Whether you’ve been blogging for years or you’re just getting started, there is no better time to start making money from your work.

In the early days of blogging, monetizing a blog was an ordeal that required complex solutions.

Now, however, it’s easy to start making money online with your blog.

The barrier to entry is low for those, and while you start making money, you can get ready for higher-paying solutions.

What Is Blog Monetization

The first thing to understand before learning how to monetize a blog is exactly what blog monetization is.

In short, blog monetization means that you make money from your blog.

When you create blog content and articles, you can monetize this content strategy using a number of different tools and methods.

In this article, we’re going to give a comprehensive overview of specific ways to monetize your blog’s content.

What Kinds of Blogs Make Money?

Nearly any type of blog can make money.

In most cases, when someone creates a blog, they are passionate about their chosen topic.

However, lots of successful entrepreneurs have started niche blogs that are making them money with content marketing even though they don’t have a personal interest in the topic.

Primarily, there are 10 types of blogs that make money.

1. Blogs with display ads
2. Affiliate product marketing blogs
3. Blogs offering consulting
4. Ebook sellers
5. Blogs selling courses
6. Digital product sales blogs
7. Physical product sales blogs
8. Membership sites
9. Blogs offering services
10. Sponsored content blogs

Each type has their own unique advantage, so familiarize yourself with all of them before choosing one.

Profitable Niches

While you can create a blog about any topic imaginable, there are some niches that reliably bring in good money for their creators.

Here are some of the more profitable niches.

• Personal finance
• Food
• Lifestyle
• Parenting
• DIY and crafts
• Home improvement
• Health and fitness
• Business and blogging
• Travel and outdoors
• Hobbies
• Learning and education

Before you pick a niche, make sure that you like the niche, you understand the niche, and you have a clear path forward with how you’ll make money.

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How Much Can You Make by Monetizing a Blog?

The amount of money bloggers make varies widely, but your blogging income is dependent on two things.

1. Blog traffic
2. How you monetize your blog

To give you an idea of how much money bloggers can make, we’ve pulled information from official studies and reports conducted by these sources:

• ConvertKit
• Digital Nomad Wannabe
• Blogging.org
• Problogger

ConvertKit’s State of Blogging report from 2017 reported that pro bloggers make an average profit of about $138,000, while amateur bloggers made about $9,000.

Digital Nomad Wannabe (DNW) set up a Facebook group for their survey.

They received more than 600 responses, and 100% of the respondents said that it’s possible to make money blogging.

According to DNW’s survey, 27% of bloggers make no money.

This figure is actually encouraging because it means that 73% of people who blog do make money.

The answers to the DNW survey show that 14.5% of bloggers make $5,000 or more per month and 1.9% make in excess of $20,000 per month.

Blogging.org reported revealed that 8% of bloggers make sufficient money to support their families.

Problogger’s report mirrors the results of the other surveys fairly closely.

Their survey indicated that 4% of bloggers make more than $10,000 per month, and 9% earn between $1,000 and $9,000 per month.

Case Studies: Blogger Income Reports

In this list, you can see how much some of the big bloggers make per year.

• Huffington Post: $500 million
• Moz: $44.9 million
• Engadget: $47.5 million
• Copyblogger: $33.1 million
• PerezHilton: $41.3 million
• TechCrunch: $22.5 million
• Mashable: $30 million

OK, those are the big guys, but what about the regular folks who just started a blog because they wanted a creative outlet?

The smaller blogs that put in the work are also making good money.

Here are some income figures for some of the most popular smaller blogs.

• Pinch of Yum (food blog): $60,000+ per month
• Making Sense of Cents (living frugal blog): $100,000 per month
• Treasure Gnome (Shopify, Amazon, and eBay sales blog): $9,750 per month
• While She Naps (sewing blog): $3,152 per month
• Just a Girl and Her Blog (lifestyle blog): $41,700 per month

What do all of these surveys, income reports, and studies reveal?

They show that it’s indeed possible to make money blogging if you do your homework, choose a profitable niche, have a solid marketing plan in place, and learn how to successfully monetize your blog.

We’ve compiled a list of 100+ blog income reports that you can read for an even better idea of blog income broken out by niche.

Blog Monetization Requirements: When Should You Monetize a Blog?

When should you start monetizing your blog?

The short answer is to monetize your blog as soon as you can.

Most advertising networks and affiliate programs don’t have a specific number for how large your audience should be (or how much traffic you get) before you can use their services.

However, there are some guidelines that can ensure that you have a good chance of being accepted to their programs.

The quickest way to start monetizing your blog is to apply for Google Adsense and the Amazon Affiliate Program because both of these have a fairly low barrier to entry.

• Initial Google Adsense approval: You need at least 30 articles on your blog, but we have seen people get approved with fewer articles than this.
• Website approval if you already have an existing Google Adsense account: You need 7-10 articles on a new blog before submitting the site to Google Adsense for approval. The content must be unique and pass Copyscape or Google will require you to correct the issue and re-apply.
• Amazon Affiliate Program: You need to have an active blog, website, YouTube channel, or app. It helps if you already have some content on your site so that your blog appears to be authentic and active.

You can start applying for other advertising networks and affiliate programs when you have one or both of the following things in place.

• Steady traffic (Some networks have minimum thresholds that must be met.)
• A sizeable and growing email list

Once you have those two in place, don’t hesitate to start.

13+ Ways: How to Monetize a Blog In 2022

Are you ready to learn how to monetize a blog and start making some cash?

Let’s dive into all of the excellent ways to make money from blogging.

1. Freelancing

My Work from Home Money conducted a survey and asked their readers this question: “Is there a ‘best’ blogging income source?”

Respondents reported that 70% of their income comes from freelancing, even though affiliate marketing is the most commonly used revenue source.

One easy way to make money from your own WordPress blog is offering freelance writing for blogs in your niche that are more prominent.

What is Freelancing?

A freelancer is self-employed and does not have an employment contract with the business they’re doing work for.

Sometimes, you will see freelancers called independent contractors.

People who work via freelancing usually enjoy the control and flexibility they have.

A freelancer can choose the hours they want to work, the clients they perform work for, the rates they want to charge, and the type of work they accept.

Another huge benefit of freelancing is that you can often work remotely.

How Does Freelancing Work?

Typically, companies hire freelancers either individually or through an agency for short-term projects or on a part-time basis.

In some cases, a client will hire a freelancer for a special one-time project, and in other cases, the client may have ongoing work for their freelancer.

Freelancing offers a lot of freedom not just to the worker, but also to the client.

For example, if a freelancer doesn’t meet the client’s needs, they can opt to not work with them again.

Also, there are no up-front costs such as training, office space, and equipment for clients who work with freelancers.

Freelancers typically have their own equipment and come to the job fully trained.

Some instances require a retainer, which is a payment arrangement for a specific number of hours every week (or month).

When freelancing, workers don’t receive the compensation and benefits that full-time employees receive.

Because they are considered contract workers, freelancers aren’t usually protected through programs such as unemployment insurance.

How Much Can You Make Freelancing?

A study conducted in 2019 said that freelancers make between $20 and $28 per hour.

Of course, this varies widely depending on several factors:

• The type of freelancing you do
• Your niche
• How much your clients pay
• How quickly you work
• The tools you use to help you work more efficiently (Grammarly, Hemingway Writer, Google Docs/Sheets, etc…)

Bloggers in specialty or highly technical niches tend to make better money.

The Editorial Freelance Association cites these figures as approximations of how much you can make writing in various niches.

• Trade/Technical: $50-$60 per hour
• Proposal and Grant Writing: $50-$60 per hour
• Fiction and Ghostwriting: $40-$50 per hour

To break this down by job type or project, here are some numbers provided by WriteWorldwide.

• Blog posts: $50-$350
• Long-form blog posts: $250-$1,000
• Web pages: $100-$500
• Press releases: $100-$1,000
• White papers: $2,000-$5,000
• Product Descriptions: $50-$150
• Ebooks: $2,000-$5,000

One thing to keep in mind is this: When you trade your time for money as a blogger, it’s difficult to scale your business.

For your freelance business to grow, you will need to build a team of people to work with you.

How Easy Is it to Start Freelancing?

The great thing about freelancing is that you can start earning money from day one.

The only thing you technically need to get started as a freelance writer is a computer and internet access.

You don’t even have to build a blog to get started as a freelance writer.

However, when you have a blog, you can put a services page on your site, as well as writing samples.

To quick-start your freelance writing career, one option is to sign up with writer directories or content agencies, which are sometimes called content mills.

The pay is usually much less when you work through agencies because the agency gets a portion of your earnings as a referral commission.

However, many protections are built into writing for agencies.

• When you write for an agency, you don’t have to worry about chasing payment from a client.
• You also don’t have to hustle to find your own writing jobs because clients contract through the agency.

However, the best paying writing gigs come from private clients.

To find private clients, keep your eye on the blogger job boards and marketplaces such as Upwork, LinkedIn, and Flexjobs.

Why is Freelancing a Great Monetization Method?

When you have an existing blog, you have a money-making machine that can show prospective clients in your niche exactly what type of great content you can provide for them.

You don’t even have to have a ton of traffic flowing to your blog.

Your goal is to demonstrate that you can write knowledgeably in a niche.

Another benefit of having your own blog as a freelancer is that you can market your services.

If you’re a writer, editor, or designer, what better way to showcase your work than through a blog?

Be sure to put a services page on your blog that outlines what you charge for writing.

Blogs can also bring in money through interesting routes.

For example, a food blogger can hone their skills as a food photographer and get photography gigs from area restaurants.

Along that vein, someone who makes great videos for their own blog can sell their video editing services to other bloggers.

2. Sell Digital Products

We will cover physical products you can sell below, but first, let’s talk about digital products.

What are Digital Products?

Digital products are products that are not tangible.

These products are delivered through technology and/or software.

In most cases, they are downloaded by the purchaser to their computer or another electronic device.

Types of Digital Products

Here are some examples of items that are digital products.

• Ebooks
• Online courses
• Webinars (live and recorded)
• Printables
• Audiobooks
• Music downloads
• Audio recordings
• Art downloads
• White papers

How Much Can You Make Selling Digital Products?

Once you have your digital product for sale on your website, your potential for profit is virtually unlimited.

How Easy is it to Start Selling Digital Products?

Most of the work behind creating and selling a digital product is on the front end.

You have to have something to sell, and that usually involves a creative process and some work.

However, once you have your digital product, all you need to do is upload it to your website once, then create the payment method.

This may require some coding, but it’s doable if you’re a tech-savvy person who built a website.

If you want to make it even easier, you can create an Etsy store and upload your digital products there.

Etsy has excellent and easy-to-use tools for selling digital products.

Then, just put a link to your Etsy store on your blog.

You can also create a Shopify store and do the same thing.

Why is Selling Digital Products a Great Monetization Method?

With digital products, you typically have a lower overhead cost.

In most cases, the main cost is the time it took you to create the digital product.

Here are some more excellent reasons to sell digital products on your blog.

• High-profit margins because you reap most (or all) of the profits of the sale
• Automation potential so that you don’t have to be physically involved with the process
• Flexibility
• Passive income once it’s all set up

3. Sell Physical Products

When you have a dedicated blog audience, you have a great opportunity when it comes to selling physical products.

What Are Physical Products?

Physical products are hard goods and tangible items that include physical goods, apparel, and merchandise that you can sell to members of your audience.

Types of Physical Products

There are countless types of physical products you can sell to your blog audience.

Some examples of physical products you can sell include:

• T-shirts
• Stickers
• Books
• Artwork
• Posters
• Hats and caps
• Mugs
• Greeting cards
• Something related to your niche

How Much Can You Make Selling Physical Products?

There is no limit to the amount of money you can make selling physical products.

Keep in mind that Amazon started as an online bookstore, and look where the company is now.

Eric Bandholz of Beardbrand got his start as a beard blogger.

Then, he created a line of beard grooming products, and he now makes more than $100,000 per month.

How much you make selling physical products depends largely on two things:

1. The size of your audience
2. How well you market your products

How Easy is it to Start Selling Physical Products?

To start selling physical products on a blog, you need a WordPress plugin such as Woocommerce.

Alternatively, you can create an e-commerce store on Shopify or a similar platform and then blog on your e-commerce store.

If you want to sell printed items such as t-shirts and mugs, you can use a print-on-demand service such as Printful to get started with zero inventory.

The way this works is that you upload your design to Printful, and the company prints it “on-demand” and ships it to your customers.

You never have to see a physical product.

You can also use Printful to start an Etsy store and sell to people who follow your niche.

Etsy serves as a search engine, so you can start selling right away without having to spend a dime on advertising.

Why is Selling Physical Products a Great Monetization Method?

If you already have an audience, it makes sense to sell physical products to them.

After all, they’re reading your blog because they like what you have to say, so there’s a good chance they will also appreciate the products you offer.

With physical products, you don’t just have another revenue stream.

You can completely surpass your blog revenue with product sales, as evidenced by Eric Bandholz’s journey.

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Your product pricing can make or break your income earned through the physical products you sell.

We have some tips to get that part right, the first time.

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4. Selling Services

If you have a blog, you have lots of skills.

For one thing, you’re probably an excellent writer and editor.

If you built your own site, you also have some tech skills.

However, you also have the expertise in your niche.

What are Services?

Services are intangible items that are provided for one person or company by an individual.

Types of Services You Can Sell

In terms of blogging, there are situations where people or brands may want more of your expertise than you have in your blog, course, or book.

Coaching

If you have conquered obstacles and can teach others how to do the same, you may be able to sell your services as a coach.

When you coach someone else, you are using your experience and skills to help your client solve various problems that they’re trying to overcome.

In some cases, you may already be monetizing your expertise with books, podcasts, and blog posts.

Why not package up those skills and sell them as a service.

Consulting

Consulting is different from coaching because it’s usually a service that is bought by a business.

Many companies don’t want to hire someone full-time for specialized work. Instead, they like to work with a consultant for specific projects.

How Much Can You Make Selling Services?

It depends on what type of service you’re providing and which industry your niche is in.

Nagina Abdullah earns more than $100,000 per year coaching clients who are struggling with weight loss.

How Easy is it to Start Selling Services?

You can use the free plugin Easy Digital Downloads as Services to sell services instead of downloads.

Why is Selling Services a Great Monetization Method?

When you can bring your expertise to a service opportunity, you’ve really reached the next level.

Selling your services is yet another way to monetize your blog.

You can even create a services page on your blog.

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5. Ad Networks

When you’re ready to learn how to monetize a blog, one of the first things you will need to do is choose an ad network.

What are Ad Networks?

An advertising network connects website and blog owners with businesses or organizations that want to run ads on their sites.

In layman’s terms, ad space is gathered and matched with the needs of an advertiser.

The space on a blog that is available for advertising is called ad inventory.

How Do Ad Networks Work?

Ads are delivered through a central hub that allows publishers to use a variety of different targeting methods.

With ad networks, there are tools for reporting and tracking that aren’t usually available with single advertisers.

A publisher can make more money by selling their ad inventory themselves, but with an ad network, publishers can typically enjoy a 100% fill rate.

The fill rate is the amount of time ad inventory is used.

With ad networks, advertisers can use advanced targeting tools that allow them to target potential consumer groups using specified parameters. Targeting capabilities can include any of these:

• Gender
• Age
• Geography
• Income
• Behavior (Relevant ads can display to users based on ads and content they’ve clicked on when visiting other websites.)

Types of Ad Networks

An ad exchange serves as the marketplace between publishers and advertisers.

Meanwhile, an ad network buys ad impressions in bulk, then the network makes them available to the advertisers for purchase.

1. Marketplaces

Ad exchanges are marketplaces that allow automated selling and buying of advertising media.

An ad marketplace is a part of the ecosystem that is powered by RTB (real-time bidding) technology.

2. Managed Ad Network

In a managed ad network, account managers use their expertise to serve as a consultant and ensure that ad campaigns run optimally.

3. Self-Serve Ad Network

A self-serve ad network enables affiliate marketers, media buyers, website owners, and app developers to reach their marketing goals by maximizing their presence.

How Much Can You Make Using an Ad Network?

Revenue from ad networks is calculated based on the amount you earn per 1,000 page views (RPM).

You need to know these two things to calculate how much you can potentially make using an ad network.

• The average RPM your ads make
• Your site traffic

Many blog owners report an average RPM of $20, but this number is fluid and dependent on several different issues.

These averages can give you a good starting place to calculate your potential revenue.

• Low end: $2-$5 per 1,000 views
• Medium end: $5-$10 per 1,000 views
• High end: Up to $50 per 1,000 views

How Easy is it to Integrate Display Advertising Into a Blog?

Integrating display advertising into a blog is surprisingly easy, and there are a few ways you can do it.

When you work with the larger ad networks, they will provide you with a WordPress plugin that you can use to easily insert ads into your ad inventory.

Alternatively, you can manually place the ad code snippets into the places where you would like for them to appear on your blog.

Best Ad Networks to Try

There are several different ad networks for publishers to choose from, but we want to highlight the top four: Google Adsense, Adthrive, Mediavine, and Ezoic.

1. Google Adsense

Most publishers get their monetization started with Google Adsense.

The barrier to entry is small because Adsense doesn’t have a minimum traffic requirement.

The downside is that Adsense pays less than most other ad networks, and the big earners usually ditch it when they can go to Adsense alternatives that pay much better.

Another negative is that Google Adsense doesn’t provide customer support, and troubleshooting can be frustrating.

On a positive note, Google pays out about 21-24 days after the end of the month.

Also, the minimum payment threshold is only $100.

Some publishers may have trouble getting approved for Adsense. In this case, there are some Adsense alternatives to try.

• Criteo
• Media.net
• Infolinks
• Monumetric

2. Adthrive

As one of the largest and most popular advertising networks, Adthrive is hugely popular with large publishers.

Adthrive delivers high-quality ads and optimized ad placements, so you can earn more money.

Even better, Adthrive will show the ads that pay the highest.

Adthrive pays NET 45, which is standard for the ad industry.

To be approved by Adthrive, you must have at least 100,000 monthly page views.

3. Mediavine

To join Mediavine, you need to have at least 50,000 monthly page views, but once you’ve been approved, you can start earning really good money.

Mediavine delivers high-quality ads, and the company is well-known for excellent customer service.

Publishers who love Mediavine say that the company has the cleanest reporting dashboard and it’s user-friendly.

For payment, you have to wait 65 days for a payout from Mediavine.

4. Ezoic

If you’re a smaller publisher, we recommend that you check out Ezoic.

To get approved with this ad network, you used to need 10,000 monthly page views.

However, they have recently changed that requirement to no minimums, so this is a win for small publishers who have good content but are just getting started.

Earnings with Ezoic aren’t as high as with Adthrive or Mediavine, but the money is better than you earn with Adsense.

Ezoic pays NET 30.

Why are Ad Networks a Great Monetization Method?

There are pros and cons to monetizing with ad networks, but most publishers agree that it’s the best way to ensure that your ad inventory is always being utilized.

Moreover, some ad networks pay nearly as much as a publisher would earn if they sold their ad inventory themselves to individual advertisers.

The primary benefit of working with an ad network is that most can guarantee a fill rate at or close to 100%.

6. Affiliate Marketing

In the My Work from Home Money survey, the authors asked this question: “How do bloggers make money?”

Responses indicated that 70% of bloggers say that affiliate marketing is the most popular and most commonly used source of monetization.

Many new bloggers recognize affiliate marketing and associate it with the Amazon Affiliate Program.

While Amazon is a great start, there are tons of other opportunities for earning affiliate revenue.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

In affiliate marketing, publishers earn commissions when they promote a service or product that’s made by another advertiser or retailer.

If a sale is made, the affiliate (the publisher) receives a portion of the sale as a commission.

Affiliate marketing is sometimes referred to as referral marketing.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

When you use affiliate marketing, you are essentially a salesperson.

The affiliate program provider will give you a unique tracking code or ID, and when one of your blog visitors clicks the link, you are credited with the sale if the customer makes a purchase.

In some cases, affiliate marketing isn’t a sale.

It could be an app download, a lead, or even a free-trial user.

Usually, affiliate programs are free for publishers to join, so you don’t have to worry about startup costs.

Types of Affiliate Marketing

There are three primary types of affiliate marketing: unattached, related, and involved.

1. Unattached

If you are “unattached,” it means you don’t have authority in the niche of whatever product or service you’re advertising, and there is not a connection between the customer and you.

An example of this would be a food blogger running an Amazon Affiliate ad for computers.

Publishers tend to like unattached affiliate marketing because no legwork is required.

Instead, the businesses rely on trust and the reputation of a target audience.

2. Related

With related affiliate marketing, bloggers promote services and products that they don’t necessarily use but that are in their niche.

With our food blogger example, this would be a blogger having an affiliate ad for a cookbook on their site.

Because the blogger has influence in the blogosphere and community, their opinion is trusted.

When using related affiliate marketing, it’s important to use transparency to indicate that you’ve not used a product.

Otherwise, you can lose the trust of your audience.

3. Involved

Involved affiliate marketing is when you only recommend services or products you use yourself.

This type of affiliate marketing is the best one to use because it builds trust with your audience.

With involved affiliate marketing, a food blogger would only mention products, services, or ingredients that they use.

How Much Can You Make Promoting Affiliate Products?

Affiliate marketers make money primarily in four different ways.

• Pay per sale: Merchant pays affiliates a percentage of the product’s sale price
• Pay per lead: Affiliate is compensated based on lead conversions
• Pay per click: Affiliate is incentivized to direct customers to the merchant’s website
• Pay per install: Merchant pays affiliates when a user installs a product (usually software or a mobile app)

Naturally, how much you make as an affiliate is dependent on how large your audience is and how many customers you send to the clients.

An Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report produced by Influencer Marketing Hub in 2022 revealed that 3.78% of affiliates make more than $150,000 per year.

Conversely, 57.55% of respondents make below $10,000 per year.

How Easy is it to Start Promoting Affiliate Products?

Affiliate marketing is super easy to execute.

Because a publisher is essentially the salesperson, you aren’t involved with the development, customer support, or fulfillment of the products or services.

Here are the three things you need to get started with affiliate marketing.

1. A niche
2. Products to promote
3. A relevant audience (this can be your blog readers or social media following)

Once your blog is set up, you fill some of your ad inventory with product media and link out to the customer’s sale page with your unique tracking code.

Best Affiliate Marketing Networks to Try

There are tons of affiliate marketing networks and programs in existence, but five of the most popular are Amazon Associates, Rakuten, ClickBank, JVZoo, and Impact.

1. Amazon Associates

As the world’s largest leading online marketplace, Amazon sells nearly everything under the sun.

For this reason, it’s no surprise that the Amazon Associates program is popular with bloggers.

Whatever your niche, you can find products on Amazon that will resonate with your audience.

Depending on the product, Amazon’s commission rates are between 1% and 20%.

The best thing about the Amazon affiliate program is that your readers don’t have to buy the product you link to.

Amazon stores a cookie on its users, and anything the reader buys in the next 24 hours will be credited to you as the referrer.

Amazon pays every month, but the payment is NET 60.

You can opt for payment via mailed check, direct deposit, or (of course) an Amazon gift card.

2. Rakuten

As a cashback website, Rakuten Advertising gives money to consumers when they make purchases through the company’s website.

A popular site for shopping, Rakuten reported revenue for Quarter 2 of 2021 as $3.4 billion and the company continues its meteoric growth.

The company’s affiliate program is connected to more than 2,500 different retailers selling all types of products. With Rakuten, you can earn commissions in three types of ways:

• Dynamic commissioning: Great for scaled revenue
• Coupon commissioning: Coupon codes
• Multi-touch commissioning: Affiliate gets credit at all stages of the customer’s journey

3. ClickBank

One of the most well-known affiliate programs is ClickBank, which is a leading global retailer.

ClickBank operates in more than 200 countries and has been around for a long time.

To date, ClickBank has paid out more than $4.2 billion in affiliate commissions.

In addition to physical products, ClickBank also has lots of digital products that you can promote.

4. JVZoo

If you want to promote digital products, JVZoo is the way to go.

Something to love about JVZoo is that your affiliate link connects to all of the products in a given funnel.

Equally impactful, the cookies are for life, so you have plenty of time to earn a commission from a referral.

The company is based in the U.S. and has been around since 2009.

With more than 18 million products and more than 800,000 affiliates, JVZoo is worth noting.

5. Impact

Founded in 2008, Impact was started by a team of marketing enthusiasts who also introduced the world to LeadPoint and Commission Junction.

Impact has some big names as clients, including Airbnb, Adidas, Lenovo, L’Oreal, Allstate, Levi’s, and more.

The company boasts robust reporting and cross-platform tracking, along with more than nine million products.

Here are some more popular affiliate networks and ideas.

• eBay Partner Network
• WordPress affiliate programs
• ShareASale
• Commission Junction
• AvantLink

Why is Affiliate Marketing a Great Monetization Method?

The affiliate marketing space is booming, and a study conducted by Statista estimates that by 2022, the affiliate marketing industry should be worth more than $8.2 billion.

In 2017, this figure was only $5.4 billion, so this industry is growing at a rapid pace.

Here are some more benefits of affiliate marketing:

• Easy to execute
• Easy to scale
• Low risk
• Passive income

Besides being able to make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, it’s also easy to get started monetizing with affiliate programs.

Most of them don’t require a minimum traffic amount, so it’s a great option for even small and new bloggers.

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Not all affiliate programs are created equal. Some pay well, others not so well.

The key is selecting the ones that pay the most within your industry.

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7. Create and Sell a Course

An excellent way to earn money from your blog is by selling an online course.

Maybe you don’t see yourself as an “expert” about anything, but that’s not true and you shouldn’t let that hold you back.

After all, you’ve probably spent thousands of hours in your niche, which is more than the average person starting out.

To earn money by teaching others, you just need to know more than the people who are paying you for your expertise and knowledge.

Did you know that you can become an “expert” on a topic in about two hours?

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can become a doctor or attorney in two hours, but for some topics, a few hours of internet research will make you more knowledgeable about a topic than most other people.

And if you want to genuinely master a new skill so that you have enough expertise to teach it well to others, you can do that in about six months, according to the Harvard Business Review.

To create an online course, you first need to develop expertise in your chosen topic.

To do that, follow these steps.

1. Examine your readiness. Do you have the basics in place for learning a new skill?
2. Ensure that the information you want to sell has an audience. To do this, you need to conduct some market research.
3. Get busy. Get busy adding more knowledge to what you already know.

Why not turn this expert knowledge into an online course that you can sell?

What is an Online Course?

An online course, also called an e-course, is a course that is taught online rather than the traditional method of teaching in person.

Online courses are usually pre-recorded, but some courses offer life sessions online.

With an online course, learners can learn in their own preferred time and space, making them ideal for people who need flexibility.

How Does Selling an Online Course Work?

To sell an online course, you need to first come up with an idea for your course.

Do this by asking yourself some questions.

• What do I know more about than most people?
• Is there a topic that I can easily explain to someone who knows nothing about the topic?
• Can I make myself an expert in something that I already know a lot about?
• What skills or information have I learned from my career and past jobs?
• Does my existing audience have a problem I can help them solve?
• What do people ask me for advice on?

To find out what your audience would like to learn from you, do some of these things.

• Send surveys to your audience. To learn what your audience wants to learn, simply ask them. You can use a tool like Survey Monkey or just send an email to your subscriber list.
• Stay on top of your blog and social media comments.
• Use Google search, Google Trends, Answer Socrates, or Answer the Public to find out what people are asking questions about.

Once you know what you want to teach other people, it’s time to build your course.

Hosting Your Online Courses

To host your online course on your blog, you will need to use a WordPress LMS plugin.

Different plugins have various features, so be sure to thoroughly research each one that you’re considering.

Here are a few popular LMS plugins.

