If you’re looking for a definitive guide on how to make money from a blog in 2023, this is it!
Whether you’re a business trying to promote your products and services or an individual trying to make some money on the side, this 2000-word article will break down all of the unanswered questions you may have.
Remember, your website is a tool that’s there to help you generate more sales for your products and services. Once you have a considerable amount of traffic on your blog, you need to start treating your website like it’s part of your business because it is!
Similar to how traffic in a brick-and-mortar store can potentially convert into paying customers, the traffic to your website can also convert into paying customers. You just need to learn how to monetize it.
This guide will show you the prerequisites for making money from a blog and then 9 different methods to make money from a blog in 2023.
Let’s get right into it!
How much can you make from a blog?
If you’re wondering how much you can make from a blog, there’s no definitive answer except that there’s potential for unlimited earnings.
We know of many successful businesses that have utilized their blogs to generate 5, 6, and even 7 figures in additional revenue from their blogs. On the other hand, we also know a lot of businesses that have invested a tonne of time and resources into blogging, meanwhile making nothing at all.
To us, a successful blog is one that is able to help you earn more for your business. The difference between successful blog owners and unsuccessful blog owners is that the former are committed and consistent in their approach.
You might find that you’ll need to tweak your blog content or try different monetization methods throughout your website. Once you figure out an effective combination, that’s when you’ll start earning a lot more from your content.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to start from scratch. There are many businesses out there in your niche that are already monetizing their blogs. Simply find one and try to replicate its success by following similar practices.
Prerequisites for making money from a blog
Based on our research, the most effective and successful blogs satisfy three prerequisites:
- A good reputation
- Quality blog traffic
- In-demand products and services
If you meet these prerequisites, you’ll find that your chances of making money from your blog will become much higher!
We’ll break these down for you.
1. A good reputation
From a marketing perspective, a great reputation usually sells itself. This is where we get into a little more about branding.
People love buying products from brands they trust and can rely on. Your blog is essentially your own personal brand. It takes time to build trust and you can do it by writing high-quality blog articles that solve problems for your readers and by interacting with your audience.
A stronger reputation means people will be more likely to buy your products and services, or even purchase the affiliate products you recommend.
2. Quality blog traffic
Many people seem to think that higher-traffic blogs generate more money but that isn’t always the case. You can make money blogging with low traffic or high traffic on your blog.
The type of traffic you get is what determines how much income you make on your blog. What matters the most is if your readers are ready to buy.
What do we mean by that?
Just imagine yourself trying to make the decision to buy something. It’s usually a long mental process of “What are the benefits of this product or service? Do I really need it? Is it too expensive? Can I afford it? Should I sleep on the decision?”
When you feature products or services on your site, your customers will also go through this mental process. 100 visitors who are ready to buy will make you more blog income than 10,000 visitors who just came to your blog to find information.
To get more visitors that are ready to buy, you need to be writing the right content. With your content, try not to stray too far away from what you do.
3. In-demand products and services
Every amazing blog needs to be paired with amazing products. If your products don’t serve your audience, it’s very likely that they won’t purchase and you won’t make any money from blogging. You should always offer high-quality products that are valuable to your audience.
Learn more about how to build a good reputation, get blog traffic, and find great products here.
How to make money from a blog in 2023
If you satisfy the three prerequisites above, it’s time to learn how to make money from your blog!
There are endless ways you can make money from your blog, however, the most common ways successful companies make money from their blogs today are:
- Providing professional services
- Selling physical products
- Selling virtual products
- Affiliate marketing
- Ad networks
- Offering membership programs
- Selling Online courses
- Brand sponsorships
- Sponsored advertising
1. Providing professional services
If you’re a professional, a blog is a super effective way to acquire clients that will pay you for your time.
There are an endless number of professional services that can be provided. Here are some examples of professional services:
- Legal
- Dentistry
- Accounting
- Real estate
- Coaching
- Consulting
As an example, if you’re a fitness coach, you can write about topics such as:
- Foods to eat to lose weight
- Effective exercises for building muscle
- Etc.
By providing this useful fitness information to your website visitors, they will see you as a credible source of information and may consider you for your fitness coaching services.
Another example is us! At Aspiring Bloggers, we provide web design, SEO, and consulting services. It’s in our best interest to educate our readers and help them grow their businesses so that they will think of us when they need a hand.
Remember that people are more likely to buy from businesses they trust. A blog is an excellent way to showcase your expertise, build trust with your audience, and gain new clients!
2. Selling physical products
Physical products are products that you keep in inventory and ship out to your customers. It can be your own product or a product you buy from another company. For the latter, you’ll make money flipping the products for a higher price.
An example of a physical product: Hair extensions by Amber Fillerup from barefootblonde.com
If you have an amazing product that you want to sell to your readers, I say GO FOR IT! You never know if it’ll work until you try selling it.
But before you can sell products on your blog, you’ll need to learn how to create an eCommerce store.
If you’re using WordPress for your website, I recommend you build your online store with WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a plugin that allows you to manage a store within WordPress itself. You can add inventory, manage orders, and manage payments all through the WordPress dashboard. Here’s how to start using WooCommerce on your blog:
3. Selling digital products
Digital products are products your customers can download after they pay. This includes things like eBooks, printables, design templates, stock photography, and online courses.
A super-successful example we like to use to showcase the power of digital products is Sarah Tidus and her collection of printables. Sarah has thousands of printables on her website that are available for purchase.
She offers printables in categories ranging from daily planners to coloring books for kids, to wall art.
In 2021, Sarah made more than $8,000,000 just from her printable Shopify store. Just… amazing.
4. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting another brand’s products and earning a commission when you help make a sale.
How does it work? You apply to be an affiliate partner for a brand you want to promote. Once approved, they give you a unique “affiliate link.” You can use your affiliate link across your website and when your readers click on the link and purchase the product, you receive a commission.
There are tens of thousands of products you can become an affiliate for! You can check out shareasale.com to create an account and start becoming an affiliate.
Related Article:
Try implementing them inside your blog posts, on your sidebar, in your footer, or even as a link in your menu bar.
5. Ad networks
You’ve probably come across blogs that show ads for various businesses. These blogs are partnered with “Ad Programs” and the blog owner generates income every time one of those ads are clicked.
Essentially, if you’re partnered with an ad program, you’ll be paid to help other businesses advertise. The more clicks you get, the higher your ad income will be. The type of ad that’s clicked will also determine how much you earn because some industries are more competitive and companies will have to pay more to advertise on ad networks.
High-traffic blogs can make a lot of money through ad revenue. If your blog has low traffic, it’s probably not worth it as ads don’t provide the most user-friendly experience.
Here are a few ad networks you can join:
- Google Adsense (no traffic minimum)
- Mediavine (minimum of 25,000 site sessions in the past 30 days required)
- Adthrive (minimum of 100,000 page views in the past 30 days required)
6. Offering membership programs
By running a membership website, you’ll be responsible for running a site that offers membership services! A Membership program will allow you to charge your subscribers a monthly or annual fee. You could implement a membership program on your blog if you offer super-valuable information that is unique and that people don’t usually have access to for free.
You might’ve noticed that recently news websites like thewashingpost.com have been charging people $1 per month for access to their news articles.
Another example is PHLEARN.com where people can subscribe for $8.25 and have access to their database of Photoshop tutorials.
You too can create a membership blog and start charging membership fees. Learn how using this tutorial:
How to Build a Membership Site on WordPress
7. Selling online courses
A few years ago, we discovered an amazing Pinterest course by Carly from mommyonpurpose.com. In the course, she reveals to her students the strategies she uses to generate more than 200,000 page views per month to her website just from Pinterest!
She currently sells the course for $97 and has so far sold thousands of copies. This is more than enough to sustain her mommy-first lifestyle.
If you know a lot about a particular topic, you too can bundle it into a course that your readers will pay for!
If you’re using WordPress, you can use a plugin called LearnDash to build a course on your website. LearnDash is a powerful course builder tool that makes it easy to create and manage content for your students.
8. Brand sponsorships
When you get to the point where you become a successful blogger (lots of web traffic, social media followers, and email subscribers), you can become an influencer in your niche.
Influencers are really good at influencing people to make decisions which include buying products from various brands. If you get noticed by a relevant brand, they’ll reach out to you and pay you to help promote their products! Alternatively, you could create a media kit and reach out to the brands of your choice.
The amount of money you make will depend on the brand partnerships you’re involved in and your popularity. Some pay extremely well!
9. Sponsored advertising
As a website owner, you can actually rent out some areas of your website to companies that are looking to promote their products or services. These usually come in the form of display ads, similar to the Google ads you see when you’re surfing the web.
The cool thing about this kind of ad promotion is that you get to choose the companies you partner with and decide on ads you display on your site!
To be able to do this, your blog must have BIG numbers when it comes to site traffic. If you don’t have high numbers, businesses won’t partner with you simply because it wouldn’t be a good return on investment for them.
Typically, you would charge a flat monthly fee for as long as the business chooses to partner with you. The higher your traffic, the higher the fee you can charge for renting out ad space.
Conclusion
There really are endless ways to make money from your website through the power of blogging.
If you have high blog traffic, it’s really not that hard to come up with services or products to offer to your readers.
Now that you’re aware of the top ways to make money from a blog in 2023, what are you waiting for? Start implementing some of these methods!