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How to Make Money Blogging

Dear Lifehacker,
I'm thinking about starting my own blog. I don't expect it to make me stinking rich, but what are the chances I can quit my day job and make a living just by blogging? I see all these success stories, but how much money can I really make?

Signed,
Burgeoning Blogger

Dear BB,
If you're passionate about a subject and you have decent writing skills, blogging definitely could be an alternative career path for you. The short answer is, yes, it is possible to make a living—a very good one, even—by writing online. On the other hand, the hard truth is most of the millions of bloggers today don't make enough to support themselves just with their blogs. Let's take a look at what's involved.

Blogging as an Occupation

There are two main approaches to professional blogging: You could be a freelance or employed blogger for an established company or site (like those of us here at Lifehacker), or you can start your own blog from scratch.

Getting a job as a professional blogger is much easier than starting at ground zero with your own blog. Those who get a job with an established company can earn a good living right off the bat.

Setting up and monetizing (ugh) your own blog, however, takes a lot more work, like starting your own business. There's no real career path or trajectory to base expectations on. Some people have made hundreds of thousands of dollars writing their blog (or sold their blogs for millions), while others have yet to make a cent from theirs.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make money blogging, you’ve come to the right place. As a 12-year veteran blogger making six figures a year, this post outlines how bloggers make money.

This post contains affiliate links.

Things you need to make money blogging

1. A blog. Clearly. Here’s how to start a blog if you don’t already have one. It’s the easy part.
2. Valuable content. Once you have a blog, write. Draw from your expertise & experience and write informative posts and articles about your chosen topic. Make your content excellent. In order to make money, you must have visitors, but in order to have visitors, you must have content worthwhile to visit.
3. Relationships. As you create valuable content, start building genuine and sincere relationships via social media, forums & groups, commenting on other blogs and the like. Consider starting a mastermind group. Reach out to people in your niche. Find people who could use the information you provide. Get to know them, interact, be friendly and helpful by offering no-strings-attached tidbits of your expertise. Word about you spreads best via people who know, like & trust you.
4. A strong platform. Keep growing in the knowledge of your craft so the content you produce gets increasingly great. Use your blog to get exposure, build authority, gain trust and be helpful.
5. Streams of income. These are the different ways you can make income as a blogger. I’ll give you an overview of different income streams below.

Things you should know about making money blogging

• Much of the money bloggers make doesn’t come from blogging directly. A blog is a platform or online home base. After proving their trustworthiness, bloggers use their blogs as springboards to launch other products & services that bring in income. Examples are ebooks, books, speaking gigs, products, ecourses, etc.
• If you want to make money blogging, it takes time, creativity and hustle—a lot of all three—but it’s absolutely doable.
• Each blogger has a different combination of income streams. There is no “right” way and that’s the beauty of it. There are endless possibilities. Find a combination that works for you or make up your own.
• Income streams ebb and flow, so successful bloggers are constantly exploring new ways to make money. The key to making good money as a blogger is to have multiple streams of income. Even small trickles of money coming from various sources over time can add up.
• The best way to start monetizing is to let it happen organically. Hopefully you are blogging about something you enjoy. As you grow, monetize (make money) in ways that would most suit you and your audience. For example, blogging about knitting? Sell knitting patterns. Blogging about fly fishing? Sell your services as a fly fishing guide. Blogging about being a preschool teacher? Sell preschool curriculum.

Related: 12 Things to Do Before Making Money Online (the practical nuts, bolts & legalities of making money online)

5 Ways to Make Money Blogging: Cheat Sheet & Bonus Pack

This post is very thorough so I’ve put together a cheat sheet as a quick reference. It’s free to Useletter subscribers (the Useletter is my regular email packed with extra up-to-date tips about social media, blogging, making money online, etc.) Want the cheat sheet and bonus pack? Click here:
Get it!

Streams of income used by bloggers

Following is a list of income streams bloggers adopt, broken down into five main categories:

• Advertising
• Affiliate Marketing
• Digital Products
• Physical Products
• Services

Unlike many of the other categories, advertising is all about generating income directly from your blog, website or other digital asset(s).

Display Ads

Display ads are graphics or images similar to billboards or ads in a magazine. Typically they are positioned on your site in the sidebar, header, footer or within your content. Sometimes they are referred to as banner ads.
Ads on your site are meant to complement your blog’s content, making them attractive and relevant to visitors. Advertisers hope that your visitors will then click on those images to explore and purchase the products or services they offer.
Display ads are often provided through ad networks. Ad networks are companies that connect advertisers with publishers (bloggers). Ad networks act as a middle man between advertisers and publishers, negotiating partnership details between the two. The ad network takes a cut from the partnership profit. Ad networks are attractive to many bloggers because they take the hassle out of display advertising.
Some ad networks, like Google AdSense, are relatively easy to get into and are easy to set up. Other ad networks though, are selective in who they accept. Examples of ad networks are Google AdSense, Blogads, BlogHer, Beacon Ads, Federated Media, Sovrn, (formerly Lijit), Media.net, Rivit and Sway. There are many more, so once you get involved in your niche’s community of bloggers, you’ll soon hear of others.

Can you really make money with Google AdSense?

