Passion to Profit: How to Earn Money Blogging
Blogging is rewarding in its own way: the joy of writing, sharing ideas, and the satisfaction from creating something meaningful. It’s an opportunity share your thoughts and connect with others. But it can also be a great way to make dosh. One big advantage is that you can create content and continue earning from it long after it’s been published. As your audience grows, these income streams can increase with it. While some of the most tried and test tactics are based around visitor traffic, there are certain other ways you can turn blogging passion into profit. Blogging is more than a hobby; for some, it’s a serious income source. How much bloggers can expect to earn will vary wildly. Glassdoor currently lists the average income for professional (i.e., salaried) bloggers in the UK at £21k-48k in 2024. The most successful bloggers in the world stand to earn sizeably more — even six-figure incomes. On the other hand, 33% of bloggers make no money at all, according to TechJury. And perhaps they’re not aiming to. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll hear it said that you can expect to earn £1 to £10 for every thousand views you get. It all depends on your topic, how engaging your content is, and exactly how you’ve decided to monetise. The most popular monetisation tool for bloggers in 2024 is Google AdSense, followed by the popular affiliate marketing platforms. However, when it comes to those truly earning the mega bucks, AdSense only ranks third. The most successful entrepreneur bloggers (blogtrepreneurs?) are 2.5 times more likely to be selling their own product or service direct rather than selling ad space. ❝The most successful entrepreneur bloggers are 2.5 times more likely to be selling their own product or service direct rather than selling ad space.❞ Blogging is big in the world of business, too. Brands that prioritise it see 13 times more ROI than brands that don’t. According to DemandMetric, companies with active blogs generate an average of 67% more leads monthly. Blogging is now the second most popular form of content marketing, second only to video, with 70% of consumers stating that they prefer blog posts to traditional ads. And according to ReportLinker, the content marketing industry is expected to grow by around £500 million over the next four years. But let’s keep it real – don’t expect to start earning big money overnight. Quality of content is still the number #1 most important success factor. When you blog about something you’re passionate about, it shows. Your enthusiasm leaps off the page, engaging your audience and keeping them coming back for more. This passion is what will sustain your blog in the long run. Whatever your reasons for getting into it, blogging is more of a marathon than a sprint. It takes time, patience, and a lot of hard work to get those views and clicks rolling in. See also: 123 Reg’s Blogging A to Z Glossary Guide. From Authors and Comments, to Widgets and WordPress, take this as your handy guide to blogging success. Top 7 Blog Monetisation Ideas 1. Affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways for bloggers to earn an income. It’s all about commission from affiliate links. The idea is that you promote a product or service and earn a slice for each sale made. This method works because it allows bloggers to generate revenue by recommending products they trust and enjoy to their audience. For instance, a tech blogger might include links for the latest gadgets they’ve reviewed. When the reader clicks on the link and makes a purchase, then the blogger earns a percentage of the sale. It’s win-win as it benefits the blogger but also helps readers find products they might be interested in. Statistically, those with the highest returns tend to be focused on a small list of the most popular niches, the big 3 topics being food (42.8%), lifestyle (13.3%), and travel (10%), according to RankIQ data. Food bloggers make by far the highest median monthly income compared with the other major niches (and that’s not factoring in all the free cheese and biscuits from sponsors). Depending on the platform and product category, it’s generally possible to earn around 10%-20% in commission. Some of the most well-known affiliate programs include: ☑ Amazon Associates ☑ Ebay Partner Network ☑ Awin ☑ Commission Junction ☑ Impact ☑ ShareAsale ☑ Rakuten Advertising ☑ Shopify Affiliate Program You’ll also find WordPress plugins designed to help with affiliate links, with various tracking and management features. Some notable options include ThirstyAffiliates, Pretty Links, and AffiliateWP. These tools work to manage and track performance of affiliate links, potentially leading to better promotion and higher earnings. While there’s lots of affiliate marketing options, it’s important to keep it real. If you try to push too many products or recommend absolute tosh, readers will soon catch on and surf elsewhere. Stick to sharing products that you truly believe in and your audience is likely to stay happy and engaged. Passion and expertise should go with integrity. Know your niche. In doing so, your blog can become a trusted place for unique information and attract readers who are really interested in that topic. You may even wish to conduct research to grasp their interests, challenges, and preferences. Use this understanding to tailor your content, tone, and style. You can’t appeal to everyone, after all. 2. Sponsorship and brand partnerships Brands are always on the look out for bloggers who have a strong connection with their target audience. Teaming up together can be a great way to monetise. The idea is that you create content to showcase a product or service, earning compensation in return. It’s win-win: the brand gets exposure with your audience, while you stand to earn from that authority you’ve built up. Sponsorships and partnerships are a little different to affiliate marketing in the sense that you’re only publishing content — visitors don’t necessarily
Why AdSense makes sense
If you have a portfolio of dormant domains and are not yet putting them to use with our 123-reg Parking scheme you may consider spending a few hours of your time developing a basic site and signing it up for Google Adsense. Adsense is perhaps Google’s lesser known advertising programs. The more familiar Google Adwords is actually used as the source of the ads used for the Adsense program but the latter is free to sign up to and free to use. Effectively Adwords users pay money to run these ads so that they themselves can generate money by sending people to their websites, while AdSense enables people running websites (Publishers) to place those ads on their sites and earn money from them. When an ad is clicked, Google pays the publisher about half of what the Adwords advertiser is paying and keeps the other half itself. Relevance Google Adsense works well within any site because the ads that Google shows on a website is relevant to the website’s content. This means the ads appear less conspicious to your visitors and ensures that more clicks come from your visitors who are more likely to be seeing ads that appeal to them. For example, a website page about ‘holidays in turkey’ would be populated via AdSense with ads about ‘holidays in turkey’ or something relevant to the same. So after reading your content, the likelihood is that your visitors will be only too keen to click on relevant links being thrown up in the AdSense panel. So you can earn per click from AdSense but also if you have high volume traffic to your site you can also earn from that too. In addition Google will also pay ‘per-thousand-impressions’ (CPM). So, for every thousand unique visitors your site gets, providing the Adsense ads are being displayed you will get paid whether they click the links or not. Making the most of AdSense Natural ads – through the Google AdSense control panel you can alter the look and design of the ad block as it will be displayed in your page. Try and make this blend as naturally as possible in with the rest of your page – colours, theme, appeal, etc. The more ‘part’ of your site the ad block appears the more likely your visitors will click the ad links displayed. Content is king – we will keep harping on about this but the better the content you have on your page the more likely people will want to read it, recommend it and come back. This will push up your traffic and produce the possibility of CPM payments too. Make sure you use keywords effectively too as the higher you feature in search engine listings the more likely you will pick up natural traffic too. Don’t be tempted to click your own ads – remember Google is one of the most resourceful and technologically advanced companies in the world, they know all the tricks, scams and potential short-cuts used by the less scrupulous. The chances are if you try and abuse the system they will find out and then ban you from the scheme and potentially all other Google tools. The small benefit clearly wouldn’t be worth it. Do you use Google AdSense? Have you used it for dormant domains? What are the returns like?