# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pinch of Yum's Traffic and Income Reports: Inside information on how we're building traffic and creating an income from our food blog.

# data[].attributes.body
Source: Wix.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Blog Monetization: How To Earn Enough Money To Maintain Your Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I was recently asked: How can I earn enough money to maintain my blog or earn enough so it maintains itself? To answer this question, I didn't want to just list a set of tactics, although I have included them - there's more to think about here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
How to Make Money with Your Blog in 2025 - Blogging Basics 101

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You want to make money with your blog, right?

Of course you do.

Everyone wants - and needs -to make more money.

So you started a blog since you've heard it's an easy way to make cash, but you're not quite sure how to actually make money doing it. Or maybe you already have a blog and you're exploring ways to monetize it.

I started my blog ( BloggingBasics101.com) all the way back in 2006, and I knew nothing about blogging and even less about making money with a blog!

Now I know a ton about them, and my blog's doing pretty well - I receive more than 300,000 unique visitors per month and make over $10,000 per month which makes me consider myself someone you can listen to and learn from when it comes to starting and making money with your blog. I'm not some sort of Guru, but I certainly do know the basics.

No matter which group you're in, making money with a blog - whether it's a hobby blog or a business blog -is possible. It's not a get rich quick scheme, but if you do it right, you could make enough to support your family and more.

Let's dive in and see how you can make a profit with your blog.

Monetize with CPC or CPM Ads

One of the most common ways bloggers make money is through placing ads on their site. There are two popular types of ads:

CPC/PPC Ads: Cost per click (also called pay per click) ads are usually banners that you place in your content or sidebar. Each time a reader clicks on the ad, you are paid for that click.

CPM Ads: CPM Ads, or "cost per 1,000 impressions," are ads that pay you a fixed amount of money based on how many people view your ad.

Perhaps the most popular network for placing these types of ads is Google AdSense. With this program, you do not need to be in direct contact with advertisers; you simply place the banner on your site, Google chooses ads relevant to your content, and your viewers click on the ads. There are countless similar programs available if you find that AdSense doesn't work for you, such as Chitika, Infolinks, and Media.net.

Sell Private Ads

Working with advertising networks isn't your only option when it comes to selling ads. If you end up with enough traffic, advertisers may come directly to you and ask you to place their ad on your site. You can also contact advertisers yourself. The biggest difference from the above mentioned option is that there is no middle man, which means you can set your own ad rates.

Selling private ads can come in the form of banners, buttons, or links. You can even make money writing sponsored posts where you write about or give a review of an advertiser's product or service. Another option is to write an underwritten post or series, which is where you can write about any topic, but the advertiser pays for a "Brought to you by" mention in the content.

The ways you make money with this can vary. For instance, you might charge a one-time fee for a link within a post. If you are hosting banner ads, you might charge your partner monthly.

Bonus tip: To maximize your income, you can also choose to sell sponsorship space in your email newsletters (here are 5 best email marketing software ), podcasts, and videos.

Include Affiliate Links in Your Content

Affiliate marketing is also another great tool for monetizing your blog. Here is how affiliate marketing works:

1. An advertiser has a product she wants to sell. She agrees to give you a commission from each sale if the buyer is coming from your site.

2. She gives you a unique link that tracks your affiliate code. That way, she knows when a buyer used your link to make a purchase.

3. You include your affiliate link on your site. You can do this directly in the content or through banner ads. If a reader clicks on your unique link and buys the product you have recommended, you earn a percentage of what she purchased.

You can utilize affiliate marketing through ad networks like Amazon Associates, or you can create private partnerships with advertisers and businesses with an affiliate program.

Sell Digital Products

If you would rather not advertise other people's products on your site, or if you are looking for another stream of income, consider selling digital products. This can include items like:

eBooks

Online courses/workshops

Images, video, or music people can use in their own content

Apps, plugins, or themes

Just remember that if you are going to choose one of these avenues that you make it relevant and useful to your readers. A lot of bloggers make the mistake of assuming they are developing a product their readers need; listen to your readers first, and then create a digital product that will meet their needs.

Use it as a Content Marketing Tool for Your Business

It is also possible to sell physical products on your blog and to make money that way. Instead of thinking of it as making money from your blog, however, think of your blog as a content marketing tool that will drive visitors to your business website.

The possibilities are practically endless when it comes to developing a business blog. You could sell hand-made products, books, manufactured products, and so much more. Or you might already have a business and decide to start a blog to convert loyal customers.

