14 Ways to Make Money From Your Blog

 14 Ways to Make Money From Your Blog 

When I tell someone that I’m a full-time blogger, 90% of the time they ask, “And you can   money from that?”

And I confess that this question still amazes me (at least at first). Because it is now self-evident to me that this is possible:

Being a “blogger” or “influencer” has evolved from a hobby into a serious profession and business model in the last decade. It is not for nothing that there are more and more bloggers who can earn an extra income with their blog or even make a living from it.

In the following I will show you 14 ways how you can make money with blogging. With tips, examples and their advantages and disadvantages.

1. Google AdSense

One of the easiest ways to make money from your blog is through Google AdSense .

This is how it works

You embed a snippet of code in your blog (e.g. in a widget in the sidebar). An advertisement will then be placed at this point. When a visitor clicks on one of the ads, you get money (usually between €0.10 and €0.80 per click, in some cases even more).

Google provides over a dozen different ad sizes (including ads that adjust to screen size), so there should be a size that fits every blog.

We currently only earn a few hundred euros with it. But I know some bloggers who even earn four-digit amounts a month with it. But this usually requires a very high number of page views (at least 200,000, if not more) and a large number of ads on the blog.

Advantages

• Easy to integrate
• Responsive ads for mobile devices
• Ads automatically adapt to the interests of your readers
• Monthly payment of earnings
• Extensive statistics to optimize user action

Disadvantages

• In order for something to get around, you usually need a large number of visitors
• Makes loading times worse
• Often blocked by adblockers and increasingly ignored by readers
• Must be mentioned in the privacy policy and requires the display of a cookie notice

2. Market advertising banners directly

As an alternative to Google AdSense, you can also sell advertising banners on your blog yourself (so-called “direct marketing”). If you have found a permanent advertising partner, this can be more tolerable than Google AdSense or other display networks.

Billing can be done in different ways, such as B. per click, per view or for a monthly or annual fixed amount.

Advantages

• Sometimes higher income possible than with Google AdSense
• Usually not recognized by ad blockers
• Does not have to be mentioned in the data protection declaration and does not require the display of a cookie notice
• Little impact on load time (for image-only ads)

Disadvantages

• You have to find a suitable advertising partner yourself
• Is not well tailored to the interest of your visitors
• Classic banner advertising is increasingly being ignored by visitors

3. Marketer

If you don’t want to take care of marketing your banner space yourself, you can hire a marketer to look for suitable customers for you.

Of course, the marketer wants a piece of the pie for this, but it can still be worthwhile for you. Because firstly, the marketer usually has a lot of experience in customer acquisition, in negotiating prices and an existing customer base.

In addition to banner spaces, many marketers also arrange sponsored posts, so they can also relieve you of work in this area.

Advantages

• Sometimes higher income possible than with Google AdSense or direct marketing
• Also often mediate sponsored posts
• You have more time for your blog

Disadvantages

• The marketer wants a piece of the pie
• Contracts are often exclusive, which means that when it comes to advertising, you are completely tied to the marketer and the customers they refer

4. Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are also a great way to make money from your blog. The principle is very simple: You include an affiliate link in your blog. If a visitor clicks on this link and orders something on the linked website (e.g. from an online shop) or registers for something (e.g. a newsletter or a competition), then you will receive credit for this order or registration a commission.

The amount of the commission depends on the product area. For electronics you get z. B. often only between 1 and 4% commission, since the margins are quite small there. For digital products such as B. software, e-books or similar, you can get 30% – 60% commission. Affiliate programs in the financial sector also grant high commissions.

The most popular and well-known affiliate program among bloggers and website owners is probably the Amazon Affiliate Program . It is also well suited for beginners, since the integration of partner links in your own blog is very easy. Amazon also offers products from pretty much every area. Unfortunately, the commissions are comparatively low and the one-day cookie runtime is not particularly long.

If you are interested in higher commissions and want to promote non-Amazon retailers on your blog, the easiest way is to join an affiliate network. Affiliate networks unite hundreds or even thousands of partner programs from online shops and service providers under one roof.

Many advertisers also have in-house affiliate programs. The commissions are usually a bit higher there because there is no affiliate network in between that gets a piece of the cake for the technical implementation. The partnership itself is usually closer and more personal and you can often negotiate commissions.

