Starting a blog can be fun, but a lot of people start with the eventual goal of making money from it. If that’s you, you should know about some of the best ways to monetize a blog.
You don’t have to implement everything right away or at all. Consider the options that make the most sense for you.
But first, this post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy to learn more.
1. Affiliate Marketing
One of the best and easiest ways to monetize a blog is with affiliate marketing. This is where you mention and/or specifically promote products from other businesses.
When you join an affiliate program, you’ll get access to a special link or a dashboard to create special links. The links you get will have a special tag within them that connects the link to you.
That way, if someone clicks on your link and buys something, you’ll get a commission. Depending on the program, you could make anywhere from 1% to over 50%. Some programs pay a flat rate instead of a percentage.
Earning potential: $0 to hundreds of thousands per year, depending on traffic and the affiliate programs you join
2. Display Ads
Another easy option for how to monetize a blog is to use display ads. You usually need to have a certain amount of content on your site, and you might need to meet a minimum number of page views per month.
Google AdSense doesn’t have a traffic requirement, but you do have to have quality content on your site. That means you can’t just create a blog today and start monetizing it with ads tomorrow.
However, after a few months of posting consistently, you can place ads. I’ve done just that on my first two blogs already. You can also join other ad networks, such as Ezoic or Mediavine. Then, you can let the ads run, and you can make money with ad impressions and clicks.
Earning potential: $1 to $30 or so per thousand clicks, less for impressions
3. Sponsored Posts
After you’ve built a loyal following, you can start to get sponsors. This is where a brand approaches you or vice versa. A brand will pay you a set rate to write a post where you mention their product or service.
Some sponsored posts are about the brand, such as a product review. However, others may only mention the product at the beginning. If you want to take sponsorships, you can also create Instagram or YouTube content to earn more.
I’d recommend you only work with brands you truly love. If a brand you’ve never used asks to sponsor you, always ask to try their product first. The last thing you want is to lose trust from your audience just to make a quick buck.
Earning potential: $50 to $1,000+ per post
4. Subscriptions
Another one of the best ways to monetize a blog is to sell subscriptions. Like many news outlets, you can put your content behind a paywall. Readers pay a small monthly fee to access the content.
Alternatively, you can paywall some of your content and offer other content for free. I’d only do this after you build a strong, loyal following. And if I did this, I’d leave some posts free to the public to help get more readers.
You can also sell subscriptions that have nothing to do with your blog posts. For example, if you blog about pets, you could sell a membership where every month you create a new training video only for your members.
Earning potential: $0 to thousands of dollars per month
5. Digital Products
You may also want to sell digital products to monetize your blog. This is where you create the product once and upload it to a platform that will distribute it whenever someone makes a purchase.
I use Easy Digital Downloads to sell smaller digital products. The plugin is free, so you can get started with any WordPress site.
There are tons of digital products you can sell, including the following.
eBooks
If you enjoy writing, you can write an eBook to sell on your site. You can choose a topic related to your niche and dive into it in-depth. That way, you can cover more information than you could in a blog post.
You can even combine existing blog posts into an eBook. If you have multiple posts that focus on a single topic, make them into chapters. However, I’d recommend adding a few extra chapters that are exclusive to the book.
Then, you can keep from making those eBook customers feel ripped off when they see you’ve shared some of the content on your site. You can also add other elements, like a workbook, to add value to the eBook.
Earning potential: $5 to $30 per sale
Printables
The world of printables is vast and can be yet another one of the best ways to monetize a blog. If you blog about personal finance, for example, you could sell budgeting printables.
A food blogger could sell printables to help organize family recipes. If you’ve bought or created your own printables, consider if they relate to your blog niche. Then, you could sell your own printables to your audience.
Just make sure you create your stuff from scratch. You don’t want to sell something you don’t have the rights to and risk getting sued. And copying is just rude anyway.
Earning potential: $2 to $20 per sale
Courses
I have yet to create and sell a course because I haven’t come up with a course that would make sense for any of my blogs. However, I’ve taken quite a few courses, such as one on Instagram marketing and sales.
If you can teach something in more depth than a series of blog posts, you can make a course out of it. Now, this can get a bit risky because it’s very easy to create a course that is overpriced or that doesn’t offer the value that people expect.
So if you don’t want to deal with making a course, you can still enjoy a bit of the growing world of online education. After you take a course, you may be able to become an affiliate and make a commission.
Earning potential: $100 to $1,000+ per sale
6. Physical Products
At some point, you may want to sell physical products. You can sell almost anything, from a physical copy of book to products related to your niche. I’d recommend having plenty of money to do this though.
