The business of blogs has grown significantly over time. The once humble online spaces for individuals to connect with others who share similar interests and post content have now evolved into highly profitable ventures valued in the millions. More individuals are making careers out of blogging, resulting in a rise in full-time bloggers. With this in mind, what are the various methods of earning money from a blog?
Before you can start earning money from your blog, it is crucial to ensure that it is properly established and optimized. Monetizing a blog requires a certain level of skill and a well-planned strategy.
Content reigns supreme when it comes to building and expanding your blog. It is crucial to understand your readership and produce material that piques their interest. Additionally, optimizing keywords, enhancing overall user experience, and refining image aesthetics are crucial factors to consider. A successful execution of all these elements forms a strong foundation for generating revenue.
While there are no specific targets to achieve before putting monetization strategies into action, having a substantial audience is crucial. It’s impossible to generate profits from your blog if no one is following it.
Your blog’s stage will determine the most suitable monetization approach to undertake. For example, while a blogger with a smaller audience might require unique techniques, someone who receives hundreds of thousands of visitors monthly will need different methods.
In this article, we will discuss effective approaches that can assist you in earning money from your blog, regardless of its current development level.
1. Use AdSense
Monetizing your blog is often done through AdSense, which permits you to earn cash by showcasing banner advertisements from Google. Your earnings will be based on the number of clicks and impressions the adverts achieve, with Google receiving the bulk of the revenue generated. However, you will still obtain a share of the earnings.
After establishing your AdSense account, you have the option to select the type and size of ads that will be displayed on your blog. This allows you to guarantee that only appropriate advertisements for your readers are visible, which can ultimately lead to higher click-through rates and engagement.
While adding a couple of insignificant banner ads to your blog won’t generate hundreds and thousands of dollars, it can still be a profitable way to earn money with minimal effort and maintenance. As the ads operate in the background, you can concentrate on finding alternative revenue streams and other parts of your blog.
When considering whether or not to incorporate banner ads on your blog, it is crucial to consider their effects on both the functionality of your blog and the experience of your audience in accessing your site. People generally do not want to be bombarded with banners and advertisements upon clicking a page, which obstructs their ability to access the desired content. Furthermore, display ads could potentially draw readers away from your webpage, so it is necessary to balance this against their earning potential.
Finding the right solution for banner ads on your blog may take a while, but experimenting with their placement and style should yield positive results eventually.
2. Affiliate Marketing
In 2023, bloggers often rely on affiliate marketing as a means of earning income. This type of marketing is a significant industry, matching the sales of e-commerce through email marketing in the United States.
As a blogger, you can use affiliate marketing to promote products from other businesses and receive a commission for each sale you generate. Although earning commission for sales is not a novel idea, affiliate marketing has modernized the approach in the 21st century.
One of the benefits of affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to create a stellar product yourself; you only need to locate a company that does. To be successful in affiliate marketing, it’s critical to choose products that match your blog and audience. Endorsing products that your followers are uninterested in makes no sense since they won’t buy them, and you won’t earn any commission.
To succeed in affiliate marketing, avoid appearing too aggressive in your sales approach and select products that complement your niche. Intermittently incorporate affiliate links into your content for optimal outcomes. As you become accustomed to incorporating these links, utilizing different platforms will become less complicated.
3. Create Online Courses
Selling and promoting online courses through your blog can be a lucrative means to monetize your hobby. It is advantageous to create courses that are related to the niche of your blog to cater to your audience. Having an advanced level of expertise is not necessary, but rather a sufficient knowledge base that you can impart to your students.
The number of individuals enrolling in online courses has significantly increased, particularly because of the pandemic’s constraints that have shifted numerous work and learning activities to the online platform. The surge in demand for online courses is expected to result in e-learning being a $325 billion industry by 2025.
Earning a reliable and passive income can be accomplished through online courses. There’s no need to offer live sessions for your course, unless you choose to do so. Instead, it’s possible to create a course that can be downloaded and accessed at the user’s convenience. Since online courses are typically video-based, the number of global viewers is consistently growing. As a matter of fact, the total number of digital video views surpassed 2.6 billion and is estimated to exceed 3.1 billion by 2023.
Although it will require a significant amount of labor and dedication to assemble the course, selling it is all that is required after it is finished.
Online courses can be very profitable, as individuals are often willing to pay hundreds of pounds for a course they believe will provide the solution they need. One benefit of creating and selling online courses is having complete control over every aspect, including the ability to update the course when necessary, and determine its value and price.