Advantages

• Can be unobtrusively integrated into the website and do not disturb the flow of reading
• Sometimes enable significantly higher income than Google AdSense
• One can profit from selling products without having to do any shipping or manufacturing work themselves
• Sales tracking, payment and invoicing are mostly automated
• There are a variety of affiliate programs and networks, allowing for diversification of income sources

Disadvantages

• Must be marked as advertising
• Often require an application (not every website is accepted into every affiliate program)
• Brokered sales sometimes have a long processing time (it may be that a sale is only remunerated after 3 months)
• Affiliate programs may change commissions, be paused, or close altogether (so don’t rely on just one affiliate program)
• Mostly suitable for Google or Pinterest traffic (if visitors are already interested in buying)

5. Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts (often referred to simply as “collaborations”) are blog articles, social media posts, or a combination of both that a company pays you to publish. It presents or shows the company’s products or services.

This can e.g. E.g. an experience or test report, a competition, a casual mention or recommendation of a product or a report from an event.

How much you can earn with a sponsored post depends e.g. B. by the number of visitors to your blog, your number of followers and interaction on different social media channels or how well you fit the brand.

I know some bloggers who get over €3,000 for a sponsored blog article. There are hardly any upper limits.

Advantages

• Pretty easy money
• Depending on the popularity, reach and target group of the blog, high payment for sponsored posts is possible
• Longer-term cooperation possible, e.g. B. as a brand ambassador

Disadvantages

• Usually only one payment per post
• Income cannot be planned and is irregular
• Sponsored posts must be clearly marked as such or there is a risk of a warning
• The post and/or advertised company may not be a 100% match for your blog
• You can’t publish too many sponsored posts a month or you risk alienating your readers
• Sometimes Google penalizes links that are not marked with the nofollow attribute

6. Sell your own products

Selling your own products on your blog is the supreme discipline!

It can be a lot of work and sometimes high investment costs to develop, manufacture and sell your own products. But you can also make more money with your blog than with any of the other methods mentioned here. You should consider for yourself whether it makes sense to create an online shop.

After all, you don’t have to share your winnings with anyone. You get the whole pie, not just part of it.

Advantages

• Significantly higher income possible than with other methods
• You are independent of advertising partners
• You can better meet the needs of your visitors with your products
• You can realize yourself through your products

Disadvantages

• You may have to deal with customer support
• Your warning risk is higher and you have to pay more attention to legal pitfalls
• Under certain circumstances, high investments and/or a great deal of time are required for product development and manufacture
• You need to integrate an ordering system into your blog
• More effort due to the shipping of goods (easier to automate with digital products)
• More administration and accounting work

7. Collect donations

If you want to earn money with a blog, you can also collect donations from your readers. This often does not work as the only source of income, but it can serve to earn a few euros on the side.

For example, in return for a donation, you can offer readers the opportunity to read articles a few days early or receive a small, exclusive newsletter.

In order to technically implement the collection of donations on the blog, there are various options and systems in addition to Tipeee, such as e.g. B. the integration of a donation button from PayPal  or the micro-donation service Flattr .

Advantages

• Unobtrusive way to make money from blogging
• Easy integration into the blog

Disadvantages

• You need a large and, above all, very loyal fan base
• The willingness to donate depends on the reader and the topic
• May require minimization or elimination of other types of advertising
• Your readers may need to register with a fundraising service in order to send the donations
• Your readers may not be willing to donate until they get something in return (like an exclusive blog article or an e-book)

8. Guest blogging

Bloggers are currently in high demand as guest authors or even permanent editors for corporate blogs and online or offline magazines.

Not only because editors always need fresh content and are always on the lookout for new editors, but also because many bloggers bring their own fan base with them.

In addition, bloggers are considered authentic and usually communicate with their readers on a more personal and friendly level (keyword: reader loyalty!), which many large editorial offices lack.

Advantages

• You have the opportunity to promote your own blog
• You can use guest blogging as a reference to become a guest writer on other blogs or online magazines
• You can often link to your own blog

Disadvantages

• You will not write any content for your own blog during this time
• You often have to assign the rights to your post completely to the online magazine or corporate blog (including images) and cannot use the content for anything else

9. Organize events

As a blogger, you can also make money by hosting events. For example, you can offer workshops for interested readers, which is particularly popular with DIY or food bloggers.

Another option is  to host events for other bloggers.