• LearnDash
• LearnPress (free with premium options)
• Tutor LMS (free with premium options)
• Lifter LMS
• MasterStudy LMS
• Good LMS
• Namaste! LMS (free with premium options)
• WP Courseware

Third-Party Online Course Platforms

Do you want to sell your course on an outside third-party platform that will help you grow your brand and drive awareness and traffic to your blog?

The best online course platforms listed below are great tools for helping you create and sell your online courses.

• Teachable
• Udemy
• Podia
• Mighty Networks
• Gumroad
• Kajabi (read our guide)
• Skillshare
• Creative Live
• Xperiencify
• Thinkific
• Pathwright
• MemberPress Courses

Note that these platforms will charge you a monthly fee or keep a percentage of your sales.

However, it’s worth it because it will help you grow your brand.

Types of Online Courses

There are eight main types of online courses.

1. Mini-course: Short course your learners can finish in an hour or two
2. Interactive online course: Keeps your audience engaged as they learn
3. Self-paced online course (Massive Open Online Courses): Helps people learn a skill at their own pace with video, presentations, text, discussions, and animation
4. Written online course: For people who like old-school learning
5. Webinar: Interactive and accessible, can be recorded for learning outside of the live webinar
6. Masterclass: Signature course developed by an expert
7. Email course: For sending your subscribers course modules over a period of time (usually a week or a month)
8. Boot camp: Comprehensive and immersive experience for learners

How Much Can You Make Selling Online Courses?

There is big money to be made in selling online courses.

According to Global Newswire, the e-learning industry will grow to approximately $325 billion by the year 2025.

The big earners such as Joseph Michael make six figures from their online courses.

Michael got his entrepreneurial start with a blog about learning life skills, and he spent six months (remember that Harvard Business Review article we linked to above?) learning how to create his first online course with a small budget.

How Easy is it to Create and Sell a Course?

Joseph Michael notes that he wrote his online course during his lunch breaks when he was still working in a corporate job.

Sometimes Michael would go to his office’s parking garage, while other times, he would go to a Starbucks parking lot to use their free wi-fi.

This shows just how easy it can be to create an online course if you educate yourself on how to do it correctly.

As for equipment, Michael created his first online course with a cheap USB microphone and a laptop.

Why is Selling a Course a Great Monetization Method?

If you’re blogging in a niche, you’ve probably become an expert in that niche and adjacent niches.

Here are three reasons selling an online course is a great blog monetization method.

1. People who are enthused about your content will be more than happy to shell out cash to go in-depth with you to learn more.
2. You’re already sharing your knowledge on your blog. However, with an online course, you can dive deeper into your topic and sell your expertise to your readers.
3. You can even use your online courses to pivot into another revenue stream: selling your services with one-on-one coaching or consulting.

8. Memberships

When you have a membership website, you essentially have a recurring revenue model that brings in money every month (or year).

In recent years, countless blogs and brands have started offering a membership model.

For example, brands such as Adobe and Microsoft now offer monthly plans and people no longer have to pay the hundreds or thousands of dollars up-front to use their products.

You can bring this same mindset into your blog.

If you’re skeptical about this business model, just keep reading for more info about how you can rake in cash with a membership website.

What are Membership Websites?

Membership websites are blogs or websites that contain information that lives behind a paywall.

Gated content uses a “gate” to limit access to your blog’s content to paying or registered members.

Once your members are inside your gated community, they have access to extra privileges and exclusive content.

How Does a Membership Model Work?

For a membership model to work for your blog, you need:

• The mindset that your customer experience is the most important thing
• Topical focus
• Solid planning to know what’s involved in managing a membership site
• The knowledge of how your topic can encourage growth or solve problems
• A genuine dedication to your niche or topic
• Energetic marketing

To create a membership site, you will need to use a WordPress plugin or third-party tool.

Types of Membership Sites

There are three primary types of membership sites: premium content, access to a blogger’s time, and community memberships.

1. Premium Content

If you have a blog about any topic, you can put your best exclusive content behind a paywall for your paying members.

One example is Food Blogger Pro.

Owned by the couple who runs the popular (and very profitable) Pinch of Yum food website, Food Blogger Pro offers an excellent free blog and podcast.

However, the company also offers a membership option for $350 per year.

Food Blogger Pro members enjoy access to online courses, a private community forum, support from experts in the food blogging niche, monthly live Q&A calls, discounts on recommended products and tools, and much more.

2. Access to Blogger’s Time

Some membership sites offer something even more valuable than excellent content: access to a blogger’s time.

This type of membership type is sometimes referred to as a coaching membership.

Like most of us, even the best of us have limited time to interact with followers.

And the big players experience even more of a demand on their time.

If you’re someone who has a lot to offer in terms of knowledge, having a membership site where you interact with your followers may be a great fit for you.

3. Community Memberships

Many membership sites focus on the community aspect of their site.

Building a membership site around your existing fanbase is the perfect way for them to interact not just with you but also with each other.

In many cases, subscribers will sign up to receive your content, but they will stay because they enjoy the community.

Here are some excellent and creative ideas for membership sites that you can add to your existing blog.

• Content libraries
• Image collections (stock videos, photos, or illustrations)
• Website templates or WordPress themes
• Cooking membership sites with free access to ebooks or webinars
• Job boards and other classifieds
• Serial content or fiction
• Online courses
• Meal plans
• Services
• DIY crafting project plans
• Workout videos

How Much Can You Make With Membership Sites?

With membership sites, the sky is the limit in terms of how much money you can make.

You can collect membership fees in any of the following ways.

• One-time fixed rate
• Lifetime membership
• Freemium
• Recurring fixed rate
• Custom rate
• Installment plans
• Tiered pricing
• Pay what you want
• Pay as you go

Which payment plan is best for you? It depends on what you offer.

If you have a blog and regularly produce new content, the recurring fixed rate is best for you.

If you offer extensive content such as online courses and ebooks, it may be profitable to have a tiered pricing plan.

Here are a few examples of membership sites that make their owners plenty of cash.

• Smart Blogger
• Jane Spiller Astrology
• Travel Club 360
• Orchids Made Easy
• BBC Muzzy
• Magnetic Memory Method
• Youpreneur
• Copyblogger
• Lady Boss Weight Loss
• Freelance Writers Den

How Easy is it to Create and Promote a Membership Site?

A quick Google search will net you tons of results on how to build a membership website and how much money the big players make from their sites.

However, it’s important for you to know precisely how a membership website will work for your needs and your content.

Here are some of the most popular tools and plugins to help you build your membership site.

• MemberPress (starting at $179 per year)
• WPQuickStart (starting at $40.83 per month)
• BBPress (free)
• BuddyPress (free)
• Learndash (starting at $159)
• Ultimate Membership Pro ($59)

If you want to take your blog off WordPress and build on another membership or community platform, there are several different options.

• Mighty Networks
• Disciple
• Tribe
• BuddyBoss
• Discourse
• Wild Apricot
• Khoros
• Podia
• Unseen (for video content)
• Kajabi

You can read a full breakdown of each platform and tool in our Membership Portals and Community Platforms guides.

Promoting Your Membership Site

When you have a membership site, the “build it and they will come” mantra will only take you so far.

To grow your membership, you need to promote your community.

• Participate in forums in your niche.
• Join relevant Facebook groups and make yourself a valued member of the group. Don’t just spam your membership site. That can quickly get you kicked out of the group.
• Blog on LinkedIn or Quora to establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
• Put a banner in a prominent spot on your blog encouraging blog readers to join.
• Add reminders to your email newsletters (don’t be pushy).
• Ask your members to invite new members.
• Create a promo video.
• Collect testimonials from members who have found your membership site to be valuable.

Why is Building a Membership Site a Great Monetization Method?

Anytime you can reap revenue from the same customer over and over again, it’s a win for both of you.

While you may occasionally have a repeat “customer” when fans read your blog, making them love your content enough to pay for exclusive access is much more profitable.

Here are some of the advantages of having a membership site.

• You’re building a community of devoted followers.
• Recurring revenue is a stable addition to your revenue stream.
• You continue to establish authority in your niche.
• Even if other advertising methods experience a seasonal drop, your membership site will keep bringing in the cash.

9. Display Advertising

Display advertising sometimes takes a beating in the blogosphere, with critics claiming that you can’t make money with it.

In some cases, the critics may be correct.

Nevertheless, there is still money to be made with display ads, and the fact that they are still around is proof of that.

What Is Display Advertising?

Display advertising consists of image or video ads that people view when they browse blogs, social media, apps, and even connected TV devices.

With the rise of streaming, there are even Hulu advertising and Spotify ad options available.

In short, any digital ad format in addition to audio-only ads and paid search ads can be referred to as display advertising.

How Does Display Advertising Work?

Display advertising promotes brand awareness, promotional sales, specific products, content, apps, or services across a website visitor’s entire journey.

These ads can be animated, static, or video-based.

In many cases, display ads are associated with top-of-funnel marketing, the marketing that first makes a website visitor aware of your brand.

Types of Display Advertisements

There are several different types of display ads.

The four most common are banner ads, sidebar ads, in-content ads, and newsletter ads.

Display ads have four components:

• Headline
• Copy
• Media (video or image)
• Call-to-action button

1. Banner Ads

For decades, we have been seeing banner ads across the top (and sometimes the bottom) of our favorite websites.

It’s also common to see banner ads in videos and in apps.

2. Sidebar Ads

A sidebar ad looks similar to a banner ad except that it’s vertical instead of horizontal.

Sidebar ads can be either short or long.

When the ad is tall, you will sometimes see it referred to as a skyscraper ad.

Some ad networks call the sidebar on a blog the “right rail.”

3. In-Content Ads

In-content ads are as straightforward as the term sounds.

These ads are nestled inside the content.

In some cases, this can be a regular display ad or native advertising.

4. Newsletter Ads

You can place a display ad code snippet inside your newsletter for newsletter ads.

Other types of display advertising include:

• Responsive display ads
• Native advertising (ads that resemble a publication’s content)
• Video display ads
• Dynamic display ads
• Interstitial ads
• Overlay ads
• Lightbox ads
• Companion ads
• Rewarded ads

How Much Can You Make With Display Advertising?

How much money you make with display advertising depends on the revenue per 1,000 page views (RPM).

To calculate how much money you can make from display advertising, you need to know two things:

• Your average RPM
• How many site visitors you regularly have

The challenging thing is that RPM can vary from day to day, and even minute to minute.

A few other things can affect your RPM.

• The type of website or blog you have
• How many ads you are displaying on your blog
• Which ad network you’re using
• Your content length
• Seasonal changes

Some blog owners report an average RPM of $20, and this rate can vary depending on the time of year.

Here are some basic RPM numbers you can play with to figure out how much money you can make with display advertising on your blog.

• Low end: $2-$5 per 1,000 views (we have seen even lower RPM than this)
• Medium end: $5-$10 per 1,000 views
• High end: Up to $50 per 1,000 views

How Easy is it to Set Up Display Advertising On a Blog?

Setting up display ads on your blog is one of the easiest ways to get started making money.

For most display advertising, your ad partner will give you a snippet of code to insert on your website.

Why is Display Advertising a Great Monetization Method?

One of the reasons display advertising is so effective is that they’re one of the fastest ways to begin monetizing your blog.

When it comes to the traditional funnel approach, display ads are at the top of the funnel.

In many instances, a display ad is the first thing prospective customers will see to make them aware of a brand.

However, display advertising can pay off at all stages of the marketing funnel, including:

• Awareness
• Engagement
• Consideration
• Conversion
• Advocacy

At every stage of the funnel, display advertising can play a pivotal role and make your blog lots of money.

Display advertising is a great place to start until you can monetize with higher-paying advertising options.

10. Sponsored Posts and Reviews

You’re already writing content you love for your own blog, but did you know that you can make money by creating a sponsored post or product review?

What are Sponsored Posts and Reviews?

A sponsored post or review is website content that is actually a type of native advertising.

A sponsored post blends in naturally with your existing content.

However, in the sponsored post or review, you are writing about someone else’s product or service.

Usually, a sponsored post will be labeled as such, but sometimes these posts are called promoted posts.

How Do Sponsored Posts and Reviews Work?

Typically, native advertising is found by shopping online or doing a Google search.

Have you noticed that the ads at the top of Google searches increasingly look similar to the search engine results?

This is native advertising.

In the above situations, the ads are usually relative to the searcher’s experience.

With sponsored posts on a blog, it’s very similar.

Your readers may not even be aware that they’re reading a sponsored post or review if you didn’t tell them.

However, the law requires that you disclose the information if a post or review is sponsored.

The way it works is that a company or individual pays you, the blogger, to write a blog post or review about their product.

In most cases, you need to have a sizeable amount of traffic to be able to attract clients for sponsored posts.

Pro Tip: Check out these affiliate disclosure examples to understand the type of disclosure to put on your site.

Types of Sponsored Posts and Reviews

You can get really creative when offering sponsored posts and reviews.

In addition to blogging, you can run social media promotions, send offers in your email newsletters,

1. Blog Posts or Reviews

If you have a blog, you can blog about products you use and enjoy.

For example, if you’re a food blogger, a brand may offer you free food or equipment to try and review honestly.

While sometimes payment may come in the form of goods, popular bloggers also get money for giving an honest review of a product or service.

2. Social Media Promotions

Do you have a large social media following?

You can leverage your network to show yourself using a sponsored product.

3. Sponsored Content and Guest Posts

An example of sponsored content would be a brand writing something for your blog.

Their content should blend seamlessly with your own content, and their content should be clearly labeled as a sponsored post.

Alternatively, you may have the opportunity at some point to write a guest post for someone else’s blog.

4. Email Newsletters

Have you ever gotten an email from someone you subscribe to and they’re acting on behalf of a third party?

In most cases, this is a sponsored email newsletter.

For example, if you follow your favorite food blogger, it may not be unusual for them to send an occasional email with holiday ideas using a specific product.

How Much Can You Make With Sponsored Posts and Reviews?

Bloggers and influencers who make money from sponsored posts are cashing in big-time.

