We in EcomDimes are on a simple mission; help our readers earn extra money and improve their financial lives. Some of the links in this post may be from our partners. Here’s how we make money.
There are actually various streams of income for blogging. But before start ranking in cash, you have to start a blog! Maybe you have a blog and you’re looking forward to monetizing it, and if you do it right, you might end up making a 6-figure! However, this is not a get costly quick ordeal, it takes time.
More often than not, you will keep hearing people speak of side hustles. Side hustles have changed the financial situations of some people.
To some, these side hustles ended up becoming full-time businesses. Blogging is one example of a side hustle that is increasingly becoming a favorite to many.
What makes blogging a fascinating hustle is that it allows you to write what you are passionate about and has multiple streams of income. Additionally, starting a blog is cheap, and they are easy to maintain.
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Having multiple sources of income protects your financial situation. This will not be what people term as putting all your eggs in a single basket. There are two significant approaches to professional blogging.
The first one is that you can be a freelance or an employed blogger for an established site or company. The second approach is starting your blog from scratch. However, the latter is a lot more difficult because it is starting from zero.
You, of course, want to make money, which is what all of us are after. You might have started your blog, or are thinking about setting up one because you hear people say that it is an easy way to make money.
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Maybe you even have your blog, and you are looking for various ways in which you can monetize it. Whether you want to start it for fun, as a hobby, or as a business, you can make money from it. However, this is not a get costly quick ordeal. But if you do it right, you might end up making enough money to support your family and more.
This article discusses various income streams of blogging.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most common and the easiest way to make money from blogging, particularly for beginners. There is no need for your services or products. It’s actually my most preferred method.
Let me first simplify the concept of affiliate marketing. Most companies usually have their own affiliate program, so as a blogger, you apply to those programs, and simply tell the company: “Hey, I would like to promote your product/service on my blog”.
After you get approved, you are given a special tracking link and get a backend office, where you can see all your stats, clicks and sales.
These partners should be in the same sector or niche of your blog. For us for example at EcomDimes, some of our partners are eCommerce platforms, tools, banks and sites related to making money online, or at least have the same vision of ours.
When people read your content and click on one of your partners’ links, and then decide to complete an offer — be it a purchase, opening an account, or any number of other triggering actions — you earn a small commission from that advertiser, at no extra cost to your readers.
There are hundreds of options in regards to where you can find these affiliate programs. It might even be overwhelming when you are starting.
A lot of new bloggers make money with Amazon. You need to sign up and become an Amazon affiliate; afterward, you will use purchase links within your blog. If a person purchases from Amazon through your blog, you make a small commission out of that sale, again, at no cost to them.
Go to Amazon, and head to the footer, “become an affiliate”.
Additionally, you can sign up to use large affiliate marketing networks. These networks have numerous affiliate programs for various brands. You can select the brands and products that you would want to promote and do it from a single centralized platform.
Examples of affiliate marketing networks are ShareASale and Commission Junction.
One starts by making a list of the items and services that he or she loves and uses. The second step is signing up for the affiliate marketing networks or Amazon. You then brainstorm and develop the content that will help you in promoting the products and services of your choice.
You could, for example, if you are promoting a specific software, you might create a tutorial on how to use it. Then, within the article, you use your affiliate link for the software. When someone clicks through your link and makes a purchase, you receive the commission.
The last thing is promoting your content. If you have to make money from affiliate opportunities, your blog has to be read. Therefore, you have to promote is as much as possible to ensure more people access it.
You can promote your content through social media, email lists, and other relevant areas. As you build more traffic, you increase the opportunities for making affiliate income.
If you want to learn more about Affiliate Marketing particularly, check out this article. (Open in a new tab)
2. eBooks
You don’t even need to sell your own books and products, you can partner with companies like Amazon, and simply embed or list their books’ images on your blog, and when someone from your readers makes a purchase, you get a small commission.
Exactly that’s what we doing in EcomDimes, we have a “Books” page, where we recommend the best finance and money books for our readers.
For the bloggers who would want to sell their products, selling eBooks is an excellent way of making money from blogging. You are also able to assess whether your audience is ready to purchase from you or not.
This should not overwhelm you. eBooks are not novels. You do not have to type hundreds of pages. Numerous good eBooks are concise but have been packed with information. An eBook can be thought of as a longer form of the blog post.
An eBook can be created about any topic; however, it would make sense in making it about an item that is relevant to your target audience. Ensure that you know the topic that you want to write about well.