Advantages

• Great for networking, meeting new people and building your own brand

Disadvantages

• A lot of organizational effort (ticket sales, premises, catering, etc.)
• Partly associated with high investments and thus with risk
• Conferences in particular are often only profitable with sponsors

10. Members Area

A paid member area is the increase or broader form of the pay barrier.

Members not only get exclusive blog articles to read, but can also access other exclusive content, such as B. access videos, e-books, cheat sheets, tools, knowledge databases or similar.

Memberships often also include access to private (mastermind) groups, coaching sessions, webinars or an online course.

Advantages

• Income is very predictable
• You don’t have to look for an advertising partner
• You don’t have to send your visitors to other websites to make money from your blog

Disadvantages

• Requires expert status and good positioning within a niche
• Responsible for the technical integration of the member area
• A lot of effort to create exclusive content
• Requires regular updates to prevent customers from canceling their subscriptions

11. Coaching and Counseling

If you are considered an expert in your niche as a blogger, you can also make a living with coaching and consulting.

As with digital products, this works best in classic consulting niches such as online marketing, business and careers, dating, fitness, finance, self-publishing or self-help.

If you can solve your readers’ problems and they are willing to pay, this also works in other areas.

Advantages

• High hourly rates possible
• In many cases, you can offer coaching and advice regardless of location, e.g. B. via Skype, WhatsApp, email or telephone

Disadvantages

• Requires expert status and good positioning within a niche

12. VG word

VG Word is something like GEMA for writers, authors and publishers. It serves to compensate them for illegal copies of their texts.

Funds from the flat-rate levy (also known as copyright levy) are used for this purpose. B. on printers and scanners, which in turn are paid annually to authors and publishers.

Authors and publishers who publish their texts on the Internet, including bloggers, can also benefit from the distribution.

Payment is made per published blog article (in 2016 it was €20.00). For this, however, the blog articles must reach a certain minimum number of views (1,500 views) and have a minimum character length (1,800 characters).

This can be worthwhile, especially for larger blogs with many blog articles. According to his own statements , Peer Wandiger from Self-Employed Online earns around €4,000 a year .

Advantages

• Easy money
• Especially worthwhile with high visitor numbers and many blog articles

Disadvantages

• Requires registration in the TOM with the VG Wort and conclusion of a rights administration agreement
• A counting mark must be assigned to each blog article (but this is quite easy to do with a plugin, e.g. with Prosodia VGW OS )
• Every year, all blog articles that reach the minimum access must be reported (for each article individually, which is quite time-consuming).
• The whole reporting and registration process is quite bureaucratic and cumbersome

13. Link Sale or Rent

Another source of income for bloggers is selling or renting links from their own blog. You can not only sell links from articles, but also from the sidebar, from the start page or in the footer.

When renting, the payment is monthly or annually, when selling it is a one-time payment (the link is then online for an agreed period of time or forever on the blog).

Why you can earn money with link sales is obvious: companies, especially online shops , often have difficulties getting relevant backlinks (e.g. for individual products or category pages) and therefore do not rank so well on Google. Therefore, link selling is an easy way for companies to push their own Google ranking.

Advantages

• Very little effort
• Regular monthly earnings
• Depending on the authority and popularity of your own blog, high yields are possible
• You can easily get customers for text links through online portals such as B. Find SeedingUp

Disadvantages

• Penalty by Google possible when selling dofollow links
• SEO disadvantages with page-wide links (e.g. in the footer)
• Selling dofollow links is considered unprofessional

14. Sell blog

Tell me, are you crazy? Make money by selling your own blog…

But yes, that can be an option. Especially if you’re out of breath and you’ve been wanting to start a new project for a long time (the start-up capital from selling the blog can come in very handy!)

However, I would advise you not to think twice, but think five times. First of all, your blog and thus your source of income will be gone for the time being. Second, you may not be able to get the amount of blog sales you expect or need to start something new:

The problem with many blogs is that they are tied to one person and can therefore only be continued by someone else to a limited extent. In addition, the passive income of a blog is primarily important to buyers (e.g. income from AdSense or affiliate marketing). However, many blogs generate almost exclusively active income (e.g. via sponsored posts).

Advantages

• A lot of money in one fell swoop that you can use to start a new project

Disadvantages

• Your blog is gone (and with it your regular source of income)
• You may not get back what you invested in your blog or what you envisioned as a selling price

FAQ

Here I have compiled the answers to the most frequently asked questions about making money through blogging: