The Best No Nonsense Guide To Making Money Blogging In 2020

If you’ve found this post your either a blogger looking to start making money with their blog or someone researching the possibilities before taking the plunge and creating a blog of their own. Either way, this post will walk you through the process of how to monetize a blog and start making money with it.

My blog, This Tiny Blue House was created in 2017. At the time I had zero experience and had no idea that a blog could even make any money at all. And, in just over 2 years my blog has grown enough that it consistently makes thousands of dollars every month which allows my family to live a flexible lifestyle we are much happier with.

The income I generate from my blog allowed my husband to quit his job in early 2019 and join me full-time as a contributor on This Tiny Blue House. We blog together from home and have more free time to do the things we love. Blogging has given us the freedom to work from home, be more present in our daughter’s life and make more money than any 9-5 job would generate.

Starting This Tiny Blue House is the best decision I’ve ever made for my family. So, I urge anyone who is even considering starting a blog to take the plunge. Starting a blog is such a small financial investment when you consider its high earning potential and the very real chance that it can change your life like it did for us.

If you’re interested in more details about what it takes to start a blog of your own, please head over to this blog start tutorial that I wrote to help walk you through the process.

If you’re interested in signing up and starting right now you can click here to be taken to Bluehost (my current provider that I recommend to all my readers 100%) and take advantage of a special This Tiny Blue House promo that allows you to start a blog for as little as $2.95 per month with a free domain name included.

This blog post is divided in 3 sections.

First, I tell you about all the different ways that bloggers can make money. Then, I move on to answering a few common questions about making money with a blog that I get via email on a pretty regular basis. Finally, at the very bottom you’ll find some tips, tricks and miscellaneous suggestions about how to monetize a new blog and make money with it based on my own experiences.

I highly suggest you take the time to read all 3 sections to pull out the most amount of value. If you don’t have the time and want to skim for now that’s fine too! If that’s the case you should consider pinning this post to Pinterest and coming back to it later!

 

Income Streams : How Bloggers Make Money

 

#1 Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is lucrative income stream that bloggers use to make money. Specifically, an affiliate (you) would promote a product, service, app or course and make money when your affiliate link converts by generating a sale or lead for the company.

Affiliate marketing can be an extremely profitable source of income that can help bloggers make thousands every single month.

Some examples of affiliate networks include Amazon Affiliate Network, Share A Sale, CJ Affiliate.

But, you are not limited to working only with affiliate networks. You can easily google your favorite products and services and see if they offer an affiliate program for you to join.

#2 Network Advertising 

A form of passive income, ad networks place ads on your website that generate income for you every time they are seen by a user.

Paid per 1000 impressions this form of passive income can be a huge money maker for blogs with a large amount of monthly traffic.

A few examples of ad networks that you could consider exploring include: Google Adsense, Mediavine, AdThrive.

#3 Blog Sponsorship

Post sponsorship or social media sponsorship is yet another income stream for some bloggers. In these scenarios a company pays an influencer (you) to promote, review, unbox or mention their product on your blog or social media platform. Although these types of opportunities tend to pay very little in the beginning, an established blog can expect to make thousands per sponsored post.

You can try to land sponsored posts in two ways. You can pitch companies that you feel would work well with your blog and brand by sending them an email with your media kit and some details about how you would like to promote your product. There is also the possibility of joining networks that match influencers with companies who are looking to pay for product promotion. My favorite influencer outreach programs include: Tomoson, Izea , One2One Network, BlogMeetsBrand

When it comes to determining how much your blog or social media channels posts are worth it really depends on your niche, traffic and engagement. You can sign yourself up with Social Bluebook (free!) which estimates the value of your blog and social media accounts and provides you with an average price it believes would be a fair rate.

#4 Digital Products

If you’re blog niche lends to creating a digital product then you can easily monetize your creations.

Those who blog about topics that lend to creating courses, e-books and tutorials can easily create digital products to sell using easy to use e-course and e-book applications.

This is a wonderful form of passive income since once the digital product has been created it can passively generate income with only minor periodic updates made to account for any industry changes or updates.