The topic should also be interesting enough to make the readers interested in buying from you. Below is an example of a blog that sells eBooks, the Healthy Mummy.
Selling eBooks starts with brainstorming the ideas of the content. Analyze a topic that most resonates with your audience that you have expertise in. You then write an eBook.
Fancy software is not necessary, write, and format your eBook using Google Docs, and you might design the cover using Canva.
You can sell your eBook on various platforms. You can sell them on your blog, on Amazon, or ClickBank. Also, decide on the methods that you will accept payments and deliver your eBook to your customers.
Services such as PayPal and Stripe might help receive payments, and you might provide the eBooks through email.
Lastly, promote your eBook on your email list, social media, Pinterest, and any other place that it would be relevant.
3. Online Courses
The next stream of income for bloggers is creating and selling online courses. Bloggers will often create an eBook and later expand on the same topic in their online course.
For example, if your blog is on food, you might do a course on recipes. If it is a fashion blog, you might sell a course on tips of fashion. Do not, however, overprice it or undersell it. You can test a few prices and see which one works best.
Start by choosing the topic for your course. It should be helpful to your audience and should help them solve a particular issue. Then, create the content. You might deliver the course in various formats such as text, slideshows, and videos.
Decide on the way to give your presentation and create the content accordingly. The next step is figuring out where to sell. There are multiple options, for example, on your site, on Teachable, on Udemy, and other similar websites.
You can deliver the videos on YouTube or Vimeo. Make sure that you promote your course on as many platforms as possible, such as social media, email, and your blog.
4. Freelance Writing
A blog proves that you can write. Unless you can write well and enjoy writing, you will have a hard time succeeding in the world of blogging.
Therefore, keeping the love of writing in mind, you can start making money through your blog by selling the services of freelance writing. You can use your blog as proof of your ability to write and pitch to clients in your field.
If your blog has little traffic, freelance writing could be a great way of starting and making money from blogging, even for the beginners.
To start freelance writing, you first need to pick your specialty. Freelance writing is extensive, and therefore, you need to research and decide whether you want to go into copywriting, blog writing, social media writing, and many more.
Looking for work is the second step. You might join a freelancing platform, create your profile, and begin applying for work. You can make a cold pitch to clients by emailing them to pitch ghostwriting or pitching writing blog content for their business.
Market your skills through your blog, as it might interest potential clients who visit your site. Lastly, promote your freelance writing services through social media, your blog, and both your personal and professional network.
5. Google Adsense
AdSense is Google’s advertising platform. It is among the most common ways of making money from blogging. What you do is signing up and allowing the Google ad platform to place ads on your blog. You get to select where and how many ads are shown.
In return, you are either paid when a person clicks on your ad or the number of views received by the advertisement on your site. AdSense is great because it shows your readers the ads that are relevant to them.
What this means is that your audience will see ads that are related to the content you have written on your blog. They might also see ads for other products based on the history of their browsing. Depending on your niche and traffic, it is possible to make a lot of money from AdSense.
Your AdSense income increases with the increase in the traffic that you generate. CPC (cost per click) ads are the ads that get you paid for each time a user clicks on a particular ad.
To start, you begin by signing up for AdSense. It is free, and after joining, you get to learn more about the platform and get to choose your ads. Then, you create ad placements. You decide on how many ads to show and their locations on your blog posts.
Finally, keep promoting your content in every opportunity, this will increase the number of people visiting your blog, and they may be tempted to click on the ads shown. If AdSense does not work for you, there are numerous other options to choose from, such as Infolinks, Chitika, and Media.net.
Media.net offers you relevant ads, and you also have access to tools for tracking your performance in real-time. You can control how the ads appear to ensure that they match with your color palette.
Infolinks ads are free to use and native. They also work well with other ad solutions and do not interfere with the experience of the user. You have control over the ads to number and location, and the support team is friendly and responds quickly.
The advertisers of Infolinks are selected based on the quality of their work, and that is why they work with the best brands in the globe such as Facebook, Ali Express, eBay, Amazon, Pizza Hut, Taboola, TripAdvisor, and others.
6. Selling Private Ads
To work with advertising networks is not the only option for you as a blogger when it comes to selling ads. If your blog has enough traffic, advertisers might contact you directly and ask that you place their ads on your site.
The second option is taking a step to reach the advertisers personally. The main difference here is that it eliminates the middle man. With the middle man removed, it means that you can set your rates for the ads.
