How to make money blogging – we analyze the possibilities
Data aktualizacji: 29.03.2022
A few years ago, earning money on the blog was associated only with direct cooperation with large brands. Today, many bloggers have taken matters into their own hands and effectively earn money from affiliation. In the next step, they start selling their own products: books, e-books, courses, training, and even paid clubs for their communities.
How to make money blogging – what does a blogger earn?
There are more and more ways to make money blogging, as we develop online tools. Your earnings depend on the amount of time and effort you are willing to spend on it. These less engaging activities usually require only technical skills. The more absorbing ones need time and continuous education about Internet tools and the possibilities they offer.
If you run a blog, you know best how difficult and demanding it is. You have to be up to date all the time, still connected to the network, one hundred percent involved. Often, writing a blog is an additional activity. It is associated with the fact that you are forced to reconcile this passion with the challenges of everyday life and full-time work. However, nothing prevents you from earning money on blogging, even if it is just a hobby. How to do it?
How to make money blogging – what does a blogger earn?
Although there are more methods coming up, we have 3 basic ways to earn money on a blog:
- articles, sponsored advertisements, and image cooperation with selected brands
- cooperation with brands in affiliate programs
- sale of own products and paid access to published materials
How to make money blogging – sponsored articles and ads
Sponsored articles on a blog are the oldest and best-known form of earning money on a blog. There are some legends about how much bloggers and influencers earn from sponsored cooperation with large brands. But like everything on the internet, this market is also changing dynamically. However, bloggers with the highest recognition and reach can still count on attractive contracts with the largest brands. Those have large budgets reserved for image-building advertising activities with top bloggers and influencers. So, in order to make earning on a blog possible thanks to cooperation with brands, you first need to build a large and loyal community of readers. Those, who not only read the content, but also willingly respond to it, comment, take part in discussions and in any other way show interest in the topics that the blogger takes up.
Luckily, blogging is not reserved exclusively for these most recognizable bloggers.
In the world of e-commerce, there are many smaller brands that place a lot more emphasis on the content that the blogger publishes. They care not about the size of the community, but its involvement. This is especially visible in industries offering niche products that have a strictly defined target group. In such cases, brands are much more likely to collaborate with a group of smaller bloggers, than with one large influencer, whose audience can be very diverse.
This trend in the approach to cooperation with bloggers and influencers has been going on for some time and is systematically developing.
Brands are less and less interested in intrusive banner advertising, as they realize how resistant Internet users are to direct advertising. Therefore, content cooperation with bloggers is more valuable. Although it might seem more expensive from the advertiser’s perspective. Such cooperation with bloggers, whose content directly corresponds to the advertiser’s industry, brings greater benefits in the form of higher sales. Thus, in the final settlement, it is more profitable.
Taking full advantage of the power of the internet and the blogosphere requires a different kind of thinking on the part of marketers. The new rules of marketing and PR say that you should stop advertising the products. Instead, find the best possible way to present these products with ideas for their use or answers to what problems the products solve. As a result, well-made internet content by a blogger, not imposed by marketers, makes the recommendation valuable, true and it translates into sales.
Ways to earn money on the blog thanks to direct cooperation with brands:
- sponsored articles and/ or paid social media entries
- paid reviews of products or services
- competitions carried out in cooperation with the brand
- product placement in photos and in the text
- brand as a partner of an entry, a series of entries or a photo report
- becoming the face or brand ambassador
Karol and Ola from the Busem Przez Świat blog are a good example of how to make the most of one’s image. They have been building it for many years. The couple gathered a large and highly committed community. They have had numerous collaborations carried out directly with large brands. Not only do they describe it on their blog, but you can also buy their original Professional Traveler course. They teach there how to make money on a blog and what it consists of.
How to make money blogging – How to write sponsored articles and reviews
Advertising content is not what readers are looking for, we already know that. People are not looking for ads on the internet, their purpose is content. By writing good content, you provide them with information when they need and seek it. When preparing sponsored articles, remember that they cannot be overly flattering. The point is not to criticize what we should complement but rather to avoid fake excitement. Objectivity and providing recipients with reliable information in the content of the articles are very important.
