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When you plan to start a blog, some questions always concerns your mind and those are
- Can I make money from blogging?
- What are the different ways to make money from blogging?
- How much can I make money from blogging?
Well, If you ask all these questions, then you are in the right place because, in the guide, we will talk about all those methods that can help you make money from blogging.
Many people start a blog just to express their passion or to educate people on a particular subject, but, only some knows that It is a great way to earn money as well. Some are earning so well through their blog that they have turned it into a full-time profession.
Not only that, but there are lots of success stories about it too.
Pat Flynn made over $2 million through his blog last year.
Harsh Agarwal pockets around $484,000 per year through his blog ShoutMeLoud.
Even, A 20-year-old game developer makes a lucrative $500,000 per year from his blog True Valhalla.
And, these are not only one who benefits from their blogging passion. There are many out there who started as an amateur, and now makes over $100K easily.
So, If you have started your own blog but don’t know how to monetize it, then here are the best and easy ways to make money from blogging.
Now, there might be some methods that you might have heard of, and some you haven’t. So, feel free to skip some suggestions. However, If you are not aware of the basics of how to make money from blogging, then start from the beginning and take a look at every suggestion listed below.
Before we jump into this whole thing on how to make money from blogging, let me give you a complete overview on how I’ll be ordering these methods. I’ll arrange them from the most popular method to the least used method among top bloggers.
This doesn’t mean that the methods mentioned later in this list are not used by bloggers to generate income. They are just used less when compared to the methods stated before them.
So, enough with the talking, let’s get to the money-making methods.
1. Ad Networks
One of the simplest, easiest and popular methods to monetize your blog is with the help of ad networks.
Well, If you’ve just started your blog, then Ad networks are the most straightforward way to earn money from blogging as you don’t have to make much effort to place ads on your blog. Just sign up for a new account, copy the code provided by the ad network and paste it on your site. Your blog is ready to shows ads.
The ads will probably look like this when you place the code on your site:
Another great thing about these ad networks is they display ads according to the context of your article or blog, and also based on user interest. For example, If your blog is about cars or any other motor vehicles, then they will automatically start displaying relevant ads, or If you’ve been searching cats or dogs, they will automatically display ads for pet foods, pet accessories and so on.
So, once you sign up for these networks and place their code on your site, they will identify the content of your blog and display ads according to it. And, whenever some clicks on these ads, or even just view these ads, you’ll be paid.
That’s how easy it is!
You’ll be paid anywhere between $0.5 and $3 when someone visits your blog and click on an ad. Also, If your blog starts receiving a generous amount of traffic. for example, maybe around 5,000 users daily, then these ads can help you make over $10,000 per month.
There are many ad networks to sign up for but the major three widely used are:
Our recommendation will be to go for only these ad networks as they pay you always on time, and have an enormous pool of advertisers that helps you maximize your revenue.
But, before applying, make sure to read their terms and conditions as these networks have very stringent rules. By going through their policies will not only help you get your site approved but also help you to stay approved.
2. Direct Advertisements
There’s no doubt that ad networks such as Adsense, Media.net are one of the obvious and easy ways to monetize your blog or site. But, they do come with lots and lots of limitations.
One of the biggest limitations is that they take some per cent of your revenue on what advertisers pay you. For instance, If you have placed Adsense ads on your site, then you will receive only 68% of the revenue, the rest is taken by Google. Also, These ad networks have complete authority over the ads. This means that the ads shown on your blog will be controlled by the ad networks, not by you.
So, In order to maximize your revenue, you can switch to direct advertisements since It is a more profitable way to make money while blogging.
In this way, you can have complete control on what to show and what not to show on your site, plus you will be able to cut out the middleman so that you can turn in more profits.
The best approach to get started with direct advertisements is to create an Advertisers page on your site or blog that contains all the details about your traffic, including the screenshot from Google Analytics.
This is also probably the best way to attract or reach out to companies or advertisers and influence them to place ads on your blog.
And, once you’re able to get some ads, you can make use of various WordPress plugins to manage these ads. Some of the popular ones are.
- WPAdvandedAds
- Ads Pro Plugin
- AdRotate
However, to make us of this method, you need to have a high conversion, not just traffic, because this type of method works on the pay-per-click model. This means that you’ll be paid by the advertisers based on how many users visit the site.
Typically, the rate is quoted as some dollar amount per thousand impressions. For instance, If you rate 5$ and your site receives 100,000 visitors per month, then you’ll make $500.