Lets say, for example, that you refurbish and resell used smartphones out of your home. You could use a blog to attract visitors to your website where you list your current phones for sale. Your blog might cover topics about DIY refurbishing. On one level, it seems counterintuitive because you want people to buy your phones, but it also helps you build a brand and gain recognition. Social media guru Jay Baer explains the concept on Copyblogger:
I was at a conference a few years ago, and this is where I first sort of started thinking about this concept, and their founder, Robert Johnson, was speaking... He said, "Well our best customers are the people that think they can fix it themselves." But eventually you are going to get out of your depth either on that project on a project down the road, at which point who are you going to call? Are you going to call somebody randomly that you discovered on Google or are you going to call the guys who you just watched their logo in the corner of a 14-minute instructional video?
This concept can also be applied to services in all types of industries. For instance, if you offered electronic repair services as opposed to physical products, you could still use the same blogging concept to increase brand awareness and convert more clients.

Sell Memberships

Another option to make money is to sell memberships to exclusive corners of your website. For instance, a career blog might charge $10 per month for users to gain access to their job board. A startup business blog might sell memberships to their forums where people can get personalized advice about their business.

The key here is that your exclusive membership has to be more valuable than something your visitors can find for free somewhere else, so be sure you're developing something of value and worth the price.

Use it to Build Your Credibility

Blogging to build credibility can lead to many money-making opportunities. For instance, let us say you start a blog in the finance industry. People start reading your content, and your blog becomes very popular. You are now a recognized figure in the finance industry.

Once you have that authority, people might approach you to co-author a book on debt management, or you could charge to speak at conferences or to run employee financial training days.

This certainly isn't a direct form of making money blogging, but it has worked for many well-known bloggers, and it can work for you, too. If you're looking for a direct revenue stream, popular blogs have sold for 4-7 figures (sometimes more) by selling their branding and content.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that making money blogging is not possible by putting your site up and letting it sit there. The "if you build it, they will come" mentality doesn't work here, so be sure you're willing to put in the time. Most bloggers don't see a spike of income for several months (sometimes years) after starting their blog. Before you dive too deep into blogging, remember these little bits of advice:
Create Quality Content
You are not going to make any money from your blog if people don't read it. After all, your readers are the ones who are going to make you money, whether they're clicking on your ads or buying your products. Always put your readers first.
Don't Spend Your Time Exclusively on Your Blog
Developing a successful blog has a lot to do with building relationships. That can include relationships with sponsors, affiliate partners, or simply other bloggers who will direct traffic to your blog. Be sure some of your time is spent on forums and other blogs (or whatever works for you) to build these relationships and your blog.
Don't Be Afraid to Experiment
Not all of these tips and avenues of income are going to work for you. Don't be afraid to tweak your methods to see what works best for you and your readers.

Making money blogging can take a lot of persistence, but it can pay off in the long-run if you're starting out from scratch. Just remember that you don't have to use all of these money-making avenues at once. Consider what other people in your industry are doing, and start from there.

Over time, you will learn what works for you and what doesn't. If you're looking to make money from your blog, which option will you start with?

Let me know in the comment section :).

Share the Infographic

Share this on your Blog!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Make Money with Your Blog in 2023 - Blogging Basics 101

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You want to make money with your blog, right? Of course you do. Everyone wants - and needs -to make more money. So you started a blog since you've heard it's an easy way to make cash, but you're not quite sure how to actually make money doing it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
How to Make Money Blogging: Your FREE Guide for 2024

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are lots of guides about how to make money blogging, but here's what makes this one different:

I've taken three different blogs to over $1 million per year. In fact, the blog you're reading right now has made a total of $6.7 million.

And in this post, I'm going to give you a step-by-step case study showing you exactly how I did it, starting from nothing, along with my step-by-step guide for beginners trying to get started.

Let's jump in.

In a moment, I'm going to show you a general framework you can follow to start a profitable blog from scratch.

But first, let's jump into the specifics of how to make real money blogging, including real-world examples you can study and learn from.

Here are the top 7 awesome ways to make a good blogging income:

1. Online Courses and Workshops

Here at Smart Blogger, we make most of our income from online courses and workshops - over $1 million per year - but we are far from the only successful blog doing this. Most of the people making a lot of money from their blogs are doing it through online courses.

Ramit Sethi reportedly crossed $10 million dollars in annual revenue with his suite of premium courses:

And it's not only business or wealth-focused topics that are doing well. You can find successful blogs on just about any topic or niche monetizing with online courses. For instance, the popular interior designer Maria Killam has quite a few courses and workshops in her catalog:

Online courses and workshops can bring in one-time payments or, depending on your model, recurring income via subscriptions.

2. Books and Ebooks

Quite a few writers have parlayed their blogging success into a major publishing deal. Mark Manson, for instance, published a blog post called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck in 2015. Millions of readers later, he got a book deal with Harper Collins and went on to sell over 3,000,000 copies in the US alone.

Self-published books have also been successful. The most notable success story among bloggers is probably James Altucher's Choose Yourself, which is now sold over 500,000 copies:

3. Affiliate Marketing

If you'd like to create some passive income streams from your blog, one of the best choices is affiliate marketing - recommending the services, digital products, and physical products of other companies in exchange for a commission.

Here at Smart Blogger, we make more than $100,000 per year promoting affiliate products, most of that coming from casually recommending products we love like SiteGround (affiliate link) and Elementor (affiliate link).

But there are lots of other examples too. For instance, John Lee Dumas of EOFire made $710,835 in affiliate income last year. Digital Photography School has reportedly made over $500,000 in commissions as an Amazon Associate from promoting photography equipment:

With so many companies offering referral programs to help spread the word about their digital product or service, the number of different affiliate marketing opportunities is enormous.

Joining an affiliate network such as CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, eBay Partner Network, or ShareASale is one way to begin tapping into this revenue stream and to start earning extra income from your hard-earned organic traffic.

4. Advertising

Normally, we're not big fans of selling ads on your site as a monetization strategy. You need roughly a million visitors per year for the large ad networks to take you seriously, and affiliate marketing is almost always more profitable and just as passive.

That being said, some niches like recipes, fashion, and news are hard to monetize through many of the other methods mentioned here, and they get LOTS of page views. In that case, putting a few banner ads on your site can make sense as a supplementary income source.

For example, here's a screenshot of a 2016 income report from Share the Yummy:

Normally, you make money by joining an ad network. Nearly anyone can join Google AdSense and add a Google Ad or two, for example, and you can later grow into more selective networks like Mediavine and AdThrive.

5. Speaking Gigs

If your blog takes off, and you start being recognized as an authority in your space, you might be surprised by how many invitations you get to speak at conferences. And it's amazingly profitable. I typically make a minimum of $10,000 per speech and it can go as high as $100,000 when you count product sales resulting from the speech.

Not bad for a 60-90 minute talk. 🙂

6. Consulting/Coaching

While this certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, doing a bit of coaching or consulting is an online job that can earn you a surprisingly nice living, even when your audience is small. I rarely do consulting anymore, but the last time I did regularly, I charged $1,000 an hour with a six-month waiting list.

But I'm not the only one. Going back to Maria, again, she's been quite innovative in coming up with ways to do design consultations by photo and email, currently charging $1,275 per room:

You can make this work in almost any niche. You just need to know what you're doing and be confident in the value you are providing to clients.

7. Selling Freelance Services

The next step up from consulting is to actually do it for them.

Typically, you'll make more money freelancing than with anything else, but it's also the most draining and time-intensive. That being said, I've seen bloggers make six-figure incomes with no more than a few thousand readers on their blog, essentially using their blog as a lead mechanism to get clients.

It's so profitable, even if successful bloggers continue to do it. For example, Elna Cain continues to sell her freelance writing services:

If you're a freelance writer, designer, photographer, programmer, or other service provider where your skills can be sold digitally instead of you having to be there in person, you might want to consider this income stream from day one. All you really need to get started is a contact form for clients to reach out to you.

Okay, now for the fun part. Let me show you the framework I used to become an honest-to-goodness millionaire...

If you're a new blogger starting from scratch with no traffic or influential friends, it's easy to wonder...

For that matter, how do blogs even make money? Ads? Sponsored content (i.e. writing a sponsored post)? Sell products? Good luck? Or something else?

Well, let's take a look at exactly how I did it at Smart Blogger. Here's my complete step-by-step process for how to make money blogging:

1. Choose the Right Blogging Niche (a Profitable One)

Let's start with a little brutal truth, shall we?

Passion does not equal profit.

Neither does expertise.

Hard work doesn't guarantee anything either.

For example:

You can be the world's foremost expert on square-shaped tomatoes, wake up every morning with a burning passion to educate the public on their vast superiority to normal-shaped tomatoes, and work until your fingers bleed and your eyes fall out of your head, following all the right tactics for turning your new blog into a popular one, and...

You'll never have a chance in hell at making any amount of money.
Is it reasonable for you to believe you can make money blogging?
Here's why:

1. Nobody but you gives a damn about square tomatoes

2. Even if they did care, they wouldn't spend any money

In other words, you need a large audience who buys things. Without that, nothing else matters. It's a prerequisite for everything else.

In the case of Smart Blogger, I noticed early on that bloggers buy lots of different things:

In fact, there are companies with $10 million+ per year of revenue in most of those categories. It's also a growing space with millions of people:

The only problem?

Loads of competition. Whether it be my previous employers Brian Clark or Neil Patel, my good friends over at Problogger, or the gazillion other "blogging about blogging" peeps infesting the social media space, everyone was intent on snagging a piece of the pie. They also had a several-year head start on me.

