So you have a blog! That in itself is a pretty big feat since most people don't even make it this far. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back!

As you build your blog and, more importantly, your audience, you have undoubtedly thought about how to make money from your blog. Perhaps this is why you started your blog in the first place or maybe you’ve had your blog for a while and only now realize that blog monetization is a great next step for you.

Either way, you’ve come to the right place! As it turns out, there are a multitude of methods and ideas related to how to monetize a blog. And while there are probably more methods than you could count, here’s an organized list of the top ways so that you can decide what is best for you.

How to Monetize a Blog

Of all of the ways to make money with your blog, there are essentially two basic categories that these fall into. Either other people or businesses pay you to promote their stuff or your readers — the visitors to your blog — pay you directly for stuff you are selling.

Both of these are great ways to reach your ultimate goal of blog monetization, so the choice is up to you. Here’s a rundown of your options.

Other People or Businesses Pay You to Promote Their Stuff

It seems that everybody is selling something online, and they are all looking for an audience of people to sell to. That’s where you come in: you have an audience.

Here are four great ways to get other people to pay you for your audience:

#1 - Advertising Networks

This is probably the most straightforward way of making money from your blog. You can sign up with an ad network, drop a little bit of code on your site and they will automatically start placing ads on your pages.

How it Works

You can choose the types of ads these networks place on your site. They can be display ads (think banner ads and images) or text ads (kind of like the ads that show up at the top of Google search results). And you can put them in lots of different places on your site, such as the sidebar or at the top or bottom of your post content.

The networks typically look at your site content and attempt to provide relevant ads to what you are blogging about (though it doesn’t always work perfectly).

Advertising networks allow you to make money based either on the number of times that people click on the ads (known as “pay per click” or PPC advertising) or the number of times the ads are shown to people (sometimes referred to as “cost per mile” advertising (weird, right?).

The most popular advertising network is Google AdSense. But you do have to apply and there’s always a chance Google will reject you. As alternatives, you can also look into Chitika, Clicksor and BidVertiser.

#2 - Advertising Space (You Sell)

Advertising networks are easy and great, but they make most of the money since they really only pay you a small percentage of the total cost of the ad. That’s why another great method of monetizing a blog is advertising that you sell yourself, cutting out the middleman.

How it Works

You would need to designate places on your site pages to place the ads. Then, you should find some advertisers who might be interested in paying you to put the ads on your blog.

It is best to seek out advertisers who closely align with the message or topic of your blog. This will provide better ad content to your readers and will be very appealing to the advertiser because, in theory, the types of people reading your blog are already in their target audience. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Some bloggers sell the ads based on the number of clicks, like the PPC model above. Others simply sell the ad space for a period of time. For example, you can agree on a price for one month of ad placement in the top area of your right sidebar.

As you might imagine, the biggest barrier to this method is actually finding the advertisers. But for many bloggers, you may already have a relationship or even use this as yet another networking opportunity. Plus, these relationships can lead to some of the other ways to monetize your blog below.

A good place to start is a marketplace for these relationships like BuySellAds.

#3 - Affiliate Programs

Advertising is just a small part of monetizing a blog. Maybe it’s that advertising isn’t your thing. Or maybe you want to make more money than the advertising allows and are looking for how to monetize a blog without ads. That’s where affiliate marketing comes in.

How it Works

With affiliate marketing programs, you link to other products or services from your blog with a specially-formatted link that the affiliate program provides you. When a reader clicks on the link to go to the affiliate website and completes a sale, you get a commission. Think of it as a digital finder’s fee.

You can put the links within your posts or create your own “ads” for your sidebar. But the most popular way to do affiliate marketing is to write reviews of products (make them honest reviews!) and then link to the product with your affiliate link.

Here's a helpful graphic from the Amazon Affiliate program that explains how affiliate marketing works in a nutshell:

For example, someone with a mom blog could write a post about her favorite stroller. She could list the pros and cons as well as her tips for how to use it. And the post can link to the stroller sales page on Amazon. If readers go to the Amazon link from the mom blog, the blogger gets a percentage of the sale. In fact, with Amazon, you get a commission for anything that person buys in the same transaction, not just that one item you linked to.

The Amazon Affiliate program is a good place to start. But there are literally thousands of sites that offer affiliate programs. Try searching Google for your primary area of expertise and include the word “affiliate” in the search terms as a way to get started.

