Today’s post is the one that many of you have been waiting for. I don’t think a single day goes by without me receiving an e-mail regarding how a person can make money blogging online and/or how to make money online.
If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, you want to be self-hosted. This is essential if you want to monetize your blog as you will appear more professional and this will help you monetize your blog tremendously.
Sometimes it’s bloggers who e-mail me, but half the time the e-mails are from readers who do not have a blog but are interested in starting a money making blog.
As most of you have seen, a big bulk of my income every month comes from my blog in some form (I made over $320,000 online in 2015): advertising, affiliate income, consulting and so on. This How To Make Money Blogging post will be all about various ways that you can make money blogging.
When I started my blog in August of 2011, I never thought I’d be where I am at today. Now, I blog full-time, earn a great income, and I travel full-time, as you can see from my monthly online income report updates.
My extra income from my blog started slow, but within the past couple of months it has jumped significantly. I spend all of my extra time on finding extra income methods, and it definitely seems to be working.
Don’t forget these other posts in my blogging series:
- Tips for Beginner Bloggers Part 1 – The Basics – This post is all about tips for beginner bloggers and I talk about mistakes that I made and also how you can get ahead.
- Blogger or WordPress – Tips on How to Move – Are you still on Blogger? There are SO many reasons why you should switch to WordPress now.
- How to Start a Blog – Tips for a Beginner – This post had a very similar title to the first post on this list, but this post is mainly about how to get started with your hosting, picking a domain and actually starting your blog.
- My Monthly Online Income Reports – I show you exactly how I earn a living each month along with valuable tips to help you along the way.
- How To Monetize A Blog: How I Grew A $5 Million Blog – This is a great blog post that shows you how I make money blogging.
How to make money online blogging:
Use advertising networks to make money online.
This includes Adsense, Media.net, and many, many other companies.
You can place Adsense or other ad networks (such as Media.net) ads pretty much anywhere on your blog. Usually, bloggers place them in their sidebars, but you can also place them within posts, only on your homepage, as a banner above your header or within your blog’s footer.
It’s an easy way to make money blogging as all you have to do is insert the code that is provided to you. In general, the more page views you receive, the higher your income from ad networks will be.
Take part in affiliate marketing to make money online.
You can sign up for the waitlist for my affiliate income strategy online course here. I will be sharing tips on how I earn over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing. By signing up for the waitlist, you will have access to it as soon as possible!
Affiliate income is something I’ve been working on more than ever lately. I am earning around $30,000 a month from it, and I believe it will continue to grow.
Affiliate income is great because you can create a post, review, etc., and then that post may earn you money years down the line with minimal work needed to maintain that article. It can be somewhat passive, which is what I love about it.
I believe recommending products you believe in is best. A lot of my affiliate income is from my How To Start a Blog post and that is because I include everything a person needs to know about blogging in that tutorial.
There are many affiliate programs out there, and you can always check out your favorite products to see if they have an affiliate program.
Affiliate income is where you will have a link (such as with my Bluehost link) and you recommend products in your blog posts. Then, when someone clicks on your link and buys something (according to the requirements of the affiliate program), you then make money. There is usually a 30 or 60-day wait on your funds, but that seems to be normal as Adsense does something similar as well.
Avant Link – This is an affiliate company that I highly recommend. They have many different companies that you can sign up for and they are easy to work with.
Flex Offers – This seems to be one of the top affiliate programs/companies out there. There are a lot of companies on Flex Offers. You just sign up for Flex Offers and then after you are signed up, you can sign up for individual companies to promote. There are numerous companies for which you can get affiliate links for, such as clothing stores, Starbucks and so on. If you like a company, I bet you will find an affiliate program on there for it.
Commission Junction – This is another favorite affiliate program website of mine.
EJunkie – I’ve promoted a couple of ebooks that I love through here. There are tons of books on this site and I’m sure you could find something to promote.
Amazon’s Affiliate Program – I just started using Amazon’s Affiliate program, but I am excited about it. You promote products from Amazon and hopefully readers click on your link. You then get a percentage of the sales.
Swagbucks – I also use Swagbucks as well. I don’t make a ton of money from it, but I do cash all of my referral points for Amazon gift cards.
Related articles:
- 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
- 10 Ways To Make Money Online From The Comfort of Your Home
- 10 Things I’ve Done To Make Extra Money
- Ways To Make An Extra $1,000 A Month
Direct advertising.
Direct advertising is when a company reaches out to you and asks you to either publish a post on their behalf that they write or you write a post for them. The post may be about a product that they sell, a review of their company or product, a post about something related to their industry, and so on.
If you decide to do direct advertising, please be aware of how much you should be charging. There are numerous websites out there that have guidelines publicly available. The other day on Facebook (I won’t say who it was), I noticed that someone was offering $5 text link ads to her readers who blog as well. There were TONS of people who jumped at this and were commenting saying that they wanted in.
People, your blog is worth much more than $5!
I always recommend that a person charge at least $150 for a blog advertisement, and once your blog is more established you may be able to charge a few thousand PER post.
Staff writing/consulting in order to make money online.
I don’t know if this should be included in today’s post, but it does fit in. You can write for other websites and there is usually a set fee that either you or the website owner sets. It seems like many websites have staff writers, and I even have one of my own (Jordann). Read my post So You Want to Become a Freelance Writer to learn more.
