How to Make Money Blogging – Tips for Beginners
Want to make money with your blog? You’ve come to the right place!
So you landed on this post because you’re trying to figure out the heck聽people make money blogging.
If you are new to blogging you may have heard about different ways to make money, but you have no idea where to start.
This is where I come in. I am going to walk you through exactly what you can set up to start making an income from your blog.
Before we jump聽into how to make money with your blog, the most important strategy to have before you monetize is…
Create quality content written specifically for your target audience.
Make sure you are putting聽full effort into your content so when people arrive on your blog they will want to stay and hopefully read more content.
Remember quality – not quantity.
This is key.
Related: How I Became a Six-Figure Blogger with 5 Mindset Changes
Related: 8 Blogging Mistakes New Bloggers Make
How to Make Money From Your Blog as a Beginner:
This post contains affiliate links. Disclosure聽here. This means I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.聽
1. Advertising
There are a number of advertising networks that bloggers can apply to in order to start making money through advertising on your site. Here are some great options to look into:
Google AdSense
One of the main ways new bloggers start making money is by signing up to Google AdSense. Once set up this is an easy way to start making money immediately.
How much money will Google Adsense make you?
Very Little! If you’re new you may be getting a whopping $0.70 a day depending on how many page views you have. If you have decent traffic you can make about $75 to $100 a month.
So is it worth including Google AdSense on your blog? I think this is a personal choice. You may want to give it a try and see if you can make an extra $50 a month – hey, that’s grocery money right?!
Or you might decide to pass and monetize your blog in other ways. There is no right answer as a new blogger.
Personally, I did run Google AdSense on my other blog Put The Kettle On when I started blogging.
Monumetric
I haven’t used Monumetric personally, however, I have heard wonderful things about them.
Requirements:
You must have $10,000 page views per month to join, which can actually be achieved fairly quickly as a new blogger if you are focused on your Pinterest strategy.
Unlike Google AdSense which pay on a CPC (cost per click) basis, Monumetric pay publishers (you!) on a PPV (pay per view) basis. This right away means more money in your pocket!
If you happen to use Monumetric, I’d love to learn more about them, so please share in the comments below.
Mediavine
Mediavine is an ad management company that many bloggers work with.
They pay you based on ad impressions (ad views), not clicks like Google AdSense. This means more money for you!
Mediavine – What you need:
First and foremost you need that minimum traffic of 50,000 sessions (not page views) within a 30 day period. Once you get to this point you can apply to Mediavine, which I highly recommend.
Here are a few of Mediavine’s requirements (other than the 50K sessions) in order to get approved.
- You must have good quality content that has great engagement.
- Your blog must be in good standing with Google Adsense. In other words, if you have been removed from the AdSense program you will be unable to join Mediavine, as Google and Mediavine are partners.
- Your posts can’t be all round-up/list posts. The majority of your content should be written within your post – not linking off to several other articles with links.
…Curious what a round-up post looks like? Check out this post. Note: Round-up posts are still great to have, just make sure they are a smaller percentage of your blog’s content.
Related: Check out this post on how you can increase ad earnings with the power of Pinterest!
Gourmet Ads
Gourmet Ads specialize in advertising for food blogs.
Their minimum requirements are 10,000 page views a month and you must have a strong audience from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Here are Gourmet Ads full publisher requirements.
Fomo Ads
I haven’t personally tried Fomo Ads, but I’ve heard good things from other bloggers. They do not have a payment threshold like Google AdSense, so no matter what you make – you get paid every month via PayPal. That is a big bonus as Google AdSense payment threshold is $100.
Have you tried these income streams to start making money with your #blog? What are you waiting for?! #blogging #bloggingtips #makemoneyonline Share on X
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great place to start making money as a new blogger. If you are new to blogging, you may be wondering what affiliate marketing is and how it works.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of receiving a commission for sending a user to a business website. A commission is typically paid to you when the user purchases something within a specific time frame. You will receive a percentage of the total sale.