Selling private ads might come in the form of buttons, banners, or links. You could also make money by writing sponsored posts where you give a review or write about a product or a service from a particular advertiser.
There is another option where you write an underwritten series or post. In funded series or posts, you write about any topic. However, the advertiser comes in and pays for the mention of “Brought to you by…” in the content.
7. Coaching And Consulting
After starting a blog on a particular topic, you will most likely be an expert in that area. You are already writing eBooks and selling online courses. At this point, some bloggers consider branching out further to become coaches or consultants.
For instance, if you write a blog on fitness programs, you might consider offering online fitness coaching as a service. You could also provide group coaching services if you are particularly knowledgeable about a particular topic. You can coach about health, fitness, food, marketing, lifestyle, and many more.
How to start? Just choose your specialty and begin promoting yourself. Look for a way in which you can help people and create a service based on that. Because at this point you already have your trusted audience, sell your new service to them because the chances are that they might be interested too.
Some bloggers have established themselves as experts in public speaking. They, therefore, at often receive invitations to public speaking gigs, for example, in conferences, institutions, on the news, and others.
A blogger, who is also a public speaker, charges public speaking rates and receives free trips from that deal. What is best about it is that you get paid to public speak, all while taking advantage to boost awareness about your blog.
8. Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is another income stream that is popular among bloggers. It merely involves a blogger sponsoring content for an advertiser.
It mostly looks like the blogger is writing a post about a service or a product offered by a particular company, and he or she gets pain in return.
Sponsored content is a somewhat new way that companies are using to advertise their products, and it is an effective method. What is best about writing sponsored content is that a blogger can choose the brands that he or she wants to work with.
The reputable bloggers only decide to create sponsored content for the brands that they use and would recommend.
9. Photography or Photo Editing
Photography is an art in itself. For the people who take their photos for their blogs, photography has the chance to become an additional blog income stream too.
It is in some way, similar to freelance writing because your blog is what acts as a portfolio of your best work. Through it, you can find clients to whom you will sell your photographs as stock photography. You can also design and edit photos for the clients.
10. Blog Consulting
There are people with ideas and reliable content for a blog. However, they are not sure about the way they should execute the technicalities and marketing of it. If you possess a strong understanding of creating and launching a blog, this is an opportunity for you.
You can teach various clients who are interested in blogging, but they cannot start their blogs yet because of feeling intimidated by what they need to become successful bloggers. You can earn money in doing this.
11. Editing and Proofreading
The ‘big’ bloggers will always need additional editors and proofreaders to join their team. If you have your blog and you possess fundamental skills in editing and writing, you can make an extra income through becoming a proofreader.
Luckily, Caitlin Pyle has created a course to help proofreaders earn extra money from anywhere in the world. She has been a proofreader since 2007, and she teaches people how to make an extra $3,000 from proofreading!
Learn how to transform your passion for words and reading into a thriving proofreading business. (Open in a new tab)
12. Virtual Assisting
The ability to run your blog successfully is proof that you are comfortable working virtually on various tasks. These skills can be utilized in assisting other people with their website, blog, or company.
People pay to get the services of virtual assisting. Duties such as being a virtual assistant could entail proofreading, photo editing, managing social media, booking travel, or setting up meetings.
A virtual assistant is a person who helps another person or business online. It is the same as an executive assistant, but entirely online.
13. Social Media And Marketing Consulting
You have a passion for social media marketing, and it is the primary driver of your blog, you can utilize your expertise in teaching others. Social media is a vital part of blogging. However, social media might become increasingly overwhelming.
If you do not have placed an effective strategy in place, the time that you will devote to social media will not feel like it is paying off. A lot of people are searching for social media consultants, and they are, in turn, willing to pay for the services offered.
Extra Tip: Learn more how to find clients that need Facebook advertising for their business (Open in a new tab)
14. Using The Blog As A Tool Of Content Marketing For Your Business
You can also sell physical products on your blog as a way of making money. Instead of thinking this as a way of making money from your blog, you can think of your blog as a tool of content marketing that will attract visitors to your website.
When it comes to creating a business blog, there are practically endless possibilities. You might, for instance, sell hand-made products, manufactured products, books, and many others.
You could also already have a business and decide on starting a blog to convert loyal customers.
For example, if you refurbish and resell second-hand smartphones from home, you might choose to use a blog for attracting visitors to your website in which you will have listed the phones you are selling.
