Welcome to the ultimate guide on how to make money by blogging in 2021.
First off, you know everyone thinks we’re fools, right? They'll say things like,
“I mean seriously? Make money by blogging? That's just silly!”
Most people would laugh at you and I for trying to say this is even possible.
To most of the world, blogging is a joke, it's fine as a little side hobby but not as a serious career.
Sooner or later you'll wake up and smell the coffee to realise you can't help people by blogging and you most certainly can't make money by blogging.
Try telling your family or friends or coworkers you want figure out how to make money by blogging and you'll see them crinkle their noses as they politely ask, “Does anybody really make money from that?”
Yes, they want you to have dreams. Yes, they want you to chase them. Yes, they want you to succeed.
But they also want you to be, and here comes that word, “realistic.”
If you really want to improve your life, you should get an advanced degree, write a book, or even start your own business, not hang all your hopes and dreams on some stupid little blog. There’s no money in it.
Or is there?
I’m hesitant to say this, but…
Since 2014 I have created several websites and blogged within vastly different niches.
For two years now I have earned $6,000 a month (and growing) from one small niche blog alone.
And I'm just getting started!
I'm not telling you this to brag.
I want to tell you in the clearest way I know that it is perfectly possible, and actually very simple, to make money online by blogging. And that's the purpose of this post.
The problem is, a Google search for how to monetise your blog brings up people who are giving you terrible advice.
Self-proclaimed experts will advise you to sign up to Adsense and sell advertising space on your sites. They'll say things like “Create your own e-book!”
Take a look around, do you see any banner ads on this site? Any Adsense space?
No? How about e-books for sale?
None of those either, huh? In fact, you might be hard-pressed to find anything for sale at all.
There’s a reason why.
Since I started my make money blogging journey in 2014, I had the accidental luck of stumbling across some of the most experienced, helpful and successful bloggers on the planet.
I learned a better way. You see, over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to glean and learn from dozens of already successful entrepreneurs from the Wealthy Affiliate online business community.
They teach success.
You can learn too, by the way. It's completely free to create a starter account and get instant access to full training from finding a profitable niche for your blog, learning how to create and build a successful blog, from generating serious traffic and specific audiences to knowing how to monetise it.
There's live chat, keyword search tools, free domains, questions and answers, website hosting… I could go on. Basically, everything you need to know about how to make money by blogging is here.
It's where I learned how to make money by blogging and when I stopped working for free.
I've experienced some success in blogging when so many others try and fail for this reason – I learned from the best, and I never stop learning.
Every day, I research, help answer questions from newbie bloggers looking to grow their online income. I read books, talk to experts and get help and feedback for my site.
It’s paid off. The day I transitioned from blogging out into the abyss from my solitary little office and joined an active and growing community of people just like you and me, all determined to see one another succeed, was the day that changed the direction my life.
Of course I didn't realise it back then.
Like you, I just happened to stumble across a random blog post like this one and thought “Well if it's free, I suppose I'll give it a try.“
I'm so glad I did try. I'm never leaving.
If you're ready to get started, just like I did create a starter account here and click on lesson one of the online entrepreneur certification course.
If you take to heart the things that you're taught and take action on the daily assignments, you'll see your blog start making good money.
Because here’s the thing:
You’re Not a Fool. You Can Make Money Blogging.
If I can do it, there's no reason you can't too! You really can make money by blogging. So let's not waste any more time.
Here's my no-nonsense step by step guide on how to start making money by blogging. You've worked for free long enough.
If you have a passion for writing, for helping people, for giving useful, high-value content to your readers month after month then you deserve to start getting paid.
You're Not Just A Blogger
Within your niche, you’re an expert, a teacher, a mentor, maybe even an entrepreneur. Your blog is simply a launchpad for helping reach people with an important message that people need to hear.
There are a lot of resources on how to start a blog and get it online but there is much less on how to go from a volunteer blogger with zero readers to someone who actually makes money, and yes, even a full-time income by blogging.
As you’ll come to find from this post, learning how to make money by blogging is not as serious and complicated as most make it out to be. You just have to do certain things in a certain way.
Do not worry; whatever level you are in; the following four steps, taken from the Wealthy Affiliate free Getting Started Training, will help you to see how the process of making money by blogging works.
So let's get to it.
Here's the simple four-step process of how to make money blogging. Take action on this today, take time to invest in your own development and you'll reap the rewards for years to come.
1. Choose a Blog Topic
If you've already got a blog up and running, you're already ahead of the game. If not, your first step is deciding what you want to write about.
You want your blog to be about something that interests you. So think about what you're knowledgeable about, what gets you fired up? What topic do your friends consider you an expert on? What can you write a lot about?
