How do bloggers make money? These are the 5 big ways bloggers get paid!
I feel like one of the questions I get the most often as a six-figure blogger is “How do you and other bloggers actually make money though?” and I feel like it’s a super valid question because before I was a blogger I really didn’t understand how it all worked.
Today I’m going to be breaking down the 5 main ways bloggers make money. Even more than that I’m gonna break it down by how beginner bloggers make money (aka bloggers that just started) and how bigger bloggers make money (aka bloggers who have grown an audience or following).
Beginner Bloggers:
To me a beginner blogger is someone who just started their blog, only has a few posts, or hasn’t been consistently blogging for very long.
Many people are surprised to find out beginner bloggers can actually make money right out of the gate. yes, you heard that right! You don’t have to wait to grow a following or wait until your blog gets thousands of readers a month to actually start making money from your blog.
I started making a little money my first month of blogging. It wasn’t enough to quit my job or pay my bills but it was enough to prove to me that I could actually do this If I kept trying.
I also want to mention I started making money my first-month of blogging and when I started I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! By reading this post you’re already going to have a head start!
You’ve got this and you can absolutely kill it as a blogger if you want to be a blogger.
Here are how beginner bloggers have the best chance of making money:
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you use links that were provided to you by a company in your blog posts, and social media posts, and if someone purchases from them you earn a commission.
The amount of commission you earn depends on how much the product costs, and what percentage of each sale the company agrees to pay you.
I make about 60% of my income each month from affiliate marketing. I’ve made as much as $80,000 in a month from affiliate marketing. So affiliate marketing is absolutely one of the best ways for new or experienced bloggers to make money.
Why do I think affiliate marketing is a great way for new bloggers to make money? Because you don’t need many readers to make money.
See with affiliate marketing if the 4 people that come to your blog are interested in what you have to say one of them might buy from your link and you could earn a $10+ commission on that one sale.
However, if the only way you were monetizing your new blog was with ads if four people came to your blog you would make $0 because typically ads only pay about $5 for every 1,000 views.
Affiliate marketing was the first way I really earned money as a blogger, and it’s what allowed me to quit my job so soon into my blogging journey.
Don’t know what affiliate links look like or how they work? Every time someone tells you to “swipe up to buy one” or “click the link in my bio to get one for yourself” on Instagram that is usually an affiliate link they got from a brand.
So if you’ve ever purchased through someone on Instagram telling you to swipe up or a blog post telling you to click here to shop you’ve probably boughten through an affiliate link. It looks exactly the same as the buyer as just buying directly from the website so most times you’d never know. It helps bloggers and Instagrammers get to continue to work from home.
Companies will pay you for affiliate marketing either by check, PayPal or direct deposit.
Do you want to start your own money-making blog?
I know starting a blog can be overwhelming, it seems like there is so much you need to know, and how are you supposed to know how to set everything up, and make sure you are getting the best deal on starting a blog?
Also, how are you supposed to know how to design your blog and get traffic?
I kept getting questions from friends, and people who wanted to start their own blogs
So I figured the best way to answer all these questions would be to create a FREE ( did I mention it’s free?) 6 Day email course.
Which will teach you step-by-step how to set up a blog, install your theme, make a logo, and create monetized content. It will completely kick-start your blogging success.
I totally suggest taking it if you don’t already have a blog (or if you do already have a blog and want the advice) because I really want to help you get your dream job. Here is a more detailed guide of what we go over in it!
Day 1: How to choose a name, and blog topics.
Day 2: How to start a blog & install the design of your choice.
Day 3: Planning out your content.
Day 4: Monetizing your website as a beginner.
Day 5: Increasing your website's traffic to make more money.
Day 6: Wrap up & Guide to follow for the future to maximize profit
Free How to Start a Profitable Blog Course
Learn how to start a profitable blog from scratch in this FREE 6-day email course. Trust me, you won’t need any prior blogging knowledge.
Services
Offering services on your blog is a great way to make money because it allows you to make the full income from selling and not just a commission like you would from affiliate marketing.
Services are pretty easy to offer from your blog you would just need to create a landing page about the service, and checkout page.