So, how did I compete? The honest answer:

2. Improve Your Content Skills

You've probably heard that "Content is king," and it's true... to an extent. A more accurate statement would be...

If that's hard to understand, think about it this way:

Lots of bloggers sit down and think, "What will I write today?" They jot down some thoughts, doing their best to be helpful, original, and entertaining. If they're disciplined, they might even stick with it for a few months.

But it almost never works. Here are a few reasons why:

What you want to say isn't what other people want to read

You weren't using a proven content framework

It's not the best post ever published on the topic

Granted, it's not your fault. Until today, chances are no one ever told you about any of those requirements. You thought, to become a successful blogger, you just had to write interesting stuff and publish it.

No, grasshopper. No.

The truth is, having good ideas and powerful words isn't enough. You have to create the best content ever published on blog topics lots of people are interested in learning more about. And that brings us to the three levels of content creation:

1. You know what blog content is popular in your niche, and you write exclusively about those topics

2. You've mastered frameworks proven to make your content more popular (list post, how to post, etc.)

3. Your content delivers more value to the reader than any other post published on that topic

Embed This Infographic On Your Site
You're probably thinking, "Geez. That sounds hard." And you're right, it is.

I personally spent about three years honing my skills by writing for other sites before I started my own blog. It doesn't have to take that long - I'm just a perfectionist, so I wanted to learn from the best people in my space.
The Best Content Is King
It worked, though. Nowadays, my posts get millions and millions of visitors, not because I know some special "secret," but because I'm really good at what I do.

Blogging is really no different than anything else. The more of a badass you are, the easier it is for you to make money online.

So you want to know how to make money blogging?

Become an awesome writer.

Then the next step is to...

3. Choose a Traffic Source (Google Search or Facebook)

When you're a newbie, getting traffic is confusing.

Should you focus on optimizing your keywords? Growing your Facebook page? Leaving comments on blogs? Answering questions on Quora? Being active in Facebook groups? Creating videos for your YouTube channel? Starting a popular podcast?

And so on.

There are a gazillion traffic tactics out there. Everybody says theirs is the best.

But here's the data:

Pretty much all the traffic for written content comes from either Google or Facebook. The rest of traffic sources combined don't even come close to competing with those two Goliaths.

So, how do you get them to send you a bunch of traffic?

One option is you can pay for it. They like that.

But chances are, you're reading about how to make money blogging because you don't want to pay for traffic. You want it for free, right?

Well, imagine this:

There's an arena where all the bloggers in your space go to compete for traffic. The number of other challengers you defeat determines the amount of traffic you receive.

In other words, getting traffic is a sport.

There are winners, and there are losers

To be good, you have to train

You need to study your opponents

There are actually two sports, and I'd bet you've heard of both of them: search engine optimization (SEO) and going viral on Facebook. Both take years (yes, I said years) of study to master, but you can start getting pretty decent traffic after just a few months of study and practice.

Which one should you focus on?

Well, here are two questions to guide you:

Is your topic something your friends and family regularly talk about on Facebook? Examples: pets, parenting, self-improvement, and health. If so, focus on playing the viral traffic sport.

Is your topic something people actively search for information about on Google? Examples: product reviews, specific questions they would ask an expert, how-to information. If so, focus on SEO.

For most topics, you can do both, but one or the other will be dominant. In that case, focus on whichever one is dominant.

In the blogging space, for example, stuff about writing and grammar occasionally goes viral on Facebook, because we love criticizing our relatives about their terrible English. On the other hand, you rarely talk with your family about blogging platforms, WordPress plugins, affiliate marketing, digital marketing, keyword research, or any other blogging topics.

You will, however, search for them on Google. Just as you would guess then, the blogging niche is heavily dominated by search. Here's a breakdown of Smart Blogger's traffic by source:

The truth is, we pretty much ignore Facebook. The volume of traffic available there comes nowhere close to the volume of traffic available from search engines. So, we focus on Google.

I also spend WAY more time keeping up to date on SEO stuff than I do on social stuff. I'm a geek about it. Throw me in a room full of Google engineers, and I'd probably know more than half of them.

Not to imply I'm the best, though. I'm also competing against people like Darren Rowse, Amy Lynn Andrews, and Neil Patel. They're pretty freaking good too.

In time, I think I can be better, but who knows? That's why sports are fun. You never know who is going to win.

If you're good though, you'll always be in the "playoffs," for your space, and you'll get lots of traffic. Maybe not the most, but still plenty.

And then you can focus on how to...

4. Grow Your Email List with Pop Ups

Chances are, you see pop ups as an annoyance.

