It’s the dreaded question at every social event: “So, what exactly do YOU do?”
I have to admit, I struggle with this question. I’ve had a mixed up career since forever.
At the moment, I’m running two online businesses: one to help people relocate to Europe, and the other to help experts get more leads from SEO.
Both of these revolve primarily around blogging, which I’m using as a marketing tool to help readers discover my expert services. So in one sense I’m a ‘blogger’, but I’m also a coach and an online entrepreneur.
And to complicate things further, I also have a PhD, but I’m definitely not an academic… In fact, neither my mother nor my boyfriend know exactly what I do.
To cast some light on this murky situation, let’s unpack the question of how do bloggers make money? – because there are loads of different ways (and I’ve tried most of them).
1. Display Ads
Display advertising is one of the most straightforward ways for bloggers to make money from their content.
By placing ads on their website, bloggers earn money when visitors view or click on these ads. Platforms like Google AdSense, Ezoic, Mediavine, or Raptive make it easy for bloggers to get started with display advertising.
To make significant income from display ads, you need substantial traffic. Many successful bloggers report that you need at least 50,000 monthly pageviews to make display ads worthwhile.
I used to run ads on one of my blogs, which had over 100,000 page views at its peak. I made around $3,000 per month in passive income from the ads on this blog.
What’s more, display ads can make your site look unprofessional. Personally, I decided to completely remove ads from one of my other sites, and I’ve never used them on this one.
If you’re selling a professional service or digital product, I wouldn’t recommend running ads alongside it, as they risk distracting your reader from the main goal of your website.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves promoting other companies’ products or services and earning a commission for each sale made through your unique affiliate link.
It can be highly lucrative, especially if you have an engaged audience and promote products that genuinely align with their interests.
The process is relatively straightforward. You start by signing up for an affiliate program – this could be a large network like Amazon Associates or ShareASale, or directly with a company you love.
Once approved, you receive a unique link or code for the products you want to promote. The magic happens when you incorporate these links into your blog content.
This could be within product reviews, how-to guides, or resource lists. When a reader clicks your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. It’s as simple as that.
The beauty of affiliate marketing lies in its versatility. No matter what niche you’re in, there’s likely an affiliate program that fits.
Travel bloggers might promote hotel booking sites, luggage brands, or travel insurance. Food bloggers could partner with cookware companies or meal delivery services. Tech enthusiasts often review and link to electronics on major retail sites.
Affiliate marketing has great potential for passive income. Once you’ve created content with affiliate links, it can continue to generate income for months or even years with little additional effort on your part.
It’s easy to get started – you don’t need to create your own products or handle customer service. As your blog traffic grows, your affiliate income can scale proportionally, making it an enticing option for bloggers at any stage.
But affiliate marketing does come with challenges. Your income ultimately depends on the company’s affiliate program, product quality, and customer service – factors outside your control.
There’s also a delicate balance to maintain. Over-promoting or recommending subpar products can quickly damage the trust you’ve built with your audience.
I’d strongly recommend that you only promote products that you’ve tested yourself, that you genuinely believe in, and that provide real value to your readers. Remember, your reputation is on the line with every recommendation.
3. Referral Partnerships
Similar to affiliate marketing, referral partnerships involve recommending relevant services or products to your audience.
These are often more personalized arrangements made individually with specific companies, rather than through large affiliate networks.
For instance, a blogger focusing on small business advice might have a referral partnership with a local accounting firm, earning a fee for each new client they send the firm’s way.
In that way, you as the blogger can recommend a complementary service partner, without detracting from your own business focus.
Referral partnerships can be extremely lucrative. For me personally, they’ve been the number one top earner for my relocation coaching website, sometimes reaching into the five-figures.
Building referral partnerships with other businesses in my niche allows me to extend the range of services I can offer to my readers, without having to offer everything myself.
Make sure you choose your referral partners wisely. I always get to know them first on a video call, during which I ask them lots of questions about their business model and their client service process. I also like to read any third-party reviews they may have to get a sense for their quality of service.
Just like affiliate marketing, when you refer your readers to any partner, your own reputation is also on the line.
4. Sponsored Posts
Brands often pay bloggers to create content featuring their products or services. This could be a dedicated review post, a mention within a larger article, or even social media content.
The key to success with sponsored posts is maintaining authenticity and only partnering with brands that genuinely align with your audience’s interests and your own values.
Personally, I only create sponsored content about brands that I actually use in my own workflow.
If a brand wants to replace one of the existing ones, I ask them to make a case for why they should replace my current choice.