This is very important for two reasons. Firstly, so we do not frighten the recipient, who quickly realizes that it is just an advertisement. Secondly, more importantly from the blogger’s perspective, so we do not lose credibility among our readers, because it will be very difficult to regain it. Therefore, it is important to calmly consider each proposal to create a sponsored article, because it has an impact on the further development of the blog and the brand that we create ourselves.
How to make money blogging – Sponsored article/ review layout
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- Title – it must interest the reader.
- Introduction – bringing in the topic, product presentation, element of curiosity.
- Development – presenting the greatest advantages but also disadvantages of the product. Detailed description of its use and the problems it solves. It is highly recommended that the content be enriched with photos, graphics, videos or statistics.
- Linking – it depends on the contract, but most often there are links leading to the client’s website, directly to the described product or to the home page.
- Conclusion – a summary of the main points as to why the product is worth buying, who will it be most useful for.
- Footer – signature (e.g., “More information at www.page.com”).
How to make money blogging – cooperation in affiliate programs
Affiliate programs (also known as partner programs) are developing very dynamically and are the second way to earn money on a blog. The biggest advantage of affiliate programs is that they can also be joined by bloggers who are just starting to build their reach on the Internet and do not yet have a large audience/ community.
A modern company that builds its brand on the Internet, usually launches an affiliate program to invite virtual publishers, including bloggers, to cooperate with them. Thanks to this it can reach its potential recipients through various channels. Collaboration with bloggers has recently become a determinant of brand quality. That is why bloggers are very welcome to affiliate programs.
For bloggers, regardless of their reach, cooperation in affiliate programs is the best way to start earning money on the blog as soon as possible.
Cooperation in affiliate programs is based on recommending products of a selected brand or several brands through affiliate links. They can be discreetly woven into the content and graphics on the blog. The blogger receives a commission on sales for each finalized transaction that occurs through an affiliate link. So, the better we match the product we recommend to the content published on the blog, the better results and earnings will be achieved.
Affiliate programs are very popular today and are launched by advertisers from various industries. The affiliate programs of the largest and most recognizable brands are the most popular, but this does not mean that you can earn the most from them. Many smaller brands, with niche product categories, are great at affiliation. Their publishers boast high earnings thanks to unique products and high conversion.
You do not have to worry that you will be forced to recommend products that you are not familiar with. It is the opposite! You should only recommend products and services that you can be sure are worth it. When working with an affiliate network such as webePartners, you can choose from hundreds of affiliate programs. Also, you can easily find one that will be consistent with the industry in which you operate or want to act as a publisher.
How to make money blogging – how to start working in affiliate programs
The biggest advantage of earning money on a blog thanks to affiliation is the fact that you do not have to deal with any complicated formalities and sign contracts in order to quickly start working with selected advertisers. All you need to do is register in the affiliate network as a publisher. Then join the programs of your choice by accepting the remuneration conditions and you can start working!
How to make money blogging – learn the power of affiliate links
Affiliate links (also known as partner links or deep links) are simply active URL links. After being processed in the affiliate system, they record the number of clicks and the number of online actions generated thanks to several online activities. Those are: online store sales, filling out a form or survey, registration in system, subscribing to the newsletter and taking advantage of promotions and other actions expected by the advertiser as part of the affiliate program in which you operate.
In practice, this is what it looks like: when an internet user clicks on an affiliate link on the blog and thus goes to the online store, you will be charged a commission for purchases made in this store. Moreover, the user does not need to buy anything immediately after entering the store. If they return to it within 30 days, i.e., during the lifetime of cookies, you will still be charged a commission for these purchases.
Making money blogging with affiliate links is easy and fun. Links can be discreetly woven into the published content, or attached to highlighted words, graphics, or logos.
Affiliate links are used not only on blogs. They can be placed on various websites:
YouTube channels
Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram
your mailings
the discount websites
thematic and opinion-forming websites
How to make money blogging – an example of affiliate links on a blog
There are many universal topics that bloggers eagerly take up. What to take with you on vacation? How to prepare for winter? Why not go on a bike trip? By preparing posts where you introduce your readers to what is necessary in a given situation, you can add affiliate links to helpful products! The Wikilist in her entry helps parents choose the right first grader kit. When mentioning a specific product, she links to it. Thanks to this, readers can easily go to the store’s website and make a purchase.