That way, you can pay to produce, package, and ship the products. Another option is to use print-on-demand services. Amazon KDP is one program, but you can also sell things through a platform like Redbubble.
When you do that, you’ll only pay when someone orders your products. You also won’t have to spend the time or money shipping items or holding inventory.
Earning potential: $2 to $1,000+ per sale
7. Services
If you’re looking for fast ways to monetize a blog, you should consider offering services. You can offer services related to your blog niche, or you can use the skills you’ve developed for blogging to help other businesses.
Consider the following ideas for services you can offer as a blogger.
Write for Clients
Your blog can serve as your portfolio to show clients what you can do. If you enjoy writing blog posts, you can find clients who need that service. You can find blogging clients in almost any ndustry.
If you want to do this, be sure to share that service in your blog posts. That way, if a reader likes the content, they’ll know they can hire you.
You can also use freelance sites, such as Upwork or Fiverr, to find clients. I used writing job boards, like ProBlogger Jobs, to get started. After a while, you may even get referrals.
Earning potential: $0.03 to $0.50 per word
Edit for Bloggers
Perhaps you have a good eye for detail, and you catch errors when you read blog posts. You can turn that skill into a service and offer to edit blog posts for other bloggers.
Of course, you can find blogs with errors and ask to correct them. But you want to be nice about it. Look for an email or contact form, and tell the blogger you like their content (be honest) and that you want to help.
You can also find editing jobs in many of the same places as you’d find writing jobs. So get on some freelance job websites to get started.
Earning potential: $0.015 to $0.10 per word
Do Graphic Design
While it’s not a huge part of blogging, I do some basic graphic design. I like to create a graphic for every blog post so that I can easily share the post to Pinterest. Sometimes, I’ll create other designs to share to other Pinterest boards.
If you do this and enjoy it, you can offer design services. You can work with other bloggers, or you can work with general businesses. This is an especially great option if your blog niche is graphic design.
You could do web design, logo design, or other services. Not only is this a good service, but you can easily create templates to sell as digital products. Then, you can make even more from your design work.
Earning potential: $25 to $100+ per hour
Offer Photo or Video Editing
Another fantastic service to consider is photo or video editing. Of course, you can also take photos and videos for people. But this does limit you to people in your area, or you’ll have to travel.
Editing is something you can do from anywhere. You can have your clients send their photos or video footage, and you make any edits they want.
This is a good service for photo and video bloggers. But if you enjoy it, you can offer the service even if your blog niche is something different.
Earning potential: $25 to $100+ per hour
8. Coaching or Consulting
Another sort of service you can offer is coaching or consulting. You can do this within your blog niche. For example, I have a couple of music blogs, and I’ve offered private online flute lessons in the past.
Depending on the type of coaching you want to do, you may need professional certification or a degree. So keep that in mind, especially if you want to go into health or finance coaching.
But in other areas, like music, you may just need experience. You can use your blog and other content types to showcase what you can do. Then, you could get clients to hire you for a single session or ongoing work.
Earning potential: $50 to $200+ per hour
9. Guest Posts
I’ve seen some blogs that charge writers to publish guest posts. Personally, this isn’t one of the ways to monetize a blog that I’d choose. It just seems kind of scammy to charge people for that kind of thing.
However, if you have a massive audience, you may be able to get away with it. If your blog is relatively small, you shouldn’t charge for guest posts.
Earning potential: $0 to $100 per post
10. Donations
Maybe you’ve gotten questions from your audience asking how they can support you. You can tell them about your products or affiliate links. But not everyone needs or wants to buy something.
In case that happens, it helps to be able to accept donations. You can do this through a platform like Buy Me a Coffee. People can send you money without having to buy a product or pay for a service.
I’ve received a donation or two for one of my blogs. It’s not much, and I don’t get them that often. However, it can be a nice way to supplement the other ways you monetize your blog.
Earning potential: $5+ per donation
Can You Monetize a New Blog?
You can monetize a new blog in a few ways. The easiest options include affiliate marketing, services, and donations.
However, other options, such as display ads, require you already have some content. Even more options, like sponsorships and digital products, are better to do when you already have a loyal audience.
What’s the Best Way to Monetize a New Blog?
The best way to monetize a new blog is with affiliate links. You can join quite a few programs even without having a massive audience.
Then, you can add those affiliate links to your blog posts. And if someone clicks your link and makes a purchase, you’ll get a kickback.
Final Thoughts
There are multiple ways to monetize a blog, and not every option is right for every blog or blogger. Be sure to consider a few choices.
Then, you can diversify your income and increase your earning potential. If you’re looking to start a blog that you can monetize, sign up for SiteGround now!