How To Make Money Blogging: 11 Proven Methods for 2026

Blogging is a small business idea with the potential to make thousands of dollars per month, whether by driving product sales for your brand, earning commission from affiliate partners, or creating a space for digital ad sales.

This guide shares how to make money blogging with 11 revenue streams used by professional bloggers, who share tips on how to earn a full-time blogging income through a content-based website.

How much money can bloggers earn?

Blog posts are a monetizable form of online content. There are many examples of long-running blogs attracting millions of readers and generating enough income to employ teams of writers and editors.

Well-established bloggers like Ryan Robinson (who runs a blog about blogging) can make upward of $30,000 per month. Adam Enfroy, who also started blogging about the business of blogging as a side hustle, generated seven figures from his blog just two years later.

While these are examples of highly successful bloggers, data from a 2025 Blogging Income Survey paints a more realistic picture. It found that income correlates with the age of the blog—the early years may be lean, but persistence pays off:

• One to three years: The ghost town phase. Average earnings sit around $205 per month.
• Five to 10 years: The growth phase. Average earnings jump to $2,621 per month.
• More than 10 years: The established phase. Veteran bloggers earn an average of $5,624 per month.

It’s not just monthly revenue that bloggers can earn. Marketplaces like Flippa list blog-based websites for sale, many of which come with hefty price tags.

Typically, the potential income of a blog depends on two factors:

• Niche profitability. Are the people who read a blog motivated customers? Will they regularly spend money on products or premium content? The software industry, for example, can be lucrative, since many companies pay recurring commission to bloggers for referring customers.
• Blogging income streams. The more monetization methods a blog has, the more opportunities there are to increase revenue.

11 ways to make money blogging

1. Choose a profitable niche
2. Build an email list
3. Write sponsored product reviews
4. Sell advertising placements
5. Join an affiliate marketing program
6. Offer services
7. Sell digital products
8. Sell physical products
9. Create a membership community
10. Monetize YouTube videos
11. Produce a podcast and get a sponsor

1. Choose a profitable niche

• 🎯 Effort: High. It requires market research to find the right niche.
• 🟡 Risk: High. If you choose a niche with zero demand, your blog may not succeed.
• 🤝 Why choose it: It’s the foundational step to starting a blog.

When you start a blog, invest as much time as possible in selecting the right niche.

A niche is a self-contained topic within a broader topic category, such as vegan recipes within the wider subject of recipes. When you focus your blog on a niche, readers can build stronger associations between the topic and your site. A reader will know exactly where to head to find a vegan dish for their dinner party, for instance, if you position yourself in the market as the authority on veganism among food blogs on the internet.

In this way, catering to a popular niche improves your chances of being a reader’s go-to resource when looking for advice.

“Before monetization, it’s all about quality and expertise if you want to stand out,” says Mushfiq Sarker, founder of blog and newsletter The Website Flip. “First, figure out your niche and why you should be writing about that topic, then make a persona for yourself. Once that happens, you’ll build a following over time. Monetization follows later.”

You’ll find bloggers making money in a wide variety of niches, from business software to pet accessories, though not all niches are candidates for monetization. A profitable blog niche typically meets three criteria:

It’s something you’re skilled at or interested in

You’ll need to produce a lot of consistently high-quality content to build an audience and become monetized. Not only will it be enjoyable to blog about something you have a genuine interest in, but you’ll increase the likelihood of generating blogging income.

There’s low, but not zero, competition

The presence of competing blogs, brands, and forums in your niche indicates there’s money to be made. At the same time, it will be harder to drive organic traffic to your site if big-name brands are dominating search results.

In many cases, high competition does mean higher revenue potential. Data from the 2025 Blogging Income Survey found that niches like personal finance and online business have average earnings four to five times higher than lifestyle or travel. While a travel blog might need 100,000 visitors to make $8,000, a personal finance blog could hit that same revenue figure with roughly 17,000 visitors.

Based on average earnings per 1,000 page views (rate per mille, or RPM), the following categories command the highest premiums:

1. Personal Finance: $480
2. Online Business: $374.81
3. Health & Fitness: $133.33
4. Lifestyle / Multitopic: $83.77
5. Travel: $82.88

There’s clear monetization potential

Look at blog monetization opportunities for each niche on your shortlist. Do companies in that niche pay to advertise their products on other blogs? Are there any affiliate programs that sell products in that industry?