They get in the way when you're trying to read. They ask you to hand over sensitive information like your name, email address, and phone number. Sometimes you have to deal with multiple pop ups on the same site, and it makes you feel hassled and uncared for.

And all that sucks. In my opinion, you have every right to be annoyed.

But here's the thing...

That's where the money comes from. The best predictor of the revenue for a money making blog is the size of their email list. Here's a breakdown of our revenue at Smart Blogger comparing revenue dollars from email to other sources.

The rule of thumb is you can expect to make $1 per subscriber per month. So, if you have 10,000 email subscribers, you should be able to make about $10,000 per month.

So obviously, growing your email list is a top priority. You might, however, feel conflicted about using pop ups. What are you supposed to do?

Here's a different way of looking at it:

If a visitor comes to your site and doesn't give you their email address, the chances of them returning are nearly zero. You'll never have another opportunity to help them.

If you believe your content is the best, and you believe you can help them over time, I believe you owe it to them to be as pushy as possible about staying in contact. In other words, not using a pop up is unethical. A little annoyance is a small price to pay for change.

And remember, that doesn't mean you have to be extremely pushy or spammy. You can absolutely use pop ups in authentic ways.

But you absolutely must use them. Assuming you want to make money, anyway.

5. Begin Monetizing with Affiliate Programs

So, you're operating in a profitable niche, and you have traffic and an email list. What next?

Lots of new bloggers jump into creating an online course or book or community of some sort, but that's a mistake, in my opinion. Before you start selling things, you need concrete evidence those things are what people want to buy. Otherwise, you're risking wasting months or even years of your life trying to push a product no one wants.

The simplest way to obtain that evidence:

Affiliate programs.

By seeing what your audience buys from other people, you can get a much better sense of what they might want to buy from you. If you promote an affiliate product and it converts well, you should think about creating a similar product. If it doesn't convert well, you should probably move on.

In other words, affiliate program offers are a form of market research. As a bonus, you just so happen to get paid commissions on the products your customers buy in the process. So not only are you learning what your target audience wants to buy, but you're making money from your blog at the same time. Pretty sweet deal.

At Smart Blogger, I've tried lots of different offers. WordPress blog hosting, landing page tools, email marketing software, Amazon affiliate content links, WordPress themes, and half a dozen different types of high-quality courses. Since we sell courses, I pay the most attention to the results from those programs, and here are a couple of lessons:

End to end solutions sell best. Courses promising to take someone from knowing nothing to making money far outperformed the others. For instance, here's a screenshot showing us as the #1 affiliate for Danny Iny's Course Builder's Laboratory:

Tools with a clear connection to money making also sell better than the others. For instance, landing page builders. As proof, here's a screenshot of our earnings from promoting LeadPages:

By themselves, neither of those promotions really moved the needle on our revenue, but they did teach us useful lessons that went into creating Freedom Machine, which brings us to...

6. Develop a Unique Mechanism

Before you think about launching your own products or services, there's one essential point about human nature you need to understand:

Whenever anyone purchases anything, they expect to transition from where they are now (Point A) to where they want to be (Point B). For example...

When you buy pizza, you want to transition from being hungry and craving pizza (Point A) to tasting delicious pizza and feeling full (Point B).

When you hire a plumber, you want to transition from having a clogged, overflowing toilet (Point A) to having a normally functioning toilet (Point B).

When you buy a course on SEO, you want to transition from feeling bewildered and getting ignored by Google (Point A) to ranking for competitive terms and getting great blog traffic.

The success of a product ultimately depends on helping customers make those transitions. If the customer doesn't get to Point B, they typically view the experience as a failure.

So, here's the magic question:

The answer to that question is what content marketing expert Todd Brown calls your "unique mechanism." It's a little different from a "unique selling proposition," because it's not just something about you that's different. It's something about you or your method that makes you better able to help customers than anyone else.

For Freedom Machine, we have multiple unique mechanisms:

1. Get published on Medium - a platform with more than 60 million active readers looking for great content

2. Content frameworks developed behind the scenes at Smart Blogger to produce popular, valuable content

3. A monetization methodology proven by our success with Smart Blogger

Combined, those unique mechanisms are EXTREMELY convincing at setting us up as the superior solution. Therefore, the product sells like hotcakes.

To be clear... it's not necessary to have 3 different unique mechanisms. Sometimes just one is all you need (i.e. fresh, hot pizza in 30 minutes or less). The core idea though is to make sure you are obviously far more capable than your competitors at delivering results.

Then all you have to do is...

7. Launch the Minimum Viable Funnel

Look around at successful entrepreneurs of any type, and you'll find a surprising trend:

They tend to sell their products before the product is created.