To get started with affiliate marketing I recommend the following companies:
Amazon Associates
There are different affiliate programs for each country. I recommend signing up to the country where most of your audience lives. You can find this data in Google Analytics.
**For example – I live in Canada, but I have my main Amazon Associates account set up as US.
Once you are approved, you can then apply to Amazon’s One Link program. This basically means that you provide one affiliate link (in your blog post), but if someone outside of the country clicks it will redirect to their local Amazon site. This just means you will still get commission outside of your primary ‘Amazon country’.
Shareasale
When you sign up to this affiliate company you have access to promote thousands of different products and companies.
Shareasale is ideal when you want to write a post about gift ideas (Teabox.com, Mixbook) or share some key blogging resources like Tailwind scheduler, graphic design software and WordPress premium themes.
Awin
If you want to promote products on Etsy, you must sign up to Awin. Awin is the exclusive partner to Etsy for affiliate marketing.
SendOwl
If you are interested in sharing other blogger’s ebooks or digital products SendOwl is a great place to start.
This is a perfect strategy if you have taken a course or bought a digital product you love and you want to tell others about it (and get paid a commission to do so)!
Even if you don’t write about the content in your blog you can share these products in blogging Facebook groups.
Ultimate Bundles
No matter what your blog content is about Ultimate Bundles will have amazing content for you to promote and make 40% commission on every sale.
These bundles are essentially huge bundles of eBooks and other resources for a heavily discounted price.
For example, a productivity bundle worth over $1500 (if you were to purchase each eBook separately) is sold for just $37 for a limited time.
What’s cool is there are all sorts of bundles you can promote such as: productivity, blogging, meal planning, healthy living, home projects,聽photography and so much more – all launched at different times throughout the year.
Read more about affiliate marketing: Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money with your blog. What other blogging income streams have you tried? #blogging #bloggersrequired #bloggingtips Share on X
3. Brand Collaborations on Your Blog and/or Social Accounts
Even if you are a new blogger, it’s never too early to get yourself ready to work with brands.
So, what exactly does a brand collaboration entail?
This is when you work with a brand to develop opportunities to showcase their product or service on your blog. Brands will pay you for this exposure and the price will depend on the size of your traffic and social media following.
I recommend doing the following to get yourself ready for collaborations:
- Develop your brand collaboration opportunities in advance so you aren’t scrambling if a brand reaching out to you.
- Set up a ‘Work with me’ page on your website. Include high-level details of what you can offer brands. Here’s an example from my lifestyle blog.
- Create a media kit so you have it available when brands start to approach you.
- Create a brand collaboration document that goes into more detail on what you can offer brands. This would include examples such as products reviews, sponsorships, etc + pricing.
- Grow your social media following. If you are really serious about working with brands as a main income source I would recommend you focus on Instagram first as this is a platform that is of most interest to brands.
There are 2 ways you can get started working with brands:
1. Join some influencer networks.
Influencer networks and 3rd party companies that connect bloggers, influencers and brands. Once you sign up and fill out all of your information you’ll be able to see the types of collaboration opportunities that are available. Typically you would then apply to that opportunity.
Some great influencer networks for beginners to join are:
Start by signing up to these networks so you can see how they operate and then you can look further afield if you wish.
2. Contact a brand directly.
Go to their website and simply find the contact us page, or you might have luck messaging the brand on Instagram.
When you content the brand you must be prepared (with the above materials and info I mentioned) if you are reaching out directly.
4. Products to sell on your Blog
Creating digital or tangible products is a great way to make some money with your blog. Many bloggers use this as one of their main strategies to make money.
What kind of blog products can you create?
Digital Products:
- eBooks
- Worksheets and printables
- Organization tools
- Journals
- Templates (Check out how you can sell Canva templates here)
Tangible Products:
- Books
- Mugs, clothing, artwork
- Anything craft related – sell on Etsy or your own site
- Get creative – you can sell anything as an extension on your blog.