If you’re just getting started with your blog, you may not be able to take advantage of this opportunity right away, but as you grow, you can definitely become a part of the influencer economy.

The creator of Making Sense of Cents, Michelle Gardner, charges about $5,000 for every sponsored post.

Smaller blogs can bring in between $750 and $1,500 per sponsored post, according to a blogger at Fit Financials.

How Easy is it to Sell Sponsored Posts and Reviews?

Of all of our ideas for how to monetize a blog, sponsored posts and reviews may be the most difficult to break into because you need a large audience and a high-traffic blog.

Once you have an established audience, sponsored posts and reviews may be one of your biggest moneymakers.

For more on the “how”, check out our guide: How to Get Sponsors for a Blog.

Why are Sponsored Posts and Reviews a Great Monetization Method?

With an ever-increasing demand for our attention, sponsored posts and reviews are going to be increasingly used by brands to grow their customer base.

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, over 63% of businesses that are already using influencer marketing have plans to spend even more money on sponsored product marketing.

Besides earning you money for the sponsorship, your sponsored content also has other ads on it, including display ads and affiliate ads, so you’re doubling your earning capacity.

In addition to creating sponsored blog posts, you can also utilize your social media networks on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram for even more sponsorship opportunities.

11. Create an Event or Mastermind

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more and more activities have transitioned to the virtual world, and this includes events and summits.

Why not host an event or mastermind for your niche?

What are Events and Masterminds?

Events and masterminds are summits that take place virtually.

Unlike webinars, these events are engaging and interactive.

In many events and mastermind summits, there are multiple speakers covering a variety of topics, Q&A sessions with thought leaders, and hosted online gatherings.

How Do Events and Masterminds Work?

Usually, virtual events and masterminds are free to attend, but the attendees can only access them for a short period of time.

Then, an organizer can sell an all-access pass that allows the attendees to re-visit event materials whenever they want at their leisure.

An organizer sets up the event and invited vendors/speakers who want to attend.

In some cases, the vendors or sponsors will be required to pay a fee to present their material.

Ideally, the vendors will profit by raising awareness about their own brands.

Types of Events and Masterminds

We talked about Joseph Michael in our section about online courses above.

Michael’s online course took off when he started holding online webinars to promote his course.

Michael’s first webinar made him $25,000 in sales.

And that was just in one afternoon.

A few months later, Michael was making about $40,000 per month in sales just from his webinars.

For the last two years, an event for genealogy enthusiasts and experts called Roots Tech has had to move to be a virtual-only event.

In the past, this conference has taken place physically and sponsors helped pay for the expenses.

Because of the pandemic, the event has taken place virtually since 2020.

These are just two examples of the types of events and masterminds that can be held virtually.

How Much Can You Make With Events and Masterminds?

You can have sponsors at your event or mastermind and earn revenue that way.

However, there is also the opportunity to raise awareness about your blog or your brand.

For this reason, an event or mastermind can be considered a long-term approach.

However, keep in mind Joseph Michael’s webinar, for which he earned more than $25,000.

If you have a large audience, they will pay good money to have this type of access to you.

At your event, you can also sell merchandise that’s related to your brand.

How Easy is it to Create and Promote an Event or Mastermind?

While it helps to have a large following when planning your event, you can be successful even if you’re just starting out.

For example, Jon Schumacher had just 2,000 email subscribers at the time of his launch of Webinar Mastery Summit.

Even with this relatively small audience, Schumacher netted $26,000 in sales after only 10 days.

He also added nearly 3,000 new subscribers to his growing email list.

Additionally, with the recent rise of virtual meetings, there are now a host of inexpensive and easy-to-use virtual conference platforms that make this functionality quick and easy.

Why is Creating an Event or Mastermind a Great Monetization Method?

Anytime you can grow your email subscriber list, you’re going to enjoy a payoff in the long term.

If your event makes you a ton of money, that’s great, but even with a small following, you can grow your audience with good marketing.

12. Accept Donations

One way to increase your revenue from your blog is by accepting donations.

If your blog is for a nonprofit organization, donations are a particularly effective revenue stream.

What are Donations?

Donations are monetary gifts that are commonly given to people in need or artists and creators.

How Do Blog Donations Work?

To accept donations on your blog, you can use a WordPress plugin, including any of these.

• GIVE WP
• Donorbox
• WP Simple Pay
• Formidable Forms
• Seamless Donations
• Woocommerce YITH Donations
• Easy PayPal Donation
• WP Crowdfunding

Donation Platforms

Besides the plugins listed above, you can also use a third-party platform for collecting donations.

Some of the most popular are Patreon, PayPal, Memberful, and Liberapay.

1. Patreon

Patreon has gotten a lot of buzz in recent years and for good reason.

It’s super easy to use and offers a great user experience for both creators and patrons.

2. PayPal

In addition to the Easy PayPal Donations plugin, there is also a sleek PayPal plugin you can use to collect donations.

If you enjoy the simplicity of PayPal, this may be a great solution for collecting donations through your blog.

Additionally, you can simply create a PayPal button for your site using PayPal’s code.

3. Memberful

Memberful is excellent software for publishers, independent creators, podcasters, educators, and more. Memberful also offers a WordPress plugin.

Even better, Memberful has a free starter package, and the pro plan is just $25.

4. Liberapay

For accepting recurring donations, another great tool is Liberapay.

Once donations are set up, the donations are then funded in advance.

This service is free except for what they have to pay for payment processors.

How Much Can You Make With Donations?

Most bloggers aren’t going to become wealthy from donations, but it can provide a little extra cash flow.

On the other hand, there is one well-known blogger who makes about $12,000 per month thanks to his Patreon.

Tim Urban is the creator of the popular Wait But Why blog and all of his revenue comes from his loyal following on Patreon.

Moreover, Urban has just 2,937 subscribers, which isn’t an ungodly amount of followers.

How Easy is it to Accept Donations?

Once you have your plugin installed, it’s simple to accept donations via your blog.

Why is Taking Donations a Great Monetization Method?

While accepting donations isn’t the best way to make money from a blog, it can be a nice supplemental income stream, particularly if you have a devoted following.

13. Start a Podcast

In the post-radio era, it should surprise no one that podcasts are exploding in popularity right now.

If you love podcasts, you should consider starting your own to collect ad revenue and raise awareness about your brand.

What are Podcasts?

A podcast is a digital audio content file that is delivered via the internet with a podcast hosting service.

You can listen to podcasts using an app, online via a web browser, or by downloading them.

How Does a Podcast Work?

Individual recordings or live podcasts are called podcast episodes.

Podcasts are usually hosted by a single individual or multiple individuals.

These people, known as “podcasters,” lead conversations, report news, or share stories.

Podcasts can be self-published and hosted on applications such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Types of Podcasts

There are eight primary types of podcasts.

• Interview podcasts
• Conversational podcasts
• Monologue podcasts
• Investigative/storytelling podcasts
• Roundtable podcasts
• Theatrical podcasts
• Repurposed content podcasts
• Hybrid podcasts

How Much Can You Make With Podcasts?

When you first start podcasting, you won’t make a lot of money.

However, there are some big players in the podcasting arena who are raking in the cash.

John Lee Dumas produces the popular Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast, and he makes nearly $2 million per year from his podcast revenue.

How Easy is it to Start and Promote a Podcast?

There is a bit of a learning curve with creating a podcast, but thanks to new technology and apps such as Blubrry, it has become easier than it used to be.

To get started with a podcast, you need some basic equipment.

• Microphone
• Headphone
• Podcast hosting plan
• Audio editing software
• Zoom or Skype account

In addition, it is worth checking out podcast software, which makes recording, editing, and sharing podcast episodes simple and hassle-free.

Why is Starting a Podcast a Great Monetization Method?

The podcast industry is exploding, and a report from Paid Insights revealed that there are more than 700,000 active podcasts and more than 29 million podcast episodes.

If you have an existing blog, you can jump-start your blog by taking your content to the “airwaves” via a podcast.

As we mentioned in our section about Pinch of Yum and the Food Blogger Pro company, their podcast is an excellent complementary tool for their blog and membership site.

With a podcast, you have a few different ways of earning money:

• Raising awareness for your blog
• Promoting your physical products
• Growing your email list
• Creating a following for a membership site
• Direct advertising on your podcast

14. Write an Ebook

If you’ve always felt like you “have a book in you,” why not turn your idea into another revenue stream with your own ebook?

What are Ebooks?

Ebooks are electronic, reflowable, and non-editable books that are presented in formats that allow for reading on ebook readers, smartphones, tablets, computers, or other electronic devices.

How Do Ebooks Work?

There are five primary types of ebook formats.

1. EPUB: Can’t be read on Amazon Kindle except for Kindle Fire tablet
2. MOBI: Works on Amazon Kindle, but doesn’t support sound or video
3. AZW3 and AZW: Amazon Kindle ebooks that support both sound and video
4. IBA: Apple iBooks Author app
5. PDF: Not reflowable (doesn’t adapt to screen size or user settings), not ideal for e-readers, supports links but not video or sound.

If using your ebook as a giveaway on your blog for growing your email list is your goal, you can turn your manuscript into a PDF for easy downloading.

If you want to publish your ebook for sale, we suggest using the format that’s supported by your publishing tool.

How Much Can You Make With an Ebook?

It’s difficult to calculate how much money you can make with an ebook because it depends largely on your reason for creating an ebook.

If you write your ebook as a giveaway for your email subscribers, your earnings are a part of your long-term passive income strategy.

Likewise, if the goal of your ebook is to establish yourself as an authority in your niche, the value of your ebook will reward you over time.

On the other hand, if you want to publish and sell your ebook, you could see a more immediate return.

If you sell your ebook on your blog via a sales page using a WordPress plugin such as Easy Digital Downloads, you get to keep 100% of the sales.

You can accept payment directly on your blog via Paypal, Amazon Pay, or another payment service.

You can also sell your ebook on platforms such as Podia or Gumroad.

Amazon Royalties

Here are some hard numbers on what you can expect to earn if you publish your book on Amazon with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Amazon offers two ebook royalty rates:

1. 70% royalty option (books priced from $2.99 to $9.99)
2. 35% royalty option (books priced less than $2.99)

Here are some examples of how those royalties break down.

• An ebook sold for $0.99 cents will earn you royalties of $0.35 cents per sale.
• Books priced at $2.99 will earn you royalties of $2.09 per ebook sale.
• Your ebook priced at $9.99 will earn you royalties of $6.99 per sale.

If you give away your book for “free” on Kindle Unlimited, you earn money based on the number of pages your readers consume.

How Easy is it to Write and Publish an Ebook?

If the idea of writing and publishing an entire book is intimidating, just know that it’s much easier than you think.

You can take a series of blog posts and turn them into an ebook.

Also, working from an outline is extremely helpful when you’re trying to pull a book together.

There is a little bit of a learning curve for publishing an ebook, but mostly it’s just a matter of taking the time to educate yourself on the process.

Steps for Writing and Publishing an Ebook

1. Choose your ebook title.
2. Conduct research.
3. Define your audience.
4. Create an outline.
5. Start writing.
6. Hire an editor on Upwork or Fiverr. Even the best writers benefit from an expert pair of eyeballs on their book.
7. Design and format your ebook yourself or use a publishing service.
8. Develop your ebook.
9. Create a beautiful and effective cover yourself or commission one on a marketplace such as Fiverr.
10. If publishing to Amazon, review your ebook in the Kindle Previewer.
11. Publish your ebook, whether for sale on a platform or via PDF for a free giveaway on your blog.
12. Start promoting your ebook.
13. Be active in the community you’re writing for.

Like many things, writing an ebook gets easier the more you do it.

As an example, this article is as long and comprehensive as some ebooks, and it took me a week to research and write it.

Why is Writing an Ebook a Great Monetization Method?

There are three primary reasons for bloggers to write an ebook:

1. Earn extra revenue when you publish your ebook. When you translate your knowledge into an ebook, it’s like making money from your quality content twice.
2. Give your ebook away to people who opt into your email subscriber list. Growing your email marketing list is one of the most important things you can do to grow your business, and people are more inclined to opt-in when they’re getting something in exchange.
3. Establish yourself as an authority in your niche. If readers see you as an expert in your niche, you build trust and authority. This will inevitably drive more traffic to your blog, which stimulates your other revenue streams.

Any of these three reasons will earn you more money and can be a part of your long-term passive income strategy.

Getting Started and FAQ

Before you jump into the monetization methods above, it is important to ask yourself the “why” behind what you’re doing.

Blogging to Blog… or Blogging to Make Money?

So if I asked you today, are you blogging to blog, or blogging to make money, what would be your answer?

In most cases, many people would say they are blogging because they want to make money.

However, most people would also likely say that they aren’t making money with their blog, even if they are writing 2-3 posts per day!

It’s all about the PASSION… I mean PROFITS!

How many times have you heard, follow your passion and the money will follow?

I’m sure you’ve heard it a lot and it’s something everyone in the world of blogging likes to say… especially anyone who has already found success in blogging and making money!

Unfortunately, this usually isn’t the case… probably more like 98% of the time.

One of the main reasons why passion is so important with blogging is because it takes a lot of time and effort and if you don’t care about what you are writing about, then you will quickly lose interest.

It’s much easier to make money with a financial blog and talk about boring topics such as increasing your credit score or how to get a new home loan — but no one really wants to write about that.

The money is in the Call to Action!

Instead, bloggers need to look at their blogs as sales copy and a call to action, while also making them resourceful and informative for the people visiting your site.

People use the internet for three reasons, which one of these fits in with your blog?

1. To be entertained
2. To buy something
3. To find information

Many people fall into the top category of being entertained, and this is one of the hardest areas to monetize.

If you have a blog that helps someone find reviews before buying something, this is a great place to be in for making money.

The last category is all about information, and something that could do very well with Google Adsense and affiliate marketing if done right.

Is your blog worth your time and your visitors’ time?

If you are still struggling to make money with your blog and your content, then it might be a good idea for you to step back for a moment and look at the big picture.

If you were a visitor to your site, would have found any value in reading its content and is it actually providing any value?

Not making money with your blog is one of the biggest turn-offs for long-term success and you really need to have a plan of attack in place.

Blogging takes a lot of time and resources, so the last thing you want is to keep digging yourself in a bigger hole for time and money and not sure where you and your blog might end up a year from now.

Before Starting Your Blog

The biggest difference between the late 90s (the dot-com bubble) and now is that free blogging software like WordPress provides the infrastructure for anyone to create a beautiful, high-traffic website that generates income.

If other amateur bloggers can do it, you too can start a blog and make money online.

After all, I started with no formal computer science degree.

I used to work in finance until I realized the power of the internet and how much I loved building websites.

My goal for bloggingtips.com is to teach anyone how to blog, which as the domain states, can be as simple as 1-2-3.

Making money blogging online doesn’t have to be the most difficult thing you’ve ever accomplished.

What To Blog About

Everyone has an interest or passion they are knowledgeable about.

The best topic to blog about is the one that ignites your passion, not the one that seems commercially viable, although that is critical too.

While it is important to provide readers with valuable information, readers can tell when a blogger truly cares about a subject.

This creates a sense of trust with your audience, which will keep them coming back for more.

One of the lessons I’ve learned is to always offer your readers more than you ask for in return.

If you present the best user experience, information, and insights, why should readers stop visiting your blog?

You’ll have earned their “customer” loyalty and if your readers are existing bloggers, they will refer their own audience to check out your site.

The Riches Are In The Niches

There are blogs about business, technology, news, personal finance, trading/investing, mobile apps, social media, career advice, education, traditional and online marketing, gaming, politics, religion, art and crafts, fashion, food, music, mommy blogs, home decor or interior design, dating and relationships, and any subject you can imagine.

Within each category or market are a number of niches.

If this is your first foray into blogging, I highly suggest you start with a very low competition, niche site.

If you are unfamiliar with “niche sites”, they are blog websites focused on very specific subjects, audiences, or demographics.

For example, within the health industry, you could concentrate on “How To Get 6-Pack Abs”, “Weight Loss Product Reviews”, or “How To Make Your Hair Grow Longer” because competing with WebMD or MayoClinic on everything health and medical-related is nearly impossible as a solo blogger.

Remember, ranking on the 1st page of Google for a keyword that gets 5,000 searches per month is significantly better than ranking at the bottom of the 2nd page for a term that gets 500,000 searches per month.

Let’s be honest, not many people visit the 2nd page and you will not make money online with poor rankings and no traffic.

Wrapping Up: How to Monetize a Blog

Is there a best way to monetize a blog?

The clear winner is the monetization method that brings you in the most money.

If you’re putting ads on your blog, we recommend that you try to get your traffic up so that you can apply for Adthrive.

For raising awareness and fostering long-term growth and revenue for your successful blog, try to invest some time into growing your email list or producing a podcast.

Our best advice for how to monetize a blog is to not just stick with one easy method.

While you’ll likely be starting out with Google Adsense and as an Amazon Associate, budget some time for growth and special project so that you can continue to grow and thrive.

Getting the hang of this whole blogging thing.

You open Google Analytics to see that only a handful of people had visited your blog.

Your comments section is as empty as the Chinese buffet on Christmas.

You’re working overtime and haven’t earned a single cent.

And you wonder..

Should you throw in the towel? Give up this blogging thing entirely?

But I have good news.

You right just be making a handful of new blogger blunders that are preventing you from gaining traction, readers, and profit. And most of them are completely fixable.

Here are nine mistakes new bloggers make and how they hurt your bottom line.

1. They Think Blogging is About Writing

Blogging is a simple concept, right?

You load WordPress, find a host, and publish an article.

At its core, blogging is writing, isn’t it?

Putting fingers to keys and producing content?

Well, not quite.

Writing is actually only a tiny part of blogging.

Maybe 15%.

As a blogger, there are many more important hats you have to wear:

1. First, blogging is about providing value. It’s about reaching your target audience through content to solve a pain.
2. Then, blogging is about marketing. You should be spending 80% of your time promoting your articles, and only 20% writing.
3. After marketing, blogging is about relationships. Relationships with your readers, other bloggers, influencers, and the media.
4. Next, blogging is about community. Bringing people together around a central theme, topic, or set of beliefs.
5. And finally, blogging is about writing.

As a successful blogger, you’re a marketer first. You’re a community builder second, and you’re a content creator third.

Don’t fall into this common new-blogger trap of assuming blogging is about writing.

How this hurts your bottom line: If you focus your time and effort on writing and ignore everything else, nobody will read your articles, subscribe to your email list  and buy your products.

2. They Care About The Wrong Stats

It’s addictive, isn’t it?

You hardly even notice your mouse dragging across your screen to your stats tab until you’re looking at your daily visitor count.

After all, visitors, page views, bounce rate… that’s a blogger’s bread and butter, right?

But I have a secret:

It doesn’t matter if you have 3 million page views per month if they don’t convert.

What is really important is whether you’re turning those visitors into email subscribers. Because you can’t build a relationship with a page view.

If you’re obsessing over the wrong stats, you can miss opportunities to increase the meaningful number: the number of email subscribers you have.

How this hurts your bottom line: Page views aren’t going to pay the bills, and the casual search engine visitors won’t be the people who buy your product, engage with you and become true fans.

So remember: traffic does not matter unless it converts.

3. They Sell Out for a Quick Buck

I know the feeling…

You spend hours writing articles, answering comments, and promoting your posts.

It feels like you’re working overtime for free.

Then, one day, you open your inbox and see a message from some company offering you $100 or $200 to including a link in an article.

Cha-ching! You can finally get paid to do what you love, right?

Not so fast.

Jumping at these opportunities without weighing the consequences of advertising is a huge mistake that new bloggers often make, but consider this:

Especially on a new blog, ads weaken the trust of your readers.

Especially when they stumble across a sponsored post with a link to a company that is not relevant, that you’ve never used before, and that doesn’t help them.

Focus on your audience first.

Provide relentless value to them.

Then, let them tell you what they want.

Create a product or service to help them with a common pain point they have.

This will enable you to keep their trust, build a deeper relationship with them and help you make far more money in the long run.

How this hurts your bottom line: Your income is directly linked to the strength of your readership.

The strongest bonds are built on trust.

If your readers trust you, they are far more likely to buy your products, use your affiliate links and find ways to support you.

A thousand people spending $200 on a course you built nets you more than 10 sponsored posts.

4. They Have Blogging Amnesia

It starts innocently enough.

You’re scouring the web, learning about becoming a successful blogger, and BAM!

You’re hit with a case of blogging amnesia.

You forget why you started your blog.

You forget who your target audience is.

You forget what niche you’re in.

And it’s easy to catch this deadly blogging disease!

You’re up to your knees in information about marketing, copywriting, and conversions. Your mind is being invaded.

Slowly, these topics show up in your writing.

• A post about blogging pops up on your food blog.
• An article about online income crops up on your crafting site.
• A mention of your favorite marketing guru appears on social media.

You’ve forgotten who you’re writing for and have alienated your readers, causing a disconnect between your blog and your readership.

Fight the disease! Before you publish, ask yourself: “will this help my audience?”.

How this hurts your bottom line: When you forget who your audience is, you disengage your readers from your brand.

You earn money by providing value to your audience, not serving yourself.

5. They Write for Their Own Blogs

One silly mistake new bloggers make is that they write…

For their own blogs.

You may think I’ve gone nuts. Maybe I’ve succumbed to the creative madness of working alone as a solopreneur.

Isn’t writing on your blog what blogging is all about?

But hear me out:

How many readers do you have right now?

If you’re a new blogger, you have less than 1,000 readers.

Writing for a small audience (like you inevitably have) is a waste of your time.

It’s like delivering a speech to your family in your living room when there is a hall full of people eager to hear your words a block away.

To reach a larger audience, you need to focus on guest blogging.

Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to grow your audience rapidly.

So instead of focusing on writing on your own blog, focus on reaching broader audiences elsewhere.

How this hurts your bottom line: How much money you can make blogging is directly tied to the size and strength of your audience.

As a beginner blogger, you don’t have much of an audience.

Without an audience, who will buy your products and use your affiliate links?

6. They Lack Professionalism

Have you ever said that your blog is a hobby?

If so, you’re not alone.

This is a common new-blogger blunder.

But if you want to turn your blog into a lifestyle business, you must banish the hobby mentality and begin treating your blog like a business.

This is a mindset shift that is absolutely crucial to the growth of your blog.

Once you make this mental shift, you’ll take your blog more seriously.

When you begin to take your blog seriously, others will, too.

Your blog is a business.

You need to focus on marketing, investing wisely, and outsourcing.

How this hurts your bottom line: If you don’t take your blog seriously and treat it like a business, nobody will!

Do you spend your money with businesses or on other people’s hobbies?

7. They Don’t Invest

Blogging can be a cheap startup business.

For under $100, you can have your own self-hosted blog, and many assume that because a blog is cheap to start, it should be cheap to run.

New bloggers hesitate to spend more than $100/year on their blogs, but successful bloggers invest in their blogs.

After all, their blog is their business. Investing in your blog accelerates growth and keeps you accountable to your goals.

If you hire a coach or pay for a nice new blog design, not only will you see the cost come back to you (often 10x over), but you’ll be more accountable because you’ll want to get your money’s worth.

Think of investing in your blog in these terms:

If you went to college, you spent up to $50,000 on a degree to maybe land you a job you might not like.

Wouldn’t it be silly to shy away from investing $1,000 into your blog to build a career you know you’ll love?

How this hurts your bottom line: You have to spend money to make money.

Bloggers who hire a coach or invest in a program to enjoy faster growth and fewer hours wasted on trying to do it alone.

You could spend $400 on coaching, and made $1,000 from your blog three months sooner or you can flounder in information overload and delay making an income even further.

8. They Wait for Inspiration to Strike

You don’t want your blog to become a chore, right?

So you wait until inspiration strikes to write.

You joke about how infrequently you post on your blog, but what you don’t know is just how much that inconsistency is holding you back.

When a visitor lands on your website, you have less than 10 seconds to convince them to stick around.

And if they see that you haven’t updated in two months, they’re won’t stick around.

So instead of relying on a strike of inspiration to post, focus on consistency and habit-building.

Write every single day.

Even if it’s only 100 non-publishable words.

Get you in the habit of writing, and you’ll train your brain to be inspired every day when you sit down to write.

Set a posting schedule so readers know what to expect from you.

This builds trust.

Stick to the schedule no matter what.

How this hurts your bottom line: You can’t become a pro blogger if you don’t consistently create content and show up for your readers.

That’s your whole job as a blogger, and as with a 9-5, if you don’t show up you don’t get paid.

9. They Choose Their Topic Based Solely on Income

It’s the dream:

Becoming a professional blogger.

Doing what you love. Working from anywhere.

And blogging has become a viable business option.

But choosing your blog topic based only on income potential is like choosing a vehicle based on fuel efficiency without considering other needs.

When you’re car shopping, it doesn’t make sense to buy the car with the best fuel efficiency regardless of any other factor, right?

You’d probably end up with a Smart Car. Or maybe a scooter.

If you have a six-person family that enjoys road-tripping with equipment in the summer, the most fuel-efficient car on the market wouldn’t make sense.

Fuel efficiency should be considered, but not at the exclusion of other factors.

Businesses need to earn money, otherwise it’s not a business, but you have to also make sure the business matches your skill set, your interests, and provides value to others.

Otherwise, there’s no way you’ll be able to sustain it.

Instead of choosing your topic based only on income potential, weigh all factors.

Are you passionate about the topic? Do your skills match up? Choose the best fit for you.

How this hurts your bottom line: If you don’t love what you do, it will show through to readers.

Are you more likely to buy a photography from somebody who is passionate and excited to teach photography, or somebody who is clearly in it for the money?

Stop Making These Silly Mistakes

Blogs are like grass. Drought and damage “kill” grass.

The dries up, becoming brown and crunchy.

But with a bit of TLC and water, grass can bounce back.

So can your blog.

You work hard on your blog.

The value you provide to your audience.

Your relentless dedication to solving their problems.

The endless hours you spend in front of your screen.

You deserve to earn an income for all of your sweat equity.

So stop making these income-hindering new blogger mistakes.

And start giving your blog the TLC it needs to bounce back.

But it’s an easy way to lose money if you don’t choose the right products and target the right markets.

The quickest way to succeed in online sales is through niche marketing.

This type of marketing requires you to find niche products to sell that have hungry markets ready to buy.

Many different niche markets are available with various products to sell.

There’s one trick to finding profitable niche products to sell online.

Make sure that you have an audience of potential customers ready to buy them.

What Is a Niche Market?

To find niche products to sell online, you need to understand niche markets.

Niche markets drill down into a larger market to get more specific.

These markets might have more unique characteristics than a larger market.

A niche market is a more specific demographic than a larger market.

What Are Examples of a Niche Market?

Pet owners are a niche market.

Owners of specific dog breeds or snakes are even more niche markets within the pet owner market.

Parenting is a huge market.

Parents who homeschool are a niche market under that umbrella.

Parents with kids who have special needs are another parenting niche market.

Couples who love to travel are another example.

People concerned with physical fitness and the LGBTQ+ community are niche markets.

Most specific niche markets within larger markets have untapped potential.

For example, more people target pet owners than Chihuahua owners.

The target market of Chihuahua owners is smaller but has less competition.

What Is a Niche Product?

A niche product is a product designed to serve a niche market.

For example, music lovers buy music in several ways, including streaming.

A subset of music lovers who buy vinyl albums is a niche market.

Products aimed at vinyl fans, like the records themselves, are niche products.

Any product targeted at a niche market is a niche product.

Niche Products to Sell Online (Category)

You can choose to sell products from one of several popular categories.

Health and Wellness Products

Exercise equipment, supplements, and diet plans fall into this product category.

Percussion massagers and herbal products can be good choices, too.

Fashion Items

Hats, hoodies, and t-shirts with sayings never go out of style.

