Easy steps to making money as a blogger

How do bloggers make money? This is a common question many people ask, and one of the main reasons a lot of people want to start creating a blog of some type.

From beginners to more established bloggers there are many different ways to start making money and then monetizing your blog to make more.

Just like using Google to find information, many people are turning to people’s blogs to get their information, so the key is to provide as much value on your blog to get as many people visiting your site as possible.

The ways you can earn some extra income or even a full-time income as a blogger is by using things like:

• Ads
• Affiliate Marketing
• Sponsored posts
• Press Trips
• Products and services

***This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through clicking the link, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.***

Advertising ADS

When visiting a website, I bet you see all the ads plastered over the page, sides, top, bottom, middle, and even pop-ups, when someone clicks on the ads across YOUR website, that generates money.

When it comes to earning money with ads, this varies depending on how many pageviews, visitors you have to your blog and which ad network you use.

Ad networks available are:

Google AdSense –  Where new bloggers start- there is no minimum number of visitors for Adsense.

Sovrn – Another one for beginners with no minimum page view numbers.

MediaVine – to join you need a minimum of 25,000 pageviews

AdThrive – you need a minimum of 100,000 pageviews

With using ads across your website, you can choose to have them automatically placed or you can place them manually through your website, I personally place them manually, only because I want my blog to be easily readable and not overrun with ads, but this is totally a personal choice.

There are 2 ways you can earn through placing ads on your site and that is by impressions or pay per click (PPC). What are these you ask?

Impressions: A viewer does not have to physically click on your ads for you to make money, impressions are made by how many people view your ad across your website, hence why you see so many websites have ads everywhere across their sites.

Paid Per Click – As it states per click, with PPC you earn a small income when someone clicks on your ads.

Ads can be an easy way to start trying to monetize your blogs and is a very common step most bloggers do when starting out.

The amount of money you can make on these ads varies and can take a long time to actually make money from ads, the trick to making an income from ads is to get as much traffic to your blog as possible, as above you need at least  25,000 pageviews to make more money.

To drive traffic to your website, make sure you are creating valuable content that helps people with what they are looking for, Like – Know- Trust is where you want to be for returning visitors. 

Don’t forget to always be sharing your content across your social media, Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your site, as it is also a search engine like google and is a go-to place for people looking for a particular topic.

Affiliate marketing

Joining affiliate programs is very simple, some of the companies I have listed below are networks you can join multiple affiliate programs through one platform, other ways you can find affiliate networks are with businesses within your niche and that you want to promote.

Take a look at their website, generally, you will find their affiliate programs listed in their footer menu and it is normally free to join, if you cannot find it on their website, try googling the “company name affiliate program” for example I am in the Travel niche, so I am an affiliate for Hostel World, World Nomads, Booking.com and so on.

• Awin
• Cj Affiliate/ commission junction
• Amazon
• Shareasale

Once you join and are approved for the affiliate programs, you will be given a unique URL to use on your site to promote that business, this unique link is what tracks your sale, telling the company it was through your affiliate link and you will earn the commission for that sale.

The amount of commission you earn differs from each affiliate program, generally, it is by a % rate or can be a set amount.

Decides Ads, Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular and easiest ways to make money with your blog, unlike ads, you don’t need a minimum amount of page views, but keep in mind every affiliate program has its own terms. 

So be sure to read them before you apply as some may introduce rules, like Amazon if you don’t make a sale within 6 months, you will then need to re-apply for the Amazon affiliate program.

TIP: If you are an affiliate for a product or service you use and you like, remember people buy from people they Know – Like and Trust try writing a review blog post on that particular product or service and include your affiliate links within the text and break up your sections with some banners.

For example, I wrote a blog post on “how to start a blog using Bluehost” to whom I am an affiliate for and within this blog post not only am I using Bluehost’s affiliate links, I am using other affiliate links that are related to the topic of setting up a blog.

Sponsored content

Sponsored Posts are when a company pays a blogger to write a post about their services or product, either in exchange for extra money or a comped product or service.

