I used to wonder how bloggers make money by blogging and never thought I would start a blog myself.
Initially, I planned to use the blog to document some of my travels and the many milestones in my life. However, I learned that many bloggers make money by blogging and I found it interesting and life-changing.
Imagine making money by just writing blog articles and doing that in your comfort zone wherever and whenever you want, awesome right?
I thought it was that easy until I researched in-depth and learned about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and the different ways to make money by blogging.
Here are the 9 ways blogging can make you rich.
Display Ads
The very first stream of income every blogger strives for and to build a foundation on is by adding display ads.
The most common ad network is Google Adsense for new bloggers and there are a few requirements before you are eligible for the program.
Google Adsense may not be the most optimal way to monetise your blog but itâs a start when you are just getting around 1,000 visitors. Thatâd make you around $50 which is not that bad!
Other Advertising Networks
Once youâve reached about 10,000 visitors per month to your blog, you should switch from Google Ads to other advertising networks such as Ezoic which is the one I am currently on.
However, Ezoic provides 2 programs, 1 which is for blogs that have less than 10,000 visitors per month and the other, for more than 10,000 visitors.
This is great as it lowers the barrier of entry for beginner bloggers to start displaying ads on their blogs!
I tried to sign up for Google Adsense and it seems that I still did not meet a few requirements but when I tried to sign up for Ezoic, I managed to get approved.
There are other ad networks out there such as MediaVine (which Requires 50,000 visitors per month) as well so do check them out by googling âblogging ad networksâ.
The amount youâll earn will depend on a metric called âCost Per Thousand Impressionsâ or CPM where the advertiser will pay you according to a thousand impressions for their ads.
Affiliate Links
After building some decent traffic and running the ads on your blog, the next step bloggers usually take to increase their earnings is to use affiliate links in their articles.
So what are affiliate links?
Affiliate links are links that link to a certain product or service that the bloggers promote in their article which in return when their readers purchase the products or service, they receive a commission.
Needless to say, the affiliate links a blogger should promote greatly differs according to their niche.
I write about finance so if I have tried a product or service and found it useful for my readers, I can contact the business and work an affiliate link out to share with my readers while earning a little bit of income.
A win-win situation.
Do make sure you donât recommend things you have not personally tried to your readers just so you can make money though, not cool.
One good place for you to start is to google your niche and âaffiliate programsâ e.g. Finance Affiliate Programs to see what affiliate programs you can join in your blogging niche.
Amazon Affiliate Program
Another way is to join the largest affiliate program in the world if the things you are writing about allow you to add product affiliate links.
Referencing my blog, I can add affiliate links to the books Iâve found helpful regarding personal finance or self-development.
Sponsored Posts
After optimising your articles with relevant affiliate links while publishing more helpful content, you wouldâve grown your traffic and naturally, companies and people will approach you to write sponsored posts.
For many bloggers, this is a grey area as Google does not like to see too much sponsored content from blogs and this may cause your blog to get blacklisted and your reach may get disrupted.
Not worth it in the long run if you ask me.
As to why Google does not like it, you can find out more here.
That does not mean you cannot make this another income stream. Hereâs how you should do it.
Make sure the company or person approaching you is with good repute. Ensure the sponsored content you are writing is relevant to your blog. And finally, choose to write the article yourself.
In many cases, they will offer to write the posts for you and you just have to publish them. Convenient you might think, however, there could be some redundant links that could get you penalised by Google in the article.
For the most part, you are the one with your best interests at heart for your articles and audience and they want to see your content and not someone elseâs.
Direct Display Ads
Congratulations! If youâve made it this far, you shouldâve made a decent income from your blog.
But letâs not stop here.
When you start to write a few sponsored posts, that should bring you another decent wave of traffic. This brings you to expecting companies whoâll pay you to display their ads on your website directly.
Depending on your traffic, ad space and placement, companies do offer up to $3,000 (some absurdly more) to display their products or services on your website.
This brings the almighty âpassive incomeâ dream where everyone aims to hit into a reality as they are paying you monthly for the ad space without you doing anything. Maybe just a few minutes to set the ad up.
Do keep your audienceâs interests in mind and keep the reading experience optimal by not putting too many ads on your blog.
Currently, the ads from Ezoic on my blog are more than what I would like. I need their AI to find out the best ad placements and I will decrease the number of ads on my blog in the future.
Social Media Promotions
As your blog is growing, do build your social media presence alongside it.
Encourage your audience to follow you on your social media and once you have a decent amount of followers, brands and companies will pay you to promote them on your socials.
This acts as an extension for the direct display ads except that itâs on your social media.
More money. Great!
Online Courses
As your blog grows larger and you become more reputable, you can consider helping others on their blogging journey while creating another income stream.
You can create online courses on the things you blog about or even an online course on how to make money by blogging.
Many bloggers have taken on this route and have helped many people on their blogging journey while they make a decent amount of money.
This income is âpassiveâ once you have put in the effort to design and create a course and sell it to your audience through your email newsletter.
If you have been genuine throughout your blogging journey and have prioritised helping your readers, be sure to expect some of them purchasing your course just to support you.
Brand Partnerships
The next one would be brand partnerships where bigger brands start to notice you and reach out to you.
To be honest, I donât see myself reaching this stage but fingers crossed! It just might be a dream come true one day.
You know your blogging seed has ripe and is ready to harvest when bigger brands approach you as they may offer you tens of thousands to work with them.
There are a few considerations though. Some bloggers do not like to take this path even though the money is good because they do not want to lose their initial spirit of blogging.
By working with larger brands, do expect more work to be done (money should be worthwhile anyway) as you are not just accountable for yourself and your readers anymore but also a brand.
There may be some restrictions on the things you can do or blog about or even make you feel that blogging has become a dreadful form of work.
On a positive note? Youâre the boss and you can choose the right brands to work with and remember to negotiate.
Book Deal
Weâve come to the last point on how you can make money by blogging and as far-fetched as it sounds, a book deal.
This would be an end goal for me and many bloggers as once weâve reached this point, youâve pretty much built yourself a large audience and are ready to create your last passive income stream.
You may be approached by a publisher and if youâre an expert in your niche, you can get the opportunity to write your very own book!
Put in the effort once with the goal of helping your readers and write your best âarticleâ and youâll never know just how many people you can help just like how some of the best self-development books have helped me.
Once youâre in this stage, you wouldâve built a great deal of income with most of them passive and opportunities become endless!
Email List
A bonus point to note if youâre an aspiring or new blogger is to build yourself an army of true fans by promoting your email list to your readers.
These people will be the ones who truly benefit from your content or just simply enjoy your writing and they are the ones who you should have the best interests at heart.
They are the true fans that will support you as you grow, buy your courses and books or even consult you with their blogging journey.
Share useful information with them through your articles and help them as they help you.
Conclusion
I hope you have gotten a sense on how you can also make money by blogging and how your blog growth will be correlated to a larger sum of income, therefore, making you rich.
If this article helps you understand that, do me a favour and share it on your socials or with a friend with the social icons below! It will mean a lot to me.
Feel free to also comment your thoughts about this article below! Iâd love to read your feedback and comments.
Thank you for reading and Iâll see you in the next article!
