I remember when years ago I used to read about people making huge amount of money “just” by blogging.
I was amazed by this, but also curious. How could they actually make money “just by blogging”? What was the secret?
Well, if you want to know hot to make money blogging, keep reading and I’ll tell you the secret.
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How to make money blogging
Since I’ve been “in the digital world” I remember this woman called Melyssa Griffin. She was one of the first people I saw doing those big numbers.
I was a member of her Facebook group before, sadly, she shut it down. But from there, I had real proof that making money online and creating a passive income was real.
I have always been a skeptic about it. A bit because of my background and also because is a fairly new thing and not a lot of people were talking about this 10 years ago.
After she closed the group, I kept receiving the newsletter. And, guess what? In the newsletters there were always a call-to-action to buy one of her courses.
Long story short, years later, I had the need to find a work-from-home job. So I decide to investigate deeper and deeper to find out more.
These are some of the ways how you can make money blogging. As a new blogger myself, I’m experimenting to find which one works better. But I do believe that a blogger need to find different ways of income and not just rely on one.
1. Selling affiliate products/services/courses
This is a great way to make passive income because you don’t have to create something from scratch and once done, you can repeat the sale over and over again.
How does it work?
When you are an affiliate of something or someone, you promote that product/service in your blog. You recommend it, write reviews and so on. If someone from your readers make a purchase, you will receive a little commission (different for every program you join).
With some subscription based services you are even able to receive a commission based on their subscription! This mean earning an amount of money every month just by recommend a service.
Does it work for me?
Yes, of course. Think about all the time you recommended something to friends and they purchased it. Or you’ve read a great book and would love to share it with like minded people. You can do it through your blog and even earning money.
One of the most popular affiliate marketing program is Amazon Associates.
Everybody knows Amazon, we all buy something from it ( I bet you are an Amazon Prime Member like me!) so it’s very easy to start selling and earning commissions with them.
Another famous one among blogger is ShareASale, where you can join different affiliate programs and manage everything from one platform.
Alternatively you can join affiliate programs directly on the owners’ website. Just Google it and you’ll be surprised by how many possibilities there are out there!
2. Selling your own products/services/courses
This is another great way to make money with your blog.
Once you’ve established a community around your blog you can start selling your own products, services or even courses!
For example, if you start a health & fitness blog, you may want to start selling your own clothing brand; or if you are a business coach you can suggest your services to your audience.
The downside is that you will need time to create the material for your course. But you will earn more money than with affiliate marketing. So I think it worth the hassle if you are offering something really great that your readers are willing to pay for.
The Math behind the money
Let’s male an example.
You create a course and it takes 50 hrs for you to complete it and ready to sell. The price will be $50.
During the launch, you’ll make 20 sells. Meaning already $1000 in your pockets!
But remember, the course will always be available on your blog.
So also after the launch people can buy it and you will still make money. But amount of hours you’ve worked on it are still the same.
This works well with products and courses.
If you offer services, I would suggest to charge by project. The reason I prefer charging by project is because you give a value to your work, no matter how many hours you will work.
Instead, if you ask for an hourly rate, you’re giving value to your time. But let’s be honest… time is the most valuable thing in life and you don’t want “just exchange it” for money.
Want to learn more?
I had a very interesting reading about this topic and how to maximise profits while lowering the amount of time you work on something. The book is “The 4 hour work week” by Tim Ferris if you want to give it a go.
3. Advertisement
This works similar to the old fashion way of advertising on magazine and newspapers.
An advertiser will pay you for displaying ads on your blog in two ways: Pay-per-click (PPC) or pay per thousand of impressions (PPM).
The PPC way will pay you a small amount every time someone clicks on the advert and visit the advertiser’s website. Instead, the PPM pays every time someone see an ad in your website, without the commitment of clicking on it.
The earnings depends on different factors: for example if click rate is high and the ad is displayed on a blog about a very particular niche you can end up making a lot of money for just few clicks.
This article on how to make $100,000 with Google AdSense is very interesting, it worth reading it as it gives an idea on you can earn money with the AdSense platform.
Similar to affiliate marketing, there are different programs you can join. Blogging-wise, the most popular are Adsense and Mediavine. But you need certain requirements that as new blogger you might not have.
If you want to start making money with ads as a beginner blogger, I recommend Chitika. Click here to get started. The payout is not huge but at least you can start having an idea of how ads work.
4. Sponsored posts
Last but not least, you can earn a good amount of money with sponsored posts in your blog.
How does it work?
Depending who you work with, you will be asked to produce one or more posts about a topic with links that redirect to the people who pays you for that.
It’s similar to affiliate marketing in a way, but you are paid directly from the company/platform and not in commissions.
The more followers or readers you have, the more you can get paid! So it’s no brainer why bloggers wants to build a big following on different platforms.
In conclusion
Making money blogging is something that anyone can do already from the very beginning.
However, it takes time and you need to be consistent in building a profitable blog. There’s no “quick fix” or “get rich fast”. But at the end, the effort definitely pays off.
If you haven’t started a blog yet and thinking of doing it, read this post on how to set up a blog here.
