How to Make Money from a Blog, Step 5 of 7: Know Your Monetization Options!
We’re to Step 5! To start from the beginning of this series on how to make money from a blog, check out my first post.
Step 5 is the fun one! It’s all about the different ways to make money with your blog. There are more ways than what I list below, but these are the thirteen most common ways bloggers make all their dough. As your own business personal and blogger, you’ll need to determine which of the methods works best for you. Some blogs and subject areas make more sense than others for certain monetization methods. And, some you may just not enjoy doing. Definitely do what works for you, for your audience, and for your blog topic.
Thirteen Ways to Make Money from a Blog
1. Auto Ads (like AdSense or Outbrain)
Probably the easiest way to make money from a blog, auto-generated ads are advertisements you have placed on your website by a third party. Google AdSense is the most popular, though there are other companies out there that will auto-generate ads on your website.
How It Works: You sign up for an account, you determine what types of ads you will or will not allow on your website, you determine where you want the ads to show up, and you add the code provided to you from Google (or others). When people view or click on the ads, you get paid.
Benefit: Super easy to implement and you don’t have to do anything once they’re running.
Drawbacks: You need a lot of traffic to make much money. If you’re only getting a few hundred visitors to your website each day, you’ll probably only make pennies and dimes with this method (but the topic of your blog does matter and some blogs make more money than others simply because they draw in more lucrative ads). Also: ads can be really tacky. I sort of hate them on my website, but I allow them just so that I can earn enough money to keep this blog running!
2. Paid Ad Space
Like auto-generated ads, these are ads that show up on your website. With paid ads, though, you have total control over the content, as you actually sell ad space on your website to advertisers.
How It Works: You either reach out to advertisers or they come to you. You negotiate a price and contract with them, then you post their ad on your site according to your agreement.
Benefit: You can get much more money from paid ads than from auto-generated ads and you have total control over the content.
Drawback: Your site usually has to be pretty well established before advertisers are willing to spend money to advertise on your site. You have to justify your value to them, meaning you need a lot of proof their ads will get traction from your site. This can be an inconsistent method for receiving income.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a concept where you, the writer/blogger serve as an “affiliate” advertiser. In other words, you write about products and services naturally in your own content; in your content, you link to products and company websites. If someone goes to your website, clicks on an ad, and then buys something, you get a small percentage of the purchase.
How It Works: You sign up for an affiliate program (Amazon.com is the most popular). Once signed up, you’re given a list of products and services you can write about on your site. As a registered member, the affiliate program will track all purchases that lead back to your website.
Benefits: Affiliate marketing can feel less intrusive than advertisements because they’re usually just links in your articles. If you’re already writing about and/or review products, it’s an easy way to integrate money-making options into your website. If you do it a lot (meaning most of your posts have affiliate links), you can make a regular and consistent income.
Drawbacks: Your blog topic really needs to be focused around products to make this work well. If you don’t like writing about products every day (or it doesn’t make sense depending on your blog topic), affiliate marketing probably won’t generate much income for you. Plus, if you force it into your content, it can feel awkward and detract your readers.
4. Digital Products
Digital products are things that people can download from your website. You might create handouts, cheat-sheets, recipes, building or crafting plans, posters, apps, or anything else. The idea is that someone can pay money to download high quality content from you.
How It Works: You need to install a platform on your website that allows for digital downloads (plugins like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce are popular options) and link them to your PayPal or bank account. Then, you create products, assign them prices, and hope someone will buy them.
Benefits: This option is great for creative people who like to make digital products and sell them. Selling high-quality digital products can really help establish you as an expert.
Drawbacks: Digital products often take a lot of time to create and, to keep current and to give your customers a reason to keep coming back, you usually need to keep creating new stuff. You also usually need to have some design and communication prowess to make these successful.
5. Subscriptions or Premium Content
You might create content that only subscribers can view. It’s important, if you do this, that you create content that is free as well. The goal here is to create content made for the public and gain a real following. Then, when you’re ready, create more “elevated” content that people can pay monthly to receive.
How It Works: You usually have two types of content on your website: the free stuff and the paid stuff. You set up a system that requires people to sign in and pay a monthly fee for your premium content.
Benefits: If executed well, this is a great way to get recurring customers and steady income.
Drawbacks: You usually need a pretty good following to make this avenue worth it. You’ll have to create high-quality content very regularly to make sure you don’t upset paying customers. You really have to be committed to producing a lot of content worthy of selling.
6. Donations
This may not seem like an obvious choice, but many bloggers will simply put a “donate” button on their website, asking politely for people to contribute to the site.
How It Works: You set up a PayPal account and add donate buttons to your website. People can click on the buttons, make a contribution, and the money goes into your account.
Benefits: Some readers may appreciate it more than advertisements and it’s a way to pull ads away from your site.
Drawbacks: You have to be pretty compelling to encourage someone to actually donate. It’s unlikely you get a steady stream of income this way, as most people don’t seem to be naturally inclined to donate.
7. Sponsored Posts
This is a popular option for many bloggers. The idea here is that you write a post for a company or organization and they pay you to write it and publish it. Usually you’re promoting or talking positively about their content. Sometimes you’re just linking to their website.
How It Works: Companies will often come to you (but you can also reach out to them) and see if you are willing to publish a post about them and link back to their website. If you agree, you set the terms and they pay you to publish on your site.
Benefits: You can charge decent money to write posts for businesses, especially if you establish yourself as a real influencer in the field. You can also choose the brand you promote to fit in with the theme of your blog, for example, game influencers can post about toys or gaming. Some companies will even write the posts for you, which makes less work for you. However, it’s important to be ethical with this method and you should always be upfront with your readers if you’re getting paid to publish a post or if a company wrote the sponsored post for you.
Drawbacks: Many bloggers will say that they feel sponsored posts water-down their website. If you’re constantly writing posts simply to promote other people’s stuff, you might lose the authenticity that drew people to your website to begin with.
8. Freelancing
If the subject of your blog opens opportunities to freelance, this can be a great option. For example, if you start a photography blog, you can also create a page where you offer your photography services.
How It Works: This is totally up to you, but if you want to do contract and freelance work, you simply need to post it on your website somewhere. If your site is popular, people will naturally come to you for your services.
Benefits: If you like working on varied projects for clients, this can be a fun way to build your skills and network with organizations. Plus, you can often charge good money for freelance projects.
Drawbacks: Working with clients isn’t always easy (or fun). Clients can be demanding and they can take far more of your time than might feel worth it. You have to be very clear about your services, good at writing and keeping to contracts, and delivering what clients expect. Freelancing can be really fun, but it’s not for everyone.
9. Courses or Programs
If your blog content is conducive to running courses or programs, this can be a great money-making option. Some food and nutrition blogs, for example, will do a 30-day course where they provide recipes to subscribers for 30 days. You can do trainings, tutorials, or any other number of educational events and webinars. If it makes sense to do a course, this can be a fun option.
How It Works: You get a regular stream of visitors and subscribers to your website. You build a course or program that will be of value to your readers. Then you announce and advertise an upcoming course and execute it.
Benefits: These can be high-revenue generating events and they can be really fun to execute.
Drawbacks: Courses require a lot of work to prepare and the expectations will be high from those who sign up. You have to be ready to deliver above and beyond what people expect.
10. Speaking
Once you establish yourself as an expert, people may come to you to speak at an event. You can also, though, advertise yourself as a speaker, someone with expertise in something that people would want to hear about it.
How It Works: Usually, people come to you, asking you to speak at their event or in a webinar. You usually have to have a strong following and you have to show evidence of being a true expert or having a unique perspective or take on things. Once people contact you, you negotiate a rate for the presentation and you execute at the highest level.
Benefits: This can be really fun and it can pay well. It’s also a great way to really start putting yourself on the map. It can feel like a true reward for all the time and effort you put into blogging.
Drawbacks: It isn’t necessarily easy to get asked to speak at an event, especially for pay. Speaking is something that usually comes in time, after you’ve established your blog. I wouldn’t typically recommend advertising yourself as a speaker until you feel fully ready and qualified to do so.
11. Workshops and Events
Similar to speaking, people may come to you to do a workshop or event. However, you don’t usually need to be as prolific of a public speaker to give a good workshop and it’s usually okay to advertise yourself as a person who does workshops. If, for example, you do a craft website and you know how to make certain crafts, you could hold in-person or live online workshops on how to do crafts.
How It Works: You have a topic that you can do a workshop on and you advertise it on your site. People sign up, then you execute it.
Benefits: If done well, this can be a fun way to get to know your readers and to network. It can also be a great way to get boosts in income every time you hold and event.
Drawbacks: If you decide to hold a workshop, it can be awkward if only one or two people sign up. Be sure there is interest before you determine to do it. Also, workshops take a lot of time to prepare, so be sure you give it all you’ve got.
12. Self-publishing
This is a popular option for those who truly love to write. If you create short stories, training materials, or other small books or booklets, you can sell them on your site without going through a publisher. It’s a great way to make good income if your readers love what you write enough to actually pay for digital copies of it.
How It Works: Typically, you would want to sign up for an online publishing organization (like Amazon’s Create Space or Kindle) so that people can purchase your content and load it to their e-readers and cell phones. Once you’ve done that, you can publish your content and simply advertise it on your website.
Benefits: It’s a low-coast, quick option to publishing your own work and you make all the profits (rather than a publisher taking a percentage of it).
Drawbacks: If what you write is really good and it could have been picked up by a publisher, you might regret later having published it yourself. Publishers can usually reach millions of people, but they don’t like to publish stuff you’ve already published yourself. Also, if your goal is to be an established, famous author, many people still don’t consider self-publishing a credible avenue.
13. Merchandise
Lastly, there’s always the option to sell stuff: t-shirts, mugs, hats, water bottles, jams, home decor, whatever.
How It Works: You make stuff or have stuff made and you post it on your website. You usually need to be set up with an e-commerce platform like WooCommerce or Shopify so that all payments can be processed safely. You are in charge of shipping it quickly and safely to your customers.
Benefits: If you like to make and sell stuff, this can be really fun. It’s like having a store, but without having to pay for the building.
Drawbacks: When you sell stuff, you usually have to have an inventory so that it’s ready to ship as soon as someone buys. This means you’ll not only need money up front to buy the stuff (which can be a risk), but you’ll also need a place to store stuff. Be sure you’re really ready to jump into this before you add it to your blog. Really, if you only ever plan to just sell stuff and writing a blog isn’t your thing, you may be better just starting an Etsy shop, and not doing a blog.