Expert Revealed: How To Make Money Blogging in 2024 (18 Proven Ways)

Basically, there are three monetization models available that every blogger can use to make money from their blogs. These models are further split into different methods: through display ads, being a brand promoter, or selling one’s product.

I recall back when people thought that bloggers earned money if someone visited the blog, and the data subscription consumed would be converted to cash and sent to the blogger’s bank account.

This was the narrative for many years – even for those who may not publicly admit it.

I thought the same way, too. For many years, I believed it was my data subscription that had been converted to funds for the blogger. This notion is similar to the long-held belief that creators on platforms like Facebook make money from likes, comments, and shares until Facebook introduced the Performance Bonus program for creators in 2021.

Anyway, as a blogger, the most popular means of making money from your blog is through display ads. This method allows you to partner with ad networks to place ads on your blog. Each time a visitor clicks on the ad or the ad is seen 1,000 times, you’re paid.

As we proceed, I’ll discuss that in more detail.

How To Make Money Blogging

A handful of the monetization methods available to you as a blogger come with different requirements. Besides that, you also need to consider the quality of traffic to your blog before choosing the best option for you.

If your blog receives a very tiny amount of search traffic, a display ad network might not work best for you unless you can augment the traffic with other forms of traffic, like social media traffic. In the previous publication on ways to promote your blog to get more visitors, I elaborately discussed the different sources to promote your blog to get more traffic. You should check that out.

Now, without much ado, let’s dive into the meat of the matter: how to make money blogging in 2024.

1. Display Ad Networks

Display Ad Networks are online platforms that connect advertisers with online publishers (bloggers) that want to host ads. That is, the platform connects an advertiser who wants to advertise a product/service to a blogger so that the blogger can place the ad on the blog. This process is automated, and in most cases, the blogger might not work with the advertiser directly, but simply putting a code from the ad network platform on its website gives the advertiser access to advertise on the blog. The blogger gets paid once stipulated action has occurred, like clicking on the ad from a user or the ad has been seen 1,000 times by users.

Examples of popular display ad networks are:

– Google Adsense

Google AdSense is a contextual advertising network that uses its algorithm to display ads on its publisher’s blog that are relevant to the content of the blog and the interest of the reader. Bloggers who are accepted into this ad network earn money via either a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Cost-Per-Thousand Impression (CPM).

The CPC means that the blogger is paid when a visitor clicks on an ad displayed on the blog, while the CPM model means that the blogger is paid once ads have been shown to visitors 1,000 times.

Unlike many other ad networks, AdSense requires the blog to meet certain criteria, which many bloggers have described as ambiguous and rigorous. 

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– Monetag

Monetag, unlike Google AdSense, is a CPM ad network. This means that it pays its publisher based on the number of impressions the ad records on the blogger’s website.

Other ad networks are: 

1. Adsterra
2. Ezoic 
3. AdThrive 
4. Media.net 
5. OutBrain 
6. Propeller Ads

Almost all the ad networks offer pop-unders, push notifications, and native ad placements.

2. Brand Ambassador 

I choose to call this brand ‘ambassadorship’ form of earning from your blog. These methods require that you directly promote other people’s businesses to make money. They include:

– Affiliate marketing 

The affiliate marketing method of making money blogging is for you to recommend products and services offered by others using a unique link known as an affiliate link. Each time someone clicks on the link visits the webpage and makes a purchase, you earn a certain percentage of that money, which is known as commission.

Many online service providers have affiliate links and pay different amounts of commission.

Bluehost, for instance, promises to pay about 70% of the purchase.

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This means that if someone buys something worth $100, you’re entitled to 70% of $100, which is $70. Some platforms may pay between $5 – $50, while others can offer recurrent earnings – meaning that you keep getting paid as long as the user keeps buying from them.

Note that some platforms will require some form of verification before your affiliate link is approved.

To get started with this method, in the niche you’re, think of brands within the niche that might have such an offer. Go to search engines and type the brand name + affiliate to see if they have it. E.g., Bluehost affiliate. Alternatively, visit their website to see if they have an affiliate program.

The most popular affiliate programs used by bloggers are from marketplaces like Amazon, Jumia, JVZoo, and WarriorPlus.

– Guest post

Guest posting is another lucrative way to make money as a blogger. It may not become a main source of revenue, but it can be a passive income stream.

This works better, especially if your website has a lot of good content and attracts many visitors. Those who want to advertise or guest post on your website want to ensure they get value for the money they pay you. Plus, guest posters are more willing to return if they notice increased visibility as a result of their posts. They always want to know that many eyeballs will see their content.

So, what exactly is guest posting? It’s you accepting people’s blog posts to publish on your blog. Many people use this method to build backlinks and authority in their respective niches.

If you want to use this format to make money as a blogger, you should include a description either on your contact page or create a separate page that outlines your criteria, what you look for before accepting a guest post, the length, and type of content, etc. Also, include the amount you would charge these people. This is very important.