#5 Coaching 

Certain niches lend well to coaching services.

If your blog falls into this category you can easily create an income stream by offering coaching services related to your blog niche.

With the right credentials some coaching ideas can include fitness, nutrition and personal finance. I have even seen some parenting bloggers offer sleep training coaching sessions for young children! So, the possibilities are truly endless.

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A Couple of Common Questions About Making Money With A Blog

#1 Can I Make Money with My Blog If It Isn’t Self Hosted?

If you’re planning to start a blog with any intention of making money with it the best thing you can do is pay for hosting and get your own domain name. Nearly all professional bloggers are self-hosted. This means that they pay to register their own domain name which hosted by a hosting provider like Bluehost.

Having your own domain and self-hosting is important for a couple of reasons.

• First, owning your own domain name gives you the opportunity to build your brand. By building your unique brand you are leveraging your blog to be accepted for lucrative website advertising, affiliate partnerships and blog sponsorship opportunities. Unfortunately, many of the monetization strategies mentioned above are not available to bloggers who opt to blog on free platforms like wordpress.com or blogger. Besides this, many companies are reluctant to work with a blogger who is not self-hosted. So, to start out on the right foot and avoid having to purchase hosting down the road and be faced with the technical aspect of moving a site, it’s best to make the small investment for self-hosting from the very start. Click here to get a step by step tutorial about how to start a blog in under 30 minutes and for under $36 per year.
• Second, owning your own domain and being self hosted gives you complete control to monetize your blog as you see fit. For example, WordPress.com allows you to monetize your free blog with WordAds exclusively making on-boarding with a higher paying ad network impossible as your blog grows and gains more traffic. As a blog grows and you decide to experiment with different ad networks or monetization strategies some free blog hosts like WordPress and Blogger set restrictions that can actually cause you to lose out on money making opportunities.
• Finally, owning your own domain and being self hosted gives you complete creative control. As your blog grows and evolves it’s natural to want to make changes that are consistent with your brand. Being self-hosted gives you creative freedom to change your theme, make adjustments and make your blog look and feel the way you want it to.

If you’re looking for a reliable and affordable host for your new blog I cannot recommend Bluehost enough. My blog This Tiny Blue House has been hosted with them from day 1 and I could not be happier. They provide excellent customer service and have maintained the same page speed and up times as my blog has grown to hundreds of thousands of page views.

This is important because many bloggers starting out with other hosts find themselves looking to transfer their hosting when their blog grows and requires more resources. Bluehost is fabulous and can handle the growth, which is why I recommend them 100% to anyone looking to start a blog with the goal of growing it and making money with it.

So, I highly recommend Bluehost to any beginning blogger because they are an affordable long-term solution for blog hosting since their hosting remains consistent even as a blog grows and evolves. To take advantage of a special promo offered to This Tiny Blue House readers click here. You’ll get hosting for as little as $2.95 per month with a FREE domain name included.

#2 Can New Bloggers Make Money?

The answer is yes. New bloggers can absolutely make money.

The beautiful thing about blogging is that anyone can be successful at it even if they are new. If you are open to experimenting, doing some research and tweaking your monetization strategy, then you can absolutely make money as a new blogger.

Although you hear of overnight success stories they are pretty rare. Most established bloggers will tell you that to make money they had to experiment and find out what was the best strategy for their blog and audience. The good news is that there are so many ways to monetize a blog. So, even the newest bloggers can find a combination of monetization strategies that can help them start making money pretty quick.

#3 Can A Blog with Low Page Views Make Money?

Yes! Page views are not everything. When a blogger is just starting out their page views are often low and that can be a concern when it comes to making money with your blog.

The good news is that there are a few monetization strategies including post sponsorship, affiliate marketing and digital products that can be very lucrative even if you don’t have high monthly page views.

#4 What Is The Monetization Strategy that This Tiny Blue House Uses?

This Tiny Blue House is monetized in 3 ways including advertisements, affiliate marketing and post sponsorship. We are currently in the process of expanding our monetization strategy to include digital products so stay tuned for that!

