Are you looking to make money blogging from that partially dormant blog, or perhaps by starting a new blog?
In this article, we will share proven ways to make money from blogging online.
There are two types of bloggers; the one who maintains the publication strictly to earn money and the other who just likes to share their random musing, experiences and ideas.
However, it doesn't matter which type of blogger you are, because maintaining a site requires money to renew hosting, domain names and make updates from time to time.
Making money from blogging is probably already a trillion-dollar industry, but don't worry. There is still a plenty of room for it.
WordPress is a blogging platform used by many. In fact, storytelling is the basis of blogging, and gossip is a secret ingredient.
There are many newcomers making money from blogging in four figures within a year of starting a blog.
Here are the 10 best ways to make money blogging, let's get started!
- Newsletters
- Sell Unique Products
- Paid Membership
- Sponsored Content
- Write and Sell eBooks
- Selling the Affiliate Way
- Offer Freelancing Service
- Create Premium Plugins
- Sell Ads to Advertiser
- Build the Blog, Then Sell
1. Newsletters
It could come off like a bothersome message in someone's inbox, but newsletters have increasingly become the go-to way for communicating with potential clients and existing customers.
The lucrativeness of the market is the reason Forbes has split newsletter-derived revenues with the curators.
Basically, there is much like a snapshot of your blog or industry developments weekly since it's all about sharing news with subscribers.
Within newsletters, you can include ad spots on your own or via platforms like BuySellAds to make money.
Well-cooked, thought-provoking and significantly engaging newsletters bring back traffic to your website and help you increase your reach. When you have a sound readership, you can make money via ads.
Email marketing services like MailChimp and MadMimi do not allow you to use affiliate links when sharing newsletters via their platform, however.
Before building in ad spots for newsletters, check with the email marketing service's terms and conditions.
2. Sell Unique Products
The interesting thing about WordPress is that we can customize it into just about any kind of website.
If you have in-demand products you want to sell, you can run the business and still maintain the journalistic aspect of the endeavor.
You can create a storefront to make your products globally purchasable. Online shopping—more often referred to as eCommerce—is exploding, and there's plenty of room still left to make money blogging this way.
While running a publication around a particular market, life challenge or important topic commendable, backing it up with an online store filled with your own products is a way to make more bucks. It's a typical example of running a business within another business.
Anyway, it's not like it's mandated that every blogger should do both.
Plugins like WooCommerce makes it easy for you to customize and completely set up shop, with a sea of themes to choose for. Don't forget to add live sales notifications.
3. Paid Membership
Content is king, but exclusive content sits above the throne. You can make money blogging by offering well-crafted, thoroughly researched, unbiased and clear copies about different topics.
The industry or niche to focus on is pretty much your choosing, but make sure to blog about something people would love to read.
Then, turn the platform into one people love to read. When you do that, it won't be hard to get them to pay for your content.
With a WordPress blog, you can build your own Wall Street Journal or a typical large-scale example of what it means to run a site that offers exclusive content for a price.
Building such outfits from the ground up often takes time.
Perception, directness and easy-to-understand reporting are necessary, especially for analyzing trends and predicting outcomes.
4. Sponsored Content
If you run a blog and have ever received an email from a stranger who wants to do a guest post, that's someone trying to use your platform to gain exposure and recognition.
While blogging via WordPress mostly involves juxtaposing facts, opinions and possibilities, you can also make money online by writing articles for someone willing to sponsor it.
As your brand grows, you will surely get those requests. It all depends on whether you want to make the most from it.
However, you need to approach sponsored content carefully. You don't want to irk your audience or toy with the business's reputation with shabby editorial practices—especially when it has substantial or high-profile readership.
The content—barring the hundreds of dollars a company gives you to be featured on your site—should be informative and objective.
A one-sided argument or blindly blowing another's trumpet isn't the foundation of paid content. Professionally done, they probe, weigh, answer the right questions and don't blatantly PR for the client.
5. Write And Sell eBooks
You can also monetize your blog by curating and selling digital products like eBooks. Because blogging is mostly about creating content that people “would love to read”.
You can do your homework to find out which topics your audience will like you to explore with an eBook.
Most times, selling these soft copies is more reasonable than just posting them as articles because of their length.
If you run a publication that updates on and critiques emerging American music—professionally, though—you can start an eBook series with exclusive interviews, untold stories and mind-blowing facts about breakout artists and about anything that you like.
Creating extra content relevant to your blog's theme and your audience can bring you more cash and help you increase your subscriber base.
There are lots of places you can sell those books outside your platform. The more engaging and sought-after content you create, the more chances of making sales.
6. Selling The Affiliate Way
The global affiliate marketing industry is worth more than $12 billion. The sector isn't only growing like a Mozambican turquoise killifish. Still, it is also becoming a simple way to make money online passively, with the European and American markets accounting for a chunk of the revenues generated.