Blog consulting can be a variety of things. Perhaps you can help other bloggers learn how to blog and are staying on call to pretty much be their “coach.” You can also offer market research opportunities for advertisers and companies and offer them consulting on their new products, companies or websites.
Are you interested in learning how to make money online? Are you interested in making money through blogging?
Please check out my article How To Start Your Own WordPress Blog if you are ready to start blogging.
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Orginally, I started blogging just to feel more comfortable with writing everyday-English (academic papers in English differ quite a lot :-P) now I blog because it`s fun and because of the community. I have nothing against earning some extra bucks on your blog, I´m just not sure if it´s any point for me to do it as my blog is still very "young"… but I have to admit, every time you post about your extra income, I kinda wish I could do the same thing!
That is a great way to get started blogging and to improve your english. Maybe you will make some money at some point as well. Best wishes.
Norwegian Girl I am in the same boat as you currently, blog is still small (but seems to be growing weekly so all good!). When you hit a certain number of page views though it seems silly to not at least slightly monetise it, pay for your hosting at least? 🙂
Everyone has to start somewhere and while there are some sites that seem to go bonkers on the growth front within a couple of months starting, most are grown slowly by hard work and persistence. Well that is my take on so far after blogging for around 8 months, although I’ve only really put in the effort for about the last 4 months.
It’s really good to see that effort is currently correlating nicely with blog growth, which is very motivational to keep on going.
Michelle thanks for a great article!
Thank you for making this easy. Ive always wanted to start a blog. I look forward to learning this process with all of your help. Im going full time in my Class A RV and Im sure it will be entertaining at least.
Lots of great tips, Michelle! Our blog makes money, but not quite as much as yours. I think every month has been better than the last so at least things are moving in the right direction! Unfortunately, like you said a lot of my online income is not passive at all. It's a lot of work!
Making money blogging is tough but if you get to a good spot you can make a lot of money, like Pat Flynn does. Sometimes I think you need to be able to sell a dream to make a ton of money, but if you believe in it there is nothing wrong with that. My blog brings in a decent side income which helps out in our student loan debt payoff!
I'd just like to get more readers at this point. Blogging has already helped me make money – but not in the way you write about. Since a major focus of my blog is on investing, my investing knowledge base has grown a lot in the 3 months I've been blogging, both through researching and writing articles and through interacting with other bloggers.
If my blog ever got to the point where it pulled in a reasonable amount of money, that would be amazing. But I'm not really willing to become a marketing shill, who endorses products just because they pay high commissions.
I started a blog for two main reasons….one to be able to help people not make the same stupid mistakes I have made and two to be able to attract some financial businesses to write for under our business umbrella. I would hope that I am accomplishing #1 and we have just started to get a few new clients in relation to #2, so that is awesome. If I do make money off of the blog, then that is a bonus for me…albeit a very nice bonus. 🙂
I make a little a month from sponsored posts, ads and affiliate income (around $100 a month). I'd love to make more, but I need a larger audience. I'm still on the hunt for staff writing though!
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My recent post On definitions: Retirement
Been waiting for a post like this 😀 Definitely bookmarked this page :0) I blog mostly to share my journey to financial freedom and an early retirement, but also to connect with other like minded people around the world. I've done a bit of direct adverts here and there but have not gotten fully into everything like you have. Thanks for the tips.
W00t w00tt! We said. Not much to add here, you've pretty much covered it. Keep doin' your thang!
I think I'd be down to make money off blogging, but I don't know if I could ever pull in as much as you do! I've also thought about freelance writing!
My recent post We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming…Koreans are coming! Koreans are coming!
Affiliate marketing is better then the adsense income.It is difficult to draw attention of google to use their adsense.It is a long term process consists of several process.This is a nice post having some guideline about income through blogging.
My recent post How to Syndicate your Blog Content with Slideshare to get more online Exposure
Good stuff Michelle. It seems Bluehost's affiliate program is financing a lot of bloggers these days. I'll have to see if it will fit somewhere with my blog content. I mostly blog because it's a ton of fun, but I also monetize to help pay for our family cruising on our sailboat.
My recent post Under the Sea
Great tips Michelle. I like the breakdown you've done. It's hard to believe your making as much as you are and you've only been doing this since 2011. I also agree you have to promote products that you honestly feel are great products and even own.
Thanks for sharing this information! I am addicted to your extra money posts and have been wraping my head around why. Will blog about it. HEHE! I blog because I needed to express myself in ways that I couldn't at work. I also needed something else to focus on. I'm having a lot of fun with it and if I'm able to make money one day blogging I would be thrilled!
Great post, Michelle! I never believed blogging was passive income for you because we all know you work hard! Like everyone else, I wanted to help people and make a difference. Right now I don't have ads on my blog. The only money I earn is through my books. I definitely want The Heavy Purse to be profitable and ads would help, but I'm just not sure where they fit in at this time.
I ran across your article and am completely enthralled. I want to make money blogging and i feel like you’ve paved a very clear path but I don’t blog about finances and really don’t know where to start, what would you suggest?
You can definitely blog about whatever you want to blog about 🙂 I always recommend that a person blog about a topic they are passionate about.