#5 How Long Before A Blog Makes A Full-Time Income?

There is no clear cut answer to this question since there are many factors at play. Reaching the threshold for a full-time income depends on your monetization strategy, marketing strategy and niche. In some cases it can take as little as 3 months and in others it can take years. Every blog grows differently and giving a concrete timeline of when you would hit a full-time income is impossible.

From my own experience I can tell you that I started making money with my blog at the 1 year mark. From there it took roughly 6 months to earn enough every month to get to full-time status. But, I was a complete beginner with zero experience and I taught myself everything I know along the way. Had I had a better monetization strategy I’m confident I could have produced the same results on a much quicker timeline.

#6 Do All Blog Niches Have The Potential To Make Money?

Yes! All blogs have the potential to make money. The caveat here is that not all blogs can make the same amount of money with the same monetization strategy.

What this means is actually quite simple. The potential to make money exists for all blogs. What changes however is the monetization strategy used to turn a blog into a business that earns you an income. Certain niches can make an enormous amount of money with blog sponsorship while others do far better with affiliate marketing.  And, certain niches do very well with some combination of all the monetization strategies listed above. Basically, earning a living from your blog comes down to finding the monetization strategies that work best for your blog and audience.

 

A Couple of Final Thoughts About Making Money With Your Blog

 

#1 Start Your Blog On The Right Foot By Going Self Hosted 

If you’re looking to start a blog and make money with it then you should absolutely consider self-hosting your blog. I trust all my hosting needs to Bluehost and couldn’t be happier. Self hosting allows you to own a custom domain name, monetize as you wish and create a brand that is unique to you and the goals of your blog. If you’re looking for a reliable and affordable host head to Bluehost where you’ll get an awesome promo for $2.95 per month with a free domain name because you’re a This Tiny Blue House Reader.

#2 Come Up With A Monetization Strategy

Once you’ve got your new blog all set up it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to make money with it. With your niche in mind think about your ideal reader and come up with a monetization strategy that makes sense for you and your audience. You can start by implementing one stream of income and slowly incorporate more as your blog grows. This is a highly personal choice and there is no right or wrong way to do it.

#3 Numbers Are Not Everything

Don’t get discouraged by low page views at the beginning. Every blogger is new at some point. But, with a little consistency and patience every blog will eventually grow. In the meantime focus on incorporating streams of income that don’t necessarily require a ton of page views to be successful. Affiliate marketing and digital products would be a great place to start!

#4 Set Small Attainable Goals

In my opinion, setting small attainable goals is the key to a new bloggers success. Approach blogging from a realistic point of view and set small attainable goals. Starting out and hoping to make thousands of dollars by month 3 although certainly possible is probably not realistic. Instead, focus on landing one sponsored post deal, selling one affiliate product or qualifying to join an ad network with great RPMs. As you hit your targets you’ll be encourage to keep hustling and growing.

#5 Don’t Take On Too Much At Once

Overwhelm can be a huge problem for a new blogger. There are so many ways to earn a living from blogging that it’s easy to fall into the trap of taking on too much at once. Instead, focus on one stream of income and come up with a plan that will help you reach small attainable goals. As one stream of income takes off consider adding a second and repeating the process. Rinse and repeat as your blog grows and evolves and before you know it your blog will be generating a full-time income.

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Looking for more information about blogging? Here are a few extras you might enjoy.

• A No Fuss Step By Step Guide To Starting A Blog With Bluehost: A simple tutorial that walks you through the steps of setting up a blog for under $36 a year in under 30 minutes.
• 7 Best Ways To Start Your New Blog On A Budget: Starting a blog doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Here is a step by step guide for beginner bloggers on best ways to save money when starting up a new blog.
• 4 Awesome Blog Freebies To Help Grow Your Blog: If you’re looking for traffic building tips this post is a must read.
• 20 Gorgeous and FREE WordPress themes for your new blog: If you’re just starting out and looking for an awesome theme check these out.

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