How to Make Money Blogging (Free Guide for 2021)

Let me guess you have visited 5 to 6 blogs before and just listened to the same old shi*t everywhere. 🙂

That’s because nobody wants to reveal their secrets. This happened to me too about a year ago and I had to learn everything from scratch.

So, If you seriously want to learn how to make money blogging in 2021, then you need to just scrap all clutter advice that you have been reading so far.

Read this how to start a blog in 2021 guide for setting up a progressive blog the right way today

While all “Expert” bloggers tend to give you those old school advice and methods to follow your passion, being consistent but I will reveal everything that worked for me while growing this blog to more than 50000+ readers monthly.

The reality is it does not need to take years before you start making money. In fact, within a few months, you can start making decent side income from your blog.

I started this blog in December 2020 and started writing the posts from January 1, 2021. However, I registered this domain a few months back but never worked on it like most other newbie bloggers do.

I made a promise to myself that in 2021 I am going to make this blog successful and make it a side income in just a few months.

First tip I want to give you before you decide to make it final that you are going to work on your blog is that You are a business owner not a stupid blogger.

I wish I knew all these tips I am going to share with you about making money from blogging which leads me to make a decent amount of money online.

In this blog post, I will tell you each and every method of how to make money blogging fast and easy way.

You might be searching online on how to build living blogging or you might have a question about do bloggers make money.

The answer is yes and blogging has made many people leave their 9 to 5 jobs and they started working full time on their blog itself.

In this article, I am going to show you how to replicate this business model in this easy step by step money making guide for beginners.

So it’s actually possible to learn how to make money blogging in a relatively short period of time.

How To Make Money Blogging In 2021 (27 Proven Ways)

How to make money from blogging

1. Freelancing (For Beginners)
2. Advertisements
3. Affiliate Marketing
4. Sell Digital Products
5. Selling Your Services
6. Sponsored Blog Posts
7. Start A Woocommerce Store/Dropshipping
8. Flip Websites
9. Domain Selling
10. Podcast Sponsorships
11. Accept Donations

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links In this article below are my affiliate links so I do earn a commission from these links but at no additional cost to you. Do remember that we only promote the products that we personally use and are tried & tested by me for months. When you use our affiliate links, the respective company does compensate me for their promotion and this helps us run this blog and make more content like this for free.

Benefits Of Reading This Blog Post –

1. You will know how bloggers make money
2. Killer strategies of bloggers to make money
3. Types of blogs that generate the most money
4. Can You really make money by blogging
5. Is blogging still worth it in 2020?

But First, If you are still hustling to start a blog then I have put together an awesome guide on my ultimate guide to start a blog that has over 20k fans now.

So now, Let’s get started,

1. Freelancing

Freelancing is what I started my online career with and it’s still very profitable. You work when you want to and it’s a great start to make some good money online.

From your blog, you can convert your traffic to hire you as a freelancer to write for them or provide any service as a freelancer that you are an expert in.

Freelancing is a very popular way to make money blogging. You can simply sell your services online on your blog.

While freelancing requires you to have a skill that you can sell online to the customers. You can sell graphic design, website design, android ios app design, and literally anything.

I have seen freelancers even work full time and earn more than $10000+/mo just working from their home.

Before starting this blog I also used to work as a freelancer and was learning a decent amount of money. It’s so profitable if done right that you can do it full-time.

There are a number of freelancing websites online where you can simply work right away by creating your profile and creating your gig.

Some of these freelancing websites are –

1. Fiverr.com
2. Freelancer.com
3. Upwork.com
4. Peopleperhour.com

There are definitely many other websites also but these are most reputed and you will get decent money as these sites have more buyers than others.

I have seen most of the guys use Fiverr as it has a lot of buyers which lot of freelancers too. So you need to make your gig stand out from all others to grab attention.

Freelancing is not just limited to writing a blog post for others it does include other services like consultation, coaching but these services are only helpful if you have a popular blog and has a sizeable reputation in your industry.

2. Advertisements

Advertisements are the most popular way to earn money from your blog and 90% of the time a person gets introduced to the blogging industry after hearing about AdSense.