At the very least, make sure you test the product or service of the brand in question before you arrange a sponsored deal to feature it in any of your content. Staying authentic and transparent for your readership is extremely important as a blogger.
Don’t forget, if you have a LinkedIn profile, YouTube channel, or Instagram presence alongside your blog, you can charge more money to feature brands on those, as well as in your blog posts.
In terms of fees, I take into account the amount of work needed for me to create the content, plus the value that the content will represent for promoting the brand question.
As an example, I currently charge around $1,500 to write a sponsored blog post featuring a brand.
And I don’t do this often, so the brand has to make a strong case for why I should feature them (and they must be highly relevant to the audience of this blog).
5. Selling Links
Some bloggers make money by discreetly inserting links into their content, pointing to other websites that want to improve their search engine rankings.
Here’s how it typically works: A company or individual reaches out to a blogger, offering payment in exchange for including a link to their website within the blogger’s content.
The link might be wrapped around a relevant keyword or phrase, nestled within an existing article or sometimes even in a new post created specifically for this purpose.
The buyer hopes that this link from an established, reputable blog will boost their own site’s authority, potentially improving their rankings for targeted keywords.
For bloggers, especially those struggling to monetize through more traditional means, the allure is obvious. It’s an easy way to earn money – often more than display ads or affiliate links might bring in, especially for blogs with modest traffic.
A single link might fetch anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars, depending on the blog’s authority and niche. For some, it becomes a significant part of their income, with multiple links sold each month.
But selling links is risky business. Search engines, particularly Google, have made it clear that selling links to manipulate search rankings goes against their guidelines.
They view paid links as attempts to game the system, as they artificially inflate the buying site’s perceived importance and relevance.
The consequences of being caught can be severe. Google may penalize sites they suspect of selling links by lowering their search rankings or, in extreme cases, removing them from search results entirely.
I’d advise you to steer clear of link selling altogether. Instead, focus on building sustainable, ethical monetization strategies that align with both search engine guidelines and your readers’ interests.
6. Selling a Service
Selling your expert services can transform your blog from a content platform into a powerful marketing tool, showcasing your authority and attracting clients ready to pay for your personalized help.
The beauty of this approach lies in its versatility. Bloggers across nearly every niche can find a way to package their knowledge and skills into a service offering.
A fitness blogger might transition into offering personal training sessions or customized meal plans. A marketing guru could provide SEO audits or content strategy consulting. And travel bloggers might curate bespoke itineraries or offer travel planning services.
For many, the journey begins organically. As they share their knowledge through blog posts, readers start reaching out with specific questions or requests for help.
Smart bloggers recognize these inquiries as more than just engagement – they’re potential business opportunities.
By consistently providing value through content, bloggers build trust and establish themselves as authorities in their field. This reputation becomes the foundation upon which they can build a service-based business.
One of the most significant advantages of selling services is its higher income potential compared to many other ways of making money from blogging.
Display ads or affiliate marketing might earn you pennies per visitor, but a single coaching session or consultation could bring you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Selling services also allows for a more personal connection with your audience. Instead of being a faceless writer behind a screen, you become a real person solving real problems for your clients.
I recommend finding a balance by offering a mix of scalable and personalized services. This might mean creating online courses or group coaching programs alongside one-on-one consultations.
This approach allows you to serve more clients without sacrificing the personal touch that makes your services valuable.
7. Selling Digital Products
Imagine waking up to find that your bank account grew fatter while you were sleeping.
Sounds like a dream, right? Well, for many bloggers who’ve ventured into selling digital products, this dream is their reality.
These are the golden geese of the blogging world – items you create once but can sell indefinitely.
They could be e-books, online courses, templates, printables, or even software tools. The beauty of it? There’s no inventory to manage, no shipping to handle, and your customers get instant gratification.
Now, you might be thinking, “But I’m not an expert in anything!” But if you’ve been blogging for a while, chances are you’ve become quite knowledgeable in your niche without even realizing it.
That recipe you’ve perfected? It could be an e-cookbook. Your productivity hacks? They could form the basis of an online course. Even your blog post outlines could be valuable templates for other bloggers.
The key is to identify what your audience needs. Pay attention to the questions they ask in comments or emails. What are their pain points? What do they struggle with?
There’s your golden opportunity. Create a product that solves their problems, and you’re not just making money – you’re adding real value to their lives.
Of course, creating a digital product requires time, effort, and often a bit of an upfront investment. You might need to learn new skills, like course creation or e-book formatting.