Every one of us has hobbies, sports or something we know a lot about. You could create a successful website around almost any topic you can think of and be successful.
Gardening, playing the piano, long-distance running, scrapbooking, bodybuilding, learning Japanese…. the list goes on and on. There are literally 1000s of potential topics you create a website around.
Here are just a few potential niches for your blog:
Every day there are billions of internet users searching for information on a whole array of topics!
What I love about Wealthy Affiliate is you can take any passion, any special interest you have and create an online blog around it.
As all bloggers will tell you, when you're writing about topics that you like, it won't seem like work at all and the words and blog posts will just flow out of you.
2. Start a Blog
Starting your first blog is super simple with Wealthy Affiliate. It literally takes less than 3 minutes to build a beautiful, professional-looking, revenue-ready website.
Your blog is your own piece of online real estate, your storefront if you like – and you'll be open for business 24/7 with the potential to reach a truly international audience.
All you have to do is choose a name and domain for your blog, choose a template and click ‘Build!”. The Site Rubix website builder will do the rest.
Let's say for example I'm interested in running and I want to start a blog about that…
My blog is the platform I'll be able to use to blog about the health benefits of running, why I love it so much, how to train for a marathon, review different types of running shoes and earphones and so on… basically I can write about, review and discuss anything related to the topic of running.
3. Get Rankings and Visitors To Your Blog
The truth is your website will never make any money if you don't have people visiting it. Makes sense right?
In this vital 3rd step Wealthy Affiliate will show you powerful traffic generating techniques from all the major search engines and social media sites.
More readers of your blog = more money made from blogging. Simple!
In the case of my “running shoes” website, I am going to focus on getting people that are interested in this particular topic to my website. This is very easy to do and it's what you'll learn at Wealthy Affiliate.
4. Make money with your blog
Once you've got your blog set up and a nice steady stream of daily traffic coming to it, it's time to learn how to monetise your blog by making relevant and helpful recommendations to your readers and getting paid every time they buy something.
Pretty much all the major companies and brands have affiliate programs that are 100% free to join. They'll give you a unique link you can use on your site to direct traffic to them.
This is known as affiliate marketing and it's by far my favourite way to make money online because you can recommend almost anything and make a commission.
The company you're directing your readers will deal with all the payments and shipping and send you a commission at the end of the month.
Some companies like Amazon pay will pay you a 6% while others can pay up to 75% depending on the product.
For example, right now there's 142,308 different types of “running shoes” on Amazon. Not to mention Fitbits, running earphones, clothing etc. You basically send people to Amazon and when they buy something you get a %.
That's not bad, right?
I hope you're starting to see the potential in this and why this is my favourite way to make money online! 🙂
This is the way I make money blogging and maybe you can too!
Absolutely everything you need to start, create, and grow a successful business online is included at Wealthy Affiliate. They cater to all levels of experience, someone with zero knowledge to someone with years of success online, we can help.
Wealthy Affiliate is the most active, engaging and helpful community of over 580,000+ members, and growing! We want YOU to be one of our next success stories and know you will absolutely love Wealthy Affiliate.
And best of all, it is completely FREE to get your business rolling. This includes access to our famous “Getting Started” training course, TWO beautiful websites with hosting, live help and support, and access to 10,000’s of community discussions.
Sound like something you are interested in being part of?
Okay, let's get back to why I'm writing this post in the first place.
Why the heck am I, a successful blogger with several money-making sites spending my time writing this? I'm already over the 2,000-word mark for goodness sake!
Simple: I believe blogging is all about sharing ideas and experiences and help one another.
And if people are ever going to take blogging seriously as a career option then those of us who have already ‘broken through' need to share it with others.
There are thousands of people around the world who make money by blogging, but are thousands more struggling to make it happen.
This is why we need a central community like-minded bloggers and online entrepreneurs where we could train and learn, ask questions and get answers and learn from one another.
This is where Wealthy Affiliate comes in. So, if you haven't already, prove everyone wrong and get the training, community and tools you need to start making money by blogging today.
It's free to create a starter account. It's exactly what I did 3 years ago and it's just about the best decision I ever made.
In the meantime, could you do me a favour?
Share this post.
Not just so it’ll get me traffic, but so other people can see that you really can earn a legitimate income from blogging.
Maybe reading this will even help them do it too. Isn't that what blogging is all about – helping people?
Always remember every blog post we write, every time we hit publish could be life-changing for any one of the 4 billion internet users.
Whether it's in a big life-changing way or in a small way, we get to encourage people, inspire and motivate and if this post has given you a spark of an idea then my work here is done. Take that idea and run with it!
When you think about it, making money blogging is completely awesome! We get to help people, communicate with the world, share our experiences and get paid at the same time!
There should be more people doing this!
So let's spread the word – let's tell people blogging is a viable career and wherever your passion lie, you can be successful at this!
Do you have a question before you start your make money by blogging training? Leave a comment below and I’ll respond ASAP!
Simon Crowe is on a mission to help as many people as possible kiss their bosses goodbye.
Take the free Wealthy Affiliate test drive to discover how to smash your online income goals and make your dream business a reality.
I love hearing about all these famous bloggers who have made it to the big time through writing alone – must be a lovely feeling to make that much money online?
I love this article too – you’ve managed to enlighten me on how easy this could actually be…if I put the time and effort into it!
If you’re talking about being your own boss and having the freedom to start a blog, an online business based on almost any topic imaginable, yes it’s a lovely feeling!
We live in an amazing age. The internet has brought about so many opportunities and it’s a level playing field. With the right training and support, anyone can become a success online -yes even people like me and you!
I’ve always dreamt of being a blogger and making a living out of it, but it never seemed feasible.
Now, with Wealthy Affiliate, all seems possible again. Being able to build my own website into a business is a idea that stuck with me. Now I’m as dedicated as I’ve ever been about something to make this work.
That’s brilliant Aless, you really can do it! Great to see you around the blog!
I am a blogger myself; this article is outstanding very informative. I would be covering a similar topic, on my blog I bookmarked your site for future information.
I recently joined WA my aim is to reach where you are now.
One thing I love about the WA is the sense of belonging to a community.
Keep up the hard work Simon!
Thanks Roble, great to see around the blog! The only training I took is the training at Wealthy Affiliate – so you have the exact same tools, support and training as I have – now it’s just up to you to set goals, work hard and then to come back here and post your success story : )
Simon,
As a blogger myself, I can say that yes, you can make money from your content. I am also a member of Wealthy Affiliate and using affiliate marketing as my main income stream.
It’s certainly not a get rich quick scheme in anyways. But if you are dedicated to the craft, blogging has a lot of potential.
Cheers,
Anh
Thanks Anh, you hit on a good point – building a successful blog is about providing great, useful information that helps people and building up a loyal readership base (though email marketing).
You’re right – this doesn’t happen overnight, it takes effort and consistency but with work, time and a willingness to invest into yourself to learn new skills, it is something that anybody can accomplish within any niche.
Hello Simon once again. I like your site very much, as it is encouraging people to start out online and pursue their dreams. Blogging of course is a viable career and i am currently struggling to prove that to myself even. It is a long road and the emotional part of it is the most difficult, as everyone thinks what you do is a joke. Thank God a community of like minded people like wealthy affiliate exists. Heres to all of you fellow bloggers! 🙂
Thanks Antonis, no man is an island to himself and communities and training like Wealthy Affiliate are great places to facilitate ideas sharing and best practices.
I wouldn’t be where I was today with the helpful and supportive Wealthy Affiliate community. It’s as simple as that.
This article is fantastic – so helpful to list niches and give such a smart overview about how it all works and just how bloggers make the moola. It’s true that most people think blogging is silly writing stuff on the web – how can that possibly make money yet they don’t realize that practically most of the sites they visit are blogs. And they are there because they are probably making money in some way. Thank you for this great primer.
Making money by blogging is so simple right Maria? It’s time to prove them all wrong and show that making money by blogging is perfectly possible! To your online success.
Awesome blog with lots of detail to the step by step process in making money by blogging. I’m not a huge fan of the method just because you start to wonder how much you can really trust what you read of reviews online.
I’m more wary now of what is true vs what isn’t now, and have to stick to my research because of it.
Hi Benjamin, I hear ya. Before I joined Wealthy Affiliate, before I fell very almost every scam and latest get rich quick scheme out there. It’s frustrating – I’ve been there.
I remember when I first joined WA I was so skeptical, I think it’s natural when you’ve been bitten so many times… but it didn’t take me long to see how friendly and helpful the other WA members are and of course, once I made my first sale I was sold!! I will never forget that day.
My advice would be to not take my word for it! Grab your FREE starter account here (no credit card needed) and check it out for yourself. Say ‘hi’ in the Live Chat, ask questions – see it for yourself.
You’ve got nothing to lose but man, so much to gain. Wealthy Affiliate is my usual hangout so you’ll find me there most days. Message me anytime.
I really like how you write and talk to your assumed audience, as if we are already there with you! I think you provided great information on how to blog for financial compensation, but by offering valuable and honest information to those seeking advice or help. If I wasn’t already a member at WA, I would be totally signing up again!
