How To Make Money With a Blog In 7 Easy Steps [For Begginers]
Last Updated on May 19, 2023 by John Cirelly
If you’re wondering how to make money with a blog, look no further.
I’ve built, bought, and sold over five blogs since 2016. Blogging is my primary source of passive income and the first side hustle I ever started. My simple guide should be more than enough to get you started.
Unlike other guides, I don’t want to make this a billion words long. Here’s what you need to know:
Key Takeaways
- Top blogs can earn 100k+/mo, but most blogs earn between $100-$4,000/mo.
- Blogging takes time. Expect to build your blog over the next 3-12 months.
- Blogging earns passive income. Once your post ranks, you’ll continue to earn.
- Unlike social media, you have control over your traffic and earnings.
- You don’t have to be a good writer to make money with a blog.
- Starting a blog doesn’t cost much, and can cost as little as $2.95/mo.
Best Way To Make Money With Your Blog
Below I’ll explain the different strategies blogs use to make money. You don’t have to pick just one. In fact, many successful blogs choose one or more of these strategies to create multiple streams of income.
Instead of blanketing your blog in ads, I want you to think of making money with your blog on a page-by-page basis. For example, if you have a high-ticket affiliate offer, ideally you wouldn’t want to clutter the page with ads. On the flip side, if you have a high-volume informational topic, that would be a great post to stick ads on.
If you’re just starting a blog the best way you can make money with a blog is to start with the end in mind. Understand who your audience is, what they want, and what problems they have. Then, use any of the methods below to sell them what they want.
Sell a Digital Product
Digital products are one of my favorite ways of making money with a blog. Products like cheat sheets, templates, checklists, and guides can easily be sold for between $1-$30. The trick is to understand what your audience really wants.
Maybe it’s a guide on how to grow microgreens, or a digital marketing template your readers can use to save a ton of time. Either way, these smaller sales can add up with enough traffic to bring in some serious income.
Digital products are typically much more affordable and easier to design than a full course, making it a great tactic for beginner bloggers.
Recommend Affiliate Products
You can earn between 3-40% of a sale simply by referring to a product or service in your blog post. The trick is to make sure what you’re promoting is both relevant and helpful to your readers.
A simple Google search of your favorite brand will uncover they most likely have an affiliate program you can join. Promoting helpful tools naturally in your blog posts gets the best results. For instance, I promote Ezoic below, because I know they’re the best Ad network for beginner bloggers from testing and my own experience.
Run Display Ads
Running display ads on your site is the simplest way to earn money from your blog. Advertisers bid to show ads on your site, and as the site owner, you get to keep a percentage of that money.
Most blogs earn between $12-$18 per thousand views, which can really add up as your blog starts to grow. Websites covering more competitive topics can earn over $100 per thousand views! Pretty crazy!
If you’re just getting started, Ezoic makes it super simple to start running ads. Unlike other ad networks, there is no minimum number of visitors to get accepted.
I personally recommend adding display ads after 5,000 views per month if you want to go that route. Anything less really isn’t worth interrupting the user’s experience in my opinion.
Make Print on Demand Merch
Print-on-demand (PoD) can be a great way to earn extra money from your blog, especially if you’re serving a targeted audience. PoD works by simply creating a design once, then assigning different products you want it printed on. Instead of making the products yourself, another company puts your design on the products and takes care of the sale. In exchange, you get a cut, typically around 20-50%.
Say your website is all about teaching. You can include sidebar ads to shirts with teaching quotes, lesson planners, and more products your audience will find relevant.
Grow an Email List
Last, but certainly not least is the almighty email list. Starting a newsletter is by far one of the most powerful ways to make money with a blog. Unlike social media, no one can restrict your reach or make you pay to reach your followers.
Nurture your list with interesting news, helpful content, and insights your audience will find valuable. You can make money by including sponsorships, course promotions, and affiliate products as a part of your newsletter.
Imagine sending an email and making $5,000. It’s not impossible, it just takes time and consistent action to make it possible.
How To Make Money With a Blog in 2024
Like anything, blogging takes time and commitment, but it’s easy enough for anyone to do. If you want to build a profitable blog, here’s how to get started:
1. Pick a Niche With High Earning Potential
Simply put, you want to pick a topic that your blog will cover that has a high earning potential. If this is your first blog this topic should be something you’re interested in and semi-knowledgeable about.
Above anything else, pick something you’re interested in. Blogging is a long game, and if you don’t enjoy what you’re covering you’ll burn out fast.
