Can You Really Make Money Blogging?

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I’ve been blogging since 2011. When people ask me why I started with it, I tell them it’s an easy way to start making money. You only need an internet connection, spare time, and just a little extra cash to get you started.

From there, you simply decide on a blogging niche and write blog content recommending products and affiliate programs. And once you are driving traffic to the content, you are golden. You will be making extra money in no time!

I know that sounds way too simple, right? And that is probably why I often get this question:

“Can you really make money blogging?”

Today I am here to tell you that you can make money as a blogger today, just like the successful bloggers who started years ago.

Here’s the thing: earning money with your blog is doable. But unfortunately, when bloggers start running into trouble, they want to start a blog without any idea of how they will monetize it. Or they decide to become a full-time blogger before they are ready to.

In this article, I will answer the question: Can you really make money blogging? Spoiler Alert: Yes! I will prove to you that not only is it possible to make money with your blog, but I’m also going to show you all the ways it is possible.

My Blogging Income Story

Let me start by saying that I made both of the abovementioned mistakes. First, when I started, I had no clue how to make money with my blog; all I knew was that it was possible. Second, I assumed bloggers make all their money with advertising, so I found ways to do that.

It wasn’t until I started reading various income report blog posts online that I realized how you can make money online.

I would learn about one method, experiment with it, then see how the results turned out. Once I mastered one technique, I moved on to the next one. Of course, I was not always successful each time I tried something new, but I did enough to understand the process.

One step that helped me boost my income was taking a course in each of these types of monetization strategies because it helped me learn all the tips and tricks involved with bringing in more revenue.

Eventually, I started making regular money on my blog, but the second mistake I made was going into blogging full-time too soon.

I made enough money each month to cover my expenses but not much else. This dilemma led to my site becoming more of a chore. It brought in cash, but it was stressful. I was barely making it.

If you decide to retire with your blog, you should probably wait until you are bringing in more income than you need to before you quit your day job.

However, I also recommend that you already have some passive income strategies. Doing this will prevent you from making the same mistake I did.

Fast forward to today, when my site brings in anywhere from $5k–$10k a month. And that is while I am still working a full-time job. So now that I know you can make money blogging, I also want to tell you how!

Sponsored Posts

I will tell you that sponsored posts are my first love regarding monetization strategies. I already said that advertising was where I first brought in income. But sponsored posts are where I brought in the real bucks.

I was making about $2–$3 a month with advertising, if that. When I got my first sponsored post opportunity, they paid me $50. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about this significant increase.

A sponsored blog post is when a brand pays a blogger to mention their product or service in an article. It is similar to advertising, where you get paid for referring to brands. The difference is you are not paid based on how many views the article sees. Instead, you negotiate a price upfront, and that is what you get paid for writing quality content. 

The more assets you have on your blog (traffic, social media following, etc.), the more you can ask for. Some blog posts pay anywhere from $65–$10,000 for a single campaign.

You just have to know where to find the brands. This is one of the most complex parts of making money from sponsorships. But, lucky for you, I have a list of 150 Sponsored Post Networks with paid sponsorships! Just click the button below for me to email it to you.

150 Influencer Networks With Paid Sponsorships

Now you know where to go, it is time to learn what to do. Getting selected for sponsored blog post opportunities is not as easy as it seems. I applied for hundreds of chances before I was finally chosen for one. But, had I known what I was doing, this wouldn’t have been the case.

I still hear from many of my blogging clients that they are not getting selected for sponsored post opportunities. This feedback is what led me to create Blogging Money Formula!

Blogging Money Formula is an online program that shows motivated bloggers how to go from making a few dollars to making consistent money with their blogs every month. I show you how to set up the foundation you need to make REAL money with your blog that will make a difference for you and your family in the long run.

And you are in luck because the doors to Blogging Money Formula will soon be open.

You can sign up on the waitlist by clicking here!

Affiliate Marketing

Ok, now let’s talk affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is when you promote brands, and they pay you a commission for anyone who clicks on your affiliate links and purchases their products.

This strategy is a great way to monetize your blog because it is a passive income strategy. That means you do the work once (when you write the article and include affiliate links), and you continue to get paid for it in the long run (as long as there is consistent traffic – preferably search engine traffic, to that article).

Technically, you don’t need a blog to participate in affiliate marketing. You can also share affiliate links on social media. However, affiliate marketing is a more advanced strategy to monetize your blog. When I first started doing it, I didn’t make a dime. 

I finally started to see some money trickle in when I took Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course.

Affiliate marketing is worth it if you’re a good marketer. However, it can mean a lot of time goes into creating content that doesn’t result in income. If you were going to go down this rabbit hole, I highly recommend you get the training to do it right.

Advertising

I can’t talk about monetization without talking about advertising. I mentioned above that I barely made any money from it when I started. That’s because I was barely getting any traffic.

Advertising is when you publish an advertisement for a brand on your website and get paid based on how many views the ad receives. To get started, you must sign up for a free Google AdSense account, add the code to your website, and forget about it.

I will tell you now that you will probably not get a full-time income from advertising on your blog. So while it is good to make some money with advertising, this should not be your bread-and-butter strategy unless you know your blog will bring in millions of views every month.

Once you reach a certain amount of page views, you can qualify for services such as Mediavine at 25,000 sessions or AdThrive at 100,000 page views. These companies pay you more per page idea, which is why it is worthwhile to switch to them once you get the right amount of traffic. In the meantime, keep on blogging with Google AdSense until your traffic gets there.

Digital Products

If your goal is to one day make enough money to retire on your blog income, developing digital products is the way to go.

I remember seeing a blogging study a few years ago that showed that all bloggers who made six figures had a product or service to sell. This is because when you create original products, you are no longer getting a small percentage of the revenue (like with affiliates) but all of it. And selling the product can be done passively.

Many bloggers create online courses, some sell physical products, and others sell services such as a mastermind group or coaching. There is practically no limit to how much money you can make when they are selling products and services.

Now that I have painted a beautiful picture of what digital products can do for you let me just say that they are a lot of work. 

Before you do anything, you want to make sure that you build your email list to over 1,000 people so that you have people to market to. To learn more about email lists, read my article 11 Easy Ways To Make Money With An Email List.

After that, you have to decide on a product people will buy. As someone who has created products in the past that no one was interested in, I can say that doing market research before making the product is critical.

Building a course with excellent content takes a lot of time, but don’t waste your time on something that no one wants. But, on the other hand, if you research and ask future customers what they’re looking for, this can be a very profitable venture for you and, who knows, maybe even lead to early retirement.

So, back to our original question: Can you make money blogging? As you can see, it is possible!

If you are struggling to achieve this right now, I highly recommend you sign up for the Blogging Money Formula waitlist.

Click here to learn more about Blogging Money Formula.

Want to learn more about how to get a blog started in 2022? Check out this video that shows you step-by-step some additional tips for 2022.