Disclaimer: no ponies were hurt, starved or otherwise neglected in the writing of this post.
So, the all-elusive “How To Make Money Blogging“…
Others do it. Darren Rowse of Problogger.net makes way over $100K just with one blog.
Is there a special money-making secret that you are not told about?
You guessed it, the answer is no.
So how do YOU get on the bandwagon?
The truth is there are just as many ways to make money blogging as ways to build a blog.
But it’s NOT a “one size fits all” kind of deal. (whoever came up with that concept?)
It’s important to understand WHAT those different ways are, as well as HOW and WHEN to use them efficiently, depending on your audience and the kind of content you offer.
As you test, test, test, you’ll learn that some of these will turn out to be ponies - cute and cuddly, but not powerful in any significant way.
Other methods will become your stallions - and that’s when you’ll know you finally did it.
How To Make Money Blogging: 7 Powerful Ways To Test
1. Contextual Advertising
This is probably the easiest way to make some money with your blog.
Examples of this kind of advertising include Google AdSense, TextLinkAds, and Yahoo Publishing Network.
The kind of ads displayed will entirely depend on your content.
You are usually paid whenever someone actually clicks on the ad or link. The rates will depend on the topic of advertisement.
For instance, an ad about a fishing pole might not fetch as much money as an insurance quote ad. So although you might not be able to control the kind of advertisements displayed, you can make sure you don’t focus on an unprofitable industry.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Selling products on behalf of a product creator and making commissions while at it is probably the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of making money blogging.
The best way to use affiliate marketing on your blog is to offer products that compliment your content, niche, or business, and benefit your readers.
If you have a subscribers’ list, you can also market affiliate products to your list via autoresponders.
Affiliate marketing is easy to set up, easy to do, AND easy to overdo.
Nobody likes to be pitched endless products just for the sake of making money. The tolerance for this kind of practice is extremely low these days. Moderation and consideration are the keys to keeping both your readers and pocketbook happy.
The easiest way to start with affiliate marketing is to sign up with one of the multiple affiliate marketing companies.
Here are just a few of the most reputable ones (from what I know; I don’t personally use them, so please do your own research):
- Azoogle
- Affiliate.com
- Clickbank
- NeverBlue
- Market Leverage
- Pepperjam
3. Selling Services
This is also a very common way to make money with your blog.
Here are just some examples of the types of services you can offer:
- copywriting
- graphic/web design
- software development
- social media management
- site maintenance
- marketing
The great thing about this type of monetization is the fact that you don’t need too many customers to make a decent income per month.
However, selling services has no leverage at all. You are basically trading your time for money. While it’s OK in the beginning (money is money, right?), most service providers I know of always aim to eventually develop some of the more passive income streams as well.
4. Subscription-Based Site
You can create a blog where you offer some sort of services/products/information via subscription.
It’s not difficult to set up and run and it can be a very effective way to make money blogging, but your offer has to be of HIGH QUALITY or your customers will cancel as quickly as they sign up.
This can also be a great way to build a list that you can market to in the future.
The drawbacks to this money making method include dealing with customer inquiries and possibly membership cancellations. It’s not exactly a very hands-off method to make money with your blog.
5. Donations
This is a great way to earn some cash from your blog, especially if you have loyal readership that appreciates your hard work and content (wink, wink 🙂 ).
The good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) thing about donations is that you never know when they might pop up or how generous one might be.
You can also get a bit more creative with this and instead of adding a donation button to your blog, why not create an Amazon Wish List? Make it available on the blog and the readers who appreciate you now have a chance to get a personalized gift for you that you can really use.
6. Product Sales
Creating your own product is definitely a skill of its own, but if you are up for it, it just can turn out to be one of the most profitable ways to make money from your blog.
7. Selling Advertising Space
If and when your website becomes popular, you can start selling advertising space to companies that wish to sell their products to your readers.
This is a viable way to make money for those blogs that constantly publish new content and have a large and strong readership.
How To Make Money Blogging Marketing Takeaway:
Focusing on any one way to make money with your blog can certainly bring great results, but the jackpot is in utilizing several of these methods at once.
Sort your ponies from stallions and stick with the winners.
Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’ve alive!
Onelfri says
Great tips on monetizing your blog. It is so true that we need to focus on just one and be patient with it. I think it’s also important to mention to know our target audience and how that will dictate the ads we place on our site. Thank you for sharing.
Ana Hoffman says
Thanks for coming by!