Sponsored content creation can range from different offerings from yourself and what the company is looking for such as:

• Blog Posts
• Emails – Sharing with your subscribers
• Social Media – Sharing an X amount on social media platforms, (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc)
• Photography
• Videos / live videos

Depending on the type of content the company is looking for from you, can greatly differ between each business, they can be looking for all the above coverage or simply be looking at one of them depending on what you may specialize more in and your target audience.

Tip: when writing sponsored content, be sure to disclose in your post that it is a “sponsored post”.

Like affiliate marketing it is a form of advertising for the company, many businesses these days work with bloggers to shine a light on their business by creating content in written form, it’s just another way of advertising and getting in front of new ideal clients with your followers.

Having a media kit and a Pitch email is a must, it’s like a resume but for bloggers. You can check out my post ” How to get free trips and perks as a travel blogger”  to read more about making a media kit and email pitch example.

Another way you can find sponsored opportunities is by joining networks for influencers, these networks advertise jobs for bloggers to apply for.

Examples of some Influencer networks are:

• IZEA
• Social Bond
• Activate 
• Viral Nation
• Upfluence

Sponsored posts can be done in two different forms paid content or free service or product (I say free lightly, as nothing is for free, there is a lot of work in creating content). Agreeing on being paid is exactly that, you set a price you and the company agree on to provide your expertise in whatever niche you work in.

Another way is doing Press trips, as a travel blogger and many niches this can be with hotels, restaurants, tours, events, attractions, and many others, doing press trips will be with the company providing their service (hotel, food, tour, and so on) for no fee in return for you to complete what you have agreed on such as a blog post, sharing across X amount of your social media accounts, videos, emails, what you provide to the company purely comes down to what you agree on.

Doing Press trips is a win/win for you and the company, you save money and the company gets eyeballs on their business.

Creating your own products or services.

There are many different options for bloggers to make extra money and they can be in the form of digital products, physical products, and courses or memberships.

Digital products

Creating your own digital product is very popular, there are many ways you can create digital products, such as printable- blogging templates, planners, E-Books, packing lists, how-to guides, meal plans, invitations, trackers, etc. depending on your niche, there are endless options.

Digital products are very popular because they have little to no cost in creating them other than your time and they have a huge potential to make you a passive income, create it once and continue to benefit throughout the years.

You can sell your digital products by installing plugins on your websites like Easy Downloads, or Woo-Commerce, setting up Stripe/pay-pal to have payments made, or checking by making a shop tab and having it divert straight to Etsy. 

I have set up a shop heading and it diverts directly to my Etsy store where I sell my digital creations, keep in mind Etsy has fees to list items, but very minimal, you can read more about Etsy in my post here.

Other than creating digital products you can look at other options like:

Physical products

If you love creating and designing, physical products are another way many businesses earn income, physical products can be made from what you have already created as a digital product, and repurposing saves a ton of time too, this can be in the form of invitations, cards, stickers, travel binders, planners, trackers, mugs, T-shirts and so much more, I could go on for days.

You may want to invest in some wholesale products where you don’t have to worry about shipment and packing. You can list these through your website or online networks like Etsy or Shopify.

Courses & Memberships

Coaching, workshops, online courses, masterclasses, memberships, everyone is wanting to get information on the expertise of someone who specializes within that field of work, there will be forever new things to learn, education is a big part of working online and in life.

Learn how to set up a platform and provide a ton of value to help people within your niche learn how to grow their audience across all platforms, or a membership or coaching service.

Some ideas like how to lose weight/fitness, de-clutter/ home cleaning, mental health/ self-esteem, social media management, relationships, travel itineraries/travel booking services, depending on your niche there is a range of knowledge that can be shared.

Where to for you now?

Make a list of the value you can provide your audience, what do you have expertise in that you can share with your followers? Set out a plan on how you can monetize your blog, and your business, it can be with any of the points I shared with you in this blog post OR if you have any other ways that have worked for you in your business, share in the comments below I would love to hear from you!