How to make money blogging – attractive product widgets
Product widgets have caught on very well in affiliation. Widgets are aesthetic advertising creations that show pictures of selected products in a tiled manner, along with their name and price, and automatically assigned affiliate links to these products.
Product widgets can be graphically adjusted to the appearance of your own blog, edit the background color, frames, description, or price. You can show products from one advertiser or from several advertisers in a single widget.
Product widgets, like affiliate links, do not have an expiry date.
Once they are posted on the web, they will work for you until they are removed or changed. That is why widgets and affiliate links are perfect for “evergreen content”.
How to make money blogging – the art of choosing affiliate programs
How to find the best affiliate program?
There are two roads. You can search the websites of brands yourself. Find out, whether they offer an affiliate program directly or join an affiliate network and have access to hundreds of affiliate programs in one place. Affiliate networks specialize in running affiliate programs. In addition, they provide a variety of tools. Thanks to those we can promote selected products in various ways: by attaching an affiliate link to a graphic or text, inserting a product widget on the blog, selecting any banner, using a discount code or information provided in an xml file. In programs that brands offer directly, the promotion method and the number of tools are usually very limited for technical reasons.
The key to bloggers’ success in affiliate marketing are properly selected affiliate programs. Thanks to the fact that the publisher joins programs corresponding to the subject matter of their blog and social media channels, they are credible in the eyes of their recipients. So, it is a basic thing that should be taken care of at the beginning of an affiliate cooperation, in order to benefit from it.
If we publish content about sports, we should be interested in affiliate programs that enable the promotion of products and services related to sports. Those are: all sports equipment, sports clothes and shoes, but also food products for athletes, supplements and gym tickets.
However, sport is a very broad concept and it happens very often that we are specialists in a specific sport field, e.g., in mountain biking. In this case, the affiliate programs in which we participate should give the opportunity to recommend the products we know best. So, mountain bikes, equipment and parts for these bikes, bicycle clothing or bicycle gadgets will be a good fit.
If we specialize in bicycle trips around campsites in Europe though, we should also be interested in all affiliate programs offering outdoor equipment.
These can be: specialized backpacks, tents, sleeping bags and other products useful during such trips. In this case, the bookstore’s affiliate programs will also be very good. They offer guides and maps. If, on the other hand, we deal with the topics of long journeys with a bicycle, it is very likely that affiliate programs of various types of carriers (airlines, ferries, railway lines) that allow for the transport of bicycles will also fit perfectly into specific entries, posts, or videos.
How to make money blogging – your own products
This is no longer a novelty, because the trend in which bloggers sell their own products grows stronger each year. Digital products that are particularly popular, as in:
- e-books
- online courses and training
- webinars.
This is mainly due to the fact that tools and platforms for creating such digital products are growing rapidly. It turns out that it is not difficult, especially since there are many courses on how to create your own course or e-book 🙂
Access to knowledge is getting easier and this trend is expanding. More people who want to earn money from blogging start creating their e-books, while those who already have e-books behind them, start looking for new opportunities to monetize their knowledge. There is one condition – if we want people to buy what we have communicated to them, we must become experts in our field and skillfully sell our expertise.
Digital products are relatively easy to create with low cost. However, more and more bloggers and broadly understood internet creators also offer their own physical products. These are usually small and relatively inexpensive products: teas and coffees, t-shirts, eco bags, planners or calendars. Of course, paper books as well (usually self-published). When physical products start to come into play, bloggers decide to launch an online store. In this way, they gently move from a blogger to the role of a true entrepreneur.
How to make money blogging – Pani Swojego Czasu
At the very beginning, online courses were the mainstay of earning money on Ola Budzyńska’s blog, known as Pani Swojego Czasu. Later, e-books appeared, and then paid access to the Pani Swojego Czasu Club. Within a few years, Ola Budzyńska went from a full-time blogger to the owner of a serious enterprise (now transformed into a corporation), which generates revenues of millions.
