The primary purpose of any blog, including yours, is to make money. And there are X methods to monetize your blog. You CAN make money blogging.

You can make small bucks with Ads, and big money with selling courses. Different blogs as well as the level the blog is at can determine the best monetization methods for it.

How to monetize your blog with 15 Methods

In this article, I’ll cover 15 blog monetization methods to make use of on your blog and also tell you which ones will work best for you [Specifically YOU]. Keep reading.

Blog Monetization By Selling Products [10 Methods]

Here are 10 methods to monetize your blog by selling products:

How to monetize a blog with Ads

1. Ads

Ads, or advertisements, can be placed within your blog. When your readers view these Ads, you can get paid.

There are two methods to monetize your blog with Ads: By selling Ad space or signing up with an Ad platform. First, let’s talk about Ad platforms.

6 Ad Platforms

Here are 6 Ad platforms you can potentially sign up with:

1. Google AdSense
2. Mediavine
3. Monumetric
4. Ezoic
5. Media.net
6. AdThrive

To learn more about the signup costs of these platforms, monthly session requirements, and their commission rates [How much you can earn with them], check out my Full Guide on Ad Monetization.

Each ad sense platform has its requirements for entry, including monthly traffic. For example, Google ad sense has no requirements and Mediavine requires 50 000 monthly visitors. 

The signup process is relatively simple [Shown step by step in our Ad monetization guide]. Once you’ve set it up, this will be a source of passive income that will depend on the following factors:

1. What niche you’re in [Which decides the type of ads that will be displayed on your blog because different ad categories have different commission ranges]
2. How many blog posts you’ve got [Which determines how many ads you’re displaying]
3. Your monthly search volume [Which tells you how many people are seeing your Ads]

2. Sell Ad Space

The 2nd method to make money is blogging by selling Ad space. The concept is similar to working with Ad platforms, but here, you’re selling spaces on your blog to potential advertisers like real estate. An Ad platform would usually do this work for you, but you can do it yourself and potentially earn more. There are two methods to sell Ad Space: Through Progammatic Advertising or Selling Ad Space directly.

Programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising is slightly complicated, and if you don’t want to get too technical, it’s best to start working with Ad platforms first. But, let’s take a look at this anyways:

For example, an advertiser has an Ad to display to a certain target audience – Audience X. They will get in touch with their agency that uses a demand side platform [DSP].

Now, there are publishers who work with a supply side platform [SSP].

If a person visits the publisher’s blog and is part of Audience X, the blog will automatically send a request to the SSP, and the SSP will run an auction among its buyers [Who come from and are connected with the DSP], and whoever pays the most gets the Ad space on that blog.

This process happens in less than 100 milliseconds. Learn more about programmatic advertising.

Best SSP platforms to sell Ad Space with

Here are 10 SSP platforms to sell Ad Space with:

1. Google Ad Manager
2. Amazon Publisher Services
3. OpenX
4. Yahoo! Ad Tech
5. Magnite
6. Index Exchange
7. TripleLift
8. Xandr Monetize
9. PubMatic
10. MoPub

Sell Ad space directly

Selling Ad space directly means literally going and finding businesses that would be willing to display Ads on your blog.

And when I say directly, I mean going on Linkedin and other social platforms to find these businesses, getting in touch with them, and building a solid relationship with them.

This is an extremely lengthy process [Similar to the process of building backlinks], but it is well worth building those long term relations [Because they can prove to be useful in a lot more ways, not just for Ads].

But, if you’re in a crunch for time, stay away from this. Stick to using Ad platforms and monetize your blog with that [You can sell Ad space directly and do programmatic advertising if you have the time and resources].

3. Create a private forum

The third blog monetization method is creating a private forum which is similar to a paid newsletter [Coming up] when setting up, but the difference is, you aren’t required to input constant efforts. Because it’s a forum, others can ask questions and answer them.

Install a membership plugin to build a paid private forum on a WordPress blog. 