One great thing about this approach is that you can demand even higher if your site starts receiving tons of traffic from various sources.
So, If you manage to grab some direct advertisements, It is better to switch those Adsense ads with these instead, or can make use of both together.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate advertisements are one of the most profitable methods to make some money from blogging as only a single sale can help you earn some big bucks as compared to single click on a conceptual ad. This is because a click on a conceptual ad makes you around $0.50 to $3 whereas a sale from an affiliate link can make you around $50 to $100.
That’s how profitable affiliate marketing is!
This is what most top bloggers use these days to make millions of dollars from their blogs. One of the biggest names is Pat Flynn, from Smart Passive Income, who made over $55,000 last month just by affiliate marketing. Another name that comes to mind is John Chow, who is considered a superstar in the world of affiliate marketing, earns over $40,000 every month just by recommending products.
And, they are not the only one to earn that much. There are thousands of bloggers who fancy affiliate marketing over ad networks as a way to make money from blogging.
So, To get started with affiliate marketing, you need to find some products or services to endorse on your site or blog, then place that affiliate link of that product on your blog, and when someone purchases that product by clicking on the affiliate link from your site, then you earn a massive commission over that sale.
You can even write reviews or articles about the product or service, and if someone buys that product or service from your review, then you earn a commission as well.
The commissions can be anywhere from 30% to 50% on the sale of a product or service. In some affiliates, the commission can be as high as 70%.
The best way to start with affiliate marketing is to sign up for affiliate networks that help you automate most of the process of connecting and building affiliate links with product’s recommendations. Some of the great ones are:
- ShareASale
- CJAffiliate
- ClickBank
- ClickFunnels
- MaxBounty
Other affiliates that are simple to use and have great commissions on sales are web hosting affiliates such as HostGator, DigitalOcean, etc.
However, This method might be a little tricky and difficult for newbie bloggers since this is more of a skill-based approach that requires a little bit of experience and knowledge of the online world, plus It requires some understanding of the affiliate product as well.
Otherwise, Anyone can make money from affiliate marketing, even a person without any degree and a decent IQ. All you require is patience and some hard work.
4. Native Advertisements
Native advertisements are another great way to make money from blogging. This method is also considered a better option than Google Adsense or Media.net as they can earn you more money just from a single click.
Particularly, If you have a job site or news site, then this type of advertisements are a perfect fit for you.
There are only a few native ad networks that are reliable and worth your time:
However, To get approved for these native ads, you need to have at least 3,000 users per month and some quality blog posts on your blog or site.
5. Accept Donations
If you don’t like advertisements on your site or blog, you can always ask for donations from the users who come to read your blog posts or articles.
This method is suitable for those people who do not receive a lot of monthly views, but, have a great, engaged community and hard-to-monetize niche.
However, these donations won’t help you in your long term expenses, but, will definitely cover your short-term expenses such as web hosting bills, research and other costs.
One of the best ways to integrate a donation button on your site or blog is to make use of PayPal. PayPal offers a small donation button that you can add to your site within a matter of minutes without any hassle.
Many websites on the internet make a huge amount of money from donations, and one of them is Wayback machine.
If you want to set up the PayPal button on your site or blog, then follow this link to do that.
6. Sponsored Content
One of the most common methods that nearly all popular blogger makes use to make a lucrative amount of money is by sponsored posts, reviews or content. This is presumably one of the best ways to boost your monthly income.
This method is a collaboration between you as a publisher and the company, who wants you to create content for them and advertise it on your site.
The sponsored content can be about anything or in any form, be it product reviews, mega offers, leads generation, or application form submissions. The list is never-ending.
But, The method is for those who already receive tons of traffic to their blog sites because the method works only for those blogs who have a very high influence. So, if you don’t have a steady base of traffic, then businesses won’t trust you for their product sponsorship on your blog sites.
For example, Blogs like BuzzFeed charges around $100,000 for just a piece of sponsored content on their site as they have a very high reputation and brand value in the online world.
All in all, It is a viable method to add some revenue to your blog site. All you need to remember that you should remain genuine to your readers when writing and advertising these kinds of posts on your blog.
7. Time to make money from blogging
There are lots and lots of ways to make money from blogging, but I would recommend you to start with ad networks in the beginning. Then, move on to the next methods step by step.
Always remember, don’t ever rely on just one method to earn money. If you rely on a single method to make money, then you’re putting your yourself at risk. It is always better to have multiple options to make money from blogging. In this way, you’ll never lose all of your income in just one day or night.