#4 - Sponsored Posts and Reviews

By the time you have reached a good size audience for your blog’s niche, you will likely have become an authority figure in the area. That’s great because now advertisers and product makers will see your blog as the perfect spot to promote their products through sponsored posts or product reviews.

How it Works

In this scenario, someone pays you to write a blog post. As a sponsored post, it could simply be about a certain subject and you mention in the post that it was “brought to you by XX.”

In the case of reviews, a company might send you a product for which you can in turn write an honest review. Sometimes you can keep the product and sometimes you can get paid to write the review.

Just remember, it is always a good idea (and often legally required) to disclose that a post is being sponsored or part of a paid review.

As with advertising you might sell on your site, this method is going to take a little legwork on your end to reach out to potential companies and offer your audience to them through a sponsored post or review.

Your Readers Pay You for YOUR Stuff

The first four methods for monetizing a blog involve other people paying you to essentially “rent” space on your blog in one way or another. But what if you could get paid to blog without them? That’s where these next three ideas come in. With these, you’ll be able to think of ways you can sell directly to your readers, often resulting in far better margins than other methods.

#5 - Sell Your Products (E-Books)

Once you have a blog and an audience that reads it on a regular basis, you may be in the perfect position to begin creating products and selling them.

How it Works

While your product could be any number of things, an easy one to get started with is e-book creation. With this, you create an e-book which can typically just be a nice looking multi-page PDF file. The book could be about your blog topic in some way or perhaps your guide to solving a common problem.

You can also combine existing blog posts into a longer e-book and sell it, effectively repurposing the content you have already worked so hard on. Tools like beacon.by are a great start for this.

Of course, you will need to implement ways to actually sell the e-book (or any other product for that matter). Check out tools like Gumroad and Sellfy to get started.

#6 - Sell Your Services

Now that you’ve been blogging for a while and are an expert in your field, another great way to generate money with your blog is to use it to sell services that you can provide.

How it Works

Think of something that you can offer to your readers as a service. It could be an online course. Or maybe private coaching. No matter what it is, your blog can provide the sales leads for your service business.

Remember that ad space (see #2 above) we talked about selling to others? In this scenario, you give that space to yourself to promote your services. Only this time you get to see all of the money and not just a pay per click fee.

There are a lot of directions this can take, but consider looking into Digital Chalk if you want to get started with an online course or good ‘ol Paypal to collect money for your private coaching.

#7 - Promote Your Existing Business

You might not need to create anything at all if you already have a business in place. In this case, you can use your blog to promote that existing business and reap the rewards.

How it Works

Think about what your business sells and how your blog can relate to that. Use blog posts to answer common questions your customers may have. Or write about the problems they may have in their everyday lives. Think of it this way: what might people search for online and what can you write to provide them with that answer?

Be sure that all of your blog posts include a clear call-to-action that is relevant to the post so that it doesn’t feel out of place and is a natural progression for someone reading what you’ve just written. Buttons tend to work really well for this, so be sure you have a great blog theme or plugin like those at Thrive Themes that allow you to easily include nice looking call-to-actions in your posts.

The monetization looks a bit different in this method. In this case, your blog is providing indirect value to you as it builds up your existing business. But nonetheless, it should prove to be a very worthwhile addition to your monetization strategy.

So Which Method Is Best?

Well, that is largely up to you, your audience and how much work you want to put into it. But the best part is that you can apply any combination of these to create a money-making powerhouse of a blog (just be careful not to get too greedy so that readers see that your blog is only focused on making money and not helping them).

Whichever method you choose, be sure to stick with it. There are very few overnight successes in the world, so be sure to not get discouraged if the money doesn’t come pouring in on day one. But with a little effort and a continued focus on providing the best content possible to your readers, you’ll be well on your way to monetizing your blog!

Let’s face it: blogging is kind of fun. You get to write about things that interest you and, for many, it is a fantastic creative outlet. Even though blogging can be a very personal thing, why not try to make a bit of money.

This article will walk you through five common ways that people have found related to how to get paid for blogging. Hopefully at least one will be a great fit for you!

Method #1: Write Blog Posts to Sell Online

If you are reading this and have a passion for blogging, it may come as a surprise to you that not everyone shares your gift. Instead, some people simply buy prewritten blog posts and use them as their own.