To most people, this sounds like insanity at best or a disturbing lack of ethics at worst. How could you possibly ask people to buy something that doesn't exist?

The answer:

It's the same principle as Kickstarter.
What makes you better equipped to deliver that transition than your competitors?
You create a fancy minimal sales funnel of some sort (in this case, just a simple sales page), tell people the product is coming soon, and then wait to see if enough people sign up to justify making the product. If they don't, you refund everyone's money and start over.

In other words, it's the final step in validating you have a viable product. The steps go like this:

1. Identify demand by promoting affiliate products

2. Find a unique mechanism that makes you clearly superior

3. Test the demand for that unique mechanism with a quick and dirty launch before you create the product

In my case, the minimum viable funnel was a 90-minute webinar. The first time I did it, there was no product, no follow-up sequence, nothing. It was just a bare-bones test.

And it resulted in $126,000 in sales live on the webinar.

Seeing that $30,000 sales was my minimum for success, we went ahead and created the first version of the product live with students. About a year later, it's now approaching $1 million in sales.

That's also just one product. We have others, and we have still more in the research pipeline.

And guess what I would do if I had to start over again?

The exact same thing. It's not easy, it's not fast, it's not even that sexy, but it works.

Let's close with some questions and answers, shall we?

FAQ about How to Make Money Blogging

So, we've covered the basic process. Now let's step back for a moment and answer some of the questions I hear the most often:

Do bloggers make money?

I certainly do, but I don't think that's what you're asking. I think you're asking...

The no BS answer:

It depends on how patient and persistent you are.

Starting a blog from scratch is just as difficult as starting a small business. For example, it requires the same time and effort as starting your own restaurant, software company, or accounting service. Yes, those businesses are wildly different, but the first few years are usually the same story: low income, lots of stress, big learning curve.

If you want a more concrete answer than that, we've found it takes even our smartest, most dedicated students 3-6 years to make enough money from blogging to quit their jobs. And that sounds like a long time, but so what? 3-6 years to be able to work from anywhere in the world, take a vacation whenever you want, and probably have passive income until the day you die?

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

How much money can you make from blogging?

The fact is, most bloggers make as much money as any other type of entrepreneur:

Nothing.

And it's not because there's no money in it. This blog makes more than $1 million per year, for God sakes, and it's nowhere close to the most profitable blog out there. Blogs like The Penny Hoarder, Moz, and Lifehacker power businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

So why aren't more bloggers rich?

The truth is, most people quit. They start a blog, write a post or two, realize it's hard work, and walk away.

But if you're patient and persistent?

You can make millions. I have. So have lots of other smart, dedicated entrepreneurs.

You just have to do the work. Consistently. For years.

Can you do that?

Then yeah, I think you can make six figures at least. Maybe more.
"Is it reasonable for me to learn how to make money blogging?"
How do you make money blogging? (Or, How do bloggers make money?)

As I mentioned earlier, there 7 popular ways to make money blogging:

1. Offering online courses and workshops

2. Writing books and eBooks

3. Affiliate marketing (recommending products and services in exchange for a commission)

4. Blog ads

5. Speaking at conferences

6. Offering your expertise as a consultant or coach

7. Selling freelance services such as writing, designing, and programming

Which is best for you will depend on your blog, your expertise, and your situation.

How do you start your own blog for free?

Lots of people say you can't. They tell you to buy a domain name, a web hosting account (Bluehost is one you see pushed a lot by influencers), and a premium WordPress theme.

But I think that's nonsense.

You can get started for free within five minutes on . They also have over 60 million monthly readers, so you can get a lot of exposure there if you get featured.

This great article walks you through that strategy, step-by-step.

Alternatively, you can write on WordPress.com, Linkedin, or any of the other platforms out there. It doesn't really matter. The point is, start writing and learning as soon as possible.

Once people start sharing your great, informative posts, and you begin to understand how everything works, then you can go through the trouble of setting up your own site, installing WordPress, and all that jazz. Until then though, it's just a headache you don't need.

What are the most popular blogging platforms?

WordPress is by far the most popular. No one else is even close.

But that doesn't mean it's the best for everyone. There are several blogging platforms you can try - and most of them are free.

As I mentioned earlier, I think Medium is a good place to start. You can also create your own blog with tools like Blogger, Squarespace, Wix, Joomla, and countless others.

What are the top blogs about how to make money blogging?

I'd like to think Smart Blogger is the best (and most comprehensive) site on the topic, but it's by no means the only one. Not all of these talk about how to make money blogging, but together, they give you a solid foundation:

Backlinko - Brian Dean doesn't talk much about how to make money blogging, but he's one of the top experts and educators in the world on SEO. What I love about his highly valuable content is how easy to understand it is, despite covering some incredibly complex topics. If you're a beginner blogger looking for DIY insights, prepare for a treat.

