The saying "Blogging is dead" couldn't be more wrong. With 77% of internet users habitually consuming blog content, blogs are here to stay.
If you're currently running a blog, you might wonder what you can do to make money with it. In this article, we'll discuss how to monetize a blog and see some creative ways successful bloggers create continuous revenue streams with their blogs.
Is your blog ready to monetize?
While there are no hard milestones you need to hit before monetizing your blog, you should have a few things under control before leaping.
You’re ready to monetize your blog if:
- You know your target audience: Who does your blog appeal to? What problems does your audience face? What solutions do you plan to provide them?
- You have a steady stream of website traffic: You don’t need to average 50,000 daily page views on your website for it to count as a steady stream of traffic. A few thousand visitors a month is a step in the right direction.
- You have an existing email list: Your email list could be your secret weapon for monetizing your blog. These people care about what you have to offer, and they will probably be the first ones to purchase any courses or products you publish.
If your blog checks all of the above, congratulations! You’re ready to implement a monetization strategy and start reaping the rewards of your blog.
10 creative ways to monetize your blog with minimal stress
Here are 10 ways to monetize your blog and start earning money ASAP:
1. Create online courses
Creating an online course is a way to sell your expertise to customers. You don’t need to be an “expert” to create and sell a course. If you have a measure of knowledge on a subject, you can sell courses to your audience.
While some new bloggers choose to post their online courses on sites like Udemy, you can sell online courses from your website. Blogger Colleen Welsch used her knowledge about writing to create the Freelance Writer’s Guide to the Galaxy which helps freelance writers jumpstart their careers.
2. Sell digital products
Whether you're a first-time blogger or seasoned pro, creating high-quality digital products is a simple way to monetize your blog. If you’re not ready to create an entire course, consider selling digital products that compliment your blog content. Products you can sell include:
- Printables
- Guides
- PDFs
- Templates
- Ebooks
- Tutorials
If it’s digital — you can sell it on your site.
Business lawyer and seven-figure blogger Amira Irfan noticed a need for reputable legal blog templates. So she created A Self Guru and began selling simple legal templates bloggers can copy and paste onto their sites. In one month, Amira reported making over $49,000 from her digital products.
If you’re selling digital products, use Jasper, our AI copywriting assistant to take the weight off writing product descriptions. Use Jasper’s Product Description template to craft persuasive product descriptions and get sales flying in. Here’s the template at work:
3. Advertisements
Ads have a bad reputation in the blog monetization world. Many people feel that display ads are disruptive and ruin the user experience on a website.
In some cases, this is true. However, advertising is a great way to monetize your blog because it’s fast and profitable when used properly. It also provides passive income from your blog, as it doesn’t require much from you after they go live.
Blogger Sophia Lee used ads as a significant source of income early in her blogging career. While she makes monetizing a WordPress blog with ads look easy, it took time and effort to get to where she is today. She started with Google AdSense and later graduated to ad networks like Mediavine, where she earned more than $7,000 in one month.
4. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to monetize a blog. This method is especially popular among new bloggers who haven’t designed any courses of their own yet. You might choose to become an affiliate of a blogging course you loved or pick a product you feel confident selling.
To sell these products or courses, you might write a detailed review of the course or craft a blog article detailing your experience with the product.
For example, if you currently run a health blog, you could become an affiliate of popular health supplements. You can sell these supplements to your email subscribers and blog readers.
You can also join a larger affiliate program, which allows you to share links to a wide variety of products sold by that company. Amazon Associates is one of the most well-known affiliate programs, but others are:
- AWIN
- Share a Sale
- CJ Affiliate
- Elementor
Blogger Ling from FinSavvyPanda uses affiliate marketing as a major component of her blogging strategy to bring home a full-time income. In three months, she received over $8,000 from one affiliate network.
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5. Sell your services
Selling your services as a freelance blogger is an excellent strategy to monetize your blog. With freelancing, you don’t have to make any monetary investments to get started. All you need is time and expertise.