For some bloggers, it might be the only & first way to earn from a blog, but personally, for me, it is actually the last opinion I want to consider for monetizing this blog.

For this, you need to have a blog that is high quality and has at least 20 articles with great content in it. However, I have proved on this bog itself that the number of blog posts does not matter by getting AdSense approval with just 4 blog posts.

For starting your own blog check out this awesome blog post on starting a blog in just 30 minutes.

Now you might be disappointed to know that on my other blogs my advertisements earnings are way less than my other monetization methods on my different blogs.

After you have set up all this you can go to Google’s Adsense Page and use your email to sign up for an Adsense account.

After you have signed up add your website in the site’s section and get your ad code to place in your website and paste that code in your website.

Wait for approval which usually takes about a week or so. And after you have been approved your website will start showing ads.

However, I must tell you a little secret about AdSense that it does make you good money but only when you are getting a good amount of traffic. You must always try to capture markets like USA, UK, etc. so that when you have a good amount of traffic about 50k sessions/month then you can apply to other ad networks too which gives you 400% to 500% more revenue as compared to google AdSense.

Some of these networks are –

1. Google Adsense (Pretty Basic Low CPC)
2. Media.net (Adsense Alternative)
3. Taboola (Similar To Adsense)
4. BlogAds (Adsense Like)
5. PropellerAds (Cheap Ads)
6. CarbonAds (For Design, Dev & Tech Websites)
7. Ezoic (You Need Adsense Approved Blog 10k Sessions)
8. And thrive (Best at 50K Sessions)
9. Mediavine (100k Sessions, Highest CPC, Very Limited)

When you want to earn with ads it’s not like you can earn only with these networks. But you can also sell private ad spaces to your readers as well.

You can also earn from your blog by selling private ads yourself. But for this monetization method, your blog needs to have good traffic and subscriber base.

You can just make a page for accepting private ads. Companies do search for such pages online and if your blog qualifies for their requirement.

3. Affiliate Marketing

This is the most profitable business model in the blogging industry. In this business model, you promote an affiliate product to your audience and if any of your audience members buy the product from your link then you get a small commission from that at no extra refer cost.

Affiliate marketing is the main income source of most bloggers. The real beauty of this method is that with a small audience you can earn a huge amount of money they are converted well.

So you don’t have to write a ton of content to increase your traffic but you can get a decent paycheck with few but targeted visitors on your blog.

Most of the top bloggers are earning from this business model and it’s growing much faster than any other industry out there.

There are a lot of affiliate networks that you can work with but the most popular of them are mentioned below.

1. Amazon Affiliate Program
2. ShareASale
3. PartnerStack
4. ImpactRadius
5. Awin
6. Commission Junction

However, these networks include many companies but some more popular ones have made their own custom solutions for there affiliate networks. I personally have signed up for a number of affiliate networks and they are giving me a good results. Here is a list of affiliate networks that I am currently working with.

1. Amazon Associates (Overall All Products)
2. Namehero (Best Starter Hosting)
3. Bluehost (Namehero Alternatve To Starter Hosting)
4. Dreamhost (Best Monthly Web Hosting)
5. SiteGround (High-Quality Premium Shared Hosting)
6. HostGator (Cheap Shared Hosting)
7. A2 Hosting (Fast Web Hosting)
8. Hostinger (Low Budget & Fast Hosting)
9. GreenGeeks (Siteground Alternative)
10. NameCheap (Best Domain Registrar)
11. Cloudways (High-End Hosting) Read Detailed Cloudways Review Here
12. Liquid Web (High-End Self Managed Hosting)
13. Kinsta (Best Managed VPS Hosting)
14. Flywheel (Dev Level Hosting)
15. WP Engine (Big Project Expensive Hosting)
16. GoDaddy (Entry Level Domain Registrar)
17. ConvertKit (Best Email Software)
18. Teachable (Best Course Hosting)
19. Podia (Best Podcast Hosting)
20. Spocket (Dropshipping)
21. Thinkific (Free Course Hosting)
22. Buzzsprout (No1. Podcast Host But Expensive)
23. HubSpot (Best CRM)
24. AWeber (Pro Level Email Software)
25. Shopify (Dropshipping CRM)
26. OptimizePress (Landing Page Builder)
27. Elementor (Best Page Builder)
28. SEMRush (Best Seo Tool)
29. Udemy (Free Course Hosting)
30. Skillshare (Free Course Hosting)
31. BodyBuilding.com (For Promoing Fitness Products)

These are my most used affiliate networks which are generating me money these days. However, the list keeps growing day by day as your business grows. However, there are a lot of affiliate programs to promote.

