We’ve have heard stories of bloggers making six or even seven figure incomes from their blog. So we start a blog thinking it is going to be the next big success story. However, blogging is a lot of hard work and can take a long time before you make your first penny.
Here are some ways to make money from your blog:
#1 Selling Digital Goods
Digital products such as graphics, stock photography, software, and templates are some products that bloggers can sell as a pay-per-download model.
#2 Educational Products
After consistently sharing your expertise with your audience, you could try selling educational products if you want to earn some cash. These products include books, coaching, seminars, online courses, and eBooks.
#3 Software
Depending on the niche of your blog, selling software either as a download or even on a SaaS model could be an option.
#4 Physical Goods
Physical goods are not that common, but they are an option. T-shirts, mugs, key chains, and bottle openers are great ways to build your brand while earning some money. For example, if you are a fashion blog, you could sell products related to fashion. Several plugins can help you create an e-commerce section on your website.
#5 Services
If you don’t have products, you could sell services. Graphic designers and developers do it all the time. The services that are suitable for a blogger depends on the topic of their blog. On this blog, we sell blog set-up, writing services, online marketing, and SEO services because they are a natural extension since most of our readers are bloggers.
#6 Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be one of the most profitable revenue streams for a blog. Companies pay you a fee if you refer a person who buys their product. Sales are tracked through affiliate links. Some bloggers have made a lot of money just from recommending affiliate products. Here’s an article on how to make money from affiliate marketing.
#7 Selling Advertising
A lot of blogs still make money from selling ad space. Even if you don’t have a direct advertiser, you can install an ad network like Google Adsense, or Chitika, and you get paid for every click on your ad. It’s probably the fastest way to get going in generating revenue. But it is not as lucrative as affiliate marketing. If you have a small blog, don’t be surprised if you only make a few cents every month.
#8 Email Subscriptions
If you provide useful information and build a loyal readership, you could charge people to subscribe to a newsletter. Although I haven’t seen too many people do this off late, it’s still an option.
#9 Membership Sites
Some blogs charge readers to access their content. If you have great content and loyal readers, it’s a model that can work for you. A simple WordPress site can be converted into a membership site by installing a simple plugin.
#10 Job Board and Directories
Some blogs like ours have a job board where anyone can list a job posting for as little as $60 per post. It might not seem like a lot of money but it adds up. A simple plugin like WP Job Manager can add the job board functionality to your blog. If you’d like to see an example of a site that uses this plugin, check out our job board here.
Conclusion
Blogs make money in various ways. When you are starting, you may need to experiment a bit before finding a system that works for you.
