Some bloggers make a full time income from their blogs. These bloggers turn their blogs into money making machines.
But making money from a blog is not as easy as it may sound. Many bloggers struggle to make money from their blogs. Many more work for a number of years before they see their first cheque.
In this article, I want to explain to you the different ways that you can use a blog to generate money. Each of these streams of generating money using a blog can be your full time income.
How Bloggers Make Money
Selling Advertisement Space
Putting ads on blogs is the most common way that bloggers make money. There are two main ways that bloggers put ads on their blogs; through a third party company and private arrangements with companies.
There are companies that bring together bloggers and companies that want to advertise. In this case, the brokering company negotiates advertising fee with the companies and then they put ads on people’s blogs.
Bloggers sign up with such a company to have ads placed on their blogs. Once the ads go live on the blog, bloggers are paid per click and for every a thousand views.
Every click can fetch anywhere from $0.2 to as high as $5. There are a number of factors that determine how much a click costs though I will not go into them today.
Advantage
If a blogger allows Ads on their blog, they make easy money. Ads are very stable and you can be assured that you will make some money every day.
If a blogger is using a third party company to run the ads, the blogger will setup the ad spaces and forget. The third party company will handle all the dirty work.
Disadvantage
Ads are annoying. Many internet users don’t like them. If a blogger puts them on her blog, some of her readers will be pissed off by the ads.
Also, since the blogger has little control over the type of ads that appear on her blog, some ads may go against the general theme of the blog.
Imagine a blogger talking about children and on the blog you find an ad from a betting company.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where a blogger signs a deal with an online company to market their products. The blogger is then paid an agreed commission for every sale of the product that she was advertising.
Many online companies offer affiliate programs that bloggers can use to make money.
Advantage
Making money through affiliate marketing can make a lot of money without necessarily having thousands of readers on the blog.
There are bloggers making huge sums of money from just a handful of blog readers.
Also with affiliate marketing, bloggers have the option to choose which product they will advertise and which one they will not advertise.
The option to choose the product to advertise means that bloggers can advertise products that align with the theme of their blog. Products that align with the theme of the blog won’t be annoying as random ads.
Disadvantage
Affiliate marketing needs the blogger to think and it is not easy to set up. Unlike ads, affiliate marketing requires the blogger to have picked the right topic and must market a product that her audience likes.
Advertising a wrong product will mean no sales. There are also many metrics that need to be tracked when doing affiliate marketing.
Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products is often done by experienced bloggers. Digital products include e-books, printables, softwares etc.
These digital products are often created by the blogger although some normally outsource. Bloggers make money through digital products by selling them.
Advantage
Selling digital products as a form of making money using your blog is highly profitable. When you sell a digital product, you get 100% profit since there are no shipping costs.
Also, digital products never run out of stock. Once you have created a digital product, your blog readers can download them as many times as they want.
One more advantage of selling digital product is the pleasure of deciding how much you will sell the product for.
Unlike affiliate marketing where a company can change rates and impact your earnings, selling digital products depends on you.
Disadvantage
Creating digital products is not easy. You have to put in a lot of work to get a decent digital product. If you choose to outsource, it may cost you a significant amount of money to get a decent digital product.
Also, when creating a digital product, you have to do proper market research. Many bloggers create digital products that never sell because they didn’t do proper market research.
E-commerce
Some bloggers make money by running online shops on their blogs. These shops on blogs sell physical products that are shipped to blog readers when they buy.
A blogger who talks about motherhood can have an online shop that sells products for children. Her readers can buy products for their children from her shop.
Advantage
Bloggers making money through ecommerce enjoy repeat customers. Once a customer lands on their shop, she becomes a lifetime customer. Anytime she will want to buy a product, she will come back to the shop without necessarily going to the blog.
Ecommerce also allows the blogger to set profit margins. A shop can have few customers but still make big profits.
Disadvantage
Setting up a shop alongside a blog is a lot of work. With this model of blog monetization, the blogger also has to deal with customer issues.
Some customers may not like a product and want to return it. Shipping problems can also arise.
An online shop can also attract complicated tax payment requirements.
Sponsorships
Some bloggers make their money by writing to promote other brands. Brands in the niche of a blogger may want to market themselves to the audience of a blogger.
Normally, a blogger sets a fee that she charges per article that promotes a brand. The fee can be as low as $20 to as high as $1000 depending on various factors.
Advantage
Blog sponsorships can bring in huge profits from few customers. If a blogger charges a lot of money to market brands, it won’t take many companies for the blogger to make a full time income.
Disadvantage
Building a blog to get to the point where brands get interested in marketing themselves to your audience is hard.
Also, brands are very choosy when it comes to where they will advertise themselves. Before you agree with a brand, there are changes that a brand may demand on your blog.
In the end, balancing between pleasing a brand and pleasing your blog readers becomes hard.
How Bloggers Make Money Conclusion
These are the common ways through which bloggers make money. As you have seen, each of them has advantages and disadvantages. If you are a blogger, pick a monetization method that aligns with your blog.
If you want to venture into blogging, follow this guide.