Your blog might cover topics on DIY refurbishing. It is a helpful way of not only marketing your products but also building a brand and gaining recognition.
15. Selling Memberships
This is also another stream of income utilized by various bloggers. Here, you sell memberships to some exclusive corners of your website.
For example, a career blog could be charging US$ 10 monthly for users to be able to access their job board. A startup business blog could sell memberships to their forums where individuals can receive personalized advice on their businesses.
The thing to note here is that your exclusive membership must be more valuable than what the people visiting your site can access freely in some other place. Therefore, be sure that you are creating something of value, and that is worth the price.
There are numerous benefits to membership sites. For instance, they help in increasing revenue, building a relationship with the customers, and also increased free traffic.
There are two ways of selling membership: creating restricted members-only content and creating a private forum. On creating limited members-only content, you can create a members-only area in which they will share more in-depth blog posts, videos, downloads, audio materials, and more.
Although membership sites are significant time investments because of the premium content that you need to keep creating for your paying members, they can be lucrative as they are recurring revenue (subscription).
Creating private forums is the second way of creating a paid membership site where users need to pay to obtain access. Forums are an excellent way for your audience to access one-on-one advice from you.
16. Using The Blog To Build Credibility
There are countless opportunities for making money that blogging to build credibility can result in. For example, you might start a blog about finance. People will start reading your content, and your blog will increasingly become popular.
You will become a recognized figure in the financial industry. After obtaining the authority, some people might decide to approach you to co-author a book about a particular business topic. You could also receive an invitation to speaking at conferences or running employee financial training days.
There are specific tips that you ought to keep in mind if you want to start earning as a public speaker.
First, you need to be an expert in your field. Start learning right away if you do not have enough knowledge and skills. Secondly, you need to be consistent in continuously promoting your expertise through social media and blogging activities. Also, let people know that you are available by announcing it on social media, your blog, or reaching out privately to event organizers.
Finally, public speaking gigs might not be found right away. You need to start your public speaking career from smaller, casual, and free meetups or community events.
While this is not among the direct ways of making money from blogging, it has worked for numerous well-known bloggers. It can also work for you. If you are searching for a direct revenue stream, popular blogs have sold for millions of dollars through selling their content and branding.
What you have to keep in mind is that making money from blogging will not be achieved by simply creating your site and letting it sit there. You should be sure and willing to put in the time.
17. Banner Advertising
Banner ads are image-based ads that, when clicked, can take visitors from the host website to the site of an advertiser or landing page. Banner advertising serves numerous purposes, such as creating brand awareness, re-target an audience, generate leads, and promoting a brand.
You make money with banner advertising is through allowing advertising agencies or companies to put small ad blocks on your site. You are paid depending on every click, and additionally, earn a commission when another person buys the product.
18. Creating YouTube Video Tutorials
YouTube can be termed as the ultimate residual income stream. There has been a ‘YouTube revolution’ in recent years, where people from all around the globe are making awesome videos.
You can also create videos on the areas that you like. These areas could be music, opinions, tutorials, movie reviews, comedy, among many more, then upload the content to YouTube. You then attach Google AdSense to the videos so that you will earn money if the users click the ads.
Ensure you promote the videos to attract more viewers. Although it is a slow process, it surely works.
Making money from YouTube is almost similar to AdSense. You require a registered YouTube account and then register to Google AdSense account.
After the AdSense account approval, you can begin showing relevant ads on videos that you upload and monetize your channel. Ensure that you have more views as it boosts your chances of earning more.
19. Link A Gift Store
With companies like Shopify, you can create a gift shop that adopts your blog’s voice and branding.
Dropshipping is among the most effective passive income investments for earning huge profits in the present world.
Dropshipping is a method in which a store buys the product from a wholesaler or manufacturer and immediately has it sold and shipped straight to the customer without storing the product.
What this means is that you are taking out completely the risk of storing and shipping the products you are selling to your customers. Below is a simple illustration of how dropshipping works.
Related: Check out our article about dropshipping and dropshipper to learn more about this business model. (Open in a new tab)
If you are aware of what dropshipping is, check out this article to know how to start a dropshipping store in 2020! (Open in a new tab)
20. Flipping Websites
Various entrepreneurs prefer buying a website that has already been established to use it for their businesses. If you can create a blog and bring traffic to it, you can sell it and make money from your efforts.
