How to make money blogging

So first I need to start with this, you get out what you put in to blogging. If you are only going to put in an hour here and there then you will get the same return on your investment. But, with that said to me blogging definitely doesn’t feel like work. It is fun and feels like I am being paid to do what I love.

Blogging is an outlet for my creativity, a platform for me to vent about the trials of motherhood and a place where I can help people in similar situations as me. It allows me to pick my hours and set my schedule around my life. So when I have a crazy week with my family or we are on vacation or my son is sick I can take cut back and focus on what is important. Ok, let’s get to the good stuff, how to make money blogging.

Affiliate Marketing

Amazon

Most companies offer some sort of affiliate program so if you have a company that you would love to work with just reach out their marketing program and ask. My favorite (and how I make a large chunk of my money) is Amazon’s affiliate program. You can apply here https://affiliate-program.amazon.com. What I love about Amazon’s program is they have just about any product you could ever want to talk about and people trust Amazon. So how most Affiliate programs work is you have an affiliate ID and through that, you make links to products you naturally talk about in your posts. So you aren’t creating posts that are just product reviews over and over. Unless your blog is a product review blog then obviously that doesn’t apply to you.

When people order a product through your link you get a commission. What I love about Amazon is you get a commission for ANYTHING someone orders within 24 hours of clicking on your link. Not just the product you were linking to. So, for example, I had someone click on a book I was talking about for sleep training and ended up ordering $1500 worth of home goods (bathtub, sink, etc.) so I got an awesome commission just because someone clicked on a link and went shopping on Amazon. It’s an awesome affiliate program!

Bluehost

If you are going to be blogging about how to blog (which lots of bloggers do) then one great affiliate program is Bluehost. If you use Bluehost for your hosting and refer others you get $65 for every person who signs up! I don’t blog about blogging (well it’s not my main topic for blogging but obviously if you are reading this you are probably like um… yes you do. I do write up blogging posts when I get a lot of questions about a specific topic) but I have still had a handful of people sign up through one of my links. So overall I’ve made a couple hundred dollars through Bluehost. So, I can only imagine how much people make when they have an entire blog devoted to teaching others how to blog! If you are thinking about starting a blog check out my post on how to get started here! 

I think Amazon is a great place to start with affiliate marketing but places like Target, Walmart and tons of other companies offer affiliate programs.

Pay-Per-Click Ads

So there are a lot of different avenues you can take to earn money as a blogger. The first way is probably easiest for the brand new bloggers and that is with ads. There are tons of different platforms that have pay per click ads you can insert into your website. The biggest and most well-known is definitely Google Adsense. You can apply here https://www.google.com/adsense/start/ This is an easy way for new bloggers to make money. The more traffic you get the more you will make. Once you hit over 25,000 views per month you can apply for Mediavine. Mediavine is an ad platform that has a great payout because your reach is larger. Bloggers can make a decent amount of passive income from ads.

Another pay per click website is Shopstyle Collective. You make 5 cents for every click. They make it super easy to share different products as a widget or directly to Pinterest. This is a great way to earn your first $100 but after that, they really lower the payout. So you make fractions of a cent. It’s an easy way to earn your first $100 but after that, I wouldn’t continue to promote ShopStyle Collective.

Sponsored posts

Another way to earn money as a blogger is through sponsored posts. A sponsored post is when a company sends you a product or gives you a voucher and pay you to write a review about it. This is a great way to make serious money as a blogger. You will get free products or experiences (like theme park tickets or vacations) and get paid to post a review about them. The amount of money you will get will depend on your following. Most influencer networks require you to have a minimum of 10,000 page views a month and over 1,000 followers on social media. Some have higher requirements and some have lower but as a rule of thumb, I wouldn’t apply for any networks until you have at least 10,000 views and 1,000 social media followers.

You can still reach out to brands directly and many of them will be willing to work with smaller bloggers. The rise of micro-influencers is the latest trend for marketing in 2018. If you have a loyal following with a lot of engagement it’s ok if it is still small. It is better to have 1000 loyal followers that will be interested in purchasing what you talk about than 100,000 followers that don’t care about what you are posting. If you are going to do a sponsored post only apply for ones that you are truly interested in. Don’t just do a sponsored post for the money. If you promote a product you don’t actually love and your audience buys it based on your recommendation they will lose trust in you and stop following.

Freelance Writing

If you are blogging because you love writing and you are great at it then freelance writing maybe the way to go! There are a lot of huge blogs out there that will pay you to write blog posts for them. If you want to start freelance writing only apply for posts that fit in your niche. Often times you will just be given a headline and a word count so you don’t want to apply to write outside of your niche. If you are writing about something you have no passion for or no experience with it will show in your writing and you will have to spend hours researching the topic. It won’t be worth the money you will get per post if you have to spend a week researching the topic before you can create the post.

A great place to find freelance writing opening is in blogging groups or in niche groups (like I find freelance openings in Facebook mom groups since I am a mom blogger). You can also look at blogs or other websites and see if they are open to contributing writers. Freelance writing is a great way to make money and get your name out there as a writer.

Sell products

Classes

One way I make money is through selling my Pinterest course. I grew my Pinterest account from 1,000 monthly viewers to over 500,000 in less than 3 months. I was getting tons of questions about how I did it so I created a 7-day crash course to make over your Pinterest account and skyrocket your traffic. Check it out here. It is on sale for only $10 but the price will be going back up soon! Building a course can seem overwhelming but it actually isn’t too bad once you get started! I created my class for free through Teachable.com and it made it so easy to get started. Everyone has a special expertise that only they can offer so creating a class around it is a great way to make money!

Photography

You can also sell digital products like stock photography. If you have amazing pictures that you have taken that are high quality then you can totally sell them! I love taking my own stock photography (and coming soon I will be selling them through my site). In the digital world we live in, where social media and pinnable images are ruling marketing, stock images are a great source of income! I have a Nikon D750 with a 50mm lens and it is the perfect equipment for my photography needs (you can see some of my stock images below). This definitely isn’t a cheap endeavor so if you aren’t super interest in photography I would start with a different digital product to sell. I will be writing up a post on how to take your own stock photography in the next couple of days so subscribe (at the top of the post) to get that right in your inbox!

Ebooks

You can also sell an eBook. EBooks are all the rage right now and a great way to make money! You will see a lot of bloggers selling their eBooks and it makes sense why. You can write about anything! If you have experience with growing your Instagram following quickly, write an eBook! If you found the holy grail and got your child to sleep through the night with minimal effort write an eBook! You can write an eBook about virtually anything. As long as your book is filled with quality content that is worth the price it will sell!

Products

You can also sell tangible products through your blog by starting a shop. You can sell anything from homemade soap to clothing. We are living in a time where sustainable sourcing and small business is on the rise so if you have a talent for creating one of a kind items then share it with the world! I love buying from small businesses when I can and if you use sustainably sourced materials I am all there! I set up a “Buy it” button through Shopify for my stock photos but there are a ton of different websites that offer platforms for e-commerce. Just find one that is right for you and your business.

Conclusion

There are so many ways you can make money blogging and these are just a few examples. If you are thinking about starting a blog but don’t understand how you can make money  I hope this post has helped you! Blogging is a great way to work from home, set your own schedule, be creative and help people. I love it and I love how I can make money blogging! Learn how you can set up your own blog here.