While this is not a terribly creative way to get content for a blog, it can be a profitable way for you to get paid to write blogs. There are several content sites where you can write blog posts and then people can buy the rights to use them. You don’t always get the credit for writing because the person buying the post will often claim that they wrote it, but you’re probably not writing these articles for fame anyway.

For example, at Constant Content, you submit articles and blog posts into a marketplace where people who are looking for posts for their sites can buy them. You get paid through Paypal and Constant Content gets 35% commission.

Method #2: Write for an Article Site

As a sort of “step up” from writing articles and selling them online, there are even more marketplaces that people who need content go to to find what they are looking for. They will typically write a description of the article that they need and the site will, in turn, send this information out to writers who write the content.

Payment typically comes in the form of a set amount per word. Of course, the article site gets most of the money, though.

Again, Constant Content provides services like this but there are plenty of others that you should check out, such as Media Shower, ArticleBunny and Textbroker.

Method #3: Become a Freelance Writer

Another option in the bucket of writing things for others is freelancing. This differs from the first two methods above because you typically end up working directly with the end client, rather than going through an article writing site.

In this case, people who are looking for writers will post the jobs to sites like Odesk and Upwork. As the writer, you can then offer a proposal to do the work. All of the correspondence is between you and the client, not through a third party (though these sites usually have protections in place to reduce fraud).

Of these first three methods for getting paid to blog, freelancing is probably the one that will be the most successful for you in the long term and is where you are going to find the best paying blog sites. But don’t completely discount writing for another site at first, especially as they are a great way to build your portfolio.

That said, there are still some concerns to keep in mind when it comes to being a freelance blogger. This infographic from 24Seven Talent can help you think of the pros and cons:

Method #4: Look for Blogs That Pay Guest Posters or Writers

While being a writer for hire is going to make you money, it is probably not the main reason you are doing this. True, you do get to write, but it doesn’t advance your name in the blogging world and does nothing to build up your own blog’s traffic. That’s where paid guest posting comes in.

There are plenty of sites that are looking for quality content and will pay for it. But the benefits to you are greater than the money because you can get your name out there and, if included naturally in the post, you might get a link back to your own blog. Writing a couple of these could quickly set you on your own path to becoming a big name in blogging for your niche.

To find these, try to think of the best news sites and blogs in your area of expertise. Then search to see if they have a paid contributor program. On average, you will be looking at $100 or more per submission. Not too bad!

Method #5: Monetize Your Own Blog

Writing for other people is great, but you probably became a blogger to write for yourself in the first place. That’s why the best way to get paid to blog is to start your own blog for money.

There are plenty of ways to monetize your blog, including advertising, affiliate product links and selling your own things like e-books, consulting or other products.

In these cases, you aren’t necessarily being paid to blog as much as your blog posts are supporting other income streams.

Conclusion

Whichever method you choose, it is certainly possible to get paid to write blogs. And the best part is that you can pick multiple ways so that you increase your income overall. Take a minute today to get started by signing up for one of the article sites and then stick with it. Before long, you will have made a name for yourself and will be on your way to making a living through writing blogs.

Blogging is a great way to express your thoughts, feelings and ideas for the world to see. But blogging can also be a great way to make money. If you don't already have a blog and are looking for how to start a blog to make money, this quick guide is for you. Just follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way.

Step 1: Pick a Niche

Before you can begin to blog you will need to know what you are going to be writing about. Maybe you have a passion that would make a good theme for the blog. Or perhaps you are an expert in something or have a business and want to write about your field.

Keep in mind that you are going to be writing about this topic for a while. So be sure to choose something that you won’t get tired of easily.

Regardless of what you choose, be sure to spend some time defining what you want the overall theme of the blog to be about before you dive into the rest.

Step 2: Set Up Your Blog

This step probably goes without saying. After all, if you are starting a blog to make money, you need a blog, right?!?

But don’t overlook this step because it is an important part of the process. Setting up your blog the right way the first time will ensure that you are optimized in the future so that the money will come more easily.

If you are looking for the actual steps to starting the blog itself, check out our guide to starting a blog. And also be sure to check out the beginning blogger mistakes that you will want to avoid at all cost.

Step 3: Write!

Like these guys...

Setting up the actual nuts and bolts of the blog is just part of the story. Next, you’ll need to do some writing, and lots of it.

