People often ask me how it’s possible to make money blogging and sometimes they seem a bit skeptical. Before I started blogging a couple years ago, I had no idea that it was possible to earn an income from blogging.
Many personal finance bloggers post their income reports every month, which allows readers to see exactly how much money they’re making and where that money is coming from.
*Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Read our full disclosure policy here.
There are bloggers who earn enough money to leave their day jobs and some even pull in six figure salaries. Others with smaller blogs can make hundreds to thousands of dollars in part-time income each year. Here are seven of the most common ways to earn money blogging.
*If you’re interested in creating your own money-making blog, check out my step-by-step guide for setting up a WordPress blog!
Sponsored Posts
The majority of my blogging income currently comes from sponsored posts. The nice thing about these is that they aren’t dependent on traffic, so even smaller blogs can easily earn income this way.
With sponsored posts, a company will pay the blogger a set amount (for example, $100) to publish an article on her site that includes links to the company’s website.
The blogger would then earn $100 regardless of how many readers click on the link or sign up for anything on the company’s website.
Ads
Some bloggers choose to include ads on their websites. They are typically paid a certain amount every time someone clicks on the ad. For smaller blogs, ad revenue is typically low, but for a larger blog, the income from ads could be substantial.
Freelance Writing
Many bloggers earn money through freelance writing for other blogs and websites. When a blog becomes popular, it can be too much to manage for one person.
The blogger then hires freelance writers to help out with content on the site. Websites often pay a set amount per submission. For example, The Penny Hoarder pays writers $75 per approved article.
Freelance writing is a great option for newer bloggers who don’t have much of an audience yet. While you’re still working on growing traffic for your blog, you can make money writing for other sites.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a popular way to earn money blogging because it’s a type of passive income. This means that it’s possible to make money with affiliates even when you’re sleeping or on vacation.
Here’s how affiliates work: the blogger signs up for an affiliate program, includes affiliate links in blog posts, and then earns a commission every time someone clicks on the link and then signs up.
Michelle at Making Sense of Cents earns over $50,000 per month through her Bluehost affiliate income alone (and that doesn’t even include all of her other blogging income). I took her awesome course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, recently. Prior to taking the course, I was only making a few dollars on Amazon each month.
Now, I’ve earned affiliate income through several different affiliate programs and I’m confident that I can continue to grow my affiliate income.
I’m working on improving my strategy with all of the helpful tips I learned in Michelle’s course. If you’re interested in taking the class, you can sign up for it here!
Offer a Course
Launching a class is an excellent way for bloggers to earn money. Some bloggers offer courses on blogging itself – some examples include Elite Blog Academy and Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
Others provide classes on a variety of topics, such as how to pay off your student loans, how to master digital photography, and other topics.
Sell Digital Products
Many bloggers publish eBooks or other digital products, such as planners and printables. Bloggers can publish eBooks themselves, which simplifies the publishing process.
Become a Virtual Assistant
When a blog becomes quite profitable and too large for one person to manage, the blogger may hire a VA (or several VA’s). Assistants perform tasks such as returning emails, responding to article comments, proofreading articles, and managing social media accounts.
If you’re organized, detail-oriented, and knowledgeable about social media, this could be a great fit for you.
Making Money Blogging
It is entirely possible to earn a full-time or part-time income as a blogger. There are numerous ways to make money blogging, and the seven listed above are just some of the ways that bloggers bring in revenue.
Ready to start your own money making blog today? Check out my step-by-step guide for setting up a WordPress blog.
Just so people know, freelance writing isn’t as simple as it might seem. You have to be pretty good at writing for people to actually want to pay you to do it, especially $75 per article. People who can write $10 articles are a dime a dozen, so to get $75 for a single article you’re going to have to be pretty dang good.
That’s true. The Penny Hoarder pays $75 per article, but they’re pretty selective about the articles they accept.
Awesome post