Bloggers can make money using a multitude of different strategies. Some require more effort than others. Most blog income streams rely on precarious conditions, such as search engine algorithms and brand budgets. Hence, it’s highly recommended that you diversify your revenue by choosing multiple methods.
Brand Partnerships
Bloggers often team up with brands to create sponsored content. This usually entails having to review a specific product or incorporate a product mention into your regular content.
Brand partnerships can be one-off deals or turn into long-term relationships based on your content’s performance and mutual interest.
Advertising Networks
Advertising networks will pay you to either run ads on your blog or when someone clicks on an ad. They can even pay you for both. Certain networks require you to have a pretty hefty amount of monthly views in order to run ads, whereas others have no minimum view count requirements.
Affiliate Links or Codes
Bloggers can join what are known as affiliate networks. Affiliate networks allow you to generate unique links to products that you talk about on your blog to help you earn a commission when someone makes a purchase.
Affiliate codes work similarly to links in that you earn a small commission when someone makes a purchase. Brands may give you a unique code for your readers to enter at checkout when they shop online, and you can promote this code throughout your content to drive sales.
Digital Products
If you want to sell products without the logistical hassle of coordinating packing and shipping, digital products might be a better fit. Digital products are a relatively low-effort, inexpensive way to create products that your audience wants to buy. Most digital products can be accessed or downloaded by your customers immediately after purchase.
Some examples of digital products you can sell include but are not limited to:
- Printables. These can be anything from calendars and lesson plans to budgeting sheets.
- Online courses. You can use a platform such as Teachable to create more detailed lessons or tutorials than what your blog provides.
- E-books. An e-book is usually a self-written, self-published title that comes in PDF form.
Physical Products
Your blog can be used to sell physical products, too—whether you already sell things on another channel or want to create entirely new ones.
You can insert links to any existing products you sell into your blog posts. You can create merchandise that aligns with your content and audience. For example, if you have a fashion blog, you can sell items such as T-shirts, hats or tote bags with your blog’s logo.
Premium Content or Memberships
Blogs are free to read, but you can put exclusive content behind a paywall to create an additional revenue stream. Dedicated readers or fans will then need to pay for access to read it.
Some platforms help creators host subscriber-exclusive content. You can also use these platforms to create memberships, where your readers pay a recurring monthly fee to access premium content.
Consulting or Coaching
Your blog is a great source of free information, but your readers might be interested in learning more from you. If you start getting requests for specific advice or guidance, that’s a good sign that you’d be able to earn money through one-on-one consulting or coaching sessions.
Get going
Starting a blog can be enlightening, fun and a profitable way to connect with others. Maintaining a blog requires wearing a lot of hats, but if you’re up for learning and growing through an ever-changing medium, you’ll likely see fulfillment and success.