Chukwuka Okwukwe Chukwuka says
Hi! Ana, I display Google Ads on my blog for now and some affiliate links too.
If you don’t mind, since I own a motivational blog, can I still promote affiliate products from Hostgator, Thesis, Aweber, etc? Because I do offer services that relate to that too.
Ana | Traffic Generation says
Chukwuka, the nice thing about having your own blog is that you can promote whatever you wish on there :-).
I promote those same services in strategic places on my blog too 🙂
John Lee says
Ana, What are your thoughts on Revtwt for revenue generating on twitter? I’ve been wondering if this is an option as well. Although i really don’t want to clutter up my twittering with a bunch of add pollution (I have my own adds to intersperse in with my other tweets). A Penny for your thoughts..
Andrew Walker says
Thanks Ana, great information! I have been struggling a little to make money on my blogs and this has given me plenty of ideas to do that.
Love your blog it’s always looking good,
Regards Andy
Ana Hoffman says
You’re welcome Andy. I’m glad I was able to give you some tips.
Have a wonderful day!
Ana
Dan says
Ana,
Thanks for putting these ways to make money with blogs together. I use several of these techniques, with limited success. I guess I am seeking the “magic bullet” technique that works for me - earns a decent income, is enjoyable, and provides value to my clients.
I built a blog around an affiliate product, which earns me more money from the adsense than the product.
So I started looking into niche sites to build and place adsense on, and am still working on that technique. There are some who say you can’t make money with adsense - I disagree - I think you can make decent money using any of the ways you outline in your article.
I struggle with sticking to one technique until I have success - as we have discussed before… Until I find that technique, I guess I have to test, test, test various methods to find what works for me…
Finally, what I am coming to realize, is that building relationships with your visitors/clients is the way to be successful online. Just like in the offline world. People buy from you if they know, like and trust you. So building trust with your visitors/clients is really the best way to go, in my mind.
You are a good example of this - you provide value, you are accessable, and you “give back” to your contributors (keyword luv and dofollow links). As I build my own following, I am definitely modeling you!
Thanks again,
Dan
Ana Hoffman says
You are very welcome, Dan, and thank you for your kind words.
I do believe you can make money with Adsense; I just don’t think that the effort required for that justifies the potential income. There are many other better and less involved way to make money - I am quite certain of it. 🙂
Whatever niche you are in though, you are absolutely right about building relationships.
When I think of a product I want to purchase, I think of my friends’ blog and try to remember if I saw any affiliate links for the product there. Relationships will always be your trump card!
Good to see you on my blog, Dan; see you back soon!
Ana
Ana says
Interesting, Stacy - I’ve never heard about it until now and it’s good to know.
Actually, I connected my Donate button with my personal account - don’t ask me why. It’s an experiment of sorts to see what I’ll get out of it.
I wonder why they ban business accounts though - it is business after all and a common practice at that.
I will look into it; thanks for letting me know.
Ana
Kelly B says
Great tips Ana. I needed to read this today.
Ana says
Let me know how it goes, Kelly. 🙂
I love your blog name - very clever. If you don’t mind advice, I think you should look into speeding up your blog loading time. As of right now, it’s very slow and you might lose some readers because of it.
Ana
Clayton Bye says
Hi Anna.
I’ve spent the last year with my focus on traffic generation and turning clicks into customers. My products are books. Visitor numbers are great (100,000 this year/4,000 went through to my shopping site) but sales are virtually non-existent. By the way, my prices are competitive with retail, S&H is free, and I even have a satisfaction guarantee.
Yet, even if I compare results to cold calling or mail campaigns, the numbers just don’t are dismal. I make more money selling books for Amazon!
I follow your column, and with today’s topic in mind, I would be interested in your opinion.
Ana says
Hi, Clayton.
Let’s start with some of the obvious issues: your home page is not user friendly at all. White font on black black background might sound like a good idea, but it’s not user-friendly. I was not able to read your entire introduction and could not wait to click back. Your font is too big, the paragraphs are too small.
So your first job is to figure out how to get your readers to stay. See if this post helps: https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/stage/reduce-blog-bounce-rate/
My second question to you would be this: how targeted are your visitors? Your site is obviously all about selling your books; does your traffic know that before they come to your site?
Let me know and we’ll take it from there.
Ana
Ana says
You are right, Oliver.
Our ultimate goal is to make money without our active involvement in the process. That should be our ultimate goal.