If you’re just starting out, avoid these niches for now:
- Credit Cards
- Health
- Finance (loans, stocks, etc)
These categories fall under the “Your Money or Your Life” umbrella, which is notoriously more difficult to rank for. Instead, here are some things to think about when picking your niche:
Here’s the workflow for picking a niche:
- List out the things you enjoy and/or are knowledgeable about.
- Who are the people in the niche? Do they spend money? If so, on what?
- Ask yourself, do these niches have a community or following? They should.
- Envision what problems you could solve for them. What are they buying to solve them?
- Search for sites already doing this. A little competition is a GOOD thing.
Spend some time on this, but not too much time. If you get stuck, here are some niche blog examples:
- Survival
- Hiking
- Electric Bikes
- Pet Care for a specific pet (lizard, cat breed, etc)
- Turntables
- Men Home Decor
- Home Gyms
- Haircare
- 3D Printing
Keep in mind, you’re going to have a chance to expand over time. For example, if you write about survival you can branch off into topics such as prepping, primitive survival, MREs, surplus, etc. The trick is to get your foot in the door and stick to a topic before branching out.
Once you have your niche, assess its earning potential by doing the following.
- Google “[YOUR NICHE] affiliate programs.” There should be affiliate opportunities.
- Google “[YOUR NICHE] blogs.” Competing sites should promote or sell something.
- Think about the age, occupation, and spending habits of that niche. This plays a role in ad earnings.
If you found affiliate programs and other websites covering your niche, then that’s a good sign that there’s money to be made.
Considering your audience demographics also matters. For instance, advertisers will pay you more to reach a 25-year-old app developer than an 18-year-old working at Wendy’s. The content and topics you cover will attract different audiences. Something to keep in mind.
2. Purchase Domain and Hosting
Your domain is the name of your blog. For instance, you’re reading this on sidehustlescience.org. The hosting is the physical server where your blog is stored. You can get both your domain name and hosting in the same place to keep it simple.
It’s important to have a reliable yet affordable host. Speed and reliability not only impact your visitors, but can impact how Google decides to rank your posts.
In my years of blogging, I can recommend two places:
Bluehost: Best for beginners. Very affordable. A bit slow. Starts at $2.95/mo
WPX: Very easy to use. Excellent speed and reliability. A bit more expensive. Starts at $20/mo
Both platforms make it easy to get your domain and hosting at the same with step-by-step instructions. It’s not very technical at all.
When it’s time to choose a domain name, you’ll want something you can grow into. For example, don’t pick BobsBestBikes, as the name now limits you to only bikes. Instead, consider a name that is broader or brandable.
For instance, a domain named OutDoorLivingLife could talk about gardens, backyards, camping, and tons more. Plenty of room to grow. (pun intended)
3. Setup The Basics
Now with your domain and hosting secured, you’ll be inside your WordPress dashboard. This is where all the magic happens. WordPress is really intuitive and easy to learn, but if you want a quick tutorial check out this video:
If you get stuck, Google is your friend. There are tons of tutorials on how to use and navigate WordPress. Before we continue you’re going to want to install a new theme. Themes determine how your content is displayed and some performance aspects of your site.
I highly recommend the Kadence theme. It’s fast and free.
Next, go to Settings>Permalinks and make sure your Permalink Structure is set to Post Name.
Once that is done, install these three WordPress plugins by going to Plugins > Add new. Just search for them by name, install them, and activate them.
Required plugins:
- Smush – Compresses images to make them load faster.
- Really Simple SSL – Makes your site secure if you don’t already have an SSL cert.
- W3 Total Cache – Caches your site to make it faster.
Optional but helpful plugins:
- Kadence Blocks – Makes it easier to build scannable posts.
- Easy Table of Contents – Helpful for longer blog posts.
- Duplicate Post – Makes it easy to copy the style of your old blog posts.
4. Find Keywords and Topics To Cover
Now it’s time to find target keywords. These are keywords that people search for in Google. The idea is to rank #1 so they visit your site first.
Here’s a quick overview:
- Identify a search term in your niche that you can rank for.
- Create awesome content that matches the searcher’s intent.
- Insert relevant ads, affiliate offers, digital products, or courses on that page.
- Repeat.
Finding Keywords
There are two ways you can find keywords. One is free, but takes more time. The other requires a paid tool but is a lot faster. I’ll cover both.