2. Build an email list

• 🎯 Effort: Moderate. Setting up email marketing software is easy but creating lead magnets takes time.
• 🟡 Risk: Low. Software is cheap and you own your email list. 
• 🤝 Why choose it: Protects you from algorithm changes on Google or social media.

After landing on your blog idea, the next step is to find loyal readers who will consume your content.

One of the best ways to secure regular readers is by building an email list for your blog. When someone opts in to hear from your blog, they’re giving you permission to reach them in a valuable online space: their inbox.

“Email marketing is by far the most lucrative sales channel for me. I don’t even really try to sell directly from other channels anymore, instead directing people from social media to my email list,” says Brittany Berger, founder of digital media company Work Brighter.

Encourage blog visitors to sign up for your mailing list by using a pop-up box. The goal is to get any first-time visitors to opt in, perhaps with the help of an incentive such as:

• Free downloadable content
• Lists of resources or recommended products
• VIP access to extra posts

Once they’ve signed up, continue nurturing reader relationships by offering perks or incentives. Good email list management ensures you’re sending the right content to the right people, and not blasting everyone with the generic updates. Over time, you’ll build an audience that’s primed to consider any products you launch or recommend.

Take it from Lily Ugbaja, who started her blog, FindingBalance.Mom, to make money while staying at home with her son. It took her just two weeks to make money from her blog after harnessing email marketing.

“I used emails to promote my products and relevant affiliate products with tripwires and Facebook groups,” she says. “You add lead magnets to your site so people sign up after reading your article. Instead of a success page, you share a one-time offer—a low-end product at a super discounted rate, $7 in my case.”

Despite the blog seeing less than 1,000 monthly page views, Lily says she ended her first month earning more than $100, and soon was earning thousands. According to Klaviyo’s 2025 email benchmark report, automated email flows (like the welcome sequence Lily uses) achieve an average placed-order rate of 1.42%, compared to just 0.08% for manual campaigns. 

You can also charge your email list for access to exclusive content. Many bloggers monetize through monthly subscription fees, which grant subscribers access to exclusive content. Use a platform like Substack to publish directly to your audience and get paid through subscriptions.

3. Write sponsored product reviews

• 🎯 Effort: Moderate. Pitching brands, testing products, and writing reviews is time-consuming. 
• 🟡 Risk: High. If you review a bad product just for the money, your readers will lose trust. 
• 🤝 Why choose it: Quick earnings, but you must tread carefully to maintain integrity.

All businesses want social proof—content that shows customers other people are buying and enjoying a product. One way for them to collect this is by paying bloggers to publish reviews.

By pitching or accepting review requests, you can directly use your blog post writing skills to make money. It’s a strategy that works especially well if you can review products or services from brands that are relevant to your readers.

If you already use a product in daily life, you’ll likely have knowledge and opinions you can use. With sponsorships, you’ll be compensated for sharing those opinions with your audience.

Reach out to your favorite brands and ask if they’d be interested in sponsoring a review on your blog. If you create review content, remember to follow best practices for disclosing the relationship between you and the product you’re reviewing. Protect your blog’s credibility by:

• Disclosing whether you’re incentivized to write the review. If you’re being paid to publish a review, include a disclaimer in the introduction of your article, such as, “I’ve been paid to write this review and may make a commission if you purchase this product.”
• Being honest. Share the good and the bad to help readers make an informed decision about whether they should purchase the item you’re reviewing.

Sponsored reviews have to meet certain Federal Trade Commission requirements to stay compliant. For bloggers, this is pretty easy. Simply add a clear statement at the very top of your post before the content begins. It can say something like:

Transparency Note: This post is sponsored by [Brand Name]. While I was compensated to write this review, all opinions are my own and reflect my honest experience with the product.

If there are multiple affiliate links throughout the post, you can add a blanket disclosure like this:

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click one of these links and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually use and love.

And of course, make sure you stand by that last sentence—only recommend products you can truly vouch for. 

4. Sell advertising placements

• 🎯 Effort: Low. Once you sign up for an ad network and install the code, it’s entirely passive.
• 🟡 Risk: High. If your traffic drops, your income drops with it. 
• 🤝 Why choose it: It creates the easiest passive income, but requires high traffic volume to be significant.

Many businesses are willing to pay for face time with your readers. You can monetize your blog by selling advertising space around the main content of your posts.

There are two routes to building an income stream with blog advertising:

• Negotiate with companies individually. Find companies you think your readers might be interested in and ask if they’d like to advertise on your website. By talking directly to businesses, you may be able to negotiate larger custom fees.
• Use an advertising network. Platforms like Google AdSense, Mediavine, and Raptive match your web pages with advertisers. Simply embed the provided code on your site to start displaying ads.

For Emily Brookes, a blogger at Emily May Designs, display ads quickly became her most lucrative sales channel.

“Some 60% of my blog’s revenue comes from display ads,” she says. “Ads make me money consistently each month, even when I haven’t published any new content.”

Joining an ad network or reaching out to advertisers is a popular way to make money blogging. But to make advertising a substantial revenue stream for your blog, driving website traffic should be a priority. Ad networks like Google often pay publishers just a few cents per 1,000 impressions (RPM), meaning your ads need to be seen by lots of people to generate significant earnings.

There are also some reports that blog visitors are becoming less likely to click on advertisements, especially if they’re placed by ad networks and aren’t directly relevant to a reader.

Afoma Umesi runs her book blog, Reading Middle Grade, on the side.

“I had no experience and started blogging as a hobby before seriously deciding to monetize the site,” she says. “I needed something passive, so I chose ads and affiliate links. I don’t want to make or sell digital products or services right now, and I’m not a huge fan of sponsored posts, so ads were the perfect fit. All I need is traffic.”

Reading Middle Grade earns around three-quarters of its income from this type of advertising.

“Don’t be afraid or ashamed to use ads,” says Afoma. “They’re inconvenient for some users, but if you provide value and use them reasonably, most users barely notice the ads.”

5. Join an affiliate marketing program

• 🎯 Effort: Low. It’s easy to join programs and add affiliate links to your content.
• 🟡 Risk: None. Just recommend products that you like. 
• 🤝 Why choose it: There’s high upside with little downside. It scales well because old posts can generate income for years.

Affiliate marketing is the act of recommending products to your blog’s audience. You’ll receive a commission when one of your readers clicks on an affiliate link and performs a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

This form of marketing is a popular revenue opportunity for bloggers, since the content you share can help influence readers’ behavior. Make your blog a hub for helpful educational content, and you’ll earn the trust needed to persuade a reader to visit your affiliate partner’s site.

With affiliate marketing, you don’t need to create products. Simply plug into an existing ecommerce business and become a virtual promoter for them. Find relevant affiliate partners by browsing affiliate networks like ShareASale or ClickBank. Browse available programs in your industry, apply to join them, build custom links, and track affiliate revenue through the dashboard.

You can also search for high-ticket affiliate programs from merchants selling expensive products, such as electronics, jewelry, or software. Bloggers can earn sizable amounts when recommending high-ticket items to readers. Shopify Affiliates, for example, can earn up to $150 in commission when a referral starts paying full price for specific subscription plans.

As you apply to different affiliate marketing programs, you’ll encounter different commission structures:

• Cost per Sale (CPS)/Revenue share. You earn a percentage of the total purchase price. Networks like ShareASale and ClickBank let businesses customize this rate, and layer on tiered bonuses for higher volume sales.
• Cost Per Action (CPA) or Lead (CPL). You earn a flat fee for a specific action, like a user signing up for a free trial or downloading a checklist, even if they don’t buy anything right away.
• Recurring commissions. If you promote subscription services, some businesses will pay you a small fee every time a customer renews their plan.
• Fixed category rates. Some large programs, like Amazon Associates, use a rigid schedule in which commission percentages are determined by product category. For example, luxury beauty products currently have a 5% commission rate, while digital music and handmade products have a 2.5% rate. 

💡Key affiliate marketing tip: Don’t promote a product that you don’t believe will benefit your readers. Sacrificing reader trust for an affiliate partner’s high commission rate may be tempting, but will likely result in a loss of traffic over the long term.

6. Offer services

• 🎯 Effort: High. You’re trading your time for money. 
• 🟡 Risk: Low. There’s very little overhead.
• 🤝 Why choose it: It’s the fastest way to make money with a small audience, but it is not scalable without hiring help.

A natural byproduct of building your audience means more people associate your name with the topics you write blog posts about. That’s a great way to build authority—something people look for when hiring people to complete a service.

“If you’re in the B2B space, consulting is a big revenue generator,” says Mushfiq Sarker, founder of The Website Flip. “If you have some expertise and people are genuinely reading your content, consider what kind of consulting you could do for them. It’s a high revenue, low commitment way to make money online blogging.”

While running a service-based business is time-consuming, it can be a quick way to make money online. Demand a higher hourly rate, and find high-paying clients by using your blog content to demonstrate your expertise.

Examples of services you might sell alongside your blog include:

• Consulting services
• Graphic design
• Freelance writing
• Virtual assistance
• Classes or workshops

Save time scheduling appointments and taking payments by integrating booking apps into your website.

7. Sell digital products

• 🎯 Effort: High. Creating a high-quality course or ebook takes weeks or months of unpaid work before launch.
• 🟡 Risk: High.You might spend significant time creating a product that no one buys.
• 🤝 Why choose it: High upfront effort for an infinitely scalable, high-profit asset.

Digital products are a scalable way to make money by selling useful items alongside your blog. Unlike service-based businesses, you don’t exchange time for money. And unlike selling physical products, there’s no shipping or ongoing manufacturing costs.

You can create digital products once and sell an infinite number of them via your blog.

“I decided to add printables—and soon other digital products—to diversify my income and put more control in my own hands,” says Dylan Houlihan, founder of the blog-based website Swift Salary. “So far, I let readers decide how much they’d like to pay for my printables, which is why revenue numbers haven’t been crazy. However, I have clocked over 800 downloads, so I’m quite proud of that.”

Figure out which digital products your audience would like to buy, using a reader survey and questions like, “What problem do you need help with that this blog isn’t already solving?” Their responses can unveil ideas you can package and sell. Popular digital product formats include:

Ebooks

Think of ebooks as deep dives into the topics your blog readers have shown the most interest in. If you’re blogging about mountain biking, for example, why not bundle up your trail reviews and tips into a handy guide? Adding extra detail and depth allows you to reasonably sell your ebook rather than share it for free.

Printables

Printables are a versatile type of digital product. You might create organizational tools like planners and checklists tailored for use in your niche. If you run a professional blog, you could offer templates and designs that your readers can use as part of their work. Downloadable printables are often low-cost items, making them an easy and accessible way to embed practical value into your posts.

Workbooks

Workbooks engage your audience by allowing them to apply the knowledge they’ve gained from your blog. Readers can fill out exercises, track their progress, and follow along with any educational content you produce.

Online courses

Similarly, online courses let you package your knowledge into something more robust and structured than a blog post. Benjamin Houy has been running the blog French Together for a decade. Part of his blog monetization strategy includes an online French course, which reportedly drives 90% of the blog’s revenue.

“Ads and affiliate links can be great monetization strategies depending on the niche, but creating a product is both easier and more profitable than most bloggers think,” Benjamin says. “Your product doesn’t have to be the absolute best product ever when you launch it, it just has to be something your audience will find genuinely useful and will be happy to pay for.”

8. Sell physical products

• 🎯 Effort: Very high. Physical products involve customer service, shipping logistics, returns, and quality control.
• 🟡 Risk: High. Margins are thin and you need volume to make a profit. 
• 🤝 Why choose it: Creates tangible brand building, but lower profit margins and higher headaches than digital products.

Is your blog’s subject matter related to a range of products? Leverage what you know about your audience to sell items they’re likely to want.

If you’re interested in dropshipping, consider using supplier apps that integrate directly with your store. Shopify Collective lets you sell products from other Shopify brands, while apps like DropCommerce connect you with North American suppliers offering fast shipping. Syncee provides access to more than 12,000 global brands if you’re looking to sell internationally.

These platforms handle inventory management and order fulfillment automatically, letting you focus on creating content and building your audience while your blog generates product sales.

Another way to sell products through your blog is to create merch promoting your brand. Your loyal readers might appreciate the chance to own thoughtfully curated items that allow them to express their love of your content. Make your merch irresistible with limited edition runs, premium products, and collaborations with respected brands.

To get your merch store up and running on a budget, use the print-on-demand model, where you only pay manufacturing costs when a reader purchases a product. There’s no excess inventory, storage fees, or high upfront costs when bulk manufacturing products. Use a print-on-demand service to create custom merch shirts, mugs, stickers, or more unique items that tie in with your blog’s content.

💡Take note: Before you launch, be realistic about your returns. Physical goods usually operate on much tighter margins than digital ones. 

• Physical products: According to January 2025 retail benchmarks, general retail businesses see net margins of roughly 4.6%, dropping to 1.97% for grocery/food items.
• Digital products: In contrast, digital software and entertainment businesses often see net margins between 23% and 27%, with gross margins climbing as high as 72%.

While digital creators do face platform fees, like Gumroad’s 10% cut, the lack of manufacturing and shipping costs make digital products more profitable per unit.

If your readers show interest in buying products from you, consider creating an online store—either as part of your blog website, or on a separate domain. That way, you can treat your blog audience as your initial customer base. Many popular blogging platforms make it simple for bloggers to add ecommerce features to their websites, such as checkouts and product pages.

9. Create a membership community

• 🎯 Effort: Very high. You have to provide constant value, moderate the community, and keep members happy to prevent churn.
• 🟡 Risk: Moderate. You cannot take a break without losing subscribers.
• 🤝 Why choose it: Predictable, recurring monthly revenue.

Give your most engaged readers a VIP experience by creating a membership community—one they have to pay a small fee to access. This type of community is an important part of social connection. 

Take it from Michael Keenan, who runs a membership community alongside the Peak Freelance blog.

“If you want a consistent revenue stream for your blogging efforts, create a membership program,” says Michael. “You can offer exclusive content like handbooks and courses, special offers, even a Discord channel.”

Michael recommends setting up membership fees on a monthly or yearly basis.

“Provide a small discount for those who pay yearly. This gives you a nice cash injection you can use to develop new content and products for members.”

10. Monetize YouTube videos

• 🎯 Effort: High. Video production is much more time-consuming than writing.
• 🟡 Risk: High. Your success is dependent on the YouTube algorithm.
• 🤝 Why choose it: You can double your reach in both Google and YouTube search. 

Written content remains important in 2026, but video has become the primary way many people learn about and explore new topics. If video isn’t a part of your content marketing strategy, you risk missing out on followers who prefer visual formats.

Posting engaging videos can help you make money on YouTube as an expansion of your blog content. Make a video tutorial, review, or haul, and you’ll get rewarded when a viewer purchases off the back of your recommendation.

Increase the ROI of your blog posts by treating each piece of content as the foundation of a video script. The bloggers behind A Beautiful Mess, for example, published a YouTube video that demonstrates how to create built-in shelves. The video description directs people to the blog write-up, which contains affiliate links to the products used in the tutorial.

This strategy is worth considering for several reasons. First, it helps you reach people who prefer to learn through video, expanding your audience beyond readers alone.

Secondly, Google and YouTube are the two most popular search engines in the world. Sharing content to both platforms increases the likelihood of your target reader finding it—and therefore, signing up for your list, viewing your ads, or purchasing products through your blog.

For some queries, Google’s algorithm pulls YouTube videos in the search engine results page (SERP). The first thing you’ll see on the SERP for “how to groom your dog at home,” for example, is a YouTube video on the topic.

The best part? An active YouTube channel expands your revenue opportunities. The platform comes with its own set of monetization features, including the YouTube Shopify affiliate program, which helps you to find products to promote through your content—or creators to promote your products.

11. Produce a podcast and get a sponsor

• 🎯 Effort: High. A podcast requires audio equipment, editing skills, and consistent episodes to build a listener base. 
• 🟡 Risk: High.Podcasts are notoriously hard to grow organically compared to blogs with SEO. 
• 🤝 Why choose it: Great for deepening the relationship with an existing audience, but difficult to use as a primary growth tool.

Podcasts are more popular than ever, with 73% of Americans saying they’ve listened to or watched a podcast before. 

Capitalize on your audience’s attention by starting your own podcast. Record yourself talking about a topic in your niche and syndicate each episode to a streaming platform like Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Reach out to brands in your niche with sponsorship opportunities. Sell ad space and give companies a shortcut to reach their target audience in exchange for a sponsorship fee.

The downside to the podcast approach is that it can be costly both in terms of time and money. It takes time to build a relationship with a new audience. You’ll also need audio equipment or rented studio time to produce the podcast.

How long does it take to make money blogging?

While a popular blog can make money right away, it often takes time to build an audience that’s big enough to monetize.

Embracing monetization strategies can help reduce the time it takes to earn money. For example, Brittany Berger, founder of Work Brighter, started earning almost instantly by creating a simple $20 digital download that she promoted in her weekly newsletter.

“By starting early in the blog’s lifetime, I was able to convert a huge portion of the audience,” she says.

“I think waiting to launch something until you have a bigger audience can end up creating more pressure for yourself, so I’m glad I experimented with a small product when my audience was small.”

Mushfiq Sarkar also started blogging part time back in 2008, though he had no prior marketing experience.

“I left my job in April 2021 to focus on The Website Flip, because it was growing significantly and I was more passionate about growing this website and blogging,” he says.

His latest blog makes significant revenue despite being only a few years old.

“A lot of people knew me by name, but not that I was an active blogger or someone who covered the industry,” he says. “I started earning money fairly quickly—within a month or two.”

Blogging is typically a side hustle people take up with the hopes that, one day, they’ll be able to quit their day jobs. Yet the length of time it takes to generate substantial income varies from blogger to blogger.

Can I earn a living by monetizing a blog?

As the many successful bloggers in this post prove, it’s definitely possible to make money blogging. In fact, you can run large businesses with multiple employees based on blogs as the core product.

That said, you’ll need to follow some best practices to give yourself the best chance of earning a full-time blogging income.

Invest your time

You can’t build a successful blog overnight. It often takes years of consistent effort. For many bloggers, real income emerges months or years after they’ve built and maintained an engaged audience.

In this sense, profitable blogging isn’t just about posting as many articles as possible. Instead, it’s about enhancing every aspect of your blog to increase engagement—from your social media presence to your email marketing strategies.

Cover all distribution channels

Sure, blog posts are great. But have you explored making video versions of your content for TikTok or starting a podcast? Posting across content channels will help you learn how your audience prefers to consume content, and where the majority of your audience spends time online.

A multichannel content strategy also helps you avoid strong competition. If your blog posts are struggling to rank against high-profile websites, for example, you might find you can enjoy better reach with Instagram Stories.

Building visibility across channels may also improve your standing with search algorithms. The more your content appears across different media, the more likely any individual platform will recognize your importance and rank your content higher.

Aim to be omnipresent in your niche, making your blog too much of an authority for Google to ignore.

Rethink the business model

If you’re serious about turning your blog into a business, try to think like an entrepreneur rather than an author or enthusiast. Beyond looking to produce the highest-quality content, consider how to maximize your page views in the most profitable niches.

It might mean running multiple blogs across a variety of topic areas. Owning three, five, or 10 semi-successful blogs may be more profitable (and achievable) than running one super-successful site. Spreading your efforts across websites also gives you more opportunities to find success, and chances to avoid roadblocks with competitors, sponsors, products, etc.

Just as spreading your time over multiple blogs can pay off, try not to rely on a single income stream. Explore some or all of the monetization strategies in this post to protect your earnings if one method falls short.

How to choose the right monetization strategy

Choosing how to make money with your blog depends on three things: its age, your traffic size, and your topic. Trying to layer every monetization strategy at once is usually a mistake, unless you’ve got a team to manage the blog for you. 

New bloggers typically follow this model:

1. Write helpful posts and build an email list.
2. Add affiliate links that help your readers solve problems.
3. Turn on premium ads once you hit 25,000 to 50,000 sessions.
4. Launch a flagship course or product once you have a loyal audience.

Diving a little deeper, let’s look at what you can do depending on how established your blog is.

New blogs

Since your blog is new with little traffic so far, avoid display ads right away. They pay little when you don’t have a lot of traffic, and they cause friction for your readers. Focus on getting email subscribers, so you can connect with them directly.

• If you’re using affiliate marketing, start with Amazon Associates, since they pay an average commission of 1% to 5%. As you grow, you can swap those links for partners that pay higher in your industry. 
• Sell digital products like guides, downloadables, or courses once readers trust you. These are very profitable and usually only cost your time and a fee from the platform you sell through.

Growing blogs

Display ads are smarter once you have enough traffic to join a premium ad network. These networks pay better than standard Google Ads. For example, Mediavine requires you to have 50,000 sessions in the past 30 days. Raptive is also strict, though they accept smaller sites with 25,000 monthly page views.

Until you hit these numbers, focus on writing more content to grow your traffic rather than cluttering your site with low-paying ads.

💡Note that your niche affects how much you earn per visitor, as mentioned above. A general rule of thumb is:

• If your topic pays well: You can make a great living just on ads and affiliate links.
• If your topic pays less: You will need to sell your own products, courses, or services to boost your income.

Turn your blog into a moneymaker

Building a blogging business isn’t a linear process. The best way to make money depends on your niche, your relationship with your audience, and the content formats you’re producing. Focus first on building great content and a loyal readership, and then experiment with these monetization tactics.