Here just like sponsored content, you are getting money by promoting other people’s products and if you generate sales for them then you earn a small commission.

4. Sell Digital Products (Online Courses/Selling Ebooks)

The long-term earning plan for making money from your blog is that you create a digital product that can make you money in the long run. Your product needs to be related to your niche and must have demand out there.

Most commonly these digital products can be one of these from the list –

1. Digital Course
2. Ebook
3. Checklist
4. Software
5. Audiobook
6. Coprighting templaes
7. Email templates
8. Email sequence chart
9. Your Sales Funnel
10. Access to paid webinar video

So these are some of the most common digital products that you can have to take your marketing game to the next level. However, if you are a nerd like Neil Patel then you can make a high demand and high investment software like ubersuggest and integrate it on your website.

People would love to use that software for free or paid and in return, you will gain a lot of links to your blog that will boost your marketing game forever.

Note:- Digital products are hard to sell. You must have some authority in your niche first of all then you can sell these products to anyone. In the digital marketing, game trust means everything.

5. Sell Your Services

Selling your services is by far the hardest monetization method however it seems very easy for everyone. But let me be clear it’s not. There Are a lot of services that you can sell online on your blog to earn decent money. Selling services is a long-term monetization method that you can leverage.

Consulting/Coaching services

Consulting/Coaching services are some of the most challenging monetization methods online. For this, you must have in-depth knowledge in your industry and you must have a good portfolio of successful websites. Only then you can offer a high converting page on consultation service on your blog.

For this establish a brand in your industry and some marketers even try to offer a free webinar to attract visitors and then they try to convert those visitors into long-term customers.

People generally charge a huge chunk of money for their consultation services like between $5000k to $10000k and you may need a dedicated team to follow up to close such kind of deal.

So, here you just have to close one deal and you get a $10000k customer every month. But you have to give him great value and ROI for his investment otherwise he may quit your program. This program is generally called High Ticket Sales so you might need help from some professional writer for making your landing page to make sure about better conversions.

Website Designing

Website designing is a highly profitable business that you can use to monetize and earn from your blog. If you are good at designing, customizing, maintaining, or creating custom WordPress or Code Based websites, then you can sell these services on your blog.

On average you can easily charge between $500 – $20000 per work depending upon the level of job, and the type of website you are designing.

You can even hire developers and do the work for you and you just focus on getting more gigs and promoting your brand.

Speaking Gigs

If you are a well-known personality or want to become one in your industry then you can get paid to speak at events where you can share your knowledge and expertise and help others.

This can be the case if your blog takes off and you get an authority in your space then you will start getting invitations to speak at events and they can easily offer you $10000 to speak at their events. Not Bad Right.!

Sponsored Reviews

As your blog grows, companies will contact you for reviews and promote their products. They often tend to trick with getting into their affiliate programs but you can simply ask them for money in return for a paid review.

But keep this in mind the product is great and your audience should like it. If you promote anything stupid then your audience might not trust you in the future. So only promote something if you want to not because they are giving you money.

Paid Webinar Or WorkShops

You can host a paid webinar or workshop for your audience and earn from that. You need authority in your space. Ask people to join your paid workshop where you give your viewers value in return for a small amount of money.

So it’s a win-win situation for all of the viewers and you as well.

Sell Memberships

You can also sell membership on your blog where you will give your members great value in return for their money. You will help grow their business in all aspects.

Incomeschool is a great example of this type of monetization. They sell memberships on their blog and all courses and premium content on their blog is hosted as a membership. So people pay for their expert advice.

Selling Graphics

Selling graphics is a great method to earn money online. You can earn from a blog too. Selling graphics from your blog is a profitable business and many bloggers are already doing it.

Remember for selling graphics you must possess copyright of all the graphics you are selling else you may get in trouble. A number of websites like Freepik, Pexels, and a lot of other stock image sizes.