I am willing of course to put in some time before I get there as well.
Good point!
Ana
Tristram Lodge says
Hi Ana,
You have listed 7 great things to do to make money on blogs. I think the key thing is to do everything in moderation, like affiliate marketing. I have seen blog that are really just an advertising billboard with flashing banner all over them.
To be honest mine was like that until a few months ago and I removed everything and put it all into one page. Makes the blogs look more professinal and the focus is then on the value in the content.
Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
Tristram Lodge
Ana says
Good point, Tristram.
It’s funny I have many readers ask me to check out their blogs to see if I have any suggestions for them. When I go there, all I see is a flashing billboard (using your words) and when I tell them that is the reason they are not doing too well, they still refuse to make a change.
Make your readers fall in love with you first, then sell later.
Ana
JamestheJust says
I just wanted to clarify some of the opportunities for advertising, though you mentioned a few different varieties of selling ads:
CPA ads - they come in Pay Per View, Pay Per Sale and Pay Per Lead. I’m pretty sure ProBlogger does that with some of the job listings, for example.
I know he has a flat rate fee for ads, some low figure (I think your earlier post mentioned it)…but also pretty sure there are a few Pay Per Leads in that list (I could be wrong on that, but I know for example HubPages is on his list of “jobs” for freelancers - I can only imagine the referrals he generates for HP and the subsequent residual over a year…).
The funny thing is, that there is no “rule.” Some have the Las Vegas strip, with blinkies and sliders, and garish animatronics, fly-ins and other epileptic episode inducers, and others just have text links with a few spattered here and there.
And the really sly, uber-pro’s have a panache for selling without you knowing - and without violating FTC guidelines to boot. Go figure. Lots to learn.
Ana says
All good points, James. I am writing a follow-up post on the less-used ways to make money blogging and some of this will be included there.
I find it quite amazing (in a non-flattering to us kindda way) how huge the difference between our knowledge and the application of that knowledge is.
You say “lots to learn”. I say “lots to do”.
We pretty much know what to do at this point; we just need to go ahead and do it.
What say you, James the Just?
JamestheJust says
Great ways to profit, Ana, and solid information as usual. For the record, I just now finished your report on 7 Ways To Dominate The Search Engines, I think it was - you always manage to teach me a few things.
I actually just wanted to say, “WOW!” Love your style, Ana, from a business perspective: spot on. Still learning myself (the blogging aspect) - as an AdSense / Amazon / Affiliate marketer, the blogging side still eludes me. Mostly because I don’t have the time I’d like to put it all together (mailing list, product creation, which I’d like to do…free reports, that sort of thing) - so I’m in the “over do it” side of affiliate marketing on my blog: every product I use and love I review it.
The result is nothing to write home about, money-wise, thankfully I make my money elsewhere (other websites and freelancing). So, coming here and learning from you and Tia and others definitely shows the refined side of blogging.
My wife still thinks I’m nuts from telling her about ProBlogger and CopyBlogger and what they make from blogging of all things…since when did my hobby become a profession?
It’s funny. I’m pretty sure I’ve been living in a cave. In any event, not to ramble here at 4:30 am right before bed - affiliate marketing on review sites is definitely a blast. I think the identity crisis happens when blogging and IMing meet, and how to meld the two without being some circus freak, obnoxious, greasy used car salesman.
Oh, by the way, yeah, Amazon pays nice if you know how, and definitely if you sell more than books. Incredible the amount of income some are making.
Ana says
Always love reading your rants written in the middle of the night, James! 🙂 I guess in some ways, that’s the best time for you to work, since the house is finally quiet.
I need you to read my new post: https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/stage/building-machine-or-another-job/ and tell me what you think of it as it pertains to you.
I know the post talks about a lot of WHAT, but I can tell you the HOW as well.
Haven’t tried Amazon; might do in the future.
Talk soon!
Jean Sarauer says
I’m a big believer in having several income streams. Right now the bulk of my income from blogging comes from additional writing opportunities and a bit of coaching, but affiliate sales are growing. I haven’t done much of anything to build an income yet-still laying the groundwork and creating products-but it’s something I really enjoy because of all the variety. Thanks for a great post, Ana.
Ana says
You are very welcome, Jean.
I must say I am very impressed with your blog considering it’s still in the “laying the groundwork” stage. At the rate you are growing, you are definitely the one to watch out for; race you to the finish line? 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Jean.
Ana