Monetizing your blog is as important as starting it. Without blog monetization, you will be unable to sustain your blogging business for a long. You cannot scale up your content creation by hiring a team, nor can you use paid tools, themes, or plugins.
Monetization means money-making. In fact, there are millions of bloggers making good revenue every month. And, to realize the money-making potential of blogging, here is a list of the top 5 bloggers with their monthly revenue:
- Amit Agrawal (labnol.org): $60,000/month
- Harsh Agrawal (shoutmeloud.com): $52,434/month
- Faisal Farooqui (mouthshut.com): $50,000/month
- Shradha Sharma (yourstory.com): $30,000/month
- Varun Krishnan (FoneArena.com): $22,000/month
Making money from blogging is not an easy nut to crack. It takes a lot of consistent and strategized effort even to make your first dollar. But, if you can make $1, why can’t this reach $10, $100, or… $500, or even more?
Rand Fishkin, who is currently one of the top bloggers in the world, says that
A hard thing is done by figuring out how to start.
So, what are you waiting for? There are multiple options available for bloggers to monetize their blogs. Scroll down the list and find the one that works best for your blog.
1. Join affiliate programs
Affiliate programs are a way to make money by helping other companies, or businesses in selling their products or services. You promote others’ products and in return earn a pre-decided commission on sales or on leads.
There are thousands of affiliate programs in the market. For example, Semrush affiliate programs give you $200 for closing one sale for them, Canva gives you $36, Sendinblue gives you 200 pounds, and there are affiliate programs that give you a monthly recurring commission.
Affiliate programs such as Amazon offers thousands of products to promote with 1% to 9% of commission on different products.
If you think affiliate earnings aren’t real, let me show you my affiliate earnings for the last year. And, it’s just one platform or program, you can join as many as you can successfully do for your blog.
To earn affiliate earnings, here is the step to follow:
- Build a blog or website in your targeted niche with great UI/UX
- Write quality content with detailed information about your targeted product
- Join an affiliate program that you are targeting and that fits your niche (which your audience can afford)
- Add your tracking links in the articles,
- Meanwhile, keep creating more articles and also search for people who might be willing to purchase using your affiliate link
- Make sales and earn a commission.
In fact, the concept of passive income is an outcome of affiliate earning. Bloggers with heavy traffic on their blog makes organic sale every day or often, and earn while they are sleeping. Their content makes money for them.
So, you must be thinking, how can you build a such flow of passive income. Well! here I am, helping beginners with one-on-one mentorship in blogging. I can help learn A to Z of blogging, and empower you enough to start making affiliate earnings. How far you can take it is your hard work and consistency.
Want to start blogging with a mentor: Apply Here
2. Offer online courses
According to techjury.net, the e-learning industry is expected to be worth $325 billion by the year 2025. People are engaging more in online courses than ever before.
A blogging website, in the beginning, is like an empty page. You have the full freedom to paint whatever you are good at; be it sports, engineering, marketing, books, business, mindset, lifestyle, traveling, etc. And, more importantly, whatever you are sharing, can be organized as a course for the targeted audience in return for some charges.
You teach them your skill and they will pay you!
For example, I am helping budding bloggers, college students, housemakers, and side hustlers to start a blogging website and grow their side income, or build their portfolio.
There are many who offers pre-recorded video courses, while some offers one-on-one video call session basis of mentorship.
There are so many courses available online; some are offered by individuals on their personal blogs while others are offered on platforms like Udemy, and Coursera.
These courses can be about any skill you are good at, like stress management, or yoga, or about your professional skills like email marketing (as shown below), social media marketing, graphics designing, video editing, content writing, etc.
Steps to start an online course on your blog:
- Find out your expertise and check if it’s in demand.
- Create a blog, and build an appealing UI/UX for the course
- Share your knowledge in that niche and build trust in the audience.
- Offer free trials or accept a few free learners to test your course.
- Based on the feedback of your initial learners, update your course.
- Fix a justified price and offer your course to more
- Market your course and grow it as a full-fledged business.
3. Google AdSense
Google AdSense is so much loved by new bloggers. It’s the easiest way to monetize your blog and with growing traffic, the earning from AdSense also grows.
But, you require AdSense approval in order to make generate AdSense-based income. Once approved, and if auto ads are enabled, Google displays relevant ads on your website and if any visitor clicks on it, you make money. This is why Google AdSense is called the cost-per-click (CPC) model of earnings.
In my case, I have three websites with active AdSense. Based on traffic and click, I have started to make money.
To make money with Google AdSense, follow the following steps:
- Create a blog, and produce quality articles
- Implement marketing such as social media marketing, guest posting, etc. to get quality traffic.
- Execute necessary steps before applying to AdSense
- After approval, enable auto ads. and continue producing quality content and generating traffic.
- With growing traffic, your revenue continues to increase.
- Once you cross the $100 earning level, there is a method to set up your payment details
- And, continue earning.
4. Sell e-books or other digital products
In 2022, selling ebooks is one of the most popular ways to monetize your blog. Michael S. Hart, who was a student at the University of Illinois, created the first ebook. He created this with the help of a Xerox mainframe computer in a university research lab.