When writing your blog, try to be as authentic as you can. Even though you are about to start a blog for money, you certainly don't want your readers to also come to that realization.

In fact, this is one of the biggest mistakes that people make. New bloggers start thinking about how much money they are going to make with their blog. But if you look at most of the successful bloggers out there, they started their blogs because they had a passion and wanted to bring value to the web on a particular subject.

Instead of thinking what you are going to name your yacht, first think about how you are going to provide value to your readers. This is the only way that people are going to keep reading your blog, and of course, contribute to you making money.

All that said, you should still be smart about how you write. Take time to optimize your posts for SEO and keywords so that they can get the most traffic. Research what people are searching for and bring value to those searches.

Step 4: Build an Audience and Keep Them

In short: you can’t make money without people to read your blog. Therefore, your focus should be on those people at all times. You need a plan.

There are plenty of guides out there to help you get noticed and get people to visit your blog. Blogtrepreneur’s 4 Potent Ways to Promote Your Blog is one you should check out.

But in the interest of summarizing all of this for you, here are a few items to add to your checklist as you get started.

Write More Content

In general, more content equals more traffic. Plus, Google gives sites with the most up-to-date content preferential treatment in the search results.

Get Social

If you don't already have a presence on social media platforms, now’s the time to do it. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great for building a following quickly and then cross promoting your blog.

Write Guest Posts

Find other blogs that could be related to yours and offer to write a guest post. Likewise, offer your blog up to other trusted bloggers for them to write guest posts. This builds your network and helps to drive traffic.

Build Your Mailing List

In many ways, email remains the best online marketing tool. Capitalize on that yourself by making sure you have the tools in place to get people to join your list. Once you have a list, no matter how small, send relevant, helpful content to your subscribers.

Of course, building your audience is only part of the picture. Once you have people visiting your blog, you need to keep them engaged and coming back.

If you are writing content that people want to read, there will undoubtedly be people with questions. And any time you have an audience of involved readers, you are going to find people who disagree with you. These are both good indications that people are reading what you are writing and you are making them think.

Enable Comments

Make sure you have the commenting feature turned on for your blog. Allowing people to agree or disagree with your posts gives them an opportunity to become invested in what you have written and gives them another excuse to keep coming back.

Respond Quickly

Make a point to respond to as many comments publicly as you can. This shows you are authentic and it will keep people coming back. After all, more traffic typically means more money!

Step 5: Pick a Way (or Ways) to Monetize Your Blog

When starting a blog to make money, the blog itself is really only half the battle. Once you have your content and readers in place, you will need to decide how you plan on making money.

There are plenty of ways to use your blog for income. Some ideas are below; as you read them, keep in mind that you can use multiple methods to increase your income.

Advertising

Using tools like Google AdSense you can place ads on your site and get paid when your readers click the ads.

Affiliate Programs

You can use your blog to promote products and services. These could be items from Amazon or even individual products and services that others in your industry provide. (Tip: Search Google for your blog’s topic and add the word affiliate at the end. The results should show you any affiliate opportunities you might consider.)

E-Books

You can easily turn your ideas into content that is typically longer than a standard blog post, produce a PDF file and sell it on your website. This is a fantastic way to repurpose older content and a great way to show off your expertise.

Membership

You can set up a membership-only section of your site and sell subscriptions to visitors. Maybe this area provides premium content, an exclusive members forum or special access to you to answer questions. This is a great way to set up recurring revenue, but be sure that people keep getting value for the money they pay so they keep paying you.

Consulting

If you have built a good audience and are seen by your readers as an authority on the topic at hand, chances are pretty good that consulting may work for you. Think of how you could provide one-on-one help or advice to people and then offer a way for them to contact you to set up a consulting agreement with either a one-time payment or recurring payments over a period of time.

Conclusion

Hopefully you have seen here that there’s not too much to it when you start a blog for money. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take hard work and dedication. Be sure to keep your focus throughout the process and keep your eye on your goals and, in time, you should be able to reap your blogging rewards!

You’ve subscribed to the blogs. You’ve read the success stories. It seems that everyone is starting a blog these days and so many of these bloggers are blogging for income and lots are successful.

Do you want to make an income from your blog? So many people make it look easy, but do you even know where to start? And how do you do it while also loving the work. After all, that’s why you want to get into this anyway--to enjoy what you are doing.