Alphabet Soup Method [Free]
Install the Keywords Anywhere plugin, then start typing a query related to your niche. Google will auto-complete your search with things other people searched for. Like this:
Next, click one of the results. I chose “Best 3D printers for cosplays mask”. Now, we’ll analyze the results page to see if we should write on the topic. Here’s what you’ll want to find:
- The topic isn’t covered at all, or the ranking content isn’t highly relevant to the search.
- There are websites with a MOZ DA ranking of 35 or lower in the top 5 results.
- Sites like Reddit, Quora, or other public forms are present in the search results.
Below are the search results for my cosplay mask keyword. If my blog were about 3D printers, I would write for this keyword.
Notice the circled “People also ask?” These are related searches. Make note of this, as you’ll want to cover these topics in your article!
Keyword Research Tools [Paid]
You can use keyword research tools to speed up this process. The main benefit of these tools is that they should you related search terms as well as the “authority” of competing websites. Even with these tools, you’ll still have to read between the lines.
There are a ton of keyword tools but my personal favorites are Ahrefs and Ubersuggest.
Ahrefs – More advanced features you’ll grow into. Has a free version. Starts at $99/mo.
Ubersuggest – Great basic features. Has a free version. Starts at $29/mo.
It doesn’t matter which you choose. I personally like Ubersuggest for those just starting out. In this example, I’ll be using Ubersuggest.
Pop into your keyword tool can start searching using your base keyword. These tools make it easy to see the estimated difficulty and search volume. Take these into consideration but know that they are estimates, not gospel.
For example, we verified other people are searching for “best 3d printer for cosplay masks”, yet Ubersuggest says the traffic volume is 0.
Whatever option you pick, make a list of the first 10 blog posts you’ll write about. Ideally, avoid writing review content and stick to informative topics, like “How does a 3d printer work”. Review content such as “Best X” or “X Review” will come later.
5. Start Writing Content
Armed with some great keywords it’s time to get writing. Best thing you can do is make your content is helpful as possible. Here’s some tips when it comes to crafting content on your blog:
- Use Answer The Public or the People Also Ask section to come up with topics to cover.
- Use line breaks every 3-4 sentences to make the post scannable.
- Only use images when they help the post. Avoid fluffy stock images.
- Embed videos when it’s helpful. For instance, explaining a complex subtopic.
- Look at your competitors and cover what they cover, only better.
- Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through. Keep it interesting!
Starting a blog is one of the many AI-powered side hustles anyone can start. Even if you suck at writing, AI tools like ChatGPT make it super simple come up with article outlines, and even generate some of the content for you.
If you do use AI, be sure to proofread and fact check, as it can lie from time to time. If blogging is too slow for you, there are tons of other ways you can make money with AI writing.
6. Start Monetizing
The secret on how to make money with a blog is knowing how to monetize your visitors. After your first 30 blog posts, take a look at your traffic and rankings. You can track these metrics in tools like Ubersuggest.
Below are a few ways you can make money with your blog:
- Display Ads – Ad networks like Ezoic typically pay anywhere between $12-$18 per 1,000 views. Best for high volume low-value blog posts.
- Affiliate Marketing – Affiliates typically earn anywhere between 3-40% of each sales they make through their unique link. Best for review and informational posts.
- Digital Products – Templates, checklists, ebooks, and cheat sheets can be sold on platforms like LemonSqueezy for free.
- Print on Demand – Blogs can be a great source of traffic for print on demand businesses. You can sell related niche products like shirts, mugs, hoodies, and more.
- Start a Newsletter – Blog traffic can easily be used to start a highly profitable newsletter related to your niche. Help your subscribers in their niche and earn through affiliate sales, sponsorships, and or course sales.
7. Start Outsourcing
The beauty of a blog is that you’ll continue to earn off each of your posts for as long as you rank. With enough posts you’ll start to earn consistent passive income, giving you some money to reinvest back into your business.
The best job to outsource is the blog writing process, as it allows you to scale much faster than you could by yourself. Platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and ProBlogger are all great places to find niche blog writers for your site.
Outsourcing the proofreading and publishing process can also save you a ton of time to focus on more important tasks, like negotiating better affiliate deals, and finding new keyword topics to write about.
Wrap Up
That concludes my guide on how to make money with a blog. I hope you found this helpful and inspiring.
The best piece of advice I can give is to keep at it. Blogging has the opportunity to earn life-changing income, but it takes months, and sometimes years of consistency to see high levels of success.
Do you have a blog side hustle, or any tips to add to this post? Feel free to shoot me a message.