Digital Marketer - In my opinion, my friends over at Digital Marketer are the best in the world at monetizing traffic. If you'd like to learn about marketing, list building, customer research, automation, or funnels, there's no better source.

Smart Passive Income - If you're interested in using your blog to build passive income, Pat Flynn is a master at showing you how to build a tiny little business that can support you and the lifestyle you want. Both his blog and podcast are excellent.

The Bottom Line about How to Make Money Blogging

Is it possible?

Absolutely, but only if you treat it like a blogging business.

Yes, you can start your blog as a side project. Yes, you can slowly grow it in the background. Yes, you can turn your blog into a source of passive, full-time income that eventually lets you quit your job, travel, spend a lot of time with your family, whatever you want to do.

But like anything worthwhile, it's hard work getting there.

You have to study. Practice. Master your craft. Put in a lot of work. Hustle.

If you love writing, I can't imagine a better business, though. Not only is blogging a great way to get your writing noticed, but it's a great way to connect with people around the world who need you, teach them what you know, and get paid pretty damn well in exchange.

There's never a day I regret dedicating myself to blogging. Never.

It's not just because of the money, either. It's because I also get to do what I love and help people at the same time.

What could be better than that?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Lynne from Design The life You Want to Live

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Make Money Blogging: Your FREE Guide for 2023

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are lots of guides about how to make money blogging, but here's what makes this one different: I've taken three different blogs to over $1 million per year. In fact, the blog you're reading right now has made a total of $6.7 million.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Google AdSense - Earn Money From Website Monetization

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Earn money with website monetization from Google AdSense. We'll optimize your ad sizes to give them more chance to be seen and clicked.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To participate in the AdSense Program, you need to meet our eligibility requirements. Here are some things to check before you sign up for an AdSense account.

Do you have your own unique and interesting content?

Your content must be high-quality, original, and attract an audience. Read our tips to make sure your site's pages are ready for AdSense.

Does your content comply with the AdSense Program policies?

Make sure that your site complies with our Program policies before you sign up. Keep in mind that we may change our policies at any time, and per our Terms and Conditions, it's your responsibility to keep up-to-date with them.

Are you at least 18 years old?

As noted in our Terms and Conditions, we can only accept applications from applicants who are over 18.

Note: If you're under 18, you may have a parent or guardian sign up for AdSense using their own Google Account. If their AdSense account is approved, all payments will be made to the adult responsible for the site.
Sign up for AdSense
If you use Blogger, YouTube or another host partner

If you use a product like Blogger or YouTube (or another AdSense host partner), you can sign up for a hosted AdSense account. Note that to be eligible, you must meet certain eligibility requirements. When your blog or channel becomes eligible for monetization via AdSense, you can set up your AdSense account and link these products.

Please sign up for AdSense via your Blogger account, YouTube channel, or host partner account. For more information, see:

To monetize with Blogger, you must comply with the AdSense policies and restrictions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To participate in the AdSense Program, you need to meet our eligibility requirements. Here are some things to check before you sign up for an AdSense account. Your content must be high-quality, original, and attract an audience. Read our tips to make sure your site's pages are ready for AdSense.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Amazon Associates - Amazon's affiliate marketing program

Welcome to one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world. The Amazon Associates Program helps content creators, publishers and bloggers monetize their traffic. With millions of products and programs available on Amazon, associates use easy link-building tools to direct their audience to their recommendations, and earn from qualifying purchases and programs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon Associates - Amazon's affiliate marketing program Welcome to one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world. The Amazon Associates Program helps content creators, publishers and bloggers monetize their traffic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Work With Brands as a Blogger - Melyssa Griffin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a blogger, working with brands you love is not only a great way to earn an income, it's also a fun way to build relationships, grow your audience, and share useful products and content with your followers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Do you want to add a privacy policy to your WordPress site?

A privacy policy page is a document required by law that discloses the information you collect about visitors on your website. It is recommended to add a privacy policy page to your website whether you are a blogger, freelancer, or business owner.

Now, the problem is most beginners don't know how to create a legitimate privacy policy and then display it on their website.

In this article, we will show you how to easily add a privacy policy in WordPress.

What Is a Privacy Policy and Do You Need It on Your Website?

All websites collect information about their visitors in different ways.

In many countries (including the United States), websites are required by law to disclose the information they collect about their visitors, and how this information is used.

Here are some of the ways in which a typical WordPress site collects user information:

All websites on the internet should have a privacy policy page. It protects your business from legal issues and also helps build consumer trust.

You also need to add a privacy policy page to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For those who don't know, GDPR is a European Union (EU) law that gives its citizens control over their personal data. This law applies to every business (including WordPress blogs) around the world, even if you are not from the EU countries.

