How To Make Money Blogging

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…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: June 18, 2025

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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:

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.

How To Start A Blog Free Email Course

Want to see how I built a $5,000,000 blog?

In this free course, I show you how to create a blog, from the technical side all the way to earning your first income and attracting readers. Join now!

Powered by Kit

Filed under:

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

Like this article?

Join the Conversation

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Wanda Mcphee

    What an awesome and inspiring post! A lot of valuable informative and very insightful. I blog because I too love to write and interact with all the beautiful people I meet daily online, but it would be nice to earn a profit as well. Thanks so much for sharing. Am siked!

  2. Chrisssi Penney

    I keep reading post after post after post from you. I’m determined not to go to work when we move next month. I had best get a move on! 🙂
    Thanks so much!!!

  3. Diana

    Awesome post. This is my first time here and I gotta say I am impressed. I had heard of Direct Advertising, but never really looked into it. Now that I have an idea what it is, it sounds like something I would like to implement into my business and blog.

    Thanks for sharing,
    Diana

  4. Brooke

    I’m not sure my blog has enough readers to make money, but I’ll definitely keep these links in mind for future use. In terms of hosting, do you prefer Blue Host over other companies? I have Go Daddy and I’m considering switching.

  5. charan

    First time visitor of your blog came through pinterest , its a perfect site to get ideas and learn the knowledge how to earn online through blogging … as a new blogger your blog really helps me to improve my blogging skills .. will read your all money making posts thanks for sharing..

  6. Ally

    Hi Michelle my name is ally and i came across your post on pinterest. i’ve i applied for ad-sense and they denied my application due to not enough post on my blog =/ my question to you is, how long did it take for u to be approved by ad-sens?

    Thanks so much for the info. keep up the amazing work it helps us readers so much
    -Ally

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hello Ally,

      Sorry, I don’t really remember. I did it in the very beginning though. Maybe their rules make it harder now?

  7. Joshua

    Hello Michelle,

    Fantastic suggestions! I’ve been noticing that many experienced bloggers make the majority of their money through Products and Services. However, you are the first blogger I see that makes the majority of money from affiliates and ads. Which avenue do you feel brings in the most money, Products & Services or Ads & Affiliate Marketing?

  8. Amanda

    Michelle, you are so inspiring and helpful! I have signed up for Blue host through your link and started my blog, but I can’t figure out where to save my affiliate meta tags so I can start using Flex offers. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey Amanda! I recommend contacting FlexOffers directly as they should be able to help you 🙂

      1. Amanda

        Thanks, Michelle, I will do that. 🙂

  9. Kristina

    This was a very helpful article!!! I am just starting out to blogging and I have yet to find a more helpful article!!!!!!!! Thank you so much!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Welcome 🙂

      My latest income report just went live yesterday as well and it may help you out too – https://fund-rise.live/2015/11/october-online-income-report.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

  10. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

    I think choosing a niche is important, but there are MANY niches that are profitable.

    For driving traffic, I am very active with Pinterest and that drives a lot. Guest posting is great.

    I’ll cover your question more in depth in my December income report, which gets published in January.

  11. Mae Polzine

    Amazing post with a lot of helpful tips. Im going to apply them to my own blog. One thing I feel I’ll need is to grow my audience. But it has been increasing over the past month so I’m taking that as a positive.

  12. Amanda

    I just tried signing up for amazon affiliates so I can promote books etc on my new blog. I am SO confused. Taxes? I don’t know anything about taxes I still live with my parents when I’m not at school! What exactly do they want me to input and why?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      What’s the question specifically?

  13. Zascha

    Great tips as always. It’s definitely possible to make money from blogging – I’m finally starting to make money from my blog. Best. Feeling. Ever. 🙂

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Thanks!

  14. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

    Hey John!

    You can find all of my extra income reports here https://fund-rise.live/extra-income%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

  15. Kristina mercado

    Did you have to pay bluehost all at once?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      You have to purchase at least 12 months.