Blogging might be considered somewhat outdated and perhaps a little out of style these days. A pastime for the generation who were there for the launch of Myspace and Tumblr. But blogging has definitely come into its own once again and is now very popular amongst all generations of web users. Perhaps its new names and identities, such as ‘influencer’, have given it a new lease on life that we aren’t recognising that we are all bloggers.

Bloggers, who are now most commonly known as influencers, can be found everywhere in this digital age. You’re probably avidly following dozens on trending social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. And you might be fans of more traditional bloggers on dedicated blog sites such as Word Press. At of the end of 2019, there were more than 600 million blogs on the internet, out of 1.7 billion websites.

These days it is common knowledge that bloggers, influencers, whatever you would like to call them, are making big money from their platforms. So, the questions we’re probably all asking ourselves are; how are they making their money? Where does it come from? And most pressing, how can I do this too?

Monetising Your Blog

Ads on the Internet

Advertising Networks

The most common way to make money is by placing ads on your blog. To do this is very simple, the most popular way is by utilising Google AdSense. You simply place the banner on to your blog site and the Google AdSense programme does the rest by adding ads they consider relevant to your blog’s content. Your blog’s viewers will then see your ads and choose to click on them.

Now, how does this make you money? There are two types of ads:

  • CPC Ads- ‘Cost per click’ ads are usually seen as banners amongst your content and each time someone clicks on one of these ads, you will be paid.
  • CPM Ads- ‘Cost per 1,000 impressions’ are ads that pay you a fixed sum of money based on the number of people that view your ad.

Private Advertising

Another way of selling ads is by setting up a deal with advertisers directly to get rid of the middle man and set your own ad rates. If your blog is very popular advertisers could even contact you directly to create a partnership. Private ads could be banners, buttons, links, sponsorship space in newsletters or even sponsored posts to review an advertiser’s product or service.

Affiliate Marketing

The next popular tool to monetise your blog is by working for commission by trying affiliate marketing. You can do this through private partnerships with advertisers and businesses that have an affiliate program or through ad networks such as Amazon Associates.

How to in 3 simple steps:

  • Advertiser agrees to give you a commission from each sale of their product if the buyer has come from your blog site.
  • The advertiser gives you a unique link that tracks your affiliate code to know when a buyer has used your site to make a purchase.
  • Add this affiliate link to your site in your content or as banner ads and wait for a viewer to click and purchase.

Sell Memberships

If your blog has amassed a significant following and you’re reluctant to add somewhat annoying ads to your blog, you could sell memberships to exclusive corners of your website. For example, a popular ‘Working in Publishing’ blog may charge their users £5 a month to have access to their prestigious job board.

However, you need to make sure that your blog is giving its readers something valuable that they would not be able to find for free somewhere else. This will bolster your reputation and will help to gain you many more followers and loyal subscribers.

Piles of coins

How Much Money do Bloggers Really Make?

How much money you make will depend entirely on yourself and your content so it is hard to come up with an exact figure. It will also depend on how much time you dedicate to your blog, is it just for fun or will this be your full-time job?

Glassdoor (2020) reports that the average blogger will make about $32,800 a year once they have built up their blog after a couple of years. However, there are many examples of bloggers making millions, millions!, every year.

So, if you’re ready to dedicate your free time to start up a new and exciting blog you might just find yourself living in the lap of luxury. Tips to get you started can be found here: