In this blog post, I will share how you can make money from blogging, what’s working now and how much money you can realistically make from your blog.

It’s important to note that every niche is different, so there’s no size-fits-all strategy.

BUT

The tactics are the same; some just work a little better than others, depending on your niche.

Don’t forget to read through previous blogs where we learned:

• How to pick the right niche and a lucrative audience for your blog
• How to create and design your blog
• How to prep your blog for launch and what content you need to succeed
• How to drive traffic to your website and keep scaling it

And now that you know how to drive traffic to your blog, you’re ready to build a monetization plan for your blog to start making money and build a real business out of it.

How much money can you make from blogging?

The possibilities are endless when you target the right niche and create great products and services to sell.

There are numerous examples of bloggers who make tens of thousands of dollars each month.

I’m one of them.

However, one of the things that you need to understand about blogging is that you need to have multiple income streams.

What’s more, your monetization plan should include both:

• Recurring income streams – income that you can rely on every month so that you’re not worried all the time whether you’ll be making enough money that month; for example, recurring consulting clients or freelancer clients that you have a contract with
• Passive income streams – income that you generate passively (this is income that tends to fluctuate considerably every month); for example, sales from your online course or e-book or your affiliate marketing earnings.

In other words, your monetization plan should look something like this:

(you can use this as a blueprint for your plan)

• Product 1: a cheap, low-entry product that you can sell to your readers and email list (for example, an online course or an e-book)
• Product 2: another, more expensive product that you can sell, as well as upsell to those who bought your cheaper, low-entry product (for example, a more extensive online course, online retreats, etc.)
• Service 1: a high-end recurring service, such as consulting for businesses
• Service 2: another recurring service, such as freelancer services (blog writing services, SEO services, web design, and so on)
• Affiliate marketing: since you’re already talking and writing about products and services you use and recommend to your readers, you can leverage affiliate programs by posting affiliate links within your blog posts to earning money monthly.

But to start making money from your blog, you need:

• Excellent SEO: you need to target the right keywords
• Quality, consistent traffic (5,000+ every month and more as your blog grows older)
• A good backlinking strategy – it improves your SEO, your authority and your traffic
• A really strong opt-in/lead magnet to get people into your list

As for your sales funnel, it needs to look something like this:

So, what exactly are your monetization options?

It all starts with your opt-in

When you’re just starting, and you don’t have the traffic, the email list and the clout to sell enough products, you have an easy and quick solution: building a powerful opt-in/lead magnet.

I won’t go into too much detail now because I’ve discussed this in previous blog posts, so I’ll focus solely on monetization and how you can leverage your opt-in to make money even from the first month of blogging.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Create your lead magnet (refer back to email number 3 to learn more)
• Get Optinmonster to set up opt-in forms throughout your website and boost your sign-ups (this is what I used for my opt-ins as well)
• Get Convertkit to set up and send email sequences automatically once people have signed up (the email you’re reading right now has been sent with Convertkit’s help – it’s built for bloggers, so it has all the features you need to send broadcasts and personalized automated email sequences)
• Send a personalized email sequence to all of your new subscribers, designed to help nurture and convert them.

Step1: Start with a low-entry product

The best place to start as it’s something that doesn’t require a big investment on your side, and it will allow you to start generating (passive) income as soon as you start getting some quality traffic (even in the first month of blogging) is to create a low-ticket item: a digital product that is cheap and targets a large part of your target audience.

Examples of a low ticket product are:

• An online course (written or video)
• A webinar – you can use WebinarJam to create it and monetize it
• An e-book
• Templates, checklists and other resources (you might need to package them together to offer more value)
• Ready-made editorial calendars that bloggers and businesses can use for their blogs

Step 2: Develop a service or product to generate recurring income

As I mentioned earlier in this email, your monetization strategy should include a service (or a few different services) so that you can have recurring income every month that you can rely on.

Here are the best options to consider for your blog:

• High-end consulting services: you can make $5,000 per client per month with a high-end consulting service (however, you’ll need to target businesses for this as they have the spending power to pay for such services)
• Coaching and mentoring services: likewise, you can coach and mentor people regularly to help them achieve better results in their lives, their careers and their businesses
• Build a membership solution: to generate recurring income from digital products, you’ll need to set up a membership; for example, you can build a membership site (you can use Wild Apricot to create your site) whereby people pay a monthly fee to get access to premium content or create an online course membership (and get people to pay for your course which lasts for several months)

Step 3: Start promoting affiliate products and services

Affiliate marketing is a fantastic way to generate passive income every month; however, you need to have a strong email list and consistent traffic (at least 2,000 visitors a month to start with.)

So while you can start with affiliate marketing when you want, it will take a month or two to get your blog to a stage where it’s getting consistent quality traffic, and you can start making money from these affiliate sales.

That said, the potential is AMAZING once you have the traffic.

You can make upwards of $10,000 every month.

That’s why you should put a very big focus on your opt-in and your SEO because that’s how you get quality traffic and email subscribers.

So if you haven’t already, get SEMrush to help you find backlinking opportunities and research keywords, and SEOPressor to help you optimize your blog quickly and efficiently so that you can improve your rankings and generate more organic traffic (plus, you don’t even need to be an SEO expert if you have these tools to help).

Step 4: Offer freelancing services

Another great way to make money from your blog and generate recurring income is to offer various freelancing services.

You have multiple options here:

• Content writing services: bloggers and brands need content, and in many cases, it’s cheaper for them to outsource these tasks – and that’s where you come in
• Search engine optimization services: these are in high demand across all industries, so if you know SEO, you can offer it as a recurring monthly service: local SEO, on-page SEO, backlinking campaigns (off-page SEO), technical SEO and voice search SEO
• Web design and web development services: have you built a fantastic website? You can sell this service to others too: advertise your services on sites like Fiverr, People Per Hour or Upwork  to find web design and web development clients

Step 5: As your blog grows, so will your monetization opportunities.

Here are the best tactics to consider once you’re blog starts generating upwards of 5,000 visitors a month:

• Sponsored posts and content: brands and agencies will pay you to have their content and links featured on your blog
• Influencer services: likewise, as your blog grows in popularity, brands will want to leverage your influence in a variety of ways: social media campaigns (social shares), guest posts, banners on your website, features on your blog (about the brand) and so on
• Podcasting: you can create a podcast and monetize it by offering sponsorship opportunities for brands (you can make anywhere from $10 to $25 per 1,000 listens per podcast episode as per industry standards)
• Product reviews: when you have enough traffic and a good email list, brands are more than willing to pay to be featured on your website – and a product review from a successful blogger provides them with a lot of value. You can sell product reviews (whereby you write them, feature them on your blog and promote them on your channels) for anywhere from $500 (depending on the popularity of your blog)

Considering your niche and your skills and knowledge, use these tactics to create your own sales funnel and monetization plan for the first three months of your blogging journey.