But once you’ve created your product, the hard part is done. From there, it’s all about marketing and reaping the rewards.
Speaking of rewards, let’s talk numbers. While your blog might earn you a few cents per visitor through ads or affiliate links, a single sale of a digital product could net you $10, $50, or even hundreds of dollars.
And remember, you can sell the same product over and over again. It’s the very definition of scalable income.
But wait, there’s more! Digital products don’t just make you money – they establish you as an authority in your niche.
When you publish an e-book or launch a course, you’re telling the world, “I know my stuff, and I’m here to help.” This can lead to other opportunities, like speaking engagements or consulting gigs.
Now, I won’t sugarcoat it – there are challenges. Creating a high-quality product takes time and energy. You’ll need to learn about things like payment processing and delivery systems.
And let’s not forget about customer support – yes, you’ll likely field some questions or concerns from your buyers.
There’s also the small matter of imposter syndrome. That nagging voice saying, “Who am I to create a product? What if no one buys it?”
In fact, most successful bloggers have felt this way at some point. The key is to push through it. Remember, if your product genuinely helps people, you’re doing them a disservice by not creating it.
So, how do you get started? Start small. Maybe create a short e-book or a simple template.
Test the waters, get feedback, and improve. As you gain confidence and experience, you can move on to more complex products like comprehensive courses or software tools.
And don’t abandon your blog once you start selling products. Your blog is your best marketing tool to provide value, build trust, and subtly promote your products.
8. Local Business ‘Rank & Rent’
Ever thought about becoming a digital landlord? I’m talking about a clever little strategy called ‘Rank & Rent’. It’s a bit like buying a house, fixing it up, and then renting it out – except with websites.
Here’s how it works: You create a website targeting local services – let’s say “best plumber in [your city]” or “top dentist in [your area]”. You optimize content, build backlinks, and do whatever it takes to get that site ranking high in local search results.
Once you’ve got your digital real estate sitting at the top of Google, you’ve got something valuable on your hands. That’s when the ‘rent’ part comes in.
Local businesses are always hungry for more customers, and many of them don’t have the time, knowledge, or resources to dominate local search results. That’s where you come in.
You approach these businesses and offer to ‘rent’ them your prime digital real estate. They pay you a monthly fee, and in return, their business gets featured on your high-ranking site, driving leads and customers their way.
Sounds pretty sweet, right? Well, it can be. When done right, ‘Rank & Rent’ can be incredibly lucrative. You’re not just making a one-time sale; you’re creating a recurring income stream.
And the best part? You can rinse and repeat this process for different service categories or locations, building a whole portfolio of income-generating sites.
But before you rush off to build your digital real estate empire, let’s talk about the nitty-gritty. First off, this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme.
Building a site that ranks well for competitive local keywords takes time, effort, and serious SEO skills. You need to understand local SEO inside and out – we’re talking Google My Business optimization, local link building, the works.
Then there’s the content creation aspect. You’ll need to produce high-quality, relevant content that serves the user’s intent.
Remember, Google’s getting smarter every day. It’s not enough to just stuff your pages with keywords and hope for the best. You need to create content that genuinely helps people looking for local services.
Now, let’s talk about the ‘rent’ part. This is where your sales skills come into play. You’ll need to convince local businesses that your high-ranking site is worth paying for.
This means tracking and reporting on the leads you generate, showing clear ROI for your clients. You might start with cold calling or emailing, but as you build a reputation, you might find businesses coming to you.
One of the trickier aspects of ‘Rank & Rent’ is managing client relationships. What happens if a business stops paying? Or if they’re unhappy with the leads they’re getting? You’ll need to have clear agreements in place and be prepared to handle these situations professionally.
If you’ve got the SEO skills, the persistence to build and maintain high-ranking sites, and the business acumen to negotiate with local companies, then ‘Rank & Rent’ could be your ticket to a steady stream of blogging income.
9. Blog Flipping
Ever watched one of those home renovation shows where they buy a fixer-upper, spruce it up, and sell it for a tidy profit? Well, welcome to the digital equivalent: blog flipping.
Basically, you find a neglected or underperforming blog, buy it for a reasonable price, work your magic to improve it, and then sell it for a profit.
Sounds simple, right? Well, it can be incredibly lucrative if you know what you’re doing, but like any business venture, it’s not without its challenges.
First, you need to find a blog worth flipping. This is where your detective skills come in handy. You’re looking for blogs with potential that their current owners haven’t fully realized.
