How to Monetize a Blog: Proven Methods That Work

The average full-time blogger earns about $45,000 a year. That sounds decent until you realize most bloggers earn nothing. Zero. The gap between bloggers who make money and bloggers who don’t isn’t talent or luck. It’s strategy.

I’ve been monetizing my blog since 2008. Eighteen years. I’ve tested every revenue stream you can think of, from Google AdSense pennies to $5,000 consulting contracts. Some methods paid off fast. Others wasted months of my time. And a few changed my entire business.

This is everything I know about turning a blog into a real income source. Not theory. Not “passive income” fantasies. Real numbers from real experience across 850+ client projects and my own sites.

Display Advertising

Display ads are how most bloggers start making money. You slap some ad code on your site, visitors see ads, and you get paid per impression or click. Simple concept. But the execution and the platform you choose make a massive difference in what you actually earn.

Google AdSense: The Starting Point

AdSense is where I started back in 2008. My first month, I earned $4.67. I was thrilled. Don’t laugh. That $4.67 proved the concept: people visit your site, you make money. The problem with AdSense is the RPM (revenue per thousand impressions). Most blogs earn $2 to $8 RPM with AdSense. That means 10,000 pageviews gets you $20 to $80. It’s not nothing, but it’s not quitting-your-job money either.

Premium Ad Networks: Where Real Money Starts

Once you hit 50,000 sessions per month, you can apply to Mediavine. This was a turning point for me. My RPM jumped from $6 with AdSense to $22 with Mediavine overnight. Same traffic, same content, 3x more revenue. Raptive (formerly AdThrive) is another premium option, and they typically require 100,000 monthly pageviews.

Here’s what RPMs look like across niches in 2026:

• Finance and insurance blogs: $30 to $50 RPM
• Technology blogs: $15 to $30 RPM
• Food and recipe blogs: $20 to $35 RPM
• Lifestyle and travel blogs: $12 to $25 RPM
• General blogging niche: $8 to $18 RPM

My recommendation: start with AdSense to prove the model, then switch to Mediavine the moment you qualify. The difference is night and day.

Affiliate Marketing

This is where I make the most money from my blog. More than ads. More than courses. Affiliate marketing has generated over $380,000 in commissions for me since I started tracking properly in 2012. The concept is straightforward: you recommend a product, someone buys through your link, you earn a commission.

How It Works in Practice

You sign up for an affiliate program, get a unique tracking link, and include that link in your content. When a reader clicks and makes a purchase within the cookie window (usually 30 to