For more details, you may read our ultimate guide on GDPR and understand its impact on your WordPress site.

What Should You Include in a Privacy Policy?

The basic requirements for a privacy policy are quite simple. You need to list all the ways you collect or intend to collect user information on your website.

A simple privacy policy page should contain the following information:

Information you collect about users visiting your website.

Methods used to collect information, e.g. cookies and web beacons, sign up, registration, comment forms, etc.

Mention all third-party advertisers collecting user information on your website like Google Adsense.

Include links to the privacy policy of each advertising program you participate in.

How users can block cookies and opt-out of third party advertisements.

Your contact information so that users can reach out if they have questions.

There are many websites on the internet that allow you to automatically generate text for your privacy policy or terms of service pages.

WordPress itself comes with a basic privacy policy generator that you can use.

You can also take a look at WPBeginner's privacy policy page as a starting point. Simply replace all references to WPBeginner and our parent company with the name of your website or business.

Video Tutorial

If you'd prefer written instructions, just keep reading.

Adding a Privacy Policy Page in WordPress

WordPress makes it easy to generate a privacy policy page for your website. It also gives you a generic privacy policy template to use with instructions on how to add content to it.

First, you need to visit the Settings " Privacy page. You'll notice that WordPress has already created a Privacy Policy page draft for you.

You can click on the 'Use this Page' button to save this page as your privacy policy.

You can also click on the 'Create' button to generate a new Privacy Policy page. WordPress will automatically create a new page and open it for you to make changes.

If you are using the default draft, then you need to click on the Edit link to make changes and publish it.

Once you open the privacy policy page for editing, you will see a notification on top with a link to the default WordPress privacy policy page guide.

The content of the privacy policy also contains instructions on how to edit and change each section.

You will notice that it has sections for different ways a WordPress website may collect personal information. For example, it lists comments, login cookies, embeds, and more.

It will also have sections with no information below them, including contact form and analytics.

As for contact forms, you can mention the information you collect and what it is used for.

If you are using the WPForms plugin to create a contact form, then you can already create GDPR compliant contact forms.

For Google Analytics, you can follow this complete Google Analytics and GDPR compliance guide.

After thoroughly reviewing the privacy policy page, you can click on the Publish button to save your changes.

Adding a Link to Privacy Policy Page in WordPress

Most websites display a link to their privacy policy page in the footer area of their website. This way the link appears on every page but does not take space in your main navigation menu.

There are multiple ways to do this. Let's start with the easiest one.

Many WordPress themes come with widget-ready areas in the footer also called the Footer sidebar. You can go to the Appearance " Widgets page to confirm if your theme has a footer widget area.

If your theme has one, then you can use the navigation menu widget to display a list of links to your informational pages including the privacy policy.

First, you will need to create a new custom navigation menu.

Simply visit the Appearance " Menus page to create a new custom menu. You will need to click on the 'Create a new menu' link on the top.

After that, you can enter a name for your menu and then click the 'Create Menu' button.

Next, you need to select pages from the left column to add to your menu.

After selecting them, simply click on the 'Add to Menu' button.

You should notice your selected pages appear under your newly created menu. You can now arrange menu items by clicking and dragging them up or down.

Once you are done, don't forget to click on the 'Save Menu' button to store your changes.

For more help with creating menus, you can see our beginner's guide on how to create navigational menus in WordPress.

Now go to the Appearance " Widgets page and then click the '+' button to add a 'Navigation Menu' widget block.

Next, you can optionally enter a title for your widget.

Then select your menu from the dropdown menu.

Once you've made the changes, don't forget to click the Update button on your widgets page.

You can now visit your website to see the privacy policy links in the footer area of your website.

Manually Add a Link to Privacy Policy Page in WordPress
If your theme does not come with a footer widget area or a footer navigation menu, then you can manually add link to your privacy policy page using HTML code.

You'll need to edit the footer.php file for your theme. If you haven't done this before, then take a look at our guide on how to copy/paste code in WordPress.

In your footer.php file, add the following HTML to an appropriate location just before the </body> tag.
<a href="http://example.com/privacy-policy">Privacy Policy</a>
Don't forget to replace the href value with the URL of your privacy policy page. You can now save your changes and preview your site to see the link in action.

That's all! You have successfully added a privacy policy page to your WordPress site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a privacy policy in WordPress. You may also want to see our step-by-step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Add a Privacy Policy in WordPress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Do you want to add a privacy policy to your WordPress site? A privacy policy page is a document required by law that discloses the information you collect about visitors on your website. It is recommended to add a privacy policy page to your website whether you are a blogger, freelancer, or business owner.