With freelancers earning more per hour than 70% of workers in the overall U.S economy, there’s much to gain from offering your services as a freelancer. Many freelancers do this by creating a page on their website where clients can request their services.
Freelance writer Kat Boogaard monetizes her blog in this way. While her blog is chock full of helpful tips and information for aspiring freelance writers, she also has a “Portfolio” page that showcases her skills to potential clients. She uses her social media to connect with other small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Besides this, Kat sells digital products on the online shop hosted on her site. These include niche-centric, invoicing and contract templates other freelancers have found useful.
6. Sell ebooks
E-books are a fairly straightforward way to make money from your blog. They don’t need to consist of several chapters or be overly detailed, and they allow you to test the waters for future products.
You can sell ebooks through your website or choose to place them in an online marketplace like Amazon.
Marketer and copywriter David Oudiette used his knowledge on landing pages to create a 252-page ebook that he sold for $39. He made over $13,000 in his first two months of sales. David drummed up excitement through blog posts and sold to members of his email list. It's safe to say his efforts paid off.
With Jasper, our premier AI writing assistant, you can speed up the ebook writing process. Outline your ebook with the Blog Post Outline template, write with Jasper’s Long-Form Assistant template, and finish strong with the Blog Post Conclusion Paragraph template. Here’s the Blog Post Outline template in action.
7. Offer a paid membership
Offering free, quality content to your audience is a great way to build an online following. But what about presenting paid content? Create a paid membership program aimed at interested members of your community.
Your membership program will provide you with an additional revenue stream as long as people continue in the program. To keep them interested, you’ll need to offer value to members and release new content regularly.
Some paid membership programs could be:
- Online courses
- Facebook groups
- Weekly webinars
- Newsletters
- Patreon content
Millennial Boss blogger Julie Berninger monetized her blog through the creation of her electronic printables Side Hustle Course. She partnered with another blogger under the name Gold City Ventures. For 30 days, students get free membership in the Facebook VIP Group. After this period, students can pay $29 per month to stay in the group.
8. Create a podcast
Podcasting offers a host of monetizing opportunities for your blog. Not only do podcast episodes give bloggers the chance to expound on topics, but they also drive traffic to your website.
Many bloggers include links to their online courses, blog content, and digital products in their episode descriptions, making it easy for new listeners to connect with them.
You can use your podcast to:
- Interview influencers
- Sell affiliate products
- Promote sponsorships
- Sell digital products
- Sell coaching services
Cody Berman from the blog Fly to FI promotes financial independence on his blog and podcast called The FI Show. On his podcast, he interviews people working towards financial independence. In his episode descriptions, Cody invites listeners to grab a free lead funnel and join his Facebook Group to connect further.
9. Harness the power of your email list
Don’t underestimate the power of email marketing. Building up an email list of targeted customers is invaluable for monetization. With this list, you have access to potential customers who typically have a stronger interest in your content and are more likely to spend money on your products.
Attract subscribers by offering a free lead magnet such as a newsletter, unique content, printable, guide, or even a short ebook. Once you have their email, you can follow up and send access to courses, early-bird sales, affiliate products, and other helpful information to build a relationship with them.
Robyn from NutritionbyRobyn monetizes her blog through her email list. Here, she offers subscribers a first look at Black Friday offers that will be discounted for a limited time.
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Jasper can help you craft compelling email subject lines using the Email Subject Lines template. Invite readers to open your emails and engage by standing out from the sea of emails in their inbox. Here’s how it works:
10. Sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are blog posts you write for other companies about their products. They might offer you the product in return for a review, or pay you to promote a product. You can write all the sponsored posts you want as long as you label them as sponsored. You don't want to spend hours writing great content only for the Federal Trade Commission to come after your site for failing to label a post.
Blogging strategist Ana Skyes from The She Approach uses sponsorships to supplement her blogging income and monetize her blog. Although she doesn’t write them often, she’s consistently made around $600 a month from writing sponsored content.
