I have been a blogger for over a decade and it is most amazing career of all time! You get to choose things to blog about that make you happy and then show other people those things!
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Blogging Now
I have a friend who is a vegan and she tells everyone that if they haven't tasted vegan cheese in the last two years you are working on an old product.
I feel like blogging is like that! If you are thinking about blogging and haven't tried blogging in the last two years, you have no idea how easy it is to set up!
Any host or domain has a ready to make, plug and play WordPress setup, no figuring out hosting, FTP or files, just start a site and get your login info!
And now with AI you can have help writing your blog posts if you are not a writer… you come up with great ideas and AI helps you to write about it!
Anyways, if I have convinced you that blogging is attainable, then here are 9 ways to make money blogging!
1. Ads On Your Site
Okay, years ago when you started blogging you either had to wait for 25 thousand hits a month or use Google Adwords and earn pennies on your blog…sigh.
But now Mediavine (one of the two big dogs in the online ads space) has a program called Journey that only requires 10 thousand hits a month… so attainable if you write about interesting things and promote them on Facebook, TikTok or Pinterest!
You add it to your site with a plugin and then make money auto-magically every time someone comes to your website! There is no cost to this, they pay you!
Find out more about Journey by Mediavine!
2. Monetize Your Newsletter
I have a newsletter list I have grown on Kit (formerly Convertkit) that I send two emails a week to! Every time that someone clicks on an ad from my newsletter, I get a small commission.
Now, this is a lot less money than I make from my Mediavine ads, but when you are a blogger you want to make sure you have multiple streams of income coming in!
For this one there is a cost, but Kit has a free starter plan that you can use while you are building your email list!
Find out more about Kit!
3. Affiliate Marketing
Both Journey and Kit are affiliate products for me! If you click through my link and start using them, I earn money… whoo whoo!
Most people start affiliate marketing with Amazon Associates because they accept almost anyone (kinda like using Google Ads instead of Journey ads).
While I do think that is a great way to get started with affiliate programs, once you have some traffic to your site I recommend you join Share A Sale which is an affiliate aggregator (lots of companies use Share A Sale to manage their affiliate programs).
Share A Sale offers much higher commissions than Amazon so sign up as soon as possible!
Find out more about Share A Sale!
4. Selling Digital Products
There are some amazing digital products out there being sold with PLR (Private Label Rights). You can get a product, customize it with your branding and sell it on your site using Kit (your email provider) or a service like Gumroad. I don't use Gumroad but some of my friends online do and it is a fine place to start.
You can get some amazing digital products to sell on Creative Fabrica, which offers a gagillion of different offers, just search for your niche and then what you want (like Self Care + Planner).
Find out more about Creative Fabrica!
5. Selling Links
Once you get your DA (domain authority) up a bit you will get offers in your email to sell “do follow” links on your website.
Now understand that this violates the terms of service of Google so if most of your traffic comes from there, don't do it!
But if you are like me and most of your traffic comes from your email list or Pinterest, then it putting links in your website is no harm, no foul because you can't get penalized by Google!
You get to decide how much to charge for a link and whether you want to write your own posts, include a link in a recent post or publish their content with a link back to them.
6. Sponsored Posts
You can get paid by companies to publish a post about their product or service! This is a great way to make money just for writing a post!
Most companies who do sponsored posts will want you to have a big social network on either Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.
You can set up a media kit to send out to companies you want to work with!
7. Create A Directory
If your blog has a niche or a local focus then you can set up a curated directory with do follow links.
You would charge a fixed price for each listing, I recommend that you do this on a yearly basis to add to your recurring revenue stream!
I have done this in the past and it might be the easiest sale I have ever done! There is some back and forth and advertising needed, but once you have it set up the upkeep is minimal!
8. Sell Ads In Your Newsletter
Once you have a fair number of signups for your newsletter (I would say 3,000 targeted readers) you can sell ads directly to companies who want to reach your audience!
This is a fairly easy set up and can help pay for the cost of your emails!
My besty did this in the past and she had a waiting list of companies who wanted to advertise in her newsletter because it was local and there weren't great ways to reach her readers another way!
9. Start A Membership or Paid Community
After you get a good amount of traffic to your website you set up a membership site or paid community where you readers can get extra access to you!
This is one is super easy to start… set up a Private Facebook group that can only be accessed by people who have paid to be in your membership.
This one is great for extroverts who love connecting with people!
9 Ways To Make Money Blogging Wrapup
I hope that this post has helped to get your gears started turning! There are so many ways to make money blogging and I wouldn't to do any other kind of work!
- 10 Ways To Make Money On Pinterest
- 6 Ways To Make Money From Your Email Newsletter List
- 5 Ways “Just Moms” Can Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
