Update: 3/13/17: Ever wish you had a cheat sheet to help you build your blog the right way? Not an overwhelming book, just an easy to follow guide that tells you what you need to do next? You can get one for FREE here! https://www.busybudgeter.com/blogging-offer

How do Bloggers Make Money?

I get asked “How do bloggers make money?”, almost every day. It’s currently the most popular question in my inbox. Which isn't surprising, because I’m very open about the fact that I started blogging 19 months ago and grew from $18/month to full-time income.

The next obvious question is always, “How do bloggers make money?”.

So, Let’s address that!

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Bloggers make money in several different ways. But all of the ways that you can earn money from blogging come from being an influencer. That means that people read what you write, are interested in what you have to say and trust your opinion.

It’s kind of like being a celebrity but only to the people that read your blog.

It all comes down to trust and platform.

Your platform is how many readers you have and how much they trust your opinion.

A reader may be someone (like you) who just reads an article they see on social media (like Pinterest) or someone that subscribes to your newsletter (a subscriber is a more engaged reader).

Unlike a celebrity, who most of us only like because of the way that they look or portray our favorite character, a blogger has a following because people are learning something from her. Either how she handles her family or her money, or whatever she writes about.

A blogger invites you into a section of her life and you end up knowing her as well as many of your friends.

You can help a lot of people by blogging.

I blog about budgeting specifically for people that weren’t born organized and that struggle with work/life balance and saving money. I was in their shoes a few years ago, and I fought tooth and nail to dig myself out of debt, gain control of my spending, start a budget and establish routines that make my life easier.

On The Busy Budgeter, I teach people how to do just that.

The golden rule of blogging.

The golden rule of earning money from blogging is to never endorse or promote a product that you wouldn't enthusiastically promote to your best friend. If you follow that rule, you’ll be just fine.

If you already know how bloggers make money and just need to know how to start a blog, you can find a step by step guide to starting a blog (even when you aren’t great with computers!) right here.

The Five Ways that Bloggers Make Money

Ad Income

When you own your own website, you can sell advertising on it. In the beginning, this is a small amount of money but as your reach grows and you get more pageviews, you’ll get accepted into better ad networks and make money based on how many page views you get.

Currently, I’m with Adthrive and make about $11 for every 1,000 people that visit my site. Since I get about 350,000 pageviews a month right now, that’s about $3,850/month (although it varies month to month).

Sponsored Posts

A sponsored post is a post that a business or company pays you to write. Usually, a blogger already has an idea. Like, when Dave Ramsey (augh! DAVE RAMSEY! I love him!) came out with EveryDollar, his budgeting app. I reached out to see if he wanted to sponsor a post on The Busy Budgeter and he did.

It’s a win/win for everyone. I get paid to write about something that I love and am excited to share, he gets his product out to my readers as well as his own and the reader gets an inside look at a new budgeting tool.

Always follow the golden rule and only promote things that you would enthusiastically tell your best friend about.

In the beginning, your sponsored post may not be paid in cash at all, it may be a free product you receive to give an honest opinion of. You can learn more about my sponsored post strategy here.

Affiliate Income

Affiliate income is by far my favorite source of income in blogging. What's your favorite product in the world? I mean the WORLD? The thing that your friends can’t get you to stop talking about? Blogging means that you can make money from telling people about it.

I found a cookbook in the library 5 years ago, and it taught me how to cook. I mean, I was hopeless and it really taught me from the basics. I mentioned it in a blog post and now sell about 30 a month. The company that sells the cookbook gives me a small percentage of the sale amount without changing the price for the reader.

Another win-win-win. The company sells more books, I get paid to endorse something I love, and the reader gets a solution to a problem she struggles with.

Almost every product or service in the world has an affiliate program if they don't, then I reach out to them to see if they would like to create one.

The answer is almost always yes.

Again, if you only recommend things that you’d enthusiastically tell your best friend about, then you’ll likely make a lot of money blogging because you build up that trust.

Products

You can also create your own products and services to sell yourself. To me, this has the most risk involved in it, since a great product usually requires either a lot of money or a lot of time to create.

I prefer affiliates, but your own products have the most potential for long-term earning. You can sell a course, a book, a physical product (like t-shirts) or pretty much anything you can think of.

Services

You can also sell a service like one-on-one coaching or group coaching. If you write about home decor, you could sell designer consultations etc. If you write about finances, you can offer CPA sessions, if you write about blogging, you can offer coaching to help start a blog.

That’s how bloggers make money in a nutshell.

What would you blog about?

Want to know how to start a blog? I have step by step easy instructions laid out for you here.

FTC Disclosure of Material Connection: In order for us to maintain this website, some of the links in the post above may be affiliate links. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and/or believe will add value to readers.