I created my landing pages in MailerLite for free, and once my blog grew I used LeadPages.
Then In the beginning I had people checkout on Gumroad because it was free the once my blog grew I used SamCart.
I know you might be thinking “There aren’t any services I could offer” but that isn’t true! Depending on your niche there are many different things you could offer.
A food blogger could offer digital cooking classes or creating custom meal plans and grocery lists for different people’s needs.
A mom blogger could offer digital baby shower planning or one-on-one help with perfecting a nursery or registry.
A travel blogger could offer vacation planning, or vacation consulting.
If you use Gumroad or SamCart to sell your products you will get paid via direct deposit or PayPal.
Products
Going hand in hand with services is products. The reason I mention services before products is services often take less time to create than products. Products can absolutely be for new bloggers but they will just take a little longer services to get started with.
My favorite products to offer as a blogger are digital because you can sell an unlimited amount without making any more work for yourself.
My favorite digital products for any type of blogger:
Printables.
Ebooks.
Courses.
My favorite for food bloggers would be digital cookbooks, my favorite for lifestyle bloggers would be Lightroom presets, my favorite for mom bloggers would be printable schedules for new moms or ebooks.
Hopefully, those give you some ideas!
You can create digital products for free in Canva.com or on something like a Google Doc if you were writing an ebook and didn’t want to use canva.
Then once you have your product created you’re going to need a landing page to tell your audience about the product. Like I said in the services section I created my landing pages in MailerLite for free, and once my blog grew I used LeadPages.
Once you have your landing page you are going to need to link to a place where people can actually purchase the product. In the beginning, I had people checkout on Gumroad because it was free the once my blog grew I used SamCart.
If you use Gumroad or SamCart to sell your products you will get paid via direct deposit or PayPal.
These next two you can dive into as a new blogger but they just won’t pay very much until your blog starts to grow:
Ads
Ads are a super-easy way to monetize your blog. You apply for Google Adsense or Media.net then once approved you paste the code they give you in to your blog posts where you want ads.
It doesn’t require you to be a big blogger or have a large following.
However, I want to mention you won’t make a lot of money from ads as a new blogger. See ads pay around $5 for every 1,000 views so you would need around 200,000 page views in a month to make $1,000 and most of the time as a new blogger you aren’t going to be getting 200,000 page views a month right away.
I think it’s a great idea to put ads on your blog from the start in case your blog post just randomly goes viral you already have ads so you will get paid for that.
This is unlike being a YouTuber because YouTube makes you wait until your videos gain certain notoriety before they will even let you apply to put ads on your videos.
Ads will typically pay you by direct deposit or check.
Sponsored Posts
The final way bloggers make money is from sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are when you reach out to a brand you like, or they reach out to you and you agree to work together to create a set amount of content for a set amount of money.
Most of the time when you have a small or new blog companies will try and get you to create content in exchange for just receiving the product for free. Obviously, that isn’t going to be paying the bills which is why sponsorships don’t really become lucrative as a blogger until your blog starts to grow.
As your blog starts to grow there are lots of calculators out there that will help you determine how much you should be charging for sponsorships. Here is one I’ve used in the past.
Say you want to get into sponsored content where do you start? First, you're going to need a blog, social media account (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest one or any combination) and a media kit.
Then you can either Google “_____ (a brand you like) followed by PR Contact” and click around until you find an email or a contact form you can fill out or just decide to try DM’ing the company on Instagram or Twitter.
Once you decide on a way to contact the company tell them who you are, what your blog is, why you love them, and an idea for a piece of content you want to create with them, give them a link to your most popular social platform, close the message by saying you’re excited for the possibility of working with them and attach your media kit if you can.
Then starts the waiting game! Unfortunately, brands get SWAMPED! with DM’s and emails asking for partnerships nowadays so often times you will never even get a response, however, every once in a while you will and you will actually get to work with a company you love so don’t give up just keep trying!
As your blog and social platforms start to grow brands will start reaching out to you first. That’s why it is important to have a contact page on your blog, and have your DM’s open on social media.
Sponsored posts will pay you either by check, PayPal or direct deposit.