4 crucial things to keep in mind while monetizing your blog
All the above practices are great, but you do need to keep certain aspects of blogging in mind while monetizing:
- Don’t be intrusive: Beware of your ads becoming intrusive and disrupting users on your site. Consider using banner ads to prevent page clutter.
- Interaction is key: To create useful content, you’ll need to build a rapport with your audience. That way, if you’re ever at a loss about what to create, you can ask them what they would find useful.
- Create compelling content: Write content that people want to read. For blogging, quality and consistency often trump quantity. Take time to come up with engaging blog post ideas for your audience. Even if you only post twice a month, high-quality content will have your readers coming back for more.
- Avoid being too sales-driven: Monetizing your blog doesn't mean that you need to promote a sale in every post. Instead, use open-ended questions like, “Looking to grow your online presence?” or “Are you ready to take your blogging income to the next level?”Instead of directly selling to your readers, you’re guiding potential customers to the provided solution on your site.
Blogging success stories to inspire you
1. Create and Go bloggers Lauren and Alex
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Create and Go freelance bloggers Alex and Lauren launched their blog to regain control of their lives. They started their blogging journey with a small health and wellness website to encourage healthier lifestyles. Once that took off, they decided to share their wealth of knowledge with others to show them that monetizing a WordPress blog could be done.
While their original idea was to make a website that encouraged traveling and blogging (Create a blog and Go travel) they quickly realized that many people struggled to understand blogging and how to create a successful blog that brings in revenue.
So, they created blogging courses, videos, ebooks, and programs to help hundreds of people understand the world of blogging and how to treat their blog as a business. Their courses discuss web hosting, choosing a blogging platform, how to optimize your blog for SEO, and more.
Every month, Create and Go publishes an income report that shows you exactly how they make their money.
This is their income report for September 2021:
Alex and Lauren both attribute the success to providing value to their audience with actionable, easy-to-implement steps. They're known for being honest and transparent and are well known in the blogging industry for helping other students become six-figure bloggers.
2. Everyday Reading by Janssen Bradshaw
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Janssen Bradshaw has been blogging about books, parenting, and lifestyle for over 10 years. For the first few years, she never considered monetizing her site, choosing to blog about family life, a bit of fashion, and her hobby, reading.
Now, Janssen makes most of her income through ads, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content. While she does create appealing lead magnets and printable, she shares them with her audience at no extra cost, choosing instead to monetize via alternative means.
Everyday Reading also landed Janssen several writing gigs with companies like Penguin Random House, Disney, Pampers, Conde Nast Traveler, and more. Janssen recently revealed on her Instagram page that income from her website supports her family of six as she and her husband are working on a new educational start-up and neither of them currently earn additional salaries.
Janssen’s blogging career shows that there are different ways to earn money blogging. You don’t have to sell to your audience if it feels too icky — just make sure you have other ways to work around it.
Boost Your Blog Monetization
Monetizing your blog isn't for the faint of heart. It takes strategy, skill, and creativity to successfully monetize. However, it isn't impossible. Focus on providing your audience with high-quality blog articles along with products like courses and ebooks.
Every blog monetization strategy starts with great content and a business mindset.
Jasper is an AI copywriting assistant that can help you with the content angle so you get the most out of your blog.
Jasper was designed to help you create killer content with ease. Thanks to the Jasper's Chrome extension—one of many helpful extensions for bloggers and content marketers—you can use it anywhere you write online. Are you at a loss for new blog ideas? Jasper is just what you need to breathe new life into your blog. The Blog Post Topic Ideas template will help you brainstorm thought-provoking topics that will resonate with your audience.
See how Jasper does this for a fictional personal finance blog looking to brainstorm fresh content.
Use the Perfect Headline template to shake up your blog titles with high-converting headlines.
When you sign up with Jasper, you gain access to these and 50 other helpful writing templates. Jasper Bootcamp will help you get up to speed and figure out how you can boost your blog monetization.
Ready to monetize your blog? Sign up for Jasper today.
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