Can You Make Money From Blogging? 5 Easy Ways To Generate Income From Your Blog

Like many of the people who come to my blogging workshops. Mary was ready to cut to the chase.

Mary had been blogging for six months and now, finally, she was ready to start making money from her blog.

“How can I make money from blogging?” Mary asked, then told me what she’d been doing so far.

To get things started Mary added some advertisements on her blog and was pushing some affiliate products. Now, finding those things weren’t working, and wondering what else she can do to make money from blogging she’d contacted me for advice.

So I had a look at Mary’s blog.

“Woah!” I thought.

“Hold your horses, Mary. It seems like you’re missing something here. Before you can make money from blogging you need to get a firm grasp on the basics of blogging.”

But Mary wasn’t hiring me for a blogging consultation yet or I’d have been able to spent more time offering her detailed solutions. But instead I gave her two simple solutions to help her make money from blogging.

One thing you need to do before you can make money from blogging:

Get A Decent Blog Design

You can’t make money from blogging unless your blog inspires trust. Mary’s blog looked as if it had been thrown together by a three-year-old and that doesn’t inspire confidence.

She’s not alone. I still see a lot of people who are in pain because no one is reading their blog and they can’t work out why. And of course, how can you make money from blogging if no one is visiting or reading your blog?

The answer is, you can’t and, if that’s the case for you, usually bad blog design is the culprit.

You may be a new blogger, or new to your field, but your blog doesn’t need to advertise that to the world. Your blog should present you as the established professional you want to be.

Sometimes bloggers have a reasonable design that just needs tightening up and improving to make it more user-friendly and easy to read. But there was nothing to work with on Mary’s blog. No logo. No branding. No clear message.

If she wants to make money from blogging Mary will need to invest in a decent blog design.

So Can You Make Money From Blogging or Not?

I haven’t tackled the million dollar question yet so let’s move on to the juicy bit. How can you make money from blogging?

I think Mary had been ripped off too because she told me not only could she not afford my professional blog design services, she also couldn’t afford my book because she’s spent all her money on an e-course called Instant Internet Riches Through Blogging.

I’ve got to tell you here that I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent (mainly me and Mary) but that’s the name of the course and it was one of those with an exceedingly long sales page peppered with irritating animated arrows and enticements to click here.

If you still weren’t convinced if also promised to offer (in the form of endless bonus products) $2,500 worth of value for only $200.

Is it just me or is that impossible? Yes, you can get good deals on good products in sales but I’ve never seen any classic item reduced by over 90%. Even in factory outlet stores where designer goods are heavily reduced it’s only because they’re long out of fashion, or they were badly designed and don’t fit anyone.

But I digress.

You can make money from blogging but only long term. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there’s no such thing as instant success.

Hopefully after six to twelve months, you may be able to start making money from blogging.

How You Can Make Money From Blogging

So you have a good blog design, some great content, and engaged readers? Excellent! Then you’re ready to make money from blogging and these are some ways you can do so:

1. By using your blog as a marketing tool for your existing (or new) business services and products.

I sell my web design, blog design, consultation and copywriting services indirectly through my blog. I don’t give them the hard sell but I have found new clients through my blog. Or rather they’ve found me.

I believe this is the most accessible way for people to make money from blogging and that’s why the focus of my blogging advice is to help business owners and writers market their services or products.

It’s the most realistic way to make money from blogging, although you might not be able to track your income directly unless people buy direct from your blog.

2. By selling your own products.

I sell my blogging ebook. Electronic products like ebooks, video courses, or podcasts are easy to sell online because there’s no shipping involved, but you can also sell other products like t-shirts.

If you have a good readership and people like your blog you can then create your own products related to your niche and sell them. Most blog readers are happy to pay for quality products.

This can bring in an additional income stream and in time, as your blog grows you can choose to focus more on that if you wish.

3. By becoming an affiliate reseller for quality products.

I recommend a handful of products I believe in and know might help my readers such as the Generatepress WordPress theme. Make sure you stick to related products you really recommend. Readers first, money comes second.

Again this is an additional income stream for me, not a primary source of income. I like working with people. My core business is web marketing, not retail and I want to keep it that way.

4. Advertising

I’m experimenting with this at the moment. It’s not my favorite way to make money from blogging because I prefer to keep my blogs looking clean and attractive but it’s definitely something I need to look into.

5. Diversify your blogging income

Diversification is the key to success with any financial investments. By diversifying you cut the risk and can track what works and what doesn’t.

Professional bloggers all diversify their blog income by using all of the methods above (and often others too such as membership sites) so they can make money from blogging. You should too.

Are You Just Blogging to Make Money?

I’m not clairvoyant but if that’s the case your blog will fail.

By trying to make money from blogging too soon Mary was killing her blog and losing her reader’s trust.

You have to blog about something you love, you have to be able to sustain that passion and feel it to keep blogging long-term and build a genuine connection with your readers.

You can make money from blogging but not straight away.

But in the meantime, until you start to make money from blogging you can enjoy these other benefits blogging has to offer:

• Networking opportunities.
• Confidence building.
• New friendships.
• Writing practice.
• Personal growth.
• Business building.
• Increased focus.
• Improved motivation.
• Opportunity to establish your expertise.

What do you think? Can you make money from blogging? Do you want to? And if so what would be the best way for you to make money from your blog?

Conclusion on Can You Make Money From Blogging in 2024

All in all, making money from blogging can be done. It might not be easy but it is completely possible. You may need to adjust your expectations and the timeline for when you see actual returns though.

Generally speaking, most people will take a few months before they start seeing positive cash flow from their blog.

You should also invest time into researching the best strategies for monetizing your blog so you can maximize your potential financial return on investment.

With consistency, patience and strategic online marketing, you can create a successful blogging business that earns you money every month!

For anyone looking to make money from blogging, there is no better time than now to get started – so what are you waiting for?