The profession of “blogger” or “influencer” has developed from a hobby to a serious profession in the last years. And blogging has become a serious business. It is not for nothing that more and more bloggers earn an additional income with their blogs or can even live off them completely.

Below you will read about 13 tips to earn money with a blog, and what you have to know to be successful. 

1. Google AdSense

Google AdSense is an easy way to earn money with your blog

Here is how it works: 
You embed a piece of code into your blog at a place where it makes sense (e.g. into the sidebar). 
Afterwards an ad is placed. Depending on your niche, the quality of your website and your traffic flow the average RPM for AdSense can be between $2 and $5. 
Google offers a variety of ad sizes, they can even be resized to fit your screen. 

Advantages:

• Easy to integrate
• Sensitive screens for mobile devices
• The ads are automatically adapted to the interests of your readers.
• Monthly income payment
• Detailed statistics to optimize user actions

Disadvantages:

• In order for something to move, you need many visitors…
• Deterioration of the loading time
• Often blocked by blockers and increasingly ignored by readers
• Must be mentioned in the privacy policy and requires the publication of a cookie notice

2. Direct Marketing With Banner Advertising

As an alternative to Google AdSense, you can also sell advertising banners on your blog yourself (this is called “direct marketing”).
If you have found a permanent advertising partner, this can be more profitable than Google AdSense or other advertising networks.

Billing can be done in several ways, such as per click, per view, or for a fixed monthly or annual amount.

Advantages:

• It is sometimes possible to generate more revenue than with Google AdSense.
• It is not generally accepted by blockers.
• It is not necessary to mention this in the privacy policy and it is not necessary to place a “cookie” notice.
• Only minor impact on loading time (screens only)

Disadvantages:

• You must find a suitable advertising partner yourself.
• It is not as well matched to the interest of your visitors
• Classical banner advertising is increasingly ignored by visitors.

3. Hiring A Marketing Specialist

If you do not want to market your advertising space yourself, you can also hire a marketing specialist to find suitable customers for you.

Of course, the seller would like to have a piece of the cake, but it can still be worth it for you. First of all, the salesperson usually has a lot of experience in customer acquisition, price negotiations and the acquisition of existing customers.

In addition to banner space, many sales staff also organise sponsored stands that allow them to do some of the work for you.

Advantages:

• Sometimes you get more revenue than with Google AdSense or direct marketing.
• They also often organise sponsored stands.
• You have more time for your blog

Disadvantages:

• The salesman wants a piece of the cake
• The contracts are often exclusive, which means that you are completely connected with the marketer and the customers to whom he refers in terms of advertising.

4. Affiliates

Affiliate programs are also a great way to make money with your own blog. The principle is very simple: you integrate an affiliate link into your blog.
If a visitor clicks on this link and orders something on the linked website (e.g. in an online shop) or registers for something (e.g. a newsletter or a raffle), you receive a commission for this order or registration.

The amount of the commission depends on the product area. For example, in the case of electronics, you often only receive a commission of 1-4% because the margins are quite small.
For digital products like software, e-books or other products you can get between 30% and 60% commission. Affiliate programs in the financial sector also pay high commissions.

Probably the most popular and well-known affiliate program among bloggers and website owners is Amazon’s affiliate program. It is also very suitable for beginners, as it is very easy to integrate affiliate links into your own blog.
Amazon also offers products from almost all areas. Unfortunately, the commissions are relatively low and the duration of the cookie with one day is not very long.

Another option earning higher commissions is signing up with an affiliate network. Affiliate networks bring together hundreds or even thousands of affiliate programs from online stores and service providers under one roof.

Some of the best known affiliate networks for the American market are Rakuten Marketing affiliate, Cj Affiliate and Pepperjam. Here you will find almost everything your heart desires. Some others are AvantLink, Awin, Impact and LinkConnector. 

Many advertisers also have internal partner programs. The commissions are usually a little higher there, as there is no intermediary affiliate network that gets a piece of the cake for the technical implementation.
The partnership itself is usually closer and more personal, and orders can often be negotiated.

Advantages:

• Can be discreetly integrated into the website and does not disturb the reading flow
• Allow revenues that are sometimes significantly higher than those of Google AdSense
• You can benefit from selling products without having to deal with transport or manufacturing yourself.
• The sale, payment and tracking of invoices are essentially automated.
• There are a variety of affiliate programs and networks that diversify revenue streams

Disadvantages:

• Must be identified as advertising
• Often requires an application (not all sites are included in every affiliate program)
• Mediated sales sometimes have a long processing time (a sale can only be paid after 3 months).
• Affiliate programs can change, suspend or close their commissions 
• Especially suitable for Google or Pinterest traffic 

5. Sponsored Messages

Sponsored posts (often simply referred to as “collaborations”) are blog posts, social media posts, or a combination of the two, which a company pays you to publish. They highlight or introduce the company’s products or services.

Examples include a report about an experiment or test, a contest, an occasional mention or recommendation of a product, or an event report.

What you can earn with a sponsored contribution depends on, for example, the number of visitors to your blog, the number of followers and your interaction in the various social media channels or how you  fit within the brand.

Advantages:

• Depending on the level of awareness, reach and target group of the blog, a high price can be paid for sponsored entries.
• A long-term cooperation is possible, for example as ambassador for a certain brand.

Disadvantages:

• Usually only one payment by mail
• Unforeseeable and irregular income
• Sponsored texts must be clearly marked as such or be provided with a warning.
• The advertised article and/or company has to be a perfect match for your blog.
• You cannot have too many sponsored publications per month without ANNOYING your audience.

6. Sell Your Own Products

Selling your own products on your blog needs supreme discipline!

Developing, manufacturing and selling your own products can be a lot of work and sometimes a high investment. But you can earn more money with your blog than with any other method mentioned here. After all, you don’t have to share your profits with anyone.
You get the whole cake, not just a piece.

Online courses, e-books in pdf format are only a few examples for media products. Your imagination is the limit when it comes to actual products, such as T-Shirts, hats, mugs etc.

Advantages:

• Possibility to generate significantly more income than with other methods.
• You are independent of advertising partners
• You can better respond to the needs of your visitors with your products
• You can enhance  your branding through your products

Disadvantages:

• You may need to contact a customer service department
• You need to be more aware of the legal rules and follow them
• Large investments and/or a lot of time may be required for product development and manufacturing
• You need to integrate an ordering system into your blog
• More effort through freight transport (can be better automated for digital products)
• More administrative and accounting work

7. Collecting Donations

If you want to earn money with a blog, you can also collect donations from your readers. As the only source of income this often doesn’t work, but you can earn a few Dollars with it.

However, some bloggers use it very successfully.  In return for a donation you can offer early access to articles or an exclusive newsletter

In order to technically implement the collection of donations in the blog, there are several possibilities and systems available. Here are two examples: You can  integrate a PayPal donation button or the micro-donation service Flattr.

Advantages:

• A discreet way to earn money with blogs.
• Simple blog integration

Disadvantages:

• You need a large number of fans and above all a very loyal one.
• The willingness to donate depends on the reader and the topic.
• May require the minimization or complete renunciation of other types of advertising
• Your readers must register with a fundraising service to send donations.
• Your readers may not be willing to donate until they receive something in return (e.g. exclusive blog entries or an e-book).

8. Guest Blogs

Bloggers are currently in great demand as guest authors or even as permanent editors of corporate blogs and online or offline magazines.

Not only because editors always need new content and are always looking for new authors, but also because many bloggers also bring their own fan base.

In addition, bloggers consider themselves authentic and often communicate with their readers on a more personal and friendly level (reader loyalty!), which many large publishers lack.

Advantages:

• You have the possibility to promote your own blog
• You can use the guest blog as a reference to become a guest author in other blogs or online magazines.
• You can often create a link to your own blog

Disadvantages:

• You will not write content for your own blog during this time.
• Often, you must assign the rights to your publication in its entirety to the online magazine or corporate blog (including images) and may not use the content for other purposes.

9. Organisation Of Events

As a blogger you can also earn money by organizing events. For example, you can offer workshops for interested readers, which is especially popular with bloggers from the DIY or food sector.

Another possibility is to organize events for other bloggers. You can organise workshops, barcamps and conferences for bloggers in your area or within your network.  .

Advantages:

• Very good for making contacts, meeting new people and creating your own brand.

Disadvantages:

• A lot of organisational effort (ticket sales, halls, catering etc.)
• Could be high risk because of financial investments 
• Especially conferences are often only profitable with sponsors.

10. Create A Member Area

You can create a member community by offering a subscription option. Members cannot only read exclusive blog posts, but also access other exclusive content such as videos, e-books, tools, and knowledge databases etc. 

Membership often includes access to private groups, training sessions or participation in webinars.

Advantages:

• The income is very easy to plan
• You do not need to find advertising partners
• You don’t have to send your visitors to other websites to earn money with your blog.

Disadvantages:

• Requires expert status and good positioning in a niche market
• Technical integration of the responsible member area
• Much effort for the creation of exclusive content
• Requires regular updates to ensure customers do not cancel their subscription

11. Offer Training And Advice

If as a blogger you are considered an expert in your field, you can also make a living from training and advice.

Consulting in traditional niches such as career options, business administration, financing, fitness etc. would be the way to go.

However, if you have a solution for the problems of your audience and they are willing to pay for a training session you can also do well in other areas.

Advantages:

• The hourly rates can be high
• In many cases you can offer support and advice wherever you are, for example via Skype, Messenger, e-mail or telephone.

Disadvantages:

• Requires expert status and good positioning in a niche market

12. Sell Or Rent Out Links

Another source of income for bloggers is the sale or rental of no-follow links from their own blog. You can sell links not only from articles, but also from the sidebar, home page or footer.

I say no-follow because selling do-follow links is against Google’s TOS. If you are accepting money for placing other people’s links on your blog, always make sure it is no-follow.

In the case of a rental, payment is made monthly or annually, in the case of a one-time sale (the link is then online in the blog for an agreed period of time or forever).

Companies, especially online shops, often have difficulties in obtaining relevant links. for individual products or category pages and therefore do not rank as highly on Google. 

Selling links is, therefore, an easy way for companies to strengthen their own ranking in Google

Advantages:

• Very little effort
• Regular monthly salaries
• Depending on the authority and popularity of your own blog, it is possible to make big profits.
• You can easily find customers for text links via online portals such as SeedingUp

Disadvantages:

• Google could penalized you for selling do-follow links (so always make sure they are no-follow_
• Disadvantages of a reference with a link on a whole page (for example at the bottom of the page)

 

13. Sell Your Blog

Yes, You can make a profit by selling your blog.

If you are out of breath and have been wanting to start a new project for a long time, this might be the perfect option for you.

Advantages:

• With one stroke you can have a lot of money to invest in a new project
• You could make a profit of up to 36x the monthly revenue

Disadvantages:

• Your regular source of income disappears with your blog.

To sell your blog, or buy a profitable blog, visit the businesses for sale marketplace at BlogsForSale.co.