The messages can be funny, serious, or customized.

Shoes, jewelry, and hair accessories sell well online.

Local stores have a limited amount of space to stock these items.

But an online store can have an unlimited number of fashion products available.

Gadgets

Any kind of tool or gadget that has a specific purpose is ripe for promotion online.

Popular drop shipped items include hammers with built-in screwdrivers and universal remote controls.

Car phone holders, blue-light blocking glasses, and fidget spinners attract impulse shoppers.

They sell to browsers and may trend and peak in a short time.

Baby and Childcare Products

Baby bottles, pacifiers, and toys with popular themes are designs that can sell online.

Parents also buy baby wipe warmers, bottle sterilizers, and nursing supplies.

Pet Products

Pet beds, bowls, and collars are hot items online because of the wide selection.

Pet pens and carriers also come in many more designs through online stores than local ones.

Comfort Items

Sleep masks, slippers, robes, and cozy blankets are some of the comfort items you can sell online.

Other examples are products like a tray to sit on your bathtub for a book, candle, and a glass of wine.

Any product designed to provide comfort or pleasure can be a good choice.

Home and Outdoor Appliances

Shoppers searching for humidifiers, vacuums, and outdoor fire pits often look online.

Local stores might not have the style they want or any at all.

So some people have to shop online for their preferred brands and products.

Kitchen Appliances

Over the last few years, small kitchen appliances trended.

Items like the Instant Pot and air fryers became big Christmas purchases for a few years.

Selling these items as they trend can be profitable.

Many will remain good sellers for years.

Hobby and Lifestyle Products

Craft supplies, collectibles, books, DVDs, and vinyl records fall into this category.

Every hobby has specialty products that users either need or could use.

This means there’s a long list of niche products to sell to hobbyists.

Beauty Products and Accessories

Hot products right now are wigs and fake eyelashes, including magnetic lashes.

Hair accessories and makeup are always bestselling items in retail and online stores.

Products to Sell Online (Type)

Four basic types of niche products lend themselves to online sales.

Commodities

Commodities in niche marketing are products in high demand.

They’re popular and often essential goods.

Examples of commodities are products like toilet paper, soap, or batteries.To sell commodities online, you’re competing with established retail stores.Those stores have more buying power and lower prices.

You’ll need to make up for charging lower prices with high sales volume, which can take time to achieve.

Niche Products

These products target a specific market and are more exclusive than commodities.

A light bulb is a commodity.

A niche product in lighting might be a hand-carved wooden lamp.

Niche products can be commodities with a more niche market.

Soap is a commodity, but homemade decorative soaps are niche products.

The profit margin per sale is higher.

Targeting the niche market to get those sales is the challenge.

Physical Products

Anything you sell that you must ship to the customer is a physical product.

Take into consideration how you’ll get, store, pack, and ship physical products.

Selling these products takes up space and time, especially if you create the product.

If you opt for dropshipping products, you won’t have to store them, which makes it a better option for many people.

The dropshipping company will ship the products for you.

You’ll pay the wholesale discount and keep the difference.

Digital Products

Storage and shipping aren’t issues with digital products.

These products are anything digital like files, games, courses, ebooks, and apps.

Creating each digital product and setting up automated distribution can take time.

And not all platforms allow sales of digital products.

Customers can buy digital products and receive them without help from you.

Almost any niche idea has the potential for digital products.

15 Trending Niche Products to Sell Online 2022 (Examples)

Each niche market has dozens or hundreds of profitable items people want to buy.

Here’s a product idea or two from several different categories.

Shoes

Many people go into local stores to try on shoes to find the right size, then order them online.

Online shopping offers a greater variety of colors, sizes, and styles.

Shoes are a great niche product idea for dropshipping or what’s known as Amazon FBA.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is one of the easiest ways to sell products online.

Educational Toys

Google shopping and searches help people find niche educational toys for kids.

Most companies that manufacture these toys offer them for all stages of development.

Pens and Pencils

Stationery is a profitable dropshipping niche with low shipping charges.

Many companies that manufacture pencils and fountain pens offer an affiliate program.

Affiliate programs let you market a product for the company and earn a part of each sale.

Cutters

Cutters for quilting, crafting, and sewing appeal to a niche audience.

Office Chairs

Larger items like office chairs always have limited availability at stores.

But an online store can offer hundreds of styles.

These chairs are good dropping products and Amazon FBA choices.

Decorative Bottles

All decorative items, including bottles, can be great product choices.

Browsers have a much larger selection to enjoy online.

Look at Etsy and similar sites to get an idea of what people want.

Drills

Drills and other home improvement tools are popular online shopping items.

Projectors

Projectors aren’t products you can find at any local store, so most people in the market for one shop online.

Kitchen Towel

Floral prints and traditional patterns are always popular.

Towels with funny and irreverent messages are big sellers, too.

Bras

Many women prefer to shop for bras and underwear in private.

They can enjoy a much larger selection of these clothing items.

An eCommerce store can offer more than any lingerie boutique in a mall.

Water Bottles

When ordered online, water bottles can bear product logos, images, and custom messages.

Digital Artwork

Purchasers can download the image and print art themselves from some online sellers.

This option eliminates shipping charges.

GPS Navigation Systems

Most people have GPS on their phones or in their vehicles.

Techies still love the equipment, making this a profitable niche market.

Eco-Friendy Items

Sustainable products of all kinds are hard to find in small stores.

People concerned with the environment shop online for these types of items.

Home Fitness Equipment

Home gyms, workout machines, and other equipment are big sellers online.

This trend doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon.

People who shop for fitness equipment are a target audience worth serving.

These shoppers are open to many different fitness and health products.

So the potential for selling other items in this product category is high.

How to Choose Niche Products to Sell

Choosing the product niche and individual items to sell can feel overwhelming.

Follow these steps to help you narrow down the choices and choose the most profitable ones.

Conduct Market Research and Identify In-Demand Products

Choose an industry you’ll be able to create content around.

The more you know about the general market, the easier it will be to focus on it.

Do keyword research with tools like the Google Keyword Planner.

This research will help you see the types of searches people make every day.

Search volume on Google and sites like Amazon can help you see the biggest sellers.

If you can find an Amazon niche that interests you, you can become an Amazon seller to get your feet wet.

Create Products That Solve a Problem or Fulfill A Need

If you want to create products, look for the things people want and need.

Think about how you can help the people who buy products in the market.

Create a better way to do something or a product that does it better.

You have a great chance at a successful eCommerce business if you can do either.

Identify Products That Fulfill a Guilty Pleasure/Desire

People shop for things that solve problems.

They also want things that make them feel good.

Shoppers want pleasurable items and little treats even when times are tough.

Find Products That You’re Passionate About

The more passion you feel about something, the easier it will be for you to sell.

Look at your interests to see how they mesh with niche products to sell.

Identify and Research Your Competitors

Look at your competitors’ branding and messages.

This research will help you know how to approach the market.

You may also notice things your competition isn’t doing that will help you sell.

Identify and Serve Niche Segments

Look for underserved niches and speak to those people in your marketing.

An example of this would be reptile owners instead of all pet owners.

The information for each group will be different and specific.

Look for Business Opportunities and Trending Products

Look at the sites where your ideal potential customer might hang out.

Watch places like Google Trends and Amazon’s trend report.

Doing these things will let you catch the next hot seller so you can jump on trends for quick profits.

Keep an eye on the Amazon best sellers.

Also, pay attention to Facebook ads and Google ads to see what others are marketing.

Stay Updated With the Latest Market Trends in Your Niche

Don’t forget to look at boards and websites where other internet marketers gather.

Doing so will help you keep on top of marketing trends.

You’ll also be aware of the newest trending product, so you don’t miss out on the sales.

Consider Profit Margins

Go for items that make you more per sale in most cases unless you’re sure you can do volume business.

These items offer higher profit margins after marketing expenses.

Consider all costs while calculating your profit.

Where to Find Trending Products to Sell Online?

Fads and trends can be profitable.

But products that sell like hotcakes one second can drop off in sales fast.

One easy way to see what people are searching for is to check Google Trends.

When you follow the search trends, it can help you spot fad products in demand.

Trends can help you get ahead and sell products early if you see changes coming.

You can also look at the places where your niche market hangs out.

Online groups and forums can be a resource to see what people are talking about to help you spot trends.

Where to Sell Niche Products Online

When planning your eCommerce niche, you’ll need to decide where you’ll sell products.

Social Media Channels

Marketing and selling through social media can help you reach your niche market.

Some sites offer tools that help customers buy your products.

You won’t have control over the check-out process or branding.

But social media can result in higher sales.

Online Marketplaces

Facebook Marketplace, Etsy, and eBay are examples of online marketplaces.

These sites have a built-in structure to help users put items for sale.

But they have limitations on how you can showcase a product.

They have specific check-out processes, too.

You won’t have to set up your cart and payment processing.

You don’t have much control over the process because they do it for you.

Ecommerce Sites

Building an eCommerce site is the best option for many people.

Those who want to control the branding and appearance of their website can do so.

These sites let users create online stores without coding knowledge.

You don’t have to build a working site from scratch.

Examples of popular eCommerce sites are Squarespace, Wix, and BigCommerce.

FAQs

Here are some of the most common questions about niche products to sell online.

Final Thoughts

Online marketers who want to sell through an eCommerce store have many options.

Good keyword research and vetting niche products to sell can start you off on the right foot.

You could be making profits from online sales as soon as you choose products and set up a store.

Why not look at your interests and the niche products you could sell online today?

That said, it’s a lot easier to learn how to start a blog and give it to the time and attention it needs when it does make money.

For new bloggers, it can be hard to visualize what a profitable blog looks like, so I’ve listed some common types of blogs that make money, how they do it and the pros and cons of that blog type.

If you’re looking for the best blog niches to make money, I’ve listed those further down.

1. Blogs that display ads.

Ads have been around as long as blogs have, and they’re still a great way to get started monetizing your blog.

Some networks have traffic minimums you’ll need to reach before you can join, and others, like AdSense, have no or low standards that can also mean low earnings per visitor.

That said, ads can be a good way to bring in a baseline income to cover your blogging expenses, and with enough traffic, it’s more than possible to make a few thousand dollars each month off ads.

• Difficulty: low
• Pros: easy to set up, low maintenance
• Cons: low earnings compared to promoting your own products, need high volume of traffic to earn significant income, overall earning potential limited
• Example: Mom Makes Joy, who earned $1,129.59 from Mediavine in December 2019

Learn more: Google AdSense, Mediavine, The Top 4 Blog Advertising Networks

2. Blogs that use affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a pretty standard operating procedure for blogs at this point, so instead of explaining how it works, let’s just say that affiliate marketing can generally make a lot more money than display ads, so it’s a smart option when you’re ready to jump in.

The key to affiliate marketing is partnering with affiliate programs that are aligned with your readers and the goals of your site, and to offer value to your audience.

Put their wants and needs before your potential affiliate earnings.

You don’t want to pitch everything under the sun – stick to what your audience wants and offer affiliate products and services that make sense.

Also, don’t forget to put an affiliate link disclosure on your site.

We’ve listed a few great affiliate disclosure examples, but do your own however it resonates best with your audience.

• Difficulty: low/medium
• Pros: easy to earn more money than with ads, higher earning potential
• Cons: more competition in “affiliate” niches like product reviews, earnings still limited compared to promoting own products, can be difficult to find the right affiliate programs for your audience, can be difficult to add your own value
• Example: KetoConnect does a great job of offering value with blog posts like their keto bread recipe, which includes affiliate links to products like almond flour and Stevia (they also have a shop with affiliate links)

Learn more: The Highest-Paying Affiliate Programs

3. Blogs that sell eBooks.

The first two types of blogs use other people’s products to earn money, but here we start to get into creating your own products.

An eBook is a great first product to create because you’re already in the business of creating content – often, selling an eBook is simply a matter of repackaging and branding your content.

And if you think people won’t pay for your information, think again.

Bloggers often give away more information for free than they need to, and you’d be surprised to know how many people will gladly pay a few bucks for valuable info, especially if it impacts their health, finances, relationships and so on.

• Difficulty: medium
• Pros: higher earning potential than ads or affiliate marketing, ability to create exactly what you want to promote on your blog
• Cons: takes much more effort to create an eBook than put up ads or affiliate links, may require more of a sales funnel on your site
• Example: Travel blogging is a great way to see the world while making money at the same time.
  The travel bloggers at Adventure in You have a great guide book section with all types of eBooks, so does Nomadic Matt.

Learn more: How to Write, Publish and Sell an eBook

4. Blogs that sell courses.

Here’s where we really start to level up: selling online courses!

Online courses are all the rage these days, but there’s good evidence to suggest they’re not going away anytime soon.

People love to learn stuff, and if you can teach your audience something useful, a course is a great way to monetize your blog.

• Difficulty: high
• Pros: extremely high earning potential
• Cons: can take significant amount of time, money and/or resources to complete
• Example: Succulents and Sunshine offers tons of free content, but also sells a premium course for those who want even more help growing “Pinterest-perfect” succulents

Learn more: The Best Online Blogging Courses: Learn Blogging like a Pro

5. Blogs that sell digital products.

Like ebooks, digital products are relatively easy to create and sell, especially if they meet the needs of your audience.

Digital products might include printables, checklists, graphics, music, video or documents.

• Difficulty: medium
• Pros: higher earning potential than ads and affiliate marketing, easier to distribute than physical products
• Cons: take be time-consuming to create digital products
• Example: Heidi at Happiness is Homemade offers a shop along with her blog that has printables like graphics, calendars, games and more

Learn more: How Products Increase Value When You Build a Blog to Sell

6. Blogs that sell physical products.

When done right, e-commerce is a great way to monetize your blog, though it doesn’t work for every niche or blogger, so testing here is key (ie don’t place a wholesale order from overseas if you don’t know how the stuff will sell).

If your blog’s on WordPress, you can use a platform like Woocommerce to create a store, or use Shopify on a subdomain (shop.yoursite.com).