WordPress Forum Plugin

I recommend MemberPress because I’ve used it in the past. The setup process was quite straightforward, and the MemberPress customer support team was very helpful in answering my dumb questions.

I was quickly able to create a membership site with different levels and access restrictions. Another great benefit was that it lets you integrate with Stripe and PayPal to process payments which made my life easy. 

Forum plugin installation & benefits

Install it and follow its setup instructions to build a private forum. You can then restrict access to the forum by setting up membership levels by assigning a fee to each level.

You can also use MemberPress to create other types of content, such as webinars, videos, and eBooks. It also allows you to quickly set up a payment system such as PayPal or Stripe so that members can pay for their subscriptions.

4. Ecommerce [11 Product examples]

The fourth blog monetization method is to set up an e-commerce store on your blog that aligns with your blog niche. To give a few examples of the different types of product categories you can sell in, here are 11 categories of products:

1. Clothing
2. Home Decor
3. Outdoor Gear
4. Sports Equipment
5. Tools
6. Electronics
7. Toys
8. Garden Supplies
9. Health and Beauty Products
10. Jewelry
11. Office Supplies

And check out this blog that runs an Ecommerce store for health and fitness supplements:

Sell Merchandise

You can even sell your own merchandise if your audience knows you well or if you have cool merchandise that’s simply attractive. Here are a few examples of merchandise you can build and sell:

1. Custom designed apparel [Tshirts, hats & hoodies]
2. Limited edition items [Pins, mugs & notebooks]
3. Personalized merchandise [Phone cases, mugs & keychains]
4. Autographed items [Posters, albums & books]

How to set up an ecommerce store with WordPress

Here’s a quick procedure on how to set up an ecommerce store with WordPress:

1. Install an Ecommerce plugin [The BEST Ecommerce plugin is WooCommerce] and activate it.
2. Go through the beginner friendly setup process. Skip the theme selection and select “continue with my active theme”.
3. Add the products. Fill out the following information for each:
   • Title, Description and Images
   • Price
   • Categories, Tags and Product type
4. Hit update OR publish
5. If you’ve got a gazillion products, just import them with a CSV file
6. Configure Tax, Shipping, and Marketing settings
7. That’s it!

Now, there’s a lot of detail we didnt cover. But I wrote this procedure to give you a quick idea of the whole process to setup an Ecommerce store and make you realize that it’s probably not as hard as you think 🙂

5. Accept donations on your blog

Accepting donations is another source of blog monetization you can use. Have you ever seen thos blogs that have pages or links where they ask you to buy them a coffee? That’s a common method to ask for donations. How about Patreon? Yeap, that’s also a source of donations.

How to accept donations on your blog

6. Start a podcast

where to host a podcasts

what you need to start a podcast

7. Sell online courses

Online courses are by far the best way to make high profits. 

It all starts with pulling people into your email list, nurturing, and finally converting them into a customer. 

Most of the methods here don’t compare to online courses in terms of how much you can make. For example, check courses out there on sites. 

They’ll be going for 100, 200, 500, up to 1000s of dollars. And since it’s a digital product, almost all the money is profit. 

All you must do is sign up with an online course creator. Think of a course you can create in your niche that users need. 

Put in the time and effort to build it, and start selling it to your email list with a sales funnel.

How much money can you make with online courses? 

Once you make an online course, you have a product. And you can continuously sell it to your users and email list. 

Online courses can cost in the range of $10s up to $1000s. Suppose, you sell your course for $1000, and can sell it to 1000 people. 

You just made yourself 1 million dollars.

How to come up with course ideas? How to host your course?

9. Ebooks

Books and EBooks are another great way to make money blogging. Suppose your blog is in a specific niche. You can convert your knowledge and experience into a book. 

Then, sell this book. You’ll often notice that several entrepreneurs will have their books they promote on their podcasts, videos, and sites. 

It becomes a source of passive income, where you initially put in the resources to create it and later reap the rewards [of course, it will require consistent advertising]

How much money can you make with books? 

This is similar to selling online courses, as you have a product. 