5. Services
Many seasoned bloggers will offer services to other bloggers such as social media management, coaching, or even blog audits, but what can you offer as a new blogger?
Do you specialize in a certain skill? Then offer your services on your blog!
Some ideas that might work for you:
- Health and wellness coach
- Marketing services
- Freelance writing
- Photography
- Proofreading/editing
- Website design
- Virtual assistant
- Organizing
6. Courses
Courses are a little like services. If you are an expert in a specific area or know a lot about a certain topic think about creating a course. Share your knowledge and help others!
If you’d like to consider creating a course of your own a great place to start is with Teachable.
To get an idea of how some courses work, take advantage of signing up to these free courses to help you with your blogging skills!…
FREE Graphic Design Mini Course – By Applecart Lane Design:
What you鈥檒l learn…
- Know 10 of the most common design mistakes to avoid when creating your own graphics for your blog or online biz.
- Learn actionable solutions to the 10 most common design mistakes and be able to improve the appearance of your graphics immediately.
- Feel more confident about your blog graphics!
FREE 5 Day Traffic & Monetization Mini Challenge – By Lena Gott:
5 days of simple tasks to increase your traffic and income.
- DAY 1: An overly complicated traffic strategy confuses your readers. Learn how to SIMPLIFY and get more traffic as a result.
- DAY 2: Find out how to easily implement INCOME PATHWAYS on your blog to increase income from the traffic you already have.
- DAY 3: Your CALLS TO ACTION can make or break you in the online world. Learn what to say and what NOT to say to encourage your visitors to take action. You’ll really love this one!
- DAY 4: You can use keyword research to find HIDDEN NICHES that no one else is targeting. Low competition = more traffic for you! This is a super simple SEO concept that we will walk through step-by-step.
- DAY 5: Today’s lesson is all about the ONE METRIC you can track to increase your income. Knowing this number makes a world of difference to your income!
Check out some of my favourite Free Blogging Courses HERE.
Now that we’ve walked through the Top 6 ways to make money blogging聽 – what are you going to try first?
Or are you currently making money with your blog?
If yes – tell us what monetization strategy works best for you?!
Let鈥檚 connect on social media!
Pinterest聽|聽Twitter聽|聽Facebook
Related blogging and social media resources:
- How to Sell Canva Templates & Make Money
- Best Free Blogging Courses To Sign Up For This Year
- How to Blog Legally – Tips from a Lawyer who Blogs
- Best Facebook Groups for Bloggers – Your Key to Traffic Growth
- Improve Your Website or Blog with these Free Feedback Tools
- Why Your Blog Posts Aren鈥檛 Being Shared & What To Do About It
-PIN ME-
Bookmarking this resource to read further later. I signed up and got approved for a few different vendors through Awin (such as AliExpress) but was denied by Etsy.
Hey! One thing I would recommend with Etsy is you need to apply to the Etsy account for your specific country. Give that a try and it should work. Good luck!
Thanks for this detailed explanation. There is a lot to learn in the blogging industry. Thank you for the information.
Hey Janet! I hope it was helpful. There is definitely a lot to learn and the learning is constant!
This is a great resource that I will keep coming back to. Great tips – this post has me thinking about designing a course, something that has flitted into my mind and out again…. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Definitely adding this to my list of blog posts to refer back to. Thank you for sharing! I’m still starting out with my blog and have been trying to grow it organically without jumping the gun on anything crazy. Will for sure be incorporating some of these techniques!
Great tips! I actually like adsense, I know it’s not a whole lot of cash, but an extra few hundred a month doesnt hurt. I dont have enough traffic for other networks so its a good place to start.
This was so helpful!!!!! Thanks so much. I’ll def be referencing back to this asap!!
XO, Katie | http://www.meshkomoments.com
Hi Katie, Ah! I’m so glad this was a help. Feel free to ask any questions you have once you dig in. Take care 馃檪
Thank you for the helpful information.
I love this post! Very helpful and had some things I never even thought of, thank you!