An ebook is something that gives detailed information on a topic. For example, if your blog talks about blogging, you can write a detailed ebook on how to grow your existing blog.
Ebooks are low-risk and are one of the easiest ways to monetize your blog. You can create ebooks in any niche of your choice. Hence, there are some things you have to keep in mind while creating your ebook.
- First, figure out your skillset.
- Second, how do you want to publish your ebook? You can publish it on various platforms, like Gumroad, Amazon KDP, etc. However, selling ebooks on your site is the biggest advantage.
- The last step is to optimise your ebook with certain keywords.
However, there are other digital products that will help you make some money, such as;
- Podcasts,
- Membership sites,
- Journals or guides in PDF,
- Paid newsletters,
- Website themes,
- Templates, banners, etc.
Ms. Rosemarie, a blogger and owner of “Busybudgetershop,” sells online courses and guides to help people save money.
5. Accept sponsored posts
Another way to monetize your blog is by making sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are like paid blogs. It allows us to advertise other people’s products and services on our blog, and in return, they pay some fees for that.
Do you know that writing sponsored posts on your blog is influencer marketing?
If your blog has heavy traffic and high authority, you can charge more. Remember one thing: do not load your website with sponsored content. Make sure to accept sponsored posts that add value to your blog and to the readers.
On the other hand, guest posts are a great way to increase the reach of your blog and the traffic on your website. The sponsored post helps earn direct income. If your website has 100,000 visitors, you can easily earn $100 per sponsored post.
“AllBusiness.com” is an online resources website for small businesses and generates its major revenue from sponsored posts only.
6. Offer subscription models
It is also one of the most popular ways to monetize your blog. It is becoming so popular that people have started calling it a subscription economy.
In this model, your visitors have to sign up as members and pay some fees to read the full content or explore any section with restricted access.
If your audience starts loving your blogs, you can offer subscription models that will provide more in-depth content and unique perspectives. Membership becomes like a community, and it is also like being part of a group.
However, do not offer everything as a subscription; instead, offer something engaging to your visitors that will encourage them to join your membership.
Subscription models help you connect with other people just like you. It is similar to selling digital products. You have to add a “Join Us” page with a subscription form attached.
“The Tracking Board” website offers a subscription service for its readers to read exclusive news or blogs.
7. Request for donations
Few websites ask for donations from their readers to support their work. It can happen once you have built a trusted community and a reliable source to convey information.
You can accept donations via PayPal or through various WordPress plugins such as “Give,” “Charitable,” and so on.
However, keep in mind that a blog cannot make money from donations. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication to accept donations.
First, you have to produce valuable content and distribute it to your audience for free. This will help you to build trust, and it will also attract visitors to your blog.
Tim Urban is one of the most popular writers on the internet and spends 40 to 80 hours a week researching and publishing content. His audience loves his dedication and supports him by providing donations. He has created a webpage called “Support WBW” on his website “Wait But Why” where his audience can make some contributions.
You can accept donations to your blog with the help of two platforms. One is WordPress plugins, and the other is Patreon.
Are you undecided about which to select? Well, that depends on you. WordPress plugins are cheaper in comparison to Patreon. while Patreon can help you collect donations sooner.
8. Host a webinar
Hosting a webinar is a powerful way to monetize your blog. If your blog provides value to your audience, they will wait for your webinars to be hosted because they will learn some hands-on-knowledge and exclusive information.
If your blog deals with online courses, hosting a webinar can help you reach your targeted audience.
First, you can host the webinar for free to attract your audience and build their trust. After some time, you can host paid webinars. In those webinars, motivate your audience to ask questions. This will increase their engagement and motivation.
You have to choose the right platform, deliver quality content, and promote your event effectively. It will help boost your site and is also helpful in generating revenue. such as the “CNM Health Coach” does with the help of Eventbrite.
9. Promote your writing services
If you are a blogger, then the easiest way to monetize your blog is to become a freelance writer.
Why did you start a blog? Because you have some knowledge or experience in that particular niche. So, why not use it as an advantage?
Freelancing makes you financially strong, and brands are always in search of freelance writers with appropriate skill sets. Use the strategies of SEO and inbound marketing to attract visitors to your content and offer them blogging or content writing services.
According to research conducted by Upwork, 60% of freelancers left their full-time jobs and earned more money in comparison to their previous jobs.
Hence, to become a freelance writer, you have to market your services on various social media platforms, as well as do guest posting.
Mr. Dinesh Lakhwani, a blogger and founder of Techcommuters, offers content writing services in the digital marketing niche and generates a good amount of income.
Thank you for sharing these insightful tips on various ways to make money through monetization.
Satya this is really good. I sell eBooks and courses myself, both for bloggers. Many ways to profit exist but like you noted; focus on one at a time. Learn the in’s and out’s of one income channel before moving on to the next. This is a simple way to begin profiting.
Thanks Ryan! I am glad you find us and liked our post!
Blogging is an awesome way to earn! And, you re-pointed that “focusing one method of monetization at a time” is the key of making money from blogging. Good luck with your ebooks and courses. Happie Blogging
Let us know your thoughts on other articles as well!