If you do a quick search on Google, for instance, if you search for blogs that accept guest posts, you’re going to see a lot of websites that use this method to monetize their blogs.

Of course, some blogs offer this service for free.

– Sponsored post 

You can charge as high as $1,000 per post, depending on the niche and your monthly traffic. Sponsored posts are more like guest posting and affiliate marketing but with certain differentiating factors. Sponsored posts are simply a brand sponsoring a post on your website. 

For instance, a brand that offers web hosting could sponsor a blog post on your blog that focuses on the best hosting companies for bloggers. The company will write the post and send it to you for you to review and publish, or the company will give you the contract to write the post while promoting their brand as the best.

To make money from this, in your future content, think of brands that can benefit greatly from what you’re promoting using the blog post. Contact them to see if you can strike a deal with them.

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For example, if you blog about insurance, insurance companies are the best to reach out to. In your pitch, attach evidence of your monthly traffic, the age of the visitors, and the countries they come from.

– Newsletter sponsorships

Yes, you can make money from your newsletter. If you have a lot of people in your email list, you could promote brands in your email list. Many bloggers, especially the big ones, do this a lot. Either in the footer or somewhere around your email, you will have to mention their brand with a link back to a page on their website, preferably their contact page or a page that sells their product. Of course, that link usually will be tracked by the brand to know how many people clicked on the link from your newsletter to their page.

The more people that read your email and engage with it, the better your chance of succeeding in this.

There’s literally no limit to the kind of things you can promote using this method as long as it’s relevant to your audience. eBooks, Online courses, services, training, etc.

– Product Reviews

Product review is another goldmine. When people want to buy things online, they most often want to find out other people’s experiences with that particular thing. It could be you doing that review, especially if you have first-hand experience with the product. 

For instance, if you use an iPhone 15, you could decide to write a comprehensive review about the iPhone 15. It will focus on your experiences. What are the challenges? What are the features you love so much? And how do you use various features in it? 

In the post, you will have to link back to their website, of course, using an affiliate link. So that once anybody clicks on it and makes a purchase, you will get a commission. 

More so, after writing a review, you could actually reach out to these companies and ask them to sponsor that particular review. So it is like you are giving them authorship of that blog post. So they pay you, and you post that content on your blog. 

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– Event hosting and speaking engagements

Yes, you can make money as an industry expert by hosting an event or by accepting speaking engagements. I have personally used this a lot. 

So, if you want to host a training, let’s assume you are a blogger. You talk about blogging, right? You could decide to host a class on blogging. Because blogging requires buying a domain and a hosting account from companies that offer the service, you can reach out to any of the companies that offer the service. You can ask them to sponsor that event. 

A perfect example is this. 

When I was hosting the free class on how to start and make money blogging, I reached out to hosting companies and asked them to sponsor the event. A few agreed and paid me handsomely for it.

During the event, I mentioned the hosting company as the best because they sponsored the training, and I asked the students to use the hosting company.

While doing this, you must be careful to work with only the best. Do not be carried away by the money you’ll make. Any company you recommend as the best should actually be the best after you have used it to avoid misleading the public.

– Self-Services

This method of making money blogging requires some level of expertise, collaboration, or partnership. It’s doing what you do for others for yourself. So instead of using display ad networks, being an affiliate or sponsored post, you can promote your products.

– Sales of courses, eBooks

Think of it this way: visitors coming to your blog daily are people who are genuinely interested in those topics, and there’s a high tendency that they may seek high transformation that a single blog post may not offer.

A typical example is this: by reading this post on how to make money blogging, there’s that tendency that if I have a video tutorial on how to achieve all these and even more, you’ll patronize it. True or false?

That’s the idea. 

But this will only be possible if you’re knowledgeable enough to create such videos and eBooks. If you go through this site, you’ll see a button at the top that says “course”, that’s me selling different awesome training programs I’ve recorded.

You could do the same for both Videos and Ebooks.

– Sales of merchandise 

Building a community around what you blog about is a better way to achieve this. It could be a customized T-shirt, Cap, and many others.

– Consultancy

This accounts for one of the reasons I always recommend choosing a profitable niche in which you’re an authority. Assuming you’re an accountant, you can offer consultation for brands looking to tighten their finances.

You can also have membership sites, coaching programs, freelance work, and many others here.

FAQS | How To Make Money Blogging in 2024

Final Thoughts

To earn money from blogging, one thing you must never forget in a hurry is that quality traffic amounts to money. So, apart from your blog appearing in search results, search engine result pages (SERPs) find other means to get traffic, like social media, and also bank that traffic.

It’s crucial regardless of the monetization technique you choose to earn money as a blog: affiliate links, Google AdSense, product or service, etc.

Lastly, choose a profitable niche and write on blog topics you’re versed in. You don’t want to start a blog on something you’ve no knowledge, interest, or passion for.