How to Really Make Money Blogging

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Making money on the internet is not a myth. But it’s not as simple as paying $19.99 to have Freddy in India set you up a website and have it go on autopilot, either. Making money online takes work. Nothing worth having in this life is for free. And blogging for cash is no different.

Many people have looked to blogging as a way to generate income. When I first starting blogging I never ever thought about making money. For a very long time I felt as if I wasn’t supposed to make money from it. This sort of coincides with how I sometimes feel guilty that I get paid to work as a nurse. Something inside me always told me that people would or already were judging me harshly for receiving compensation for caring for others, or in this case, blogging.

But there comes a point in time where you have to decide for yourself if you are ready to make money doing what you love, and once you do, then you’ll be able to come to peace with yourself. Remember it’s not others that have to make sure you are able to sleep at night; it’s you. Be honest, have integrity, use disclosure, and put effort into it, and you too can be successful at blogging for profit.

So let’s get to the point, shall we?

Let’s assume you’ve already started a blog and are writing pretty regularly. If not, this post is not for you. There are tons of “How do I start a blog” articles and how to start online business articles. There is one at HowToGetBy.com that may be helpful to you.

Ready? OK

How exactly do you make money blogging?

 

 

Work!

Ok. Hah! That’s the honest truth, though. It’s going to take effort and there is really no way to get around that. But I will at least save you the large amounts of googling that I had to do to figure this stuff out.

3 Proven Methods to Generate Income With a Blog

Google Adsense, Affiliate links (Amazon, VigLink, and Skimlinks are the ones I personally use), and private advertising and sponsorships are the primary ways that TheNerdyNurse.com generates revenue.

Now you will need to decide if you are wanting a supplemental income or if you are wanting to quit your day job. Because that will make a difference in the amount of time and effort you put into your blog. Personally I really enjoy my day job and have no desire to quit. In fact, I actually used my blog to get my current day job as a clinical informatics specialist. For me blogging provides supplemental income to satiate my technology desires and provide my family with a few extra perks every now and then. But I don’t at all depend on the income to make ends meet.

So if you’re wanting to blog full-time, you’ll want to take these instructions and multiple them several times over on several different blogs with several different topics.

Make Money Blogging with Google Adsense

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Sell advertising on your blog through Google Adsense. Sounds easy enough right? Just sign right up and start placing banners and links, and the Benjamins will just start rolling in, right?

Well… no… not exactly.

To be honest, when you first start blogging, and if you have less than 500-1000 hits a day, you might only be getting pennies a day. But if you work at it a while, and your advertisers are relevant, then you’ll slowly notices the hits and clicks increase as your traffic and google page rank grow in tandem. As you continue to grow you’ll notice at each click can be worth over a dollar at times, and that certainly does add up. If you’re lucky it can be several dollars, and I’ve heard it can be over a hundred dollars if youre in the right niche.

Just for one relevant and unsolicited ad click, $100?

Wow. That’s Awesome. Right?

You bet your right foot it’s awesome!

Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Links

There are several ways you can make money using affiliate links. One is the most efficient and proven systems is simply by using Amazon affiliates. This is one method that has been proven by countless other bloggers to be a successful business model. Darren Rowse makes over $50,000 a year on this alone. And I don’t know about you, but where I come from, $50k ain’t nothing to sneeze at. But it takes a while for the earning to add up, according to the Pro Blogger himself. Starting early and creating links with your blog with nearly every post is an easy way to do this.

But how do you create links to amazon in every post while maintaining integrity, being genuine and authentic?

Images!

Nearly every post you write should contain some sort of image to make it attractive and to break up the monotony of boring text. And there is always the trouble of making sure you accrediting content appropriately. You don’t want to go and get yourself sued over a copyright infringement you didn’t even know you were committing. So save yourself some time and effort and let Amazon product images do the work for you.

They have something for any topic. Perhaps you are wanting to write a blog post about how tasty you think unicorns are and are looking for that special image that shows specifically unicorn meat.

They have it.

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It’s canned, mind you, but it’s unicorn meat all the same.

There are also passive and nearly effortless ways to have affiliate links as well. Services link VigLink and  Skimlinks will automatically affiliate links for you. Even Amazon links. But they do take a portion for the commission for doing this. I’ve written in detail about how VigLink makes this possible.

Making Money Blogging with Private Advertising and Sponsorships

There are several different ways to do this. You can start off by joining several different communities and sites where different brands and sponsors are looking for a group in which to help spread word about a product or service. After you have been blogging a while, specific brands and companies will start to seek you out independently.

This can prove to be your most substantial form for income, but for me it is often the least reliable form as well.

You can also seek out individual advertisers to sell text links or other advertising space.

Disclosure and Honesty

Disclosure is Important. Make sure you have a disclosure on your site and in particular on specific posts if you have been directly compensated for them.

Blog with passion, integrity, and commitment and the money will come.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Opinions stated are my own. Affiliate links are my own as well. 
 