However, the trick is that you have to be aware of the websites that are in demand. You will also need to have an understanding of pricing and selling your blogs and websites. Websites such as Flippa and others serve as sites of action and brokers for selling websites.
21. Creating A Questions And Answer Community
There are huge questions and answers to communities such as Quora and Stack Exchange. These communities help in building an online community that is motivated, driven, and highly engaged.
The challenge is spending a lot of time in building a sizeable community. After you create the community, you will have the ability to monetize user-engaged content on your website through the use of affiliate ads, advertisements, and other ways.
The famous question and answer websites can get direct advertisement and sponsorship deals from advertisers in their industry. It helps them in negotiating higher rates and extra perks.
22. Paid Business Directories
Web directories might make you think of the early days where web bots began automatic indexing. Although generic web directories are not necessary anymore, local or niche directories could prove to be extremely helpful.
These directories could gather local business reviews, share the best podcasts of a particular topic, or even list the best products in a specific niche. Special directories allow you to accept payments with submissions.
23. WordPress Job Board With Paid Submissions
You can also create a paid job board. Companies that want to advertise an open position to your audience can pay you to submit a listing. Narrowing down to a specific niche makes it easier to create a successful job board.
You can be the go-site for any person looking for a job in that particular industry with minimal competition.
24. WordPress Event Calendar With Paid Submissions
You can also create an event calendar where you will be charging people to advertise their events instead of creating a job board. It is even better when you have an established audience because businesses will be paying to reach your audience.
25. Hosting a Paid Webinar
Webinars are among the best ways of building your audience, sharing your experience, and growing your business. Webinars are more like online courses. The difference is that a webinar is live, and it often includes a section for question and answer.
Clickfunnels, also makes it easy to host a paid webinar. Learn more (Open in a new tab)
26. Creating a Job Marketplace Website
A job marketplace website, unlike a regular site for job listings, allows you to make money on every job listing. The best examples of online job marketplace websites are probably UpWork and Fiverr. To increase the competitiveness of your platform, you could choose a particular niche.
It helps find customers and professionals quickly who are unable to use large platforms that have a lot of foreign competition. You might be charging a small fee for job listings after the successful completion of jobs.
27. Business Partnerships
You gain more audience as your blog continues to grow. If you have an audience that is regularly coming back for more of what you are offering them, you will open up opportunities for unique business partnerships as a way of increasing the income from blogging and monetize your audience further.
A business partnership could be an affiliate relationship. However, it could have several other meanings, such as: partnering with a fellow blogger to create a product together and market it to your respective audience or working with a company to sell their product to your followers.
28. Accepting Donation
Lastly, merely asking for money is another way that you can make money as a blogger. You could start accepting donations in various ways.
You might add a Stripe donate button or a PayPal give button to your website. For a more professional look and advanced features such as email marketing integration, however, you could create a customized donation form.
Donations are last on the list as they have limited effectiveness, as you have to rely on the generosity of your readers. Offering them something in return is always lucrative.
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Conclusion
As you’ve seen, when it comes to blogging, making money opportunities are countless. Your blog can generate you money in many several ways.
This requires a lot of hard work, and one day it will surely pay off!
What an amazing business opportunity,
✔️ Huge potential!
✔️ Low capital needed!
✔️ Low risk involved!
Luckily, you can have your website up and running in a few minutes with HostGator! Exclusively for EcomDimes readers, start your blog in as low as $2.75, equivalent to a cup of latte from Starbucks!
There are multiple ways to monetize your blog, even if you don’t have a product for your own, you can still promote others’ products and get a % on sales.
If you are considering starting your own blog, these are definitely some resources that can help you increase your site’s exposure online, and at the same time, you can recommend these resources to others and get a commission.
These resources are:
– Start a money-making blog – free course. (Open in a new tab)
– Blog traffic eBook. (Open in a new tab)
– From zero to hero affiliate marketing training. (Open in a new tab)
– Making Pinterest possible. (Open in a new tab)
– Expert secrets book. (Open in a new tab)
– Premium Facebook ads training. (Open in a new tab)
– Robert Kiyosaki real estate course. (Open in a new tab)
– The complete guide to building a career as a Transcriptionist. (Open in a new tab)
– How to become a virtual assistant Course. (Open in a new tab)
– Building a side hustle as a proofreader. (Open in a new tab)
Which’s your favorite income stream from the list above? Happy blogging!
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Cheers,
Odeh Ahwal