Being an affiliate market simply involves using your platform to promote a product or services for others to buy.
Listicles are an outstanding example of content that could use affiliate links. Besides, they enable you to link to as many products as possible.
When a reader clicks on that link with which you have anchored to a third-party website and buys the product/service, you will earn a commission.
After all, you brought that customer to the business. The idea is to sell without singing too much about someone else's business.
If some of your posts have affiliate links well-placed, you can earn a decent amount of money for your publication. Beautify the affiliate links with Prettylinks or Thirsty Affiliate WordPress.
The more people buy the products you recommend—like online courses and digital offerings—the more you will make from your blog.
7. Offer Freelancing Services
Ideally, running a publication about something means you have a passion for the topic, know the space well and can easily create a profitable office from it.
With your WordPress blog, you can make more money by creating an avenue for your readers to work with you.
But, you need to be professional and committed to the cause, else the attempt to make extra money—where poorly executed—could turn into a deal-breaker for the brand.
Most times, bloggers who cannot deliver the quality services they claim to know how to end up losing the extra income source and the entire platform.
If you feel you have cracked WordPress to the marrow, you can start a consulting business on the content management system.
Obviously, writing and editing skills are needed for blogging, which is why you can help companies to curate content for their own websites.
You can become a copywriter, designer, SEO expert, or even cook for hire. Well, if you run a food-focused publication, it makes sense to know how to cook what you blog about for people when they need it.
You can leverage Freelancing service like Fiverr to kick start your Freelancing service.
8. Create Premium Plugins
Does this option seem to light your wake more? If yes, it is probably because you know your way around PHP and the version control system.
With skills like these well-honed, you can make money online creating plugins and selling them.
But don't fret; one doesn't need to be an expert coder before creating this income stream. You should be able to get started with a basic understanding of plugins and how they can help the online presence of businesses.
The WordPress Plugin Directory is a great place to find all kinds of functions that can be added to websites. If you know what people are on the lookout for or need to scale their sites, you've basically found a way to generate funds.
It is hard to find just the plugin one is looking for nowadays. Some needs can't be found anywhere. Perhaps hundreds of other people are looking for the same thing. That's already a market.
9. Sell Ads To Advertisers
Thanks to AdSense and other display ad networks, you can find Ads best suited to appear on your blog.
That way, you make money by just being a conduit between companies and their clients. You don't need to know anyone from Amazon or Upwork before you can earn more this way.
You could have started blogging about SEO products for a while and done the job so well that thousands of people hang on your every word. Although, when you sell ads, display ad networks take a cut from what advertisers pay you.
So, one way to make money blogging and have more control over the ads appearing on your site at the same time is removing the middleman from the picture.
That means, rather than going through places like Apple Advertising and Epom, you can sell those ads directly to the advertisers that need them.
Like what some accomplished bloggers do with sponsored posts, the best way to milk this opportunity is by creating an Advertise page that gives details about your traffic. If the numbers are great, advertisers will approach you.
10. Build The Blog, Then Sell
According to Stephen Covey, “one habit of highly effective people is beginning with the end in mind.”
It is not uncommon for a simple WordPress blog to be built into a frequently read, authority-like platform to be bought by someone else who sees an opportunity to make money from it.
Case in point: in 2016, WPLift, a well-known WordPress blog was sold for more than USD 205 K.
In August 2019, Automattic—WordPress' parent company—bought blogging platform Tumblr for about $1.1 billion. Though that acquisition entails more than taking control of another firm's back end, it is a sign that the blogging industry's $400 billion worth isn't hogwash.
If your blog has reached a stage where it can be sold, considering the idea won't exactly land you in a terrible place.
If you think the WordPress platform will become a viable business and a tremendous investment opportunity in the future, you can build to sell.
One needs to be intentional about creating value. Someone won't want to buy your blog if it's filled with only dry gossip and tweet-based discussions.
Rather than transplanting ideas and copying the competition, build a unique blog, you can exit someday with a fat sum of money in your bank account.
A profitable and reputable media outfit will eventually catch someone's enterprising attention, but you can hunt for buyers via third-party marketplaces like Flippa and Empire Flippers.
Final Thoughts
Not all these ways to make money blogging apply to your situation. You can mix some things up and match them to create a more diversified income stream.
Should you depend on a single method to profit off your media efforts, you could inadvertently shrink your opportunities and stop the platform from constantly appreciating.
What happens when that method stops working? Of course, you need a Plan B. If you didn't have alternatives in the pipeline all this while, it might be difficult to keep the publication alive—let alone making a living from it.
If you promote affiliate links, do some AdSense, run an online course, write an eBook every once in a while and sell ads, it will become easier for your business to triple in financial value overnight.
Until we meet again at the next digital rendezvous. Good luck in your respective ventures.