4. Start a Coaching/Consulting Business
Individuals occasionally require instructions that are more intricate and tailored to their specific needs than what a book or course can offer. As a result, they seek out one-on-one coaching or consultation services, depending on the variety of services available.
When blog owners who have achieved success in selling books and courses aim to generate more revenue, they often resort to coaching or consulting as a monetization technique.
From the outset, consulting can be a monetization strategy, not limited to well-established bloggers only.
Coaching, similar to many of the monetization tactics we have reviewed, relies on your ability to apply your skills and expertise to facilitate individuals in resolving issues in their personal or professional lives.
For instance, Brennan Dunn aids businesses in increasing sales via marketing automation, and his consultation fee is around $9,000. On the other hand, Nagina Abdullah earns an annual income of over $100,000 by coaching clients who aspire to shed weight.
5. Offer a Paid Membership Plan
The popularity of businesses that have subscription models has been growing exponentially, to the point where it is now being referred to as the Subscription economy by some individuals.
The subscription economy encompasses services such as Netflix, web hosting providers, and membership sites.
A restricted area of your online enterprise, accessible only to subscribers who pay a monthly or yearly fee, offers exclusive perks known as a membership site.
In your community, individuals with a shared interest come together and can receive perks such as access to exclusive content, expert guidance, detailed analyses, online seminars, in-person gatherings, and the chance to mingle with others who hold similar views.
By creating a membership site, you can not only expand your audience but also foster a feeling of camaraderie and inclusion.
I appreciate how membership sites bring people together, even if they may not be aware of their participation in a community.
This implies that with the vastness of the world and the unparalleled connectivity of the internet, it is possible to locate individuals who share the same interests as you.
Ryan Levesque was passionate about Orchids and possessed the expertise to cultivate them. Consequently, he established Orchids made easy, a forum that endows its members with restricted access to valuable information and a community where they can engage with likeminded individuals and acquire knowledge from other Orchid enthusiasts.
With 1,800 members paying a monthly subscription fee of $9.95, Ryan’s revenue amounts to an impressive $18,000 per month.
Depending on the price of your membership, you may require less traffic, which is even more advantageous.
Back in 2010, Will Hamilton from Fuzzy Yellow Balls coached tennis players on enhancing their skills and had a membership of 600 individuals who paid him $25 every month, amounting to over $15,000 per month.
As long as your target audience is financially committed, you can establish a membership website for virtually anything.
Tennis players exhibit commitment by dedicating countless hours to practice, and demonstrate their financial capability by investing in high-quality tennis equipment.
A prime instance can be seen with golfers, who invest both time and money in enhancing their abilities and purchasing equipment.
It is likely the reason why Sean Ogle, the founder of Breaking Eighty, managed to attract 150 new members to his golf club in just 8 months after launching his blog. The membership fees for Breaking Eighty members range from $250 to $500 per year.
Creating a membership site could be the most lucrative venture for you if your followers are committed to enhancing their skills and willing to invest money. Even with just a few hundred members, you can generate several thousand dollars.
If you intend to establish and oversee your membership site, you have the choice to utilize either WordPress plugins or external platforms.
Managing Memberships Sites on WordPress
Managing Membership Sites with Third-Party Tools
- Uscreen: If you have mainly video content.
- Podia
- Kajabi
- Wild Apricot
When Should You Start to Monetize Your Blog?
The amount of traffic or email subscribers required to generate income from your blog cannot be definitively stated, as it is determined by the nature and method of your sales.
Sorting out two things beforehand will be greatly beneficial for you.
- Get steady traffic: You don’t need tens of thousands of visitors but at least a thousand visitors a month means you’re doing something right.
- Grow your email list: Again you don’t have to aim for anything crazy here. We’ll show you examples of people who had a small list but still used it to their advantage.
Although these two factors are important, the key aspect of earning money from your blog lies in effectively utilizing numerical data.
An instance would be if your goal is to earn $6,000 from your blog, some of the things you can do are:
- Sell a $200 product (say a course) to 30 people.
- Sell a $600 course to 10 people.
- Become an affiliate partner with brands offering recurring commissions (hit the $6000 mark at your own pace).
- Or even charge $6,000 for consulting with a client.
Monetization is based on mathematics, not wizardry.
Raising the prices of your products is not the sole solution to achieve monetization. Instead, opt for a monetization tactic that is in sync with the current state of your blog or your desired future state.
This article demonstrates how to generate revenue from a blog and earn online income, regardless of whether you have thousands of monthly page views or are just beginning.
We will present effective tactics utilized by fellow bloggers to earn money from their blogs in various fields and guide you on replicating the same for your own blog.