Blogging for a living? You could be making more money than you think. Many bloggers earn a full-time living from their blogs, and all it takes is some hustle and a solid plan.
There are several opportunities for full-time bloggers to make money online, and some of them can even be a bit more lucrative than others. For example, some bloggers report earning a six-figure income from affiliate marketing. However, other bloggers say that they’ve been able to make more money by selling and displaying ads on their sites. Still, others report that they’ve had some success with product reviews.
Which route you choose will largely depend on your own personal circumstances, your existing skill set, and your hustle level. But one thing is for sure: you’ll never be short of opportunities. Whether you’re looking for a side-hustle while you pursue your passion for art or design, or you want to make a full-time living from your blog – there’s something out there for everyone.
The Most Lucrative Opportunity: Affiliate Marketing
If you’re looking to make money online through a side-hustle or a full-time job, affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative opportunities. Essentially, affiliate marketing is a way for businesses to directly connect to consumers who are likely to be interested in their products or services. When you join an affiliate network, you’ll typically get access to a variety of affiliate marketing tools such as affiliate programs, landing pages, and even web hosting.
You’ll sometimes be asked to promote certain products or offers through your blog. When you do, you’ll earn a commission (typically around 10% – 30% depending on the network) whenever someone clicks a product link or makes a purchase from an affiliate offer.
As a blogger, you’ll often find yourself in a situation where you’re asked to review products. When you do so, you often have the choice of promoting those products with a link to the store or service, or you can opt-in for a special offer (like a free sample or discounted pricing) and earn a commission for sharing that information.
Some of the biggest brands worldwide use affiliate marketing as a way to gain credibility, grow their audiences, and make money. A few of the most well-known brands include Amazon, Netflix, and Google.
The Least Lucrative Opportunity: Product Reviews For Manufacturers
Many bloggers make money online through product reviews. When you review products for a living, you’ll quickly learn that 90% of the time, the manufacturer will ask you to write a positive review in exchange for free samples or a discounted price on the product you’re reviewing.
To create a positive review, you’ll be asked to highlight the good qualities of a product and downplay any shortcomings. While this may not seem too difficult, it can be quite the hustle to negotiate the terms of the review with the manufacturer (often requiring a lot of back and forth via email).
Also, many product reviews aren’t particularly lucrative. Depending on the type of product and whether or not you’re getting paid to write the review, you may only earn between $1 and $5 for each successful review. While this may not sound like much, if you’re doing product reviews for a living, it can add up quickly.
How Do You Make Money Blogging For A Living?
If you want to make money blogging, you have several options including showing ads, selling affiliate products, and reviewing products. We’ll discuss each method in more detail below.
Show Ads
If you have a personal blog, you may choose to monetize it through Google Adsense. With Adsense, you’ll show ads based on search terms or content on your site. You won’t have to run ads every single page, as the ads will appear seamlessly throughout your site.
For example, if someone is looking for information about fashion trends, as a blogger, you could provide them with relevant and insightful information. They’ll then be happy to click on an ad alongside that content to learn more.
The downside to this method is that you’ll have to build up a decent traffic level before you can make any substantial income. Also, you won’t make money from ads placed on social media.
Sell Affiliate Products
If you’re a fan of a certain brand or store and have the ability to influence or advise others about that brand or store, you could become an affiliate marketer for the company.
As an affiliate marketer, you’ll become a sales agent for a brand (similar to a personal stylist or fashion advisor) and receive a commission when someone clicks a product link or makes a purchase from an affiliate offer (typically around 15% – 40% commission).
The great thing about this method is that the more you sell, the more you’ll earn. So, if you’ve got a bit of a marketing budget, consider this option as a way to generate consistent sales and income. Just remember that you’ll need to build up a good amount of sales before you can make any serious income.
Review Products For Manufacturers
Last but not least, we have review products for manufacturers. When you review a product for a manufacturer, you’ll often get access to that product or a similar one, along with sometimes getting paid to write the review.
You’ll get a product to test out and review, as long as the product isn’t overly complicated and doesn’t require a whole lot of training. Also, make sure you’re able to state your opinion about the product clearly. When you do so, you’ll typically earn a commission (typically around 10% – 30% commission) from the sale of the product you’re reviewing.
The Pros And Cons Of Each Method
Now that you know the different ways you can make money blogging for a living, it’s time to discuss the pros and cons of each method. From the lucrative world of affiliate marketing to the less so product reviews, here are the highlights.
Affiliate Marketing
The pro: this is undoubtedly one of the most lucrative opportunities for bloggers. Not only does it require very little effort, but you also don’t need a huge audience to make any significant income. If you join an affiliate network that offers a wide range of products, the likelihood of making money from affiliate marketing is fairly good.
The con: if you join an affiliate network, you’ll often get distracted by the number of products they have to offer. It can be quite difficult to keep focused on just one or two products and make money off of them. Even when you do, it can be hard to predict how much you’ll actually make. Finally, keep in mind that to make money from affiliate marketing, you’ll need a bit of a traffic flow. Launching a new blog or updating your existing blog to include more affiliate products won’t necessarily make you money immediately.
Product Reviews
The pro: many bloggers enjoy writing product reviews because it provides them with the opportunity to highlight the good qualities of a product while simultaneously deemphasizing any shortcomings. It requires very little effort and often provides an easy way to make money. When you write a review, you’re bound to receive samples or a discounted price for the product you’re reviewing. If the product is new and hasn’t been on the market long enough to build up a substantial audience, this is likely the best method to make money from blogging.
The con: this is a quite difficult method to make money from, especially if you’re doing them for free. Unless you’ve got a large social media following or lots of money to spend on products you review (either way, the con for this option is quite obvious), you’ll likely not find a lot of success using this method to monetize your blog. Further, since you’ll often have to review products for free, it can be hard to maintain a healthy dose of objectivity when writing the reviews. Even when you do receive samples, there’s still the hassle of getting the product to evaluate and review, as well as the fact that not every product is suited to your personal style (which is part of what you usually get paid for in the first place!).
Sell Adverts
The pros: for those who love the ease of advertising on social media, affiliate marketing through adverts placed on social media can be a quick and easy way to make money.