You’re not alone. While so many people have been jumping onto the blogging bandwagon over the past few years, actually knowing how to make money blogging is not as straightforward as you might hope. But luckily, we’ve prepared this guide for you to walk you through the steps you need to take and you’ll soon be blogging for cash.

First Things First

Before we get into this, I want to mention something that I tell all aspiring bloggers that ask me how to make money from blogging.

It is so easy to get caught up with the idea of making money with a blog. When I was getting started, my mind kept jumping to things like:

How should I decorate my home office once I am able to quit my job and blog full time?

Where will I take my kids on vacation once we have all this extra cash?

What color yacht should I get?

Can you blame me? With seemingly so much money out there, it was easy for me to get caught up in the ideas of what could be.

But in the back of my head, I always knew the reality that there are very few overnight successes in the world, blogging included.

I’m not trying to be a party pooper here, but I think it is important to know that creating a successful blog that makes money takes time. This is important for two reasons:

1. You must set realistic expectations so that you don’t get discouraged.
2. Because of this, you need to pick a blog topic that you are passionate about so that you don't get burnt out over time.

OK, public service announcements aside, let’s get to the meat of things.

Pick a Topic for Your Blog

This might be too rudimentary, but I think it is one of the most important parts of this whole thing. But, you can’t have a blog without a topic and you can’t make money blogging without a blog!

The topic or theme for your blog sets the tone for all of your posts. It can be broad or narrow (but not too broad or too narrow!).

And hopefully, it will be something of interest to you. You can research and plan and look for the most profitable niche out there with the greatest potential for income, but if you think it is boring, you won’t be as successful as you could be if you chose a topic you are interested in.

When you love the topic you are talking about, people will feel it in your words. They will more inclined to believe you are an expert in the field and will be more willing to trust you with your blog monetization strategy (we’ll get into that a bit later!).

Maybe you already have a great topic or maybe you are just thinking it through. Either way, here’s a list of things to consider when deciding on the topic for your blog.

• Does this topic interest me?
• Am I passionate about this?
• Do other people consider me an expert in this area?
• If I wrote about this every day, would it still be interesting to me?
• Can I think of 50 post ideas in 20 minutes or less?*

If you answered YES to all of those questions, you are heading in the right direction and are certainly going to love what you do! If you answered NO to any of the questions, you don’t have to start over, but at least take a moment to think things through and proceed with caution.

* By the way, do you see what you did there with the 50 post ideas? You just built out your weekly posting calendar for a whole year! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Build Your Blog With Monetization in Mind

Once you have your topic, the next step is actually building your blog and starting to write. While you won’t start making money right away, it is a good idea to keep your monetization strategy in the back of your mind.

A lot of this will be driven by the types of posts and content that make the most sense for your blog topic.

For example, if you are a mom and plan to write about all of the great toddler toys that are out there, you probably are going to want your blog to have a good system in place to write reviews of products, to share photos, to maybe sell ads or even offer up an e-book. But you probably won’t need the ability to easily sell your consulting services since that’s not something as valuable to your blog’s niche.

So as you think through the setup of your blog, keep all of this in mind so you have an idea going forward and don't have to adjust too much along the way.

Set Up Your Blog

This isn’t a tutorial about how to set up a blog. In fact, there are plenty of guides out there about how to start a blog, but I do want to touch on a few important points that help with how to make money blogging. (Also, be sure to check out our quick guide to starting a blog to make money.)

Get Your Own Web Host and Use WordPress
(the .org one, not the .com one)

• “Free” or paid blogging services can make it really hard or even impossible to make money with your blog, so we want to steer clear of these.
• There are plenty of blogging platforms out there but WordPress seems to be the most versatile for what we’re trying to do here.
• And you will want to host your site on your own server, not the service that WordPress itself offers. Essentially, don’t go to wordpress.com to set up your blog. Rather, do it through your web host’s setup process, such as through Hostgator.

Use a WordPress Theme That Works Best for Your Blog Strategy

• There are about a bazillion WordPress themes out there, so don’t get caught up looking for the “perfect” one.
• Instead, pick a theme that is popular so that you know lots of people have found success with it and then stick with it.
• Again, think about what you want to accomplish with your blog and the types of posts you plan on writing. Make sure that your theme, at a basic level, will be able to support these.

Make It Pretty But Don't Obsess

• Just like it is easy to get bogged down with looking for a WordPress theme, you can later get too far into the weeds when working to customize your theme.
• You want your blog to be aesthetically pleasing, but don’t sweat over every little detail. After all, changing a header color from dark purple to darker purple probably isn’t going to change your blog income that much.
• Once your content is flowing and the site is up and running, you can always make the little tweaks later.

Optimize for Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is so important to a blog, especially when you are focused on blogging for an income. There’s enough content on the Internet about SEO to—well—fill the Internet. But at a minimum, you should do the following:

• Get a good WordPress SEO plugin like the one from Yoast.
• Using that plugin, make sure that every post and page on your site has optimized titles and descriptions, and there are no SEO red flags.

Write Your Heart Out — Be Authentic

Aside from the potential for money, this is the part that probably gets you the most jazzed in this whole endeavor: writing. If you did a good job of picking your blog’s main topic, then the writing should come naturally to you and even be fun or therapeutic.

Write Good Great Content

You will want to make sure that you are writing great posts that people want to read.

What is missing from the Internet when you do a Google search for your topic? Write about that and fill in those holes. See something else that someone has written but could be better. Be that person to make it better.

Are you reviewing a product? Write the best, most comprehensive, review there is.

Making a list of resources? Make it the longest list imaginable and leave no stone unturned as you populate that list.

Essentially, be a good Internet citizen, tidy up a bit, and leave the place better than you found it.

Determine Your Plans for How to Make Money From Blogging

As you might imagine, there are loads of ways to make money with your blog. But among all of these, there are basically two ways to do it:

• you either promote or sell other people's stuff
• or, you promote or sell your own stuff

Of course, these can be broken down a lot more (see below), but in essence, you are doing one of these when you set out to monetize a blog.

It’s also important to point out that for most of these methods, your blog is supporting your income. In all areas except direct advertising or sponsored posts, the blog is more or less what attracts people to you and then the selling comes secondary.

Furthermore, know that you don’t have to just pick one method. In fact, take a look at any popular blog out there--they probably use multiple income streams within the same blog to capitalize on things the best way possible. (But keep in mind that you want to do this within reason--you don’t want every square inch of your blog to be dripping with monetization offers and ads.)

You might want to check out this video from Shannyn at Frugal Beautiful where she quickly covers the big ways to make money as a blogger:

Advertising On Your Blog

Running ads on a web page is about as old as the web itself. Remember those old popup ads and flashy banners? Yuck!

Luckily, today’s ads are typically better looking than they were several years ago. (Don’t believe me? Check out Million Dollar Homepage.) And they are optimized for the content of the site they appear on or, sometimes, for the end viewer looking at the ad. The whole idea is to make the ads relevant to people.

Advertising on your blog is probably the easiest and more straightforward way to generate income blogging. But can also be the way to make your pages messy and full of superfluous things that your reader just may not be interested in.

Google AdSense is an easy way to get started with this and is probably going to be the most familiar to you. But’s it’s probably also not going to be your best moneymaker. These ads are competitive and don't typically pay that much in the long run, especially when you think about the fact that you are just starting out and simply aren’t going to have tens of thousands of visitors every month in the beginning.

Ad Networks To Consider:

You might also want to look into these ad directory networks:

Advice:

Private Ads on Blogs

While “ads are ads,” private ads are a bit of a step up from network ads because they are a bit more niche. The best part is that you don't have to go through an ad network to sell the ad space. That could mean more money for you.

There are a couple of ways to make money with private ads:

If you can swing it, I would recommend selling ads for a certain period of time. It is just easier to manage that way and less work for you in the end.

But to do this, you need to be sure that you have a good amount of traffic in place so that you can be a valuable ad placement for your ad client.

This method of ad sales is also more work than the automated stuff you get from Google. But of course more work typically means more money for you in the long run, so it is likely worth it.

The extra work comes in the form of networking. You are going to have to reach out to potential advertisers and sell your ad space to them. But, as you might imagine, it all comes back to content — if you have good content and are getting traffic to your site, your ad space is going to be appealing to someone.

Advice:

Sponsored Posts, Giveaways and Paid Reviews on Blogs

Is there a company or individual who closely ties in with your blog’s main subject? What about a product that would be perfect for your key audience? Then perhaps a sponsored post, giveaway or paid review is the best way for you to make money with your blog.