Maybe it’s a blog with great content but poor SEO. Or one with a solid niche and audience, but lackluster monetization. Your job is to spot the potential that others have missed.
So where do you find these gems? Websites like Flippa, Empire Flippers, or even private blogging communities are good starting points.
But be warned: for every hidden gem, there are dozens of duds. You’ll need to develop a keen eye to find the really good ones.
Once you’ve found a promising blog, it’s time to negotiate a purchase. This is where having a good understanding of blog valuation comes in handy.
Typically, blogs sell for anywhere from 24 to 36 times their monthly revenue, but factors like traffic trends, backlink profile, and growth potential all play a role in determining the price.
Now comes the fun part – or the hard part, depending on how you look at it. You’ve got your fixer-upper blog, and it’s time to renovate.
This might involve refreshing the design, improving the SEO, updating old content, adding new posts, or setting up more effective monetization strategies.
Once the blog is performing significantly better, it’s time for the grand finale: selling it for a profit. Remember those website marketplaces we talked about earlier?
That’s often where you’ll list your newly improved blog. But this time, you’re the seller, showcasing all the improvements you’ve made and the blog’s increased earning potential.
The profit potential here can be significant. If you can take a blog making $500 a month and boost it to $2,000 a month, you could potentially sell it for $48,000 to $72,000. Not too shabby for 6-12 months of work, right?
But let’s also talk about the challenges. First, this strategy requires a significant upfront investment. You need capital to buy blogs, and there’s always the risk that a blog won’t perform as well as you hoped.
There’s also a steep learning curve. You need to understand not just blogging, but also business valuation, negotiation, and the ins and outs of buying and selling websites.
Plus, you need to be prepared for the possibility that a blog might take longer to improve than you anticipated, tying up your capital and time.
Blog flipping isn’t for everyone. It’s best suited for those who enjoy the challenge of turning around underperforming assets, who have a diverse skill set in blogging and digital marketing, and who can handle the financial risks involved.
How Bloggers Create Value and Turn It Into Income
As a blogger, you’re not just writing posts and hoping for the best. You’re creating value in multiple ways, and that’s why you can turn your blog into a money-making venture.
First, you’re a content creator and an audience builder. Every engaging, informative, or entertaining post you craft is capturing and holding your readers’ attention.
Focused attention is incredibly valuable. It’s why display advertising can work for you – advertisers are willing to pay for access to the audience you’ve cultivated.
But you’re doing more than just attracting eyeballs. With every post, you’re also building trust with your audience. You’re becoming their go-to source for information or inspiration in your niche.
This trust and authority you’ve established? That’s what makes affiliate marketing and sponsored posts effective for you. When you recommend a product, your audience is more likely to take action, making your endorsement valuable to companies.
Through your consistent content creation, you’re likely developing deep expertise in your chosen topics. This expertise, combined with the platform you’ve built, allows you to offer valuable services to your audience or other businesses.
It’s why selling services, from consulting to workshops, can be a lucrative path. Your blog serves as both your portfolio and your lead generation tool.
The same expertise that makes service offerings possible also enables you to create and sell digital products. Those e-books, courses, or templates you’re thinking about?
They’re extensions of the value you already provide through your free content. Readers who find your free content helpful are often willing to pay for more in-depth resources from you.
Your blog also provides significant value in terms of SEO. By consistently producing relevant, high-quality content, you’re helping your website rank higher in search results.
This value is at the core of tactics like local business ‘rank and rent’ – your blog’s ability to attract organic search traffic becomes a marketable asset.
What’s more, if you’ve fostered an engaged community around your content, you’ve created something incredibly valuable. Your community is a goldmine for market research, product development, and creating a loyal customer base.
Bloggers make money through creating multifaceted value. As a blogger, you’re building an audience, establishing trust, developing expertise, improving SEO, fostering a community, and generating insights.
Each of these aspects of value creation opens up a range of different opportunities for monetization.
Next Steps: Your Path to Profitable Blogging
We’ve explored exactly how bloggers make money, from display ads and affiliate marketing to selling services and flipping blogs. Each one leverages the value created through content and audience building.
The key takeaway? Blogging isn’t just a hobby – it’s a legitimate business model with significant income potential.
As a blogger, your success hinges on the value you provide to your readers. Every post, product recommendation, or service you offer is an opportunity to solve problems or inspire your audience.
Don’t feel pressured to implement all these strategies at once. Start with the method that best aligns with your strengths, niche, and audience.
Building a profitable blog takes time and patience. Be willing to experiment, pivot when necessary, and stay true to your original passion for creating excellent content.
