Despite the saturation of blogging in 2023, there are still methods to transform it into a profitable source of income. Blogging is a viable business concept capable of generating monthly earnings amounting to thousands of dollars. This can be achieved through activities such as promoting product sales for your own brand, earning commission via affiliate programs, or providing a platform for digital ad sales.
This guide provides information on how to generate income through blogging, utilizing revenue sources that are commonly employed by successful bloggers who make a living from their websites.
How to Choose a Blogging Niche to Make Money
Based on the ProBlogger Report, less than 4% of bloggers earn over $10,000 per month.
Many bloggers fail because they select an unfavorable niche.
It is advisable to select something that you are knowledgeable about and preferably an area where you have expertise. If you have difficulty managing your finances or adhering to a budget, becoming a personal finance blogger would not be suitable for you. However, if you enjoy riding fixed-gear bikes and repairing old beach cruisers, you might want to contemplate starting a cycling blog.
Choosing a tried and true niche can be helpful when monetizing a blog, as every niche has the potential to generate income. Two niches that particularly excel in this aspect are marketing and personal finance.
It doesn’t matter what you choose to write about, as long as there is a demand for online purchases related to your niche, you can earn money.
A cycling blogger has the option of earning money through affiliate marketing, in which they would sell popular gear from the brands they favor. In the same way, a real estate blogger could generate income by offering an online course on profiting from fix-and-flip ventures. Similarly, a tax blogger may choose to sell their consulting services.
Creating a Blog
If you haven’t begun your blog yet, don’t worry, it’s simple. I assure you! Select a blogging platform such as WordPress.
WordPress, Contentful, Ghost, and other CMS blogs are effective in attracting organic visitors, who discover your blog while searching for topics like “the best way to fix a Volvo” or “how to monetize your blog?”, through search engines.
Regrettably, Wix and Squarespace, among other “instant site” platforms, do not offer good SEO compatibility. However, if you decide to begin a WordPress blog, you’ll be in an advantageous position.
The appearance of your blog is important for both retaining and attracting readers. In terms of design, the initial step is to ensure that the content is easily scannable. It should be well-structured and reasonably self-explanatory.
Here are some tips to consider when designing your blog:
- Match the color theme of your blog with the mood of the content.
- Keep the contrasts such that the text is easy to read.
- Ask yourself, “if I landed on this website, would I ‘get it?’”
- Try to make your posts more clickable by adding pictures to them.
- Use social proof where possible — press badges, client logos, etc.
- Use tables of contents in long posts so that users can skim and scan.
- Ensure you have a main menu that enables users to get to any part of your site in under 3 clicks.
- Once you’ve proven the concept and have some traffic, install a few plugins like “lazy load” and a CDN to serve your images dynamically — both of these things will make your site faster and more responsive for your readership.
How to Make Money Blogging
Build an email list
In order to generate income from your blog, it is crucial to have a devoted audience that appreciates your suggested content or products.
By constructing an email list for your blog, you can effectively establish one of the most effective methods to reach readers and have their permission to communicate with them in a space that holds great significance: their inbox.
According to Brittany Berger, the founder of Work Brighter, she considers email marketing as the most profitable sales channel. She no longer focuses on selling directly from other channels, but rather guides people from social media, collaborations, and SEO to her email list.
The purpose of a pop-up box is to persuade visitors to your blog to join your mailing list. The objective is to entice individuals who are visiting your blog for the first time to agree to receive communications from you by offering an incentive, such as:
- Free checklists
- Lists of resources or recommended products
- Blog content packaged in a PDF (such as printable recipes)
After they have registered, keep nurturing that relationship by offering educational or entertaining content. This will help you cultivate an audience that is eager to purchase products based on your recommendations.
Write sponsored product reviews
One of the methods businesses employ to gather social proof is by compensating bloggers to publish reviews, thus demonstrating the value of their products to customers.
Reach out to your preferred brands and inquire whether they are open to sponsoring a review on your blog. By using the product outside the scope of the review, this approach essentially incurs no expenses. Essentially, you are receiving compensation for expressing your opinion on a product you already possess.
However, the monetization strategy becomes unclear. Despite claims that a third-party service sought negative reviews, Fashion Nova was fined $4.2 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for suppressing such reviews.
Ecommerce merchants are subject to a comprehensive set of guidelines established by the FTC, which also apply to the bloggers they compensate for creating sponsored reviews.
To prevent getting into trouble with your blog, follow these step-by-step guidelines:
- Disclosing whether you’re incentivized to write the review. If you’re being paid to publish a review, for example, include the following disclaimer in the introduction of your article: “I’ve been paid to write this review and may make a commission if you purchase this product.”
- Being honest. Share the good and the bad to help readers make an informed decision about whether they should purchase the item you’re reviewing. There’s a reason de-influencing has become a trend.
Sell advertising placements
Bloggers can earn money by allowing companies to place advertisements on their websites, which involves giving up any unused space in return for a monetary compensation.
There are two ways you can build this income stream for your blog:
- Negotiate with companies individually. Find companies in your niche and ask if they’d be interested in advertising on your site. This approach is more time-consuming and you’ll need strong negotiating skills, but done well, it can net the most amount of money.
- Use an advertising network. Prefer the hands-off approach? Platforms like Google AdSense, Mediavine, and Raptive (formerly AdThrive) claim space on your blog and handle the billing of advertisers. Simply embed the code on your site and get paid to show ads.
According to Emily Brookes, who runs a blog called Emily May, display ads are the most profitable sales channel for her. She states that approximately 60% of her blog’s earnings come from display ads, and she can consistently earn money from these ads every month, even if she hasn’t released any new content.
In order to turn advertising into a significant source of income for your blog, it is crucial to prioritize the generation of website traffic.
Ad networks such as Google AdSense offer payment based on 1,000 impressions (CPM), and the average CPM for display ads is approximately $1.25. Your earnings increase as the number of people who see the ads on your blog increases.
Join an affiliate marketing program
Affiliate marketing involves making product recommendations to your blog’s audience, and you will earn a commission if they purchase the product through your personalized link.
Bloggers have a great chance to generate revenue as the content they share can already have an impact on the purchase choices of their audience. By transforming your blog into a central source of informative content, you will establish the necessary elements of familiarity, affinity, and reliability to facilitate sales.
One of the advantages of affiliate marketing is that you do not have to make your own products. Instead, you can join an established ecommerce business and act as a virtual salesperson for them. This means you do not have to be concerned with creating marketing materials, shipping goods, or handling customer service.
In order to earn money through blogging using this approach, you should become a member of an affiliate marketing network such as ShareASale or ClickBank. Take a look at the programs relevant to your industry, submit your application to join them, generate customized links, and monitor the revenue you generate from affiliate marketing through the provided dashboard.