A sponsored post is essentially just a blog post that someone pays you to write on your own blog. A lot of times they can be used by these companies as PR initiatives or ways to promote some work they are doing. Whichever the reason, they can be a great revenue stream because you can charge what you want (and feel is fair) while still pretty much writing about what you want (unless the sponsor has paid to give you direction).

Also note that blogs are the only place where this works. In traditional media, these are called "native advertising" and result in big bucks for well known websites like Huffington Post, The New York Times and even BuzzFeed.

Paid reviews come into play when a company wants to promote a product or service. They generally pay you to write an honest review of the product. Sometimes you can even keep the product.

Giveaways are great because they can really engage your audience while also making you money. Essentially, a company will give you one or more of their products to give away to your subscribers. You can do it through a blog post, social media campaign or to your email list. These are fantastic because they are a win for everyone:

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Using Affiliate Marketing to Make Money Blogging

Affiliate marketing is just the online term for commission or “finder’s fee.” But it can be an oh-so-great way of generating income for your blog.

To do affiliate marketing, you can find products and services that closely align with your niche or that you feel would be of interest to your readers. Then, just write a review of that product and link to the affiliate’s website with your special tracking code. If the person buys you get a commission.

But you can also do it on the individual post level. Is there a particular product that closely pairs with that blog post you just wrote? Then drop an affiliate link on the post.

Probably the biggest affiliate program that bloggers use is through Amazon Affiliates. Since they sell everything “from A to Z,” it is typically really easy to find products that your readers would find interesting.

And the best part is that if someone clicks your link and then makes a purchase on Amazon — any purchase that is — you get a commission. So if you are reviewing a book, someone clicks the link and then makes a purchase on Amazon, you get the commission for the entire purchase. BUT, if they also buy a lawn mower, you get the commission for the lawn mower too.

Amazon isn’t the only player in the affiliate space. A ton of online stores have affiliate programs. As do online services. Try searching Google for your site’s topic along with the words affiliate program and you will be surprised at how many affiliate programs pop up.

You can even make up affiliate programs with individuals and small companies. You can work out a program so that if they get a new customer as the result of your blog, you get a commission from them. Just be sure to set it all up on the front side of things to avoid any confusion later.

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Make Something and Sell It

While using your blog to promote other people’s products is great, what is even better is promoting your own stuff.

Of course, you just have to make something first. But it can be anything.

E-books are an easy way to get into the world of selling your own stuff. You can produce yours with a simple word processor and then sell it on your site using a tool like Gumroad. Typically, e-books are longer than the average blog post. But they work because if you have a loyal audience who wants to read more of what you are writing and you have something valuable to give them, you can put it all in an e-book to sell.

Consulting works as a service as well. This is the perfect tie-in to a blog because you have already done the legwork to set yourself up as an expert. People will read your blog and think, “boy, does this guy have things figured out!” And then they will want to pay you for your time to give them advice. Like many things on this list, consulting takes time to establish yourself, but once you do it can become a very lucrative business that is built up by your blog.

Membership Communities are sort of like a quasi-outsourced form of consulting. Basically, you can charge people to be in an exclusive community on your site. They then have a group of like-minded people — and you — to ask questions and bounce ideas off of. The great part is that, while you need to be present to make this valuable for people, many of the questions will be self-answered by the group. How’s that for a passive income?

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Final Thoughts

This post has been all about making money with your blog. But, you can also get paid to blog for other people as well. We have a great guide that lays out 5 Ways to Get Paid to Blog. I think the most important part is the end of the title: And love what you do!

Blogging is different from other forms of written media. It is more personal and casual. And it can happen faster than, say, a book. It is more raw.

That’s why so many people turn to blogging. For most, it is a creative outlet, a way for them to record their thoughts and speak their mind.

In fact, I would venture to guess that most people who start blogging never plan or even try to make money with their blogs. They are simply doing it for other reasons.

The reasons these other folks blog should be similar to your reasons. That should be your first goal — to fulfill whatever you have in you that is compelling you to take up blogging.

But you have the upper hand on all of those other people. You are smarter. You know that you can create a blog, love it, and still make money with your blog.

Why not combine both? Hopefully this post has been a starting point for you to do just that.