For setting up such a blog or website you might need help from a developer for a custom design for your blog according to your needs. You can join online marketplaces to sell your graphics as well. Also making graphics for others as a freelancer is also an option for you.

6. Sponsored Blog Posts

Sponsored blog posts are a great source of income if your blog qualifies for such a blog post. There are a lot of online advertisers looking for such high-traffic blogs that can provide them good ROI. You just have to feature their company in your article and you will earn a decent amount of money from these sponsored blog posts.

This type of monetization strategy involves a lot of work as you need to create content for your sponsor and you will get paid if he approves your blog content.

Note:- When you are publishing sponsored posts in the USA then you need to disclose the post that it is sponsored. You can check other countries too for such requirements.

But is still a good idea to include a Sponsored Post prefix in your blog post title in the WordPress to respect your viewers too.

One of the major websites getting popular these days is Flyout.io and they have an approval process and once you are approved then you will get content from an advertiser and you get paid for putting the content on your blog. Here you have the control over which content o accept and which you want to deny it all depends on you.

7. Start A Woocommerce Store/DropShipping

If you want to earn huge profits then you can start the best monetization method by creating an online store using woocommerce and start selling your physical products.

This is by far the most profitable online business and right now the richest man on the earth is also selling physical products online. However, you need a lot of investments to maintain an inventory.

This requires a lot of effort and money to start an online store to sell physical products.

You might tell me “Shivam I just want to write a blog post and earn without selling physical products”

I can understand this that’s why there is a way forward to start a store by maintaining an inventory. This is called Dropshipping

What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is an online business model where you can run an online store without maintaining an inventory at all.

You just need to connect your store to a dropship supplier and you just make sales from your blog store and the supplier will ship the product for you. So you don’t have to take care of anything like shipping, inventory management, etc at all.

You can dropship products from china by Alidropship and they will create a private level of that product on your behalf and then ships it for you.

Or you can simply use an alternative to drop ship from Alibaba that is Print on demand. Printify offers you this service for dropshipping print on demand on 250+ products without you ever doing any hard work.

For Dropshipping it is advisable that you always focus on a single product to promote than focusing on multiple products at the same time.

8. Flip Websites

Flipping websites is extremely profitable when you know what you are doing. You just need to create a full-stack WordPress website and list it on Flippa.com

Then I people liked your design then they will buy it and you get the money after giving a small commission to the Flippa. Sometimes entrepreneurs like to buy fully established websites instead of new ones.

This requires knowledge of what type of websites are in demand and

9. Domain Selling

Domain selling is a very lucrative business and many bloggers do it but it requires a lot of experience as you must predict what will be eligible to sell. You must register a domain you are damn sure about that it will resell for a good price.

For this, you can leverage the GoDaddy marketplace where you can register a domain and then list the domain for selling on GoDaddy itself.

People bet for the domain if they are interested to buy and you will get the domain price after giving a small commission to GoDaddy.

You can visit Godaddy Auction Store from this link here auctions.godaddy.com

10. Podcast Sponsorships

If you have been asking yourself how podcasts earn money then the answer is from sponsorships.

My advice to every online business owner is that you start your podcast as early as you can. When you reach a certain viewership then you can start charging for podcast ads which can be pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll ads.

For an ad from brands like Skillshare, FreshBooks, Monday.com you can easily charge around $500/episode for a shoutout in front of your audience.

If you are still not ready for podcasts then you can convert your existing blog posts into audio and start posting them as podcasts. That would be a great way to start and once you start getting a few listeners then you can make the podcast yourself. But you need to start in podcasting as this is the least competitive industry right now.

11. Accept Donations

The final method to earn money from your blog is to accept money from your blog readers as donations. If your readers really enjoy your content then they will be very much happy to pay for a coffee.

So you can accept donations using Paypal, BuyMeACoffee, or by manually adding a payment gateway on your blog.

If you are still struggling with setting up your blog then you can read my How to start a blog in 2021 guide now

Conclusion: So these are some of the methods for making money from your blog and now let me know in the comment section which monetization method are you going to utilize on your blog

Cheers,

Shivam