Hi Simon,
I agree completely with what you said regarding the fact that you have no advertisements, or other types of distractions with the intent of trying to “sell” something.
It’s exactly what some of the leading money makers and long-time members of Wealthy Affiliate, (including my own mentor) all strongly believe. It’s the CONTENT that is the most important part of any blog website, not stupid looking ads that often have nothing to do with the ideals behind the website. Readers come to a website through searches looking for a solution to problems in their lives, not to stare at ads.
A well-organized website that contains nothing but highly relevant content material, plus the fact that the reader would not get distracted by nonsense ads all over the place, will be of much better value – and make the owner more $$ in his/her business.
You have a great, yet very relaxed writing style Simon. It is very personable and quite a pleasure to read.
The answer that you provided as to how a person could learn to make money by running a blogging website business of course comes from all that Wealthy Affiliate has to offer. Without question you get the best training possible anywhere on the Internet through all that is offered.
Jeff
Thanks Jeff, I’m glad you’ve found the Wealthy Affiliate training as brilliant as I have!
I couldn’t agree more – instead of plastering spammy looking banner ads across your blogging websites – focus instead on offering high value, useful and helpful content that will actually help people and you will go far.
Most people miss the biggest secret to making money by blogging because they’re looking for a quick fix, overnight, push of a button success. The truth is: you’re helping people with problems they have, giving answers to questions they have. Making money by blogging is so simple!
I’m a blogger myself, and I was digging around for some supplementary information to help me boost traffic and monetize my blog – Thank you very much for this post!
I was considering adsense, but then realized I am personally not a big fan of ads on websites myself – Usually just lead to viruses or crappy product marketing pages. Affiliate marketing sounds interesting, but I have a couple concerns. Maybe you can help?
1. I know you mention it’s free to get started at Wealthy Affiliate, but there’s always a catch. Do they want my credit card information, my bank information, anything like that? I’d just rather not commit money until I’m sure the program is for me. I’ve been burned before.
2. How difficult is it to partner with some of these companies? Amazon is the first company that pops into my head, but won’t they expect me to have thousands of visitors every month?
Thanks in advance! I really appreciate it.
Hi Cohen, thanks for popping by, I’m glad this was helpful.
I know Adsense works for some people so it’s definitely a viable option – I just think you need to tons of traffic to make it worthwhile. As I say, it’s just not for me.
The starter membership at Wealthy Affiliate is completely free – no credit card required so put your wallet away : ) There is a Premium membership option once you’ve seen everything that WA has to offer but it’s completely up to you. With the free membership you get acceess to the make money online training, free domains and hosting for two websites. Choose a level that works best for you.
(Please note: I would NEVER recommend anything that firstly I hadn’t used myself first, and secondly, they you cant try first for free)
Most affiliate programs are easy to sign up to, they all vary but I’ve not seen an affiliate program yet that requires a minimum number of daily visitors etc. Amazon is a good one to start with – they only have a basic 4%-8% commission rate but they have such a wide range of products it’s harder to find something you can’t find. Plus they’re already a recognisable household name.
All the best as you build your online business! Let me know how you get on!
Simon,
What an inspiring article. I have avoided blogging for some time because I felt that I could not do it. However, after discovering Wealthy Affiliate, that all changed. I agree that blogging can make money. I have been trying to build my blog site for a while now. Your success is an inspiration to me. I hope to be able to mirror your success. I have struggled with each of the four steps that you mentioned, but with help from Wealthy Affiliate, I overcame the struggle. Thanks for the inspiration.
Bob
The most important thing Bob is to reach out to the super friendly and helpful WA community, whether its the life chat, ask a question area. Feel free to comment on my Wealthy Affiliate profile or send me a private message anytime – we are all here to help!
You’ve started which is the biggest challenge – keep going, I can’t wait to hear your success story.
Hey Simon! Nice to meet you!
I was surprised by your content! I didn’t even think about making money online before. I didn’t even think of building a website by myself! I was afraid of touching these stuffs as I didn’t think that I have the ability to create interesting content.
Can you share more about your experience and results with making money by blogging?
Hi Cyril, thanks! Thanks for popping by!
The truth is, ANYONE can build a webiste easily and quickly with Siterubix and EVERYONE has some passion, interest, experience or hobby they can start a blog about. The most important thing is to just get started – then you’ll just keep getting better and it’ll just get easier and easier.
Basically I started making a full-time income from blogging about two years ago – at the time I was working in for a loft insulation company in the UK, working in a call centre 5 days a week. So I quickly quit and moved to Thailand where I am now 🙂
You can read more about my story and how you can do the same here. Or even better – take my 7 day email course and we’ll work together to build your money making blog together. To your success!