A Simple Guide on How to Make Money Blogging

Interested in how to make money blogging? This simple guide will help you figure out a variety of income streams that you can pursue as a blogger!

In case you missed it, here is part 1 and part 2 of this 3 part series.

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You see it everywhere, right?

How I made $2k blogging last month

How to make your first $1k with your blog

How I quit my job to blog full-time

And while it’s super easy to create a blog, it’s not super easy to make money with it. Well, a significant amount of money that is.

Truth is, it’s actually fairly easy to generate money with a blog. But a part-time or even full-time income that’s consistent? Much harder.

It takes a lot of grit and a lot of perservation.

Whether you’re interested in making hobby-sized type income or quit your day job type income, learning how to make money blogging isn’t hard.

But before we dive into the ways to make more blogging, there are a few key factors to remember. Because the learning how to make money blogging is the easy part. The hard part is actually taking these ideas in this guide, putting them into practice, experimenting and tweaking until they’re just right, and then repeating the process all over again.

Make sure your blog is ready to make money. What I mean by that is make sure the design is reader friendly, that you have plenty of blog posts for new readers to browse, and that you have an editorial calendar to continue your content. Making money via blogging is not a get rich quick idea. It’s about consistency and dedication so be prepared to regularly put in the work!

Know how you want to make money. This blog post will cover a lot of the ways you can make money, but I absolutely do not recommend pursuing all of them at once.    You will have a really hard time succeeding at all of them.

As Ron Swanson said “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”

Practice one thing until you’re sufficient at it and then move on. Even better is if it’s self-sustaining so you can give all of your focus to something else.

Regulate your expectations. I have heard the quote “don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle” for a loooong time. And I knew it applied to blogging especially. But I still struggled once I was further along in blogging because it was now my middle and I wasn’t nearly as far along as I expected.

The thing I never took into account was everyone’s background and current life situation. Some people have a background in marketing and some people have 60 hours to devote to their blog a week. Some people have help with their home or their family or their business and some don’t. Everyone is different and there was no one person that was in my exact situation, blogging about the exact same things, starting at the exact same time, with the exact same goals.

So temper your expectations. Focus on you. Focus on what you can achieve and set your expectations according to that – not what anyone else is achieving. You’ll likely be happier and more successful with blogging this way.

How to make money blogging

As I mentioned, I’ll teach you some of the most common ways of how to make money blogging. I’ll cover as many as I’m familiar with, but know that there are tons of possibilities when it comes to how to make money blogging.

Affiliate Income

Affiliate income is a very common way to make money blogging. You can sign up to be an affiliate on a variety of things, making this a viable option for nearly every niche.

Affiliate income is one of the easier options as you’re promoting someone else’s service/product. You become an affiliate of the item, promote it, and if someone clicks on your link then purchases the item – you earn a small commission off of it.

Amazon Associates, AvantLink and ShareASale are three of the most commonly used affiliate networks, but many products and tools have affiliate programs of their own. Some brands like Target do as well. For example, if you check out the 25 of the Best Blogging Tools That Will Help Grow Your Blog – many of these are affiliate links to software, products and tools I love.

Advertising Options

Advertising is HUGE in blogging. There are so many ways to work advertising into your blog posts, social media posts, or even your brand as a whole. Some of the most common advertising options include:

  • Ambassadorships
  • Newsletter Advertising
  • Sponsored Travel
  • Video Advertising
  • Podcast Advertising
  • Sponsored Social Posts
  • Sponsored Blog Posts

Sponsored blog posts and social posts can be done via influencer marketing agencies or by pitching brands themselves. Regardless of how it’s done, you can generate a significant income this way and work with some of your favorite brands in the process.

Ad Networks

Joining an ad network is a great way to make passive income and is usually the first income stream bloggers pursue. It’s very similar to how publications earn revenue.

Many people start off with Google Adsense. Once you hit 10k pageviews, you can apply for Monumetric which is who I started off with. And then, when you grow even bigger, you can apply to MediavineAdThrive or other similar networks.

Products/Courses

Whether physical or digital, there are SO MANY types of products you can offer. Some of the most common types are:

  • Ebooks
  • Courses
  • Software
  • Apps
  • Printables
  • Merchandise
  • Teaching Guides

Services

From coaching to consulting to virtual assistant work, the options are endless for services you can offer with your blog. You can offer them for individuals, small businesses or even other bloggers.

You can also do freelancing or copywriting work, speak at events, coordinate at events, offer design services and more.

Community/Membership Sites

Membership sites or community areas are growing in demand and can be a combination of the above mentioned ways to make money blogging. For a monthly or annual fee, your audience can subscribe to a group or forum that revolves around certain topics.

You can offer courses, coaching, video calls, challenges, tools, guides, etc to the group as a whole and focus nurturing your community in a more intimate setting with this option.

FAQ

How much do bloggers earn?

Truthfully, it can vary from zero to millions. So somewhere in between? There’s such a wide range, but the good news is that there’s really no set bar on how much you can earn so the sky is the limit!

How long does it take to make money blogging?

Again, this is nearly impossible to answer. For some, it may take a month or two. For others, it may take a year or two. And for many, it could take longer or somewhere in between.

Now before I completely evade your questions, I’ll say this. I would give it a minimum of 6 months. Give yourself some time to work out the kinks. Some grace to try new things, figure out things you like don’t like, test strategies, see what resonates with your audience, etc. And I mean 6 months of consistent effort, even if it’s part-time. Consistency is key to making money blogging.

How can I make money faster with blogging?

Talk about things you’re passionate about. Think about what you could talk about for hours on end and create a blog about that. You’ll resonate with your audience quicker and an audience that feels like they know you will be more likely to buy from you.

Find a way to add your unique spin to trendy topics. Look at Pinterest to see what is trending or pay attention to news or Google. Find ways to talk about trendy or even controversial things in a way that is unique to you.

Diversify. Do not put all of your eggs in one basket with anything. Don’t rely solely on Pinterest for traffic and don’t count on one product always generating income. Choose multiple streams of revenue and multiple sources of traffic.

I hope this guide helped you figure out how to make money blogging! Blogging can be an amazing profitable side hustle or full-time income if you do it correctly. Hard work, dedication and grit will get you far.

In case you missed it, there are 2 other parts to this 3 part series!

How To Start a Blog in 2018 for Less Than $10/Month [part 1]

25 of the Best Blogging Tools That Will Help Grow Your Blog [part 2]

If you found this helpful, I would greatly appreciate you sharing this on Pinterest!

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