If you’ve been thinking about blogging, but wondering if you can really make money as a blogger, this post is for you.
By the end of this post, you’ll know the answer to this question: Can you really make money blogging?
Starting a blog is a lot of work, so it would make sense that you would want to monetize it.
Before we start, let’s take a moment to see how blogs are everywhere.
When you’re searching for a recipe, you’re reading a blog.
When you’re searching for the best things to do this weekend, you’re reading a blog.
When you’re searching for ways to monetize your blog, you’re reading a blog.
Blogs are everywhere and we consume blog content more often than we realize. Chances are that the blogs you’re reading are making money. In order to rank in the first results on Google, bloggers have to work a lot.
And, my friend, nobody works for free. Hobby bloggers won’t be found anywhere in Google, but you may bump into hobby bloggers on social media.
Hobby bloggers usually have a job and don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to their blog. That said, a hobby blogger could still make money.
In this post, we’ll discuss how can bloggers make money from their blogs, what you should know about blogging and how much money you could expect to make.
How To Make Money Blogging
The first thing to know here is that in order to make money with a blog, you need traffic. I wrote a full article on how to make money with a blog for beginners. So if you’re totally new to blogging, you may want to take a look at this post where we go back to basics.
So, how do you get traffic to your blog?
In my opinion, the best way to generate traffic is via search engines and you can achieve that by optimizing your blog posts for search engines. That’s what we call SEO and that’s what we teach in our online course SEO from Scratch.
You can also generate traffic with social media – especially Pinterest.
Now you need to know that without traffic, you won’t be able to make money blogging, so at first, you should really focus on growing your traffic.
The next step is to create content that converts.
Ever heard of a sales funnel?
Some readers are simply more likely to buy something if you’re creating the right type of content. Here’s an example:
If a reader googles something like best hotels in Bangkok, he’s definitely looking to book a hotel in Bangkok and as a result, more likely to book.
If a reader googles something like the best time to visit Bangkok, he’s not ready to book because he doesn’t even know when he will travel to Bangkok. He’s in the searching phase, he’s looking for information.
You can get more examples about user intent and sales funnel in this post where I walk you to the steps to monetize a travel blog. All the examples are about traveling, but the tips apply to any niche.
Finally, the last step is to have ways to monetize your content – for example, affiliate marketing.
Following the example above, if I write an article about the best hotels in Bangkok, I should be adding affiliate links in the post. I could be adding affiliate links for each hotel and the user would land on a booking platform.
There are 4 main ways to make money blogging:
- Affiliate marketing
- Displaying ads
- Brand partnerships
- Selling digital products or services
Ideally, you would want to use a mix of these 4 strategies. With that in mind, you should be planning your content strategy.
Let’s see an example of a blogging strategy that includes these 4 ways.
Let’s pretend I’m a food blogger.
When starting the food blog, I would focus on affiliate marketing. Although to build trust and to provide value, I’ll be creating a mix of informational content and content that converts.
I’d start with writing a dozen of recipes (information) and a dozen of product reviews (content that converts).
I’d be focussing on SEO strategies and Pinterest to grow the traffic.
While the traffic grows, I keep writing more recipes and more product reviews.
I start making money with commissions from affiliate marketing.
After a while, I’ll have surprises in my inbox – brands want to work with me! So, I’ll become an ambassador to promote these brands (and I’ll get paid for these partnerships).
Eventually, I launch my own digital cookbook which I sell on the website and to my mailing list subscribers.
As you can see I built a brand and people are loving it. Finally, I reach 50,000 monthly sessions so I decide to apply for Mediavine. From now on, I’ll be making money with ads too.
There you go – you have a blogging strategy that works, that makes money and that is diversified.
Of course, this example is simplified and short – but blogging requires patience and dedication. Keep reading to learn more about blogging and monetization.
What You Should Know About Blogging (And Blog Monetization)
If you think that blogging is easy and that you can make money instantly – well, you’re wrong.
Blogging requires you to learn many skills – you’ll have to wear several hats too.
You’ll launch your blog, design your blog, write content, do keyword research, optimize your content for SEO, update blog posts, create graphics, promote your content, etc.
If you can only allow a few hours week on your blog, it’s going to take a long time before you can make money blogging.
However, if you can commit to several hours and treat your blog like a business, you’ll achieve results faster.
In order to make money from blogging, you’ll need a plan and strategies. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Is your niche profitable?
- How will you monetize your content?
- How competitive is your niche?
You can’t ignore these three simple questions if you want your blog to be a success.
If you’re after quick money, blogging won’t be a great solution for you. Whether you make money with ads or affiliates, it can take a few months before you actually get paid.
That said, the money you make this month will be paid out in three months. I prefer to see it as an investment – every hour I put in the blog will reward me later.
It’s a long-term game.
How Much Money Can You Expect To Make
If you want a full timeline of my blogging income journey, read this post about how long it takes to make money blogging.
I currently have three blogs that are monetized.
My main one A Broken Backpack makes between $3000 and $6000 per month.
Nomad Life 101 is a smaller niche and makes a few hundred dollars per month. Although, it’s been growing nicely especially since I’m displaying ads on it.
I also have another small blog with a very small niche that makes a bit less than $100 per month.
Psst. You can check our blog income report for 2021 to learn more.
So, why is it so different?
It depends on the time and effort you put into the blog, and it depends on the niche.
A niche can be profitable, but really competitive.
Or a niche can be very small, less profitable, and less competitive.
Ideally, you would want to go for a profitable niche with low competition. While that’s easy to find, the topics are not always interesting.
A Broken Backpack was launched in 2015, so I have lots of articles and high domain authority. But the travel niche is competitive, and not so profitable. For example, hotel commissions are very low.
That said, you can learn about the best affiliates programs for travel blogs if you wish to give it a shot.
Nomad Life 101 was launched in2018, but I didn’t dedicate a lot of time to it until 2020. The niche is less competitive, and the commissions are also low.
Finally, the other niche site is very niche. But with only 500 monthly pageviews, the content is monetized with product reviews that have high commissions.
While I know several bloggers who make $10,000, 20,000, or even more per month – it’s absolutely possible to make more money from blogging.
My problem is that I’m too passionate about my projects and even though they are not the most profitable, I really enjoy them.
Final Thoughts On Making Money Blogging
I mentioned it several times, but it’s worth mentioning again – the success of a blog depends on your niche and your dedication. If you’re an expert about a topic and you’re going all-in – you’ll be able to get results.
That said, you should be focussing your efforts on writing content using SEO strategies for long-term traffic.
Many new bloggers give up quickly when they realize the amount of work blogging requires.
In order to succeed, you need to be willing to do the things most people wouldn’t want to do. So, be dedicated, and trust the process.
Learn more about blogging by reading one of the following blog posts:
