Are you tired of still living paycheck-to-paycheck trying to make ends meet? Maybe you’ve come across sources on the internet that sparked your interest in different ways to monetize your blog.

I bet you’ve thought about it and are willing to take that leap!

As a blogger, I’ve always had this curiosity about how I could grow my website into a profitable business. Through lots of trials and understanding what my audience needs, I have finally found ways to monetize blogging.

However, before jumping on the bandwagon to monetize your blog and create an income online, you need a clear understanding of what your niche is and what your different options are. Now I know there are experts out there who stress attracting a fairly large number of audiences first. And I do agree to an extent. However, you can rest assured that as long as you’re providing amazing content, there are totally realistic ways to make money online.

When I was first starting my blog; I was too focused on the numbers and kept postponing making an income out of it. I kept thinking “Once I have an X amount of readers, then I’ll start to monetize”. But soon I realized that, as long as my readers are getting value, I might as well offer my services.

So, go ahead and do a brainstorming session and come up with several ideas on how to grow your business and make money online.

If you’re still finding difficulties thinking about how to get started, today I’d like to discuss and share ways on how you can make an online income that could potentially help you live that lifestyle you always wanted. Sounds interesting? Then read on!

Quick Disclosure: Some of these links happen to be affiliate links which means when you click the link to purchase something on this page, it won’t cost you more but I may receive a commission for sharing this with you. Which is great, because I was going to share it with you anyway!

Related Reads:

• 6 Must-Have Free Business Tools
• The Secrets Of The Law Of Attraction
• Finding Your Why: 3 Clarity Exercises You Need To Try
• Why Goal Setting Is Outdated And What You Should Do Instead
• How to be Assertive Without Feeling Guilty

1. Affiliate Marketing

How Affiliate Program Works (Image Source: 360nerds.com)

One of the best ways to monetize a blog, especially when you’re just starting out is by adding affiliate links to your content. The way it works are you basically find products or services that someone else is selling and promote them in your content (your blog, newsletters or social media posts). If a visitor makes a purchase using the links provided by you, then you in turn make a commission.

Tom explains in painstakingly great detail how he makes $150k/year from affiliate marketing alone! So, if you want to dive deep into the nitty-gritty of affiliate marketing, definitely check out his article.

Some great affiliate platforms I’m personally part of (and I love) are:

• Impact (affiliate programs such as Teachable, Canva, Tailwind, Otter and Appsumo)
• PartnerStack (affiliate programs such as Todoist, Quickbooks, Evernote, Interact and Calendly)
• CJ Affiliate (affiliate programs such as Namecheap and Grammarly)
• Flex Offers (affiliate programs such as Shutterstock, Envato Market and NordVPN)

Another point I’d like to add is to make sure whatever links you’re trying to include in your blog has a high search volume as well as of high value. This will require a little bit of research on your part.

I mean, if you’re mentioning your favorite products within your content anyway, it’s effortless to just add an affiliate link and gain a commission from it. You set it up once, and then, it’s all passive profit 🙂

For instance, I personally LOVE using Canva for creating my products and Todoist for managing my tasks. See what I did there! 😉

2. Online Course/Workshop

Offering courses to my readers is probably one of the best ways I was able to monetize blogging. I get to serve and impact so many people with just a couple of courses. It has also given me more freedom and control on my finances depending on how much I market my product.

In order to set up your first online course, you need to make sure that it is relevant to the theme of your blog. If you’re an expert in a particular niche and have been blogging about it, the more specific your course offering should be.

Ask yourself the right questions like:

• What kind of posts are of high interest or most popular to your readers?
• What certain area in their life/business could you possibly solve?
• How do I make a course that’s going to be an evergreen asset?

So once you’ve started gaining an audience, you can build an email list with opt-in forms (these can be located in your header, footer, sidebar, within your blog posts, or as a pop-up).

Once you have an email list of readers, you can provide them some sort of value for free also known as a freebie (So, it could be a free Pdf, a coupon code, a template, or even a sneak preview of a course that you sell). You can then reach out to them and promote your courses in your newsletter (which converts much better than social media!).

If you want to, you can pitch a huge discount for a limited amount of time in a follow-up email. Or if someone had just signed up, you can use a technique known as a tripwire where you basically sell a product under $10 that has sooo much value. You’ve got to over-deliver so your audience will be eager to buy a product from you in the future.

And the cool thing is that the same course can be repurposed and put on Udemy or publish it on Skillshare (on Skillshare you get paid by the number of minutes watched by students).

As you guys know, my blog is all about productivity and personal development content. So the courses that I provide (Check them out here !) are to help solopreneurs work smarter when it comes to scaling their business.

Bloggers like Michelle from makingsenseofscents.com made over $1,000,000 from her first course in just 2 years since it launched back in 2016! What’s also shocking is that she managed to do this without the need of a team or webinars (not even a guest post!). One of her secrets to online success is to network with other business owners. That could mean sharing other bloggers’ content with your readers or having affiliate members for your courses which will drive more traffic to your blog.

Another great thing about online courses is that you’re making an impact and helping people with solving a problem.

So tap into your inner badass and put out the best course you could possibly make!

3. Sponsored Content

If you’ve started to grow a huge following, chances are you might get approached by bloggers or even brands to sponsor you for content. They would either contact you directly or through a third-party agency or a brand representative.

This can be a great way for you to earn money as well as showcase any product or services that you love using with your audience.

Additionally, you should take the advantage of your social media accounts as well!

Engage with your followers about your newly formed partnership and why you decided to be sponsored. Being upfront about it will make your audience support you even more. They’ll understand you’re looking to make some extra money.

I mean who doesn’t? Your readers might end up buying the product and loving it while you’ve just built an amazing long-term partnership. That’s a win-win right there!

