month.
With paid ads, you can advertise these on your own blog by saying that advertising space is available. You will likely need to provide a media kit to the advertiser to show the number or pageviews per month you have.
Remember not to short-change yourself and your worth as a blogger! Don’t undervalue your ad space, and don’t be afraid to say no if you feel that someone is trying to pay less than you feel that you deserve!
3. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are posts paid for by companies. The company pays for bloggers to write a post about their company or product. There are sites that set up these sponsored posts:
- Sponsored Tweets by IZEA
- Activate by Bloglovin’ (formerly Sverve)
- MomItForward
Some bloggers set their prices for sponsored posts, and others negotiate with the sponsoring company based on what they are willing to make and what the company is willing to spend.
Share-A-Sale recommends this pricing for sponsored blog posts:
$50 – 5,000 unique visitors/ month
$100 – 10,000 unique visitors/ month
$250 – 20,000 unique visitors/ month
$500 and up – 50,000 + unique visitors/ month
Sponsored content isn’t limited to blog posts. Some companies will pay for you to tweet to your followers. Others will pay for Instagram content using their product. There are many possibilities with sponsored posts.
4. Selling their own products
The (arguably) best way for bloggers to earn money is through the sale of their own products. So many bloggers have ebooks, courses, guides, classes, webinars, printables, coaching, books, coffee mugs, clothing lines, and so much more!
The best thing about having your own product for sale is that the majority of the profit goes directly into your pocket. You can self-publish books using Amazon or SendOwl. You don’t need to wait around for a publisher to come knocking at your door to make your own product.
Some bloggers who have made their own amazing products are:
- Ruth Soukup – How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul (Ruth is also the mastermind behind my beloved Elite Blog Academy class that changed my life)
- Crystal Paine – Money Saving Mom’s Budget, Money Making Mom, and the 14-day Make Over Your Mornings Course
- Abby Lawson – Buidling a Framework, The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog
- Brittany Ann – Strategies Worth Sharing, Facebook Strategy
And there are so, so, SO many more out there who have made a substantial living off of selling their own products that it would be impossible to name them all!
5. Affiliate Income
This is the biggie. The real earning potential is here. There are some bloggers who earn $40,000 a month in affiliate income. It’s insane!
Affiliate income is income that a blogger earns through the sale of someone else’s product. It’s like a sales commission. The more products sold, the more income generated. It costs the reader/ clicker nothing at all to pay the affiliate income for the blogger. Chances are that you’ve already clicked on an affiliate link today and didn’t even consciously realize it.
Affiliate income works when you sign up to be an affiliate for a product or a company. Once you’re an affiliate, you get a specific link that lets the seller know that it was your specific link that was clicked on. Once someone makes a purchase using your link, you get a commission from it.
The best way to make affiliate income is by promoting products that you love and can naturally recommend to people without sounding like a used car salesman.
All of my highest affiliate products are things that I have used, love, and would actually recommend to people in real life without getting paid for it. Getting paid for promoting a product is like icing on the cake. I want to tell everyone about the products that I use and love. This makes it a lot easier to promote a product without making it sound forced or fake.
Affiliate products also depend a lot on the niche of the blogger. As a personal finance and mom-preneur blogger, it would be really strange if I was promoting the best dog food. And it would be weird if a style blogger was promoting financial products. It all depends on your niche.
Here are the best places to find affiliates:
- Amazon Affiliate (the commission is low, but you get the commission for everything that someone buys, not just the product link that they clicked.)
- Share-A-Sale
- Convert (formerly Commission Junction)
- Check at the bottom of your favorite sites to see if they have an affiliate program.
No matter which source of income you choose, don’t forget to make a disclosure statement.
No matter what kind of affiliate or sponsorship or pay-per-click ad, you need to make sure that you disclose that you’re being compensated. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is very strict about these standards. I put my disclosure in the sidebar so that it gets seen with every post, and I disclose further in sponsored posts. Check out other bloggers’ disclosure forms to get an idea of what they do to let readers know about the way that they earn through their blog.
It’s OK to make money blogging!
No matter how bloggers make money, it’s important to remember that it’s ok that bloggers make money! I’ve heard so many bloggers say that they’ve been told off by people for using affiliate links on their site, or for having ads, or making sponsored posts.
I tell you this because I don’t want to deceive you and make you think that blogging is a get-rich-quick scheme: blogging is hard work. Your favorite bloggers love what they do, and they should get paid for it. I think about Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom. She posts deals on her Facebook and blog all day, every day. Do I think she should do this for free? No! Do I feel betrayed knowing that she makes her living from her blog and from people like me visiting her site? No way!
How bloggers make money isn’t always an easy question to answer. Even for one blogger, the answer might change drastically one month to the next. And that’s ok! There are so many different variations of “normal” in the blogging world. What works for one blogger won’t work for another. But that’s ok! You’ll need to try things out on your own blog to see what works best for your and for your readers.
Have you started monetizing your blog? What’s your biggest income earner?
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This is by far the most informative information on how to make money blogging. Thank you so much for sharing this!
thats very cool stuff so informative too thanks for sharing
I’m just starting a blog (as in a few days ago) so is this just free money, are there taxes, or anything like that? Because I seriously have no idea what I’m doing.
Hi Alaina!
Any income that you make over $400 needs to be declared in your taxes. It’s a bummer, I know. But I’d rather not get audited,for sure! Here’s a more detailed explanation: http://www.northernbellediaries.com/tax-tips-for-bloggers-and-income-tracker/.
I hope that helps!
Hi Caroline. Great post! I am a new blogger and this helped quite a bit. I have still so much to learn! How much do you make on ad revenue? The first one one your list?