• Difficulty: high
• Pros: good earning potential and scalability
• Cons: can be time-consuming to build a shop, ship products and offer customer service
• Example:

Learn more: Uncrate gets millions of visitors each month, and some of them go to the blog’s shop at Uncrate Supply, where they offer products aligned with their core audience

7. Blogs that offer memberships.

Like online courses, online memberships are popular these days, and for good reason.

Some folks aren’t up for paying hundreds of dollars for a one-time course, but they are game for a low-fee monthly membership that offers access to resources, community, etc.

The key here is determining what your membership looks like: what do members get each month, how do you provide that value and how do you retain members for the long haul?

• Difficulty: high
• Pros: significant earnings potential, lots of flexibility in what you offer
• Cons: can be time-consuming to maintain membership, create monthly deliverables and sell membership while retaining current members
• Example: Food Blogger Pro is a monthly membership for bloggers looking to improve their food blogging skills

Learn more: See how Schoolofpodcasting.com makes money on memberships

8. Blogs that offer services.

If products aren’t your thing, it’s more than possible to offer services on your blog.

If your blog’s about Pinterest, for example, you can offer Pinterest management or other social media services.

The key, as always, is to ensure you’re offering services that your audience is actually interested in, otherwise your traffic won’t convert to customers.

• Difficulty: medium/high depending on service
• Pros: may be easy to offer service based on your experience, expertise and skill set
• Cons: may not be easy to scale earnings if your time is limited
• Example: Anna Everywhere is a successful travel blog, and Anna also offers writing and promotional services based on her content and audience

Learn more: 6 Tips to Consider When Building a Service-Based Blog Business

9. Blogs that offer consulting.

Consulting is another great way to monetize your site and potentially less time-consuming than services.

For example, if I take on an SEO client, I may spend all my time updating their on-site elements like title tags, descriptions and so on.

But if I work with them as an SEO consultant, I can provide them with a project plan and they can implement the game plan themselves.

So consulting in this way can be slightly easier to scale.

A great way to find consulting opportunities is to look through the income reports of competitors.

If they’re doing consulting work in their industry, you can look through these reports and oftentimes find out how much they’re making by doing so.

• Difficulty: medium/high depending on market
• Pros: easy to provide consulting based on your skills and expertise
• Cons: may not be easy to scale or find consistent clients, depending on niche
• Example: Mila at Hangry Woman offers consulting for brands and products that work with people suffering from type 2 diabetes

10. Blogs that publish sponsored content.

This should’ve been earlier on the list but I forgot about it until now so here we are let’s go with it.

Sponsored content is in the realm of ads and affiliate marketing, and there are all types of ways to make it happen.

Reach out to brands, offer value and remember to focus on what they get out of it.

• Difficulty: low/medium
• Pros: able to work with brands with sizable marketing budgets, good earnings
• Cons: can be difficult to consistently land sponsored content partnerships with brands
• Example: scroll through Gear Patrol and you’ll see plenty of sponsored content stories, but the great thing is they don’t stand out as annoying ads – they blend into the organic content for a seamless experience

Types of Blog Niches that Make Money

If when you say “types of blogs that make money” you actually mean the types of blog niches that make money, ignore the section above: I got you.

I’ve gone over some of the best niches in the past, and the basic idea is to not go too broad (don’t be Walmart), and to not go too specific (don’t be the weird dirty exotic pet store that never has any visitors.).

You want to be in a niche that has traffic, advertisers, brands, searches, problems, the whole nine yards.

But you want to do it with a specific angle.

If you’re a food blogger, try to find a subniche like keto recipes or family-friendly foods.

If you’re a personal finance blogger, try to focus on something like savings or debt and avoid covering every financial topic under the sun.

For bloggers, the best niches are those with lots of questions and problems because those turn into Google searches.

And the more Google searches a niche has, the more opportunities for content. Woohoo.

Here’s a look at some of the most popular blog niches that make it easier to make money, and a few examples of each.

1. Personal finance

• Fitnancials
• The Practical Saver
• My Debt Epiphany
• Avocadoughtoast
• The Mostly Simple Life

2. Food

• Midwest Foodie
• Swanky Recipes
• Bite Sized Kitchen
• Foolproof Living
• Layers of Happiness

3. Lifestyle

• With Love From Kat
• The Everygirl
• Gathering Dreams
• Brighton the Day
• Jo-Lynne Shane

4. Parenting

• Her View from Home
• Fatherly
• We Have Kids
• Momtastic
• Focus on the Family

5. DIY and crafts

• DIY Joy
• DIY Projects for Teens
• Big DIY Ideas
• Crazy Little Projects
• It’s Always Autumn

6. Home improvement

• Family Handyman
• HGTV
• This Old House
• The Spruce
• Hunker

7. Health and fitness

• Darebee
• Nerd Fitness
• 12 Minute Athlete
• Change in Seconds
• Nourish Move Love

8. Business and blogging

• Raelyn Tan
• Successful Blogging
• Melyssa Griffin
• Blog Clarity
• Beautiful Dawn Designs

9. Travel and outdoors

• The Blonde Abroad
• Be My Travel Muse
• Adventurous Kate
• Never Ending Footsteps
• Full Suitcase

10. Hobbies

• The Crochet Crowd
• Call to the Pen
• Ukulele Tricks
• Sublime Succulents 
• Origami Spirit

11. Learning and education

• French Together
• Will Kemp Art School
• Code Academy
• Chord Buddy
• Fine Woodworking

What type of blog will you grow?

Now that you’ve seen 10 types of blogs that make money and 11 blog niches that are ripe for monetizing, the question is: what type of blog will you start and grow?

There’s no right or wrong answer, and often it takes a ton of trial error to figure out exactly what works for you, your interests and your audience.

But the best way to figure it out is to keep trying ’til something clicks.

According to this definition found on Wikipedia from this Google search result page:

WikiPedia Definition of Passive Income

With that in mind, lets read what expert and an online marketing symbol (Pat Flynn) of the term Passive income ideas have to say about this subject,

building online businesses that take advantage of systems of automations that allow transactions, cash flow and growth without requiring a real-time presence.
We don’t have to trade our time for money one to one. Instead, we invest our time upfront, creating valuable products and experiences for people, and we reap the benefits of that time invested later,” he says, adding, “It’s not easy.
I just want to make sure that is clear.” – Source, Forbes

Okay!

But before we go fully on today’s topic, here is something you need to know, understand and accept upfront (taking from the above words of Pat Flynn) – there is no such thing as 100% passive income lifestyle or business.

Every noise you read about building a passive income business online happens at the back of years, months, weeks and days of hard work, consistencies, trials, and failures, building, creating etc.

The business of passive income ideas is to keep your business operations fully on automation, and there are lots of tools that will make your life easier doing that, but even at that and on top of it…….a lot of time MUST have been invested into building, growing and perfecting the business to reach such level.

And when you achieve this, you still need to keep maintain the trust, credibility, awareness and keep updating the tools that make your business runs smoothly.

So while you have invested the greater amount of time upfront, a lot of time still require to maintain your business otherwise it may get sidekick by your competitors.

So you see, is not all that passive anyway!

This is why we will need to discuss some important issues about the reality of what passive income IS and what is NOT plus how you can create consistent passive income opportunities that enable you to be financially free.

Tips #1. Passive Income is Not For The lazy Type.

Nothing worthwhile that leads to great success in life comes easy, so also generating passive income consistently good enough to sustain your whole life responsibility will not come by on a silver of platter.

You have to work your way up to it, be prepared for the task ahead and did I tell you that the task is not an easy one at all?

Building a successful online business is one of the most challenging tasks I ever know, in my opinion – this is not something for the weak minded person or the so-called “Lazy Man.”

Online business is very hard, don’t get deceived by some conventional marketers that try to make money off you by selling you false hopes.

It takes lots and lots of constant efforts to build a thriving online money making business.

Tips #2. what you give is what you get.

In fact, let me put it straight in your face – Garbage in, Garbage out – what you give is what you get.

If you put in few hours of work (Productive one for that matter) you also get few rewards in the future for your efforts.

If you put in long hours of productive work, you get more and better rewards for your efforts in the future.

So don’t expect to start generating passive income from mediocre or unproductive task.

It doesn’t happen like that, you have to give your best upfront, put in lots of efforts, energy and resources to perfect the system before you can expect it to work on autopilot for you.

Tips #3. Choose EveryGreen Topics.

This is very important and applicable to online marketers that hope of generating residual income from their one-time efforts they’ve invested in putting that quality content or products out there.

Trending topics that fade away with time or events won’t give you much of passive income opportunities, it takes writing on evergreen topics or creating products and services that will always remain relevant to the concerned society to make the best out of passive income consistently.

This is one disadvantage of blogs that writes on technology, mobile devices, events and occasions, breaking news etc.

What is HOT in the morning might just be as cool as ice cold water in the evening – no one is talking about it anymore.

These types blogs need to keep updating multiple times per day in order to remain relevant to their followers.

The worst is that a good percentage of their content doesn’t have long-term value because they’re writing on time-sensitive information.

For instance, do you remember this Nokia Symbian OS Mobile phone?

It was my first ever smartphone to use, and as at the time….one of the very best smartphone in the market.

Nokia 3650

Fast forward to some four, five years later, even my six-year-old son won’t accept it as a gift.

Technology has moved beyond it, and if there is anyone living that built part of his passive income strategies on Nokia Symbian OS phones brand……..I guess that’s a dead income a long time ago.

Tips #4. Passive Income is a Reality.

Many are still in doubt whether earning passive income is real or not, my answer is “YES”! earning passive income from your one-time efforts is a reality and not myth.

One blog post you publish today has the potential to keep generating income for years to come as long as the topic discuss remain relevant to the affected community.

Also, a single product you produce today can keep selling for years so far it remain in top shape, and relevant to the community.

Take the business of ebook publication for an example.

The author writes and published his digital book today, but keep selling it for years to come as long as certain factors are met.

Tips #5. Discover Your Target Audience.

Earning consistent residual income will directly involve utilizing your personal skills, experience, and passion to create something worthwhile for your target audience.

The best you can discover this target market, the best your chances to serve them better with providing them with useful content/products and or, services that will benefit them.
Don’t build your business on the purpose of trying to appeal to everyone, targeting everyone in your marketing means you’re calling nobody to your business. You can’t appeal to everyone.
How to discover your target audience.
There are lots of practical ways to discover your ideal target market, but here I will discuss few:

• Your Passion. Your passion should be your number one strategy for finding your ideal audience especially if you’re a beginner. This will make it easier for you to serve your audience in an honest way, and to keep serving them for long. Try to discover your true self; what is that gift nature has blessed you with that the world need to see in you? If you can discover this, consider building your online business around that gift….it makes a lot more sense starting a blog/podcast or video blog around the subject you’re passionate about.
• Use Keyword Tools. If you’re an advance digital marketer, keyword research tools like that of Google keyword planner is a great tool for discovering target market that resonate with your passion. Use this tools and many more to discover hidden treasure in creating your next business blog and start building the foundation that leads to creating passive income streams.
• Forums. Niche specific forums are great places to discover what could be hot and have long-term value to build your business around. There are lots of these places on the internet, depending on your choice…..find one that relates to your business and see how you can make the best of it. Warrior Forum is a great place to discover HOT topics that has been around for years and are likely to remain so.

Tips #6. Choose Products/Services wisely.

One of the backbone to create passive income opportunity is in the services or products you promotes either as an affiliate marketer or product owner.
If the products or services you promotes doesn’t appeal to your target audience, there is no way to go around this – you won’t make money from your efforts not to say generating consistent passive income from it.
Choose products or services you render wisely and this should be base on the topics of your blog/podcast or youtube videos. If your audience is directly tied to the products/services you promotes, you’ve opened up your chances of generating a steady income.

Tips #7. Start a Niche Specific Sites.

Once you’ve discovered your ideal audience is best to create a site only for this audience;. This will allow you to concentrate only on the task that truly matters to them.
Instead of building a blog that talks about SEO, Traffic techniques, Backlinks Strategy, Conversion optimization – you can narrow it down to target just one specific topic. Let say – Traffic Techniques.
All the above-mentioned topics are closely related yet each one can be a stand alone blog topic you write about.
This makes it a lot easier for your audience to know what they should expect from reading your blog, it also provide advanced marketing strategies for proper monetization methods you can take advantage of when your niche specific site start generating quality traffic.

Tips #8. Choose Best Product Format.

After you’ve created your niche specific site, and you have validate that your audience do enjoy what you’re offering them, and some decent traffic worth monetizing……is time to decide on what product will best serve your audience purpose.
There are many format a single product can be created especially when it has to do with giving out information.
You can create an ebook to sell to your audience who are currently reading your blog while you place it on for sale in places like Amazon, Ejunkie, ClickBank etc and makes more money from it for years to come as long as it remains relevant to the society.
Also, one of the best strategies to keep earning passive income is by creating membership sites, but this has lots of layers to cover and is best executed by season marketers like Zac Johnson who know what it takes to manage it effectively.
Affiliate marketing is something you should consider too, especially if you have loyal followings that put great trust in your work and take positive actions on your recommendations.
However, choosing the right affiliate product to promote is one difficult task, but there are lots of ways to make it look simple and one of such ways is to ask your audience directly what products could best solve their problem(s).

You can do this through running a survey on your blog, email newsletter, social media marketing and many more.

Affiliate marketing if done right, can be a very reliable passive income streams for years.

Tips #9. Remember Your Audience Trust.

If there is just one thing I would want you to take from all you’ve read so far – that would be trust – don’t trade the trust your audience have for you for anything in this world……even a million dollar does not worth the trust people have in you.

Trust is what will make people buy from your recommendation time and time again.

If they put their trust in your expertise, skills, and knowledge…….only to find at the end of it all that you’re only here for the money – believe it or not – that’s the beginning of your end in making money online.

Word of mouth is consider as the best form of advertising, so also word of mouth is the worst reputation or image destroyer.

And to make things worst, whatever goes up online remain online forever so far search engines have indexed it.

Generation after generation will keep reading your ugly past forever even after you’re gone.