Hi Siobhan 馃檪 Thanks! Glad to hear it’s helpful for you.
I am working on this currently. This is a great resource and includes a few options that I did not know about. Wish me luck:)
Hi Jenny! Best of luck! If you have any questions as you start to implement strategies feel free to reach out 馃檪
I only knew about Mediavine and Google Adsense before I came across your post. I have to apply for the other ones. Great info.
I used to be the same! Monumetric is a really good option if you’re trying to get to the Mediavine level. You can leave Google AdSense earlier and start making much more money through advertising right away.
I’m still trying to get traffic to my blog, my views are climbing but oh so slowly. I’d eventually like to make money blogging by selling courses/ebooks but I’m not there yet. I have some affiliate links set up but none of them are getting any traction. My biggest problem is that I just don’t have time to do all the things you apparently need to do to start making money from a blog. Freelance writing is my main business and it’s always busy so I’m kind of frustrated by my progress at the moment. But these are all great tips to try once I can find the time!
Hey Rebecca! Oh I know – there are SO MANY things to do with a blog. If you think about it, it’s like you need to wear the hat of a writer, graphic designer, sales person, marketer, social media strategist, accountant, and on and on! Growing your traffic is good to focus on and yes, affiliate marketing can be tough – but once you crack the code you can start making some money with it for sure. I’ve taken a couple of affiliate marketing courses that really helped me, so if you ever want to reco on that let me know 馃檪 Thanks for the message!
Definitely bookmarking this to dive into some of these one at a time. This is a great resource for other bloggers. Thank you for all the hard work you put into creating this guide. It’s so helpful to newbies like me!
I haven’t heard of Monumetric but I’ll be checking them out! I’m always *this close* to being able to sign up for mediavine but just a few hundred short. And AdSense is a joke for payouts! But I’ll go check them out because I definitely meet their requirements – thanks!
I’ve been with Mediavine for about a year now and I love them. The paycheck is great and they are so simple to work with. I used to think that I would never put ads on my blog but now I see that it’s worth it.
I appreciate this blogging tips. I will be using your advice for working with brands!
Awesome tips!! I used Gourmet Ads for a year but recently disabled ads on my blog. I’ll probably apply to Mediavine when I’m large enough. For now I’m focusing on monetizing via sponsored posts and affiliate links. I love Amazon Affiliates 馃檪
Love the details on each option thank you! I’ve bookmarked this to review again and again! Thank you!
Glad you found this helpful Emily 馃檪 If you ever have questions, feel free to reach out.
It’s amazing how much you can do to make money even on a small blog. I use MediaVine and absolutely love them. Also, Amazon never does me wrong. =]
I agree! There are so many ways to make money, that it’s just a matter of focusing on a few.
Great great article!! This was so helpful! I applied to google adsense, signed up for the SEO course and joined one of the influencer networks. I had never heard of that before. You just gained a new subscriber. Well done.
Thanks Debbie! I hope you enjoy everything you signed up for! I appreciate the support 馃檪
This is a great post! I need to start making a brand list and reaching out to brands. That is my next step! Thank you for putting this together, it was very informative!
This was very helpful. I鈥檓 still growing my views. Really trying to learn Pinterest. I鈥檓 excited to take my blog to the next level, but I鈥檓 not 100% sure what products to market on a motivational blog…
I have been blogging for a few years, but I still struggle with monetization. I always enjoy reading articles like this, because sometimes they come from a different viewpoint and I learn things I hadn’t thought about before. You gave me a few ideas for how to try things differently, so thank you!
I am in the process of starting my lifestyle blog and I discovered your blog. I have bookmarked so many of your posts for future reference. Thank you! I love how easy your blog is to read and how useful your information is.
Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad to hear I have resources that you’re finding helpful 馃檪 If you haven’t seen it yet I have a free course on how to start a blog if you’d like to check it out: https://fullcircledigital.ca/how-to-start-a-blog/ All the best!