This is a very popular question, and a good one. Google AdSense is probably the most popular ad network. No doubt you have seen Google AdSense ads as you have surfed the web.
Adsense ads come in various shapes and forms. Sometimes they are images and sometimes they are text. They show up in sidebars, headers, footers, within posts and anywhere else website owners choose to display them.
Adsense is a good place for beginning bloggers to start if they want to pursue display ads because it’s so easy to set up.
However, if you want to make really good money with Google AdSense, you either have to be in a unique niche in which advertisers will pay a lot of money for clicks on their ads (hard to find), or you have to have a lot of traffic (hard to get, especially for beginners).
For these reasons, I don’t recommend AdSense (or display advertising in general) as the main pursuit for new bloggers.
Tips:

• To apply for Google AdSense or other ad networks, contact the ad network via their website (choose one from above).
• If you want to get an idea of pricing and traffic for popular blogs, sites like Beacon Ads and Federated Media are places you can do that.
• If you’re using CPC/PPC ads (cost per click/pay per click), check out Google’s recommendations for best ad placement on your site. It’s important that your content doesn’t get drowned out by ads. Google has indicated sites with too many ads above the fold may be penalized in search. If you’re not sure what above the fold is on your site, use this tool.
• As always, experiment. Experiment with ad placement to get the right combination on your site.

Further reading: Jason from ProBlogSchool explains ad networks in great detail in his post Ads 102: How to Make Money Using Ad Networks.

Private Ads

Private ads are similar to display ads in that they also come in the form of buttons or graphics and usually appear in the sidebars of blogs. They are unique in that there is no middle man (ad network) to negotiate the partnership. Partnerships are arranged directly between a blogger and an individual, small business or company.
Initial contact can be made by the blogger or by the advertiser. Be clear on what’s expected by both parties. Not sure what to charge? Look around to see what others in your niche charge. You can often find this information on a blog’s advertising page or media kit.
Don’t just throw up an advertising page and expect advertisers to come calling. Go to them. Not sure how to do that? Find other blogs like yours that are your size or slightly larger. See who is advertising on their site. Contact those companies and ask if they’d like to advertise on your site too. Create a pitch and make it a win-win. Check out iHeartOrganizing‘s advertising page as an example.
Tip for private ads on your blog: If you have ads in your sidebar, keep them full. Instead of displaying a blank box with “Advertise here” fill it with an affiliate graphic (see Affiliate Marketing below for more). Crystal Paine puts it well when she says, “[Blank ad spots] scream, ‘My advertising space isn’t valuable enough for people to want to buy so I instead have this big blank box!'”

Giveaways & Reviews

If you’ve read blogs for any length of time, you’ve surely seen a review or giveaway and maybe participated yourself. A company supplies a product to a blogger to be reviewed and/or given away to readers.
A word about giveaways…
I list giveaways here because some bloggers charge to run giveaways in addition to the expected free product to keep for themselves. There are varying opinions about whether or not one should be compensated for giveaways.
As I see it, it largely depends on whether the product is for marketing purposes or for advertising purposes. Companies use marketing to spread the word about their product or service.
With advertising, a company makes a deal with another party to help them spread the word. Companies expect to pay for advertising. For example, a company may market their product by handing out free t-shirts. Because you like the t-shirt, you take it and wear it. You obviously wouldn’t charge the company when you wore their t-shirt.
But I think a giveaway on a blog would often fall in the category of advertising. Yes, the company you’re working with may give you a product to use (indeed, they should!). However, they are also asking you to provide a service to them. After all, you are spending your valuable time fielding their emails, writing a post (or posts), following up with giveaway entrants, etc.
If there is nothing else you’re getting from the partnership except for the free product, this service should be compensated in my opinion.
Further reading: Amy from Mom Advice wrote a post about reviews a few years back that still offers good tips.
Tips for reviews & giveaways:

• Products you receive for free need to be reported as income on your taxes so keep excellent records and make sure the products you are accepting for review are really ones you want to pay taxes on later.
• Don’t be afraid to negotiate. This is your blog. No need to just take what you’re offered on the first round. Make it a win-win for both.
• If you don’t want to do a review for a company, ask the company if they’d like to buy ad space instead. Mention that they’ll still get a spot in front of your readers.

Newsletter/Podcast Sponsorships

If you have an email newsletter or podcast, you can accept advertising just as you would on your blog. You can reach out to potential advertisers, tell them how they would benefit from advertising with you and pitch your idea.
Further reading: Podcast Launch: A complete guide to launching your Podcast with 15 Video Tutorials by John Lee Dumas. Dumas is just a regular guy who consistently makes 6 figures per month from his podcast. Not only does he show you how to launch a podcast, but he covers making money from your podcast as well.

Sponsored Posts

Writing a sponsored post means you work with a company and write a post about their product or service. Be upfront and disclose your relationship to your readers.
Keep sponsored posts to a minimum so you don’t turn off readers. If you read blogs, you’ve probably seen sponsored posts. They can be spotted by the disclosure stating something like, “This post was sponsored by [company] but all opinions are mine.”
Find examples of sponsored post details and rates on Life Your Way.

Underwritten Posts or Series

Underwritten posts differ from sponsored posts in that the post topic is about whatever you want it to be (as opposed to the company’s product/service), but an advertiser pays to get a “Brought to you by…” type note in the post.
Anticipate the posts you think will get a lot of response, and pitch companies with an underwritten spot.
An example of an underwritten series is this Christmas Gift Guide at MoneySavingMom.com.

Listen to what others have to say

There are bloggers who have been quite successful with advertising and who’ve shared what they’ve learned.
Check out Elite Blog Academy (enrollment opens once or twice a year but you can sign up at the bottom of the homepage to be notified). This course deals with getting more traffic and therefore increasing your advertising revenue. Read my full review of this course here.
Another resource is How to Monetize Your Food Blog. This ebook is about ad networks, advertising and how to set up an ad waterfall so you get the most out of your ad spots. (It also briefly covers some of the other monetization methods listed below.)
The Niche Site Duel deals with finding the niches in which advertisers pay high rates.