 
 

32 thoughts on “How to Really Make Money Blogging”

  1. Great information for bloggers looking to monetize their website. Diversification is the key to long term success online. It’s always good to have multiple sources of income. Very helpful resource, keep up the good work.

  2. I don’t understand, so how do you get income from your website ” the nerdy nurse” I looked at your website and there was no place to make a purchase, so how do you get income exactly?

    Thanks,
    Melissa

    1. Melissa,

      Many of the links on my blog are affiliate links.

      This means that if you click on an Amazon link and then purchase a product from amazon, I get a percentage of the sale. (For amazon I get about 6%)
      You don’t see any difference in price, and I get a sort of a finders fee for pointing you towards the website.
      Does that help?

  3. This is great information. I have built a website (I’m not a programer but Mac makes it easy) and I have started several blogs, all in a effort to quit the day job! It’s slow going and I low creating and writing but I’m not making any real progress. I think I’m actually working hard when I should work smart. I do use google adsense and need to focus on Amazon and the affiliate link programs. My google page rank is either 2 or 3 depending on my content, I guess (for my website that is). I just need to get more traffic and this post has helped give me the confidence to keep plugging away!
    Thanks

    1. there’s an 80/20 rule of blogging. It’s said that 20% of your effort is what gets you 80% of your return. So find what that 20% is and spend your time on that!

      Traffic is HUGE for google adsense. Google affiliates does not require nearly as much traffic to start generating income. In fact you can have relatively low but loyal traffic and make good money with amazon.

  4. Is it true that in the state of Colorado you can’t use Amazon.com for advertising? What is the reason for that? Just curious.

  5. Great post, Francesca! I am doing most of the things you mentioned but still building a community. So right now adsense seems a bit irrelevant as far as making real money, but maybe in the future. I sold my first direct ad to a high school friend who started a business and a second one through a connection on blog frog. Right now I am focusing on getting my stats higher so more options are open to me. Thanks for the info.

  6. Very helpful information, stopping by from SITS. I haven’t taken the plunge yet into affiliate links since I cannot participate in Amazon b/c of the state I live in (boo, I know, that one would’ve been a no brainier for me to do, I love Amazon)! New fan here, going to go follow you in Facebook!

  7. This is a great article, one that I have been working on. Do you recommend starting with all three or just one. I don’t want to be all advertising. i want to have great content also. Do you recommend any ways to really explain how to get started in this.
    Thanks

  8. Popped in from SITS! I’m different as I’m a writer (books, magazines, etc.) and my blog features serial stories along with recipes, fun stuff, etc. I’d really like to make my blog and fiction writing the meat of my income since I’m getting burned on copywriting and journalism…any tips on how to apply these tips to my blog? I can’t really write product reviews…

    1. Blond Duck,

      Use the images technique! 🙂 And honestly for a website like yours a line of text that says “Please consider using my Amazon link for your next Amazon purchase to help support A Duck in Her Pond.” I would then probably add a page on the site that tells how you make money from Amazon and that helps to support the blog. Consider your readers are getting great content for free, they would likely be happy to help support you.

  9. Great article – thanks Nerdy Nurse! I just wanted to bring to your attention that there are several misspelled words in your post. Not meaning to be harsh, but it detracts from the credibility. However, I look forward to reading more of your blog.

    1. Elle,

      I am such an atrocious speller!
      My fumbling of letters and my inability to see my own errors often gets in the way with the message I wish to convey.
      I promise I read this thing 20 times and thought I caught them all. I think I got them this time (but I probably didn’t).
      If you see any specifically would you mind pointing them out.
      Hard to be an authority on a topic when you spell like a doofus.

  10. Getting enough traffic is the challenge for me. And I also feel I can only use amazin affiliate links to items I truly like or use, nothing radomn.
    Very good article and I will use your advice as much as I can. Thanks

    1. Debra,

      Many of my affiliate links are attached to the photos I use within my content. I sometimes also include relevant books about the topic.

      I suppose it is a matter of personal preference. I state explicitly if I have used something and I am making an endorsement.
      Using Amazon for images really has been a life saver. I used to spend so much time trying to find images that wouldn’t be infringing upon any copyright. With amazon images I kill 2 birds with one stone.

    2. Debra,

      It looks like your blog is relatively new. I can tell you first hand that traffic comes with time. It wasn’t until well over a year that I started generating good organic google traffic.

  11. I have to admit that my primary reason for blogging was the money. But as it turns out, it’s not the end-all and be-all. Yes, it does entail a lot of hard work. Thanks for your tips. they’re helpful for both newbies and oldies in blogging.

  12. Hi Brittney! Great post and as a relatively new blogger very helpful Good content and persistence seem to be mainstays of the process! Do you have any advice increasing Twitter following? Looks like you have close to 5000. That’s awesome!

    Thanks a lot,
    Beth

    1. The best advice I can you for twitter is to engage and share entertaining articles and images.
      Also, longevity matters with this as well.

      From time to time I search through and look for other nurses and tech individuals to follow. Most all will follow back and that will really help boost your followers.

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