And it all started with the passive income coming from affiliation
Ola recommended other products through affiliate links on her blog, then from products prepared by Ola herself. Before Ola decided to start an online business, she had been professionally involved in the time management training in companies and corporations for many years. The knowledge she possesses in this subject, allowed for courses and e-books that deal with universal problems. Thanks to this, these products are permanent items in her online store. Importantly, this pillar of the company is dynamically developed, despite the fact that nowadays Pani Swojego Czasu is not only an online store with stationery and electronic products. It is also a Space Full of Time with apartments, an Internet Community (partly also generating income, because the access to a strict club is paid), as well as just a strong personal brand.
Pani Swojego Czasu is far from just sitting still and enjoying the moment, although she could do it. Ola is an extremely enterprising woman with lots of ideas for constant development. It is important to note, however, that the passive income she gained from selling her own electronic products at an earlier stage allows her to develop and invest in the company’s development and, of course, making her dreams come true. Ola is the best example of how you can smoothly move from publisher to advertiser and generate passive income all the time.
How to make money blogging – diversification of revenues
Always remember that we do not have to limit ourselves to only one source of income. That’s what the best of the best do. Several ways will allow you to earn more, and if not, find the methods that work best on your blog. There is no one reliable source of income. It is only certain that you can earn a lot on a blog, which is proven by, for example, Pani Swojego Czasu or Agnieszka Skupieńska
Working directly with brands does not mean that you cannot earn money on affiliate links and vice versa. If you decide to buy your own products and launch an online store, it does not mean that you cannot invite a guest to other projects as a partner who will finance the project. Affiliation at any stage of the blogger’s development does not exclude other activities. Thanks to this they can additionally earn money on their blog. That is why it is worth testing various models, methods and tools. That will lead to achieving maximum profit from our work.
How to make money blogging – moderation is the key
The advertisement complements the text
Well said! It is the advertisement that must be an addition to the entry, not the other way around. This is the basic rule that should be followed in affiliate cooperation. We do not create content to promote specific products, but for our readers. Advertising should result from the text, be its natural consequence, and not a point in itself. Before you put in another affiliate link, consider if it is absolutely necessary.
The most important goal of blogging is, above all, to provide users with valuable content. Readers do not want to be treated as an earning potential, so their trust should not be abused. It is very easy to recognize the nature of specific entries. If they are overloaded with affiliate links or banners, readers will detect a falsehood. Therefore, remember to always put users first and prepare attractive content. Affiliate links and ads should complement the content.
Promotion frequency
Operating in various affiliate programs does not necessarily mean that each of your entries must contain affiliate links. After all, you do not sign any commitments that would require you to promote any particular quantity of the advertiser’s products. If every text has advertising content unrelated to the content, readers will quickly sense that you only care about earnings. Therefore, try to use moderation and not overdo it with the amount of advertising materials.
Banners and moderation
There is no more direct form of promotion than an advertising banner. Lots of sites use them incorrectly though. First of all, be careful about their quantity as they may discourage visitors from staying on the site. After all, no one likes to be attacked by the huge content of advertising creations. Besides, remember that they are only meant to be an addition to your blog and should match its aesthetics. Choose subdued, non-flashy banners and try to replace them often, if possible. You can also use product widgets, which are a very good alternative to banners. They are a more discreet, but often more effective form of advertising.
Content and form matter
If your affiliate activities do not bring the expected results, consider whether adding more affiliate links will actually help. Perhaps you should work on the content itself, make it more interesting and attractive to users. The same applies to photos if you add them to entries. The prettier and more aesthetic they are, the easier it will be for you readers to notice them. The same applies to the presentation of the content on the blog. Check that the font size is correct and that its color does not make it difficult to read. Sometimes such simple procedures can work wonders!
Advertise unobtrusively
Users do not like pushy purchases. Remember that you are a blogger, not a salesman who must persuade someone to buy a given product at all costs. Try, therefore, to recommend, not sell. It is a rule that will ensure that your readers do not feel used. If they treat you as an authority in a given field, you should not abuse their trust. Therefore, avoid content like: “you must have it or buy it necessarily”.
In advertising, moderation is the key. If you do not want to lead to a situation, where users will withdraw from you, apply the above-mentioned rules and you will not have to wait long for the results!