One of the key takeaways I’d like to say is:

Once you start gaining success which I am sure you will, you will be given a plethora of opportunities and offers to monetize blogging.

However, you need to make sure that you don’t deviate from the value you provide to your readers.

This may mean turning down some amazing sponsor deals in order to keep your content authentic. Be sure to keep this in mind, girls!

Erin talks about why she had to turn down so many deals even if they would have made her a lot of money. She explains the only brands she sponsored were the ones that would benefit her audience by sharing her experiences.

4. Podcast to Monetize a Blog

Podcasting has been on a crazy upward trajectory.

According to buzzsprout, over one-third (104 million) of the US population tune in and listen to podcasts regularly.

This is due to the fact that during the Covid lockdown, a lot people wanted different ways to consume media which resulted in the unprecedented growth of podcast listeners.

By 2023, the US expected ad spending on podcasts is set to surpass $2 billion. That’s insane!

Even though podcast as a medium of content has been around for a quite a while, it has taken a different approach in the past 5 years. It’s become more diversified, audience-centric, and easily accessible on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcast and YouTube.

I find that not many bloggers are including podcasts in their blogs. So why not take the advantage? You get to widen your audience reach and market your brand. It’s quite easy to set up as well!

All you need is a good microphone, editing software, and a podcasting host.

Also, what a lot of podcasters do is take their podcast script and post it as a blog post. And that’s such a great way to repurpose and maximize the reach of your content. Why? Well, because everyone is different, and not everyone likes to consume content in the same way.

So, don’t wait any longer and reach out to your favorite bloggers or entrepreneurs and ask them if they would like to be a guest on your show.

Or do solo episodes, talking about topics that you love, and giving huge value to your clients.

Once you generate more traffic, you can even start having brands sponsoring your interviews. Take Joe Rogan for instance; after signing a deal with Spotify, it is estimated that he earns around $75,000 per episode.

5. YouTube

Now I know you’re wondering “Is it too late to start a YouTube channel?” Absolutely not!

You may think it’s a saturated platform for a person like you, but that is totally not the case.

There may be more creators out there but there are also a lot more viewers.

As long as you research what your niche truly is and identify what your audience truly expects from you, you’ll have viewers tuning in to your channel for more content.

Blogger Adam Enfroy who made over a $1 million from his blog he started in 2019, gives a detailed guide on how to start a YouTube channel.

And if you’re like Adam, you can talk about your awesome blog on your channel. You could also promote your courses and give them an early discount once they signup. Give the viewers a ‘trailer’ like an introduction to what you write about. You’ll get to redirect your new YouTube viewers to your blog and multiply visitors.

But that’s not all. There are ways you can monetize your YouTube channel as well. That’s a great additional income. You need to first setup your account with the YouTube Partner Program. The account will then go into review and get accepted. It is then allowed for monetization (Minimum requirements here). Some of the most common ways are:

• Ad Revenue – This is the most traditional way to make money off of YouTube. Once part of the program, you can turn on ads where they will appear on your videos.

• Channel Membership – Your subscribers can be part of a membership program where you provide access to exclusive content, live chat, badges and discounts.

• Super Chat/Stickers/Thanks – If you’ve ever tuned in to a live chat and wondered how some chats stand out, that’s because they’ve done a purchase for their message to be featured. Audiences can spend between $1 and $500 to get their chats featured. You get to keep 70% while the rest goes to YouTube.

• Paid Sponsorships – Brands pay to have their product/service featured on your content. There’s a huge market for this and companies are willing to pay a fairly good amount for you to showcase their products.

Make sure if you do decide to venture onto YouTube, try being consistent with your video uploads.

You don’t want subscribers wondering when will the new video be published. You could study other successful YouTubers and learn from them. Look at what they do best as well as mistakes they may have made.

So when should you start YouTube you ask? It’s now! And don’t worry, you’ll figure things out along the way.

Why A Passive Online Income Is A Must

A great advantage of the above-mentioned ways to gain an income online, it’s that of course you need to put in the work to create the content (whether it’s a Youtube video, Podcast episode, course…) but then, it will continue to generate traffic, increase brand awareness, grow your community and ultimately make money.

In other words, once you have created the content, it becomes a passive profit stream.

Why creating passive income streams is so essential, you ask?

As I mentioned above, you don’t want to be too dependent on just one source of income. It’s 2022, and the options are endless for you to generate an income that’s sustainable. Gone are the days when our parents used to worry a lot about their jobs and make ends meet. Let’s take a moment to be grateful!

A passive income will give you a sense of stability, security, and freedom in your life. Think of it as an early retirement plan. You don’t feel stressed or anxious about what the future might be. The more you earn, the more you get to pursue your passions and tick those boxes on your bucket list.

A majority of successful entrepreneurs who have embarked on other sources of income make money passively.

Time is precious my friend. We all got only 24 hours in a day. So why not make the most of it? It will be quite an uphill battle when you’re just starting out. Yet it will be one of the most fruitful investments of your time, because after, while you’re focusing on other areas of your business, you’re literally making money on autopilot while you sleep.

So take a deep breath, choose the way to monetize the content that aligns most with you and your biz, and take your first baby steps.

Do not be discouraged if you’re not seeing results. Success in any field takes a lot of time and effort.

Related Reads:

• 6 Must-Have Free Business Tools
• The Secrets Of The Law Of Attraction
• Finding Your Why: 3 Clarity Exercises You Need To Try
• Why Goal Setting Is Outdated And What You Should Do Instead
• How to be Assertive Without Feeling Guilty

Hope this post inspires you to look at the many sources of income and see if they could apply to you. Let me know in the comments what appeals to you the most!