Conclusion………

The joy and freedom that comes along with being able to live the way you want are enough to motivate anyone to strive to reach greater height in his choosing career, and one of the best possible ways to live that dream live is by not trading your time for money.

This is where earning passive income comes into play.

But remember, there are lots of works involved upfront and when these works are married with the best intention to serve your audience faithfully……….the sky is just your beginning!

Can blogging still be a profitable way to earn a living?

In this article, I’ve compiled a list of six bloggers who can answer that question with a resounding yes!

And they’ve got their profitable digital empires to prove it.

Now when you read about these bloggers making tons of money online, one of the many questions that could sear your mind is: how do they do it?

As an avid reader of blogs myself, I’ve rounded up these six successful bloggers’ case studies and interviews so we could all take a peek at what went on behind the scenes.

Read on to get some ideas that’ll give your blogging career that extra push!

1. Robbie Richard – Blog Earnings: Over $5K/Month

Solely through his blog, Robbie Richards was able to generate over $5K in monthly affiliate revenue without spending a dime on ads or any other traffic-generation strategies.

In his detailed case study, Robbie shared how he was also able to boost organic traffic by 402%, increase email sign-ups by 7x, gain over 4K subscribers, and monetize his email list.

Sounds very productive! Curious about his processes?

Here are his major blogging tips, summarized:

• Perform keyword research for existing content and identify your low-hanging fruit.
  Any keywords that you rank between the top 6 and 20 results for and have a monthly average search of about 300 are your low-hanging fruit.
  In Robbie’s words: “These are the areas where a small ranking improvement can generate big organic traffic gains.”
• Use Excel filters, conditional formatting, and other sorting techniques to help you sift faster through massive keyword lists.
• Optimize, update, and re-publish existing posts that correspond to your final keywords.
• Reformat longer posts into more readable, skimmable articles.
  Break paragraphs into three or four-sentence snippets, add images or other media for every 100 words and add a table of contents with jump links to certain sections of your article.
• Use headlines and subheadings that are eye-catching and that clearly state the benefit the reader is going to get.
• Upon relaunching your updated content, update the publishing date as well.
  Reach out to people who’ve previously shared, commented, or whom you’ve promoted this article to before, and let them know of the update.
• Pin your post at the top of your Twitter page.
  Using an auto scheduler, set up your post to be shared on your social media platforms more than once throughout a 30-day cycle.
  Change your taglines and hashtags.
• Change your email subject heading and resend your newsletter to users who didn’t open it in the first cycle.
• Use Thrive Builder or other similar apps to reformat your main landing page using the Upside Down Homepage technique. Essentially, this puts your opt-in form at the topmost part of your landing page as a banner, where it will get the most attention. According to Robbie, changing his layout this way increased his conversions by over 7x.[
• Use the Welcome Mat (or a Lead Magnet) for all your highest-traffic pages.
  In essence, this strategy is about laying all your best offers on a single, full-page CTA to make it enticing enough for a reader to convert.
  It was this strategy that helped Robbie add over 4.8k subscribers to his email list.
• Use Smart Links to differentiate the opt-in forms you show between an existing subscriber and a new reader.
  This lets you display your typical opt-in subscription form to a new reader, while you can set to display a new and more relevant deal, such as a new ebook, webinar, or app coupon to an existing subscriber.

2. Lena Gott of What Mommy Does – Blog Earnings: Over $10K/Month

Blogger and Founder of What Mommy Does Lena Gott shared how she was able to earn 10K/ month in just 10 months of blogging.

As a stay-at-home mom, she only works from 20 to 25 hours a week, which makes this quite a feat.

According to her income reports, Lena mainly earned from ads, eBooks, sponsored posts, and affiliate commissions on her blog.

Here are some of the pointers from her case study:

• Identify your highest-converting content.
  Focus your efforts on directing more page views to those highly converted articles (high-converting articles aren’t necessarily the high-traffic ones), and create more of the like.
  The goal is simply not to get more page views.
  The goal is to get more pageviews to the pages that matter.
• Validate your ideas on a smaller scale before spending on paid ads.
  To quote Lena: “It’s much more cost-effective to test your ideas with a small data set first and then ramp up later with paid ads as opposed to spending money without knowing if your offer will convert on a large-scale.”
• Write targeted posts by getting to know your readers better and finding out what problems of theirs you can help solve. According to Lena, before sitting down to write a blog post, she asks herself these questions:

Image source: Persuasion Nation

• One post equals one solution.
  Focus on one idea and stick to it.
  Get granular.
  The more specific the solution, the better.
• Mix in other media to your posts.
  No need to write a novel.
• Be helpful and useful. It’s the best way to gain your readers’ trust.

3. Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Blog Earnings: $5 Million in 6 Days

Ramit Sethi’s online platform I Will Teach You To Be Rich has over 1 million monthly readers and has over 800k newsletter subscribers.

Now, that’s a haul!

In his guest post article for Tim Ferriss, Ramit shares some advice:

• Focus on getting your 1k loyal customers who will support you all the way and buy your products.
  There are a lot better than 100k vaguely interested readers.
• Unless you want to be just another “me-too” business, do not conform.
  Follow your own taste and find the tribe who will take to what you produce. But be careful not to reinvent the wheel on everything.
• Don’t spread your resources too thin.
  Focus on being great at a few marketing channels at a time.
• Give away great material for free, that way, once you establish your authority as a high-quality provider, you get to charge top dollar for the products that you do want to sell.
• Be specific about your ideal customer.
  Think of your business as a high-end, selective boutique store where, because you serve top-quality work, you get to choose only the right customers to let in.
• In whatever content you write, give 80% valuable meat and keep your sales pitch at 20%.
• If someone who is not a fit wants to buy your product, let them know and direct them to another product, even if it’s from a competitor, if you think that it’s a better fit.
  Establishing this sort of trust is vital.
  They won’t see you as someone who just wants to get sales ASAP, but as someone they can trust to point them in the right direction.
• Do not pursue cheap clicks that don’t give you revenue.
  Insist on quality, deliver it, and charge for it.
• Block off at least an hour in your day (Ramit blocks off one whole day per week) to sit down for some big picture strategizing.

In another interview, Michael Alexis distilled some of Ramit’s practical advice into a guide.

Below are some highlights:

• Know your target readers and write blog posts with them in mind.
  Appeal to these target readers.
  Do not kowtow to the requests of readers who are not part of this cohort.
  It’s okay to, in Ramit’s words, “send them to that other blog.”
• Pick the right kind of customer.
  According to Ramit, you’re better off targeting the customer type he refers to as “Vicky Value,” or someone who is more concerned with getting value and is willing to pay the commensurate price for it, as opposed to customer types he refers to as “Frugal Fred,” or someone obsessed with cost-cutting and is less likely to spend on anything if it surpasses his designated budget.
• Write the way you speak and think; in other words, show your personality in every blog post you write.
  Do not be afraid to offend.
  The ones who get offended and leave aren’t your target readers, anyway.
  It’s a great way to help you filter your cohorts faster.
  Also, trying to appeal to everyone makes you boring.
  Ramit advises against it.
• Read voraciously every day.
  Ramit admits that he consumes material related to his target niche for several hours a day.
  But don’t make it a passive activity, either.
  Take notes, write up ideas, save annotations into an app, and make very specific tags so you can pull these out the next time you need topics for a blog post.
• Have an editorial calendar.
  List the top topics you want to be an authority for, pick the ones that resonate most with your target readers than consistently write your best articles around these.
• Not every idea needs to be immediately turned into a post.
  According to Ramit, he has over 100 drafts saved in his blog of ideas that he hasn’t finished writing out yet.
  Post only when you think it’s ready, and when you think it’s the best you could make it.
• Take as much reasonable time as you need to write your post as best you can.
  According to Ramit, it takes him on average 12 hours to write a guest post. In one case, it took him 18 hours! But these guest posts gave him major returns.
  So as long as you provide value and profit from the effort, don’t worry about those hours.
• Use your email marketing platform’s segmenting feature to help you test different writing styles, copy, etc.
  You can, of course, test for other things that you need.
  In one case, one marketer even created his own advanced workflow just to create specific email funnel A/B tests that he wanted to do.
• When it comes to guest blogging, research your prospects well and befriend the owners before sending a pitch.
  Make sure the blog has your same target audience, the same principles you believe in, and uses a voice and style you agree with.
• If emailing doesn’t work, try building a relationship with a target prospect by commenting on their blogs.
  Not useless spam comments, of course, but comments that spark interesting conversations.
• Do not monetize too early.
  Always test first what profit channel works, pays the bills, and doesn’t turn off your audience.
• Offer value. And then offer more.
• Think long-term and offer tons of value in your blog posts.
• Sell only products that your customer wants.
  If your target readers are suddenly preoccupied with a topic you don’t necessarily write about, check out what it is and find common ground.
  For example, Ramit was never interested in frugality tips.
  But when the recession hit, almost everyone, including his target readers, was affected by it, so he found a way to compromise and adjust to the needs at the time.

4. Internet Marketing Blogger Matthew Woodward – Blog Earnings: Over $20k/Month

Matthew Woodward’s success has proven that anyone can seriously earn a living just by blogging – no SEO strategies and link building needed.

Yep, he said it.

His whole blog is a huge case study about what would happen if you simply followed Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and forgot all about SEO.

He earned over $1 million as of November 2017 and has steady monthly revenues averaging over $20k, so this experiment seems to be working.

According to his income reports, he earns mostly from affiliate commissions, ads, and some side projects through his blog, such as consultations.

Here are the major pointers based on:

• Know what your target customer wants, and create content based on that.
  Matthew browsed through forums, blogs, and read comments from his readers.
  This gave him more insight into what is really top of mind for his target audience.
• Post on forums such as TrafficPlanet & WarriorForum.
  Interact with your readers in the comments section and reply to their emails.
• Build a forums section on your blog where readers can ask questions.
  This can also be a source of topic ideas for your next blog post.
• Matthew also stressed the importance of writing the way you speak.
  Be direct and straightforward.
• Set up your blog with the end goal in mind, whether that be subscribing to your newsletter/social media/product/email updates, selling products, or making money from affiliate commissions.
• Offer exclusive content to readers if they sign up or share your post to their network.
  (Make sure to offer something they can’t resist in exchange for their email address!)
• Post video tutorials along with the transcript and feature a CTA at the end of the videos.
• Host a competition.

5. Smart Passive Income Blogger Pat Flynn Earnings: $200k in One Year

From being laid off to becoming an internet sensation, Pat Flynn’s success story is one for the books.

Entrepreneurs Journey published an interview/case study of Pat Flynn where he shared the details on how he generated 200K+ in just over a year.

To date, the Smart Passive Income Blog has made around 2M+ revenue, and here are some of what Pat did through his blog to contribute to that income:

• Educate your readers through your blog and write about your expertise and interests.
  When Pat started out on his blog, he was still an employed architect and preparing for a professional exam called LEED.
  He posted his notes on his blog and soon it became a hit.
  First, he earned only around $20 to $25 per month on Adsense.[
• Publish an ebook.
  Write something you’re well versed about or compile info from your blog posts.
  Once Pat saw traffic coming in, he compiled all of his blog posts together and sold them as an ebook.
  He made $8k in his first month.
• Create membership sites.
  This is a good source of recurring and more stable income.
  But make sure that members get quality content and support.
  Launch with a pilot group to collect feedback.
  Keep tweaking your product until you get to MVP.
  Then, promote it on all channels.
  Add fresh content regularly and make time to interact with your members.[
• Start a podcast.
  Some learners are visual, some prefer audio—or may just be too preoccupied to read.
  Having a podcast can let you serve other types of audiences: the busy executive who only has downtime when he’s on the treadmill, the busy employee who can make time for extra content while on the subway, the work-from-home mom who can listen to your content while she’s cooking food with her baby strapped to her.
  Of course, when you start a podcast, add a transcript, which is good for SEO.
• Sell online courses.
  These make for good products because you only need to invest time and cash to create these, and after that, you can keep reselling them for as long as your topic is not obsolete.
• Become a consultant. Consulting services can also be a good source of income.
  This is something you cannot outsource, though, to maintain a great reputation and quality repertoire of learning materials so you can charge enough to make it worth your time.

6. Internet Marketing Guru Neil Patel Who Earns 1M+ Per Year Through Blogging

As a digital marketer who runs Kissmetrics, Quicksprout and Hello Bar, Neil Patel still highly credits blogging as his number one revenue-generating machine.

In a case study, Neil Patel allocated over 90 percent of his marketing budget—roughly between $5k and $6k—on blog creation.

This resulted in over 700k visitors and over 900k page views in January of 2015 (screenshot below), which translated to more than 8k leads.

A little over 5k, or roughly 62% out of these leads, came from his blog.

Neil has since enjoyed a 6-figure monthly income coming from the sale of his products and services i.e. KISSMetrics Analytics Solution Software—thanks in large part to most of the leads that were funneled in through the quality of his blog posts.

So, some pointers from Neil’s strategy:

• Create exceptionally good content and increase your blog traffic to, ideally, from 10k to 50k visitors a month.
• Put an opt-in box at the end of blog posts.
  For Quicksprout, this typically converts an average of 0.75% to 2% or 7 to 20 visitors out of every 1k sign-ups.
• Network with influencers and bloggers.
  Answer questions in Q&A forums and comment section.
  Make sure these answers are detailed, helpful, and actionable.
  No generic fluff.
• Make sure all your blog posts deliver clear, actionable, valuable advice to your readers.
• Don’t worry about article length.
  Take as long as you need to research and expound if it adds value and clarity to your points.
  Add as many visual aids as you can.
• The title and subheadings are your few-second window to hook your audience’s attention, so make a copy of these sections count.
  In as concise and clear a manner as you can, show the reader, from a quick glance, the benefits they’ll get if they read your article.

Conclusion

As these successful bloggers show, it is still entirely possible to earn a living through blogging.

I hope, by reading this curated list, that you’ve picked a quick strategy, maybe even hatched an idea or two of your own, to help you take your blog to the next level.