New bloggers may find themselves completely overwhelmed by pretty much everything. From SEO and social media to brand partnerships and how to make money blogging. It is a lot. How do I make money? Do I reach out to brands? What’s the #1 source of income? How do you even start a blog? These are just some of the questions I’ve been asked over the last few years. It seems that no one really understands how blogging works. And I get it, it’s confusing. I am sharing this with the hope that I’ll be able to provide some clarity. I hope this post might give you the much-needed motivation to stick with it or to try something new. Or maybe you just want to know how it works? So how to bloggers make money? Let’s talk about it. 

How to Make Money Blogging

As you know, I cofounded and grew two websites that grew to have millions of followers, all while (sort of) maintaining my blog. I went full-time on my blog last after stepping down from running 2 larger blogs. My annual page views went up 73% from 2020 to 2021. To be even more direct, I went from over 1 million views in 2020 to 1.77 million in 2021. Successful bloggers write content multiple times a week. They keep their readers coming back by blogging regularly and diversify revenue streams.

We’ll talk more about that in a minute. 

I had decent traffic before I left my old company because I never fully quit running my own blog. I started as a full-time blogger (in early 2021) with over 50,000 Instagram followers. The most important thing to remember is that it takes time. I’ve been at this for 15 years. You won’t make much money to start, but if you stick with it, it will likely come. It can be discouraging when you’ve been at it for a few years and aren’t seeing a lot of growth or a paycheck.

Last year, I made more than my salary at my old company.

It’s June, and I have almost made this year what I made in one year at my old company. To be clear – that’s not what the company made. I’m just reference my take-home salary and bonus. And I will tell you, it’s a million times less stressful working for myself than running a team, and having a business partner to run things by. Even knowing what I knew, I did not think I’d be able to make more than what I was making without the frivolous team meetings and reporting and feeling like everything had lost its meaning for me. 

My point? You can do this and there are so many different ways to make money blogging. From a sponsored post to display ads, I’m going to share what’s worked for me. It’s going to take some time, but you can do it. 

My main sources of income

Keep in mind that I have only been doing this full time for a little over a year now, and things changed a lot over the last year. When I officially stepped down from my old website(s) I decided to really go for it and see what I could do. When it comes to making money, using an affiliate network and brand partnerships have been the most successful. 

Last year, affiliate marketing made up 61.94% of revenue, brand partnerships made up 28.72% or revenue, and ad revenue made up 9.35%. If you want to get started with LTK (affiliate links), you need at least 4 months of consistent content. I’ll get into brand partnerships in a bit. 

How to make money blogging with affiliate links

Affiliate is a great way to start making money blogging. I’m very familiar with both sides of affiliate programs since Anecdote is on LTK, so here’s how it works. Brands pay to belong to the affiliate (in this case, LTK). When you use an affiliate link, the “influencer” gets a % (usually around 10%) of the total purchase, at no cost to you. As you can imagine, there are a lot of inexpensive items that bring in as little as $1 in affiliate, but if that item is purchased a bunch of times, it can still bring some money in. On average, about 1-2% of clicks convert to a sale.

If you can find success with affiliate, it’s the best way to make money on your own terms. Brand partnerships can be great, but they are a lot of work. I like doing a mix of both. 

How to Start and Grow a Blog

I started blogging in 2007, but did not go full-time on my own until selling my company in 2021. Here's how I did it.

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How Ads work

I signed up with Mediavine in 2018, and it’s been great. The ads on my site (which I’ll admit, aren’t my favorite thing) bring in some great extra cash. You can choose the types of ads you want or do not want, which I appreciate. If you grow your traffic significantly, you can make an insane amount of money. For the record, I am not making an “insane” amount of money on ads 😂. But it covers the cost of our health insurance, so that’s something. You can fill out an application here, but please note that you do need to have traffic to your site first. 

Right now, my focus has been on SEO (search engine optimization) with the hopes that I’ll increase my traffic and make more money via ads. I do plan on writing more about that soon, but really want to see some results before I do. Ads are the easiest way to make money, so it’s where I’d like to see growth. 

You’ll want to grow your traffic

I have focused on SEO over the last year, and growing my blog and focusing on blog content has helped me make more money. When people use search engines and you write for SEO, you may begin to rank (being on the first page is ideal). This increases your organic traffic, new users, and will make you more money via ad networks. 

How brand partnerships work

Ah, sponsored content. It can be so tricky, and I’ve learned a lot. It’s hard when you’re first starting out because you feel like you have to say yes, but if I’ve learned anything, it’s to only say yes when it’s something that is a natural fit. You have to stay true to yourself and want (need!) your readers to trust you.

It has been years and years since I’ve pitched myself to a brand, but it’s definitely something you can do. I do not do that because it’s my goal to take on as far partnerships as possible. Someone (sometimes from a marketing agency, or someone at the brand) will reach out and ask about my interest in partnering. I’ve found that if a brand is coming to you, it’s because they want to work with you, so it’s easier. But, if there’s a brand you love, it’s worth reaching out.

If you were to pitch yourself, I’d try to find a contact at the brand. Look for someone in PR or marketing, or ask for a connection to the appropriate person via email or IG. Most of the time, reaching out would result in a for-trade partnership, which isn’t always the worst thing. Sometimes, you need to get your foot in the door. 

Ideally, you’ll blog consistently for a few months before reaching out, or ask about a for trade partnership. You could also get a potential partnership by tagging a brand, but I’d say that’s not very common, or it’s not for me. 

Discussing budget, rates, and deliverables to make money blogging

I would create a media kit (in PDF format) outlining your stats, a little about you, and your rates. I send my media kit to brands after they reach out. If they have a budget, we discuss rates and move forward. If it’s a brand I’m not familiar with, I’ll ask to try the product before signing a contract. I will always ask for time with a product (at least a few weeks) before signing a contract. Then we’ll talk about a date to have deliverables to the brand. They will get back to me within a few days or a week after I submit everything. Most of the time, very minor edits are required, and we set a go-live date. 

Other forms of income 

Consider other ways you might make money blogging. Try to focus on passive income. Online courses, downloadable PDFs,  google adsense, youtube video social media, digital products, and an email list to name a few. Keep your revenue streams diverse and focus on what you can control. Instagram can be great, but we don’t really have control over what happens there. But your blog and newsletter are yours. Building up an engaged following and creating regular content is the way to go. And the great thing about blogging is that you can always try something new when something else doesn’t work. 

Advice from a full-time blogger

First, don’t do it for the money. I ran my blog from 2007-2015 before I started making money. And it wasn’t full time for another 4-5 years. Yes, you can make a lot of money (a full-time salary!) blogging by writing great content on a regular basis. Even if you don’t have much traffic, keep it up and look at Ubersuggest and RankIQ to grow your SEO. Build that mailing list. These are people who are invested in you. Use any post/opportunity to plug your newsletter to your readers, and offer something there that they can’t get anywhere else. 

Know your target audience and the type of content they are interested in – it’s always a good idea to know who your readers are. See what content is doing well and try to create more content like that. But don’t forget to try new and different things, because you really never know what will resonate. Product reviews can be so successful! Who knew?  Engage with them on social media.

It’s more than creating content.

There are deadlines and drafts and editing content, getting approvals – it is truthfully not always my favorite thing. But – I’ve been fortunate to work with some really amazing brands who have been so wonderful and understanding. They trust me to do my thing and believe in me. A brand recently asked if I’d do something and I wrote back saying I didn’t think it would convert, and they were fine scrapping their idea.