But, the profit margins are lower with books since it’s a simpler product [compared to a course], and people aren’t willing to pay too much for a book. 

Think about it, how much does the average book sell for, and how much are you willing to pay for one?

Where to sell your EBooks? How to make the Book?

10. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the top methods you can make money blogging. It’s the simplest way to earn an income. 

Being an affiliate means you refer a product/ service you used to your users. Simply get a referral link for the product/ service. 

Then write a review on it or include it in a blog post and add the link. Once someone clicks the link and makes a purchase through it, you earn a commission. 

For example, Amazon has an affiliate system, where you can promote any of their products with affiliate marketing. 

Most blog sites start in non-competitive niches and start marketing products to earn a small income. 

This can be done in competitive niches but requires a lot more than a simple blog post with a link. 

Some of the best affiliate programs include Amazon Associates, Commission Junction, and Impact. 

These programs provide access to several products and services you can do affiliate marketing with.

How much money can you make with affiliate marketing? 

Affiliate marketing depends on what you’re selling. Each product. The service you sell has a different commission margin. 

Selling item A can give you a 10-cent commission, whereas item B can give you a $50 commission. 

Plus, how many people you can sell it to also matters, which depends on how large your user base is, as well as how much content you have promoted the products/ service. 

But, affiliate marketing can make your pennies up to millions of dollars on the high end. 

Blog Monetization By Selling Services [5 Methods]

1. Paid Newsletter

What’s a paid newsletter?

When creating content for your site, you can create gated content [Content that requires something from the user to get access, i.e their email, contact details, and/ or a subscription fee]. 

Users can pay a subscription fee to gain access. It’s similar to Netflix. You have to pay 11.99 monthly to access Netflix. 

Just remember, you need to create content consistently [which is what users pay for]. 

Using the Netflix example, they put new movies and shows frequently to keep users subscribed. If they stop putting out new content, you’ll naturally unsubscribe. 

Anyways, a subscription service is a great source of dependable income, as you can expect a monthly revenue based on subscriptions.

How to make money from a newsletter?

Depending on what you charge for your subscription fee [anywhere from $1 to $100s], you’ll get that month for each subscriber. 

So again, it depends on the number of subscribers. The amount you can make with a subscription service can make you millions. 

Tools to manage and setup subscriptions

2. Virtual summits/ webinars/ events and sell passes

how to setup

how much to charge

3. Write sponsored posts

Sponsored content is easy. There are people and businesses out there willing to pay you to write content about them on your site. 

For example, imagine a startup selling a product. 

They want more traffic to their site. So, they’ll contact you [a big blog site], and ask for a sponsorship. 

Where you’ll write a review on their product in return for cash. 

How much money can you make with sponsored content? 

On average, as a new blog, businesses can give you $500 to $5000 for writing a sponsored post. 

The bigger your blog, the more you can demand. 

Selling sponsored content is more like a business where you can negotiate.

Get paid for writing reviews

4. Do Coaching

Consulting and coaching are methods you can use when starting your blog. 

For most of the methods in this list, it takes time to build an income. 

But, if you provide a consulting/ coaching service, you can actively promote it on your site, social profiles, and other methods. 

You can use your blog to show your expertise giving users reason enough to take your consultation. 

How much money can you make with consulting? 

Consulting/ coaching is a service where you input your time and knowledge in return for money. 

Since it’s dependent on your time, it’s similar to a job. 

The only difference is how much you can make for your time. For example, a lawyer can do consulting and might charge $400/ hr. 

So in a month, if he works 8hrs a day. He can make $50000 – 70000 a month. Whereas, if you’re a soccer coach doing consulting, you may charge $20/hr. 

It depends on what profession you’re in and what knowledge you’re providing. The amount you make depends on the value of your knowledge.

5. Do Freelancing

Freelance services are similar to consulting and coaching. But, instead of advising on something, you provide a service for users or businesses. 

Again, your blog will showcase your experience on the topic, and with active promotion, you should land some gigs.

How to find blogs to write for?

How to make use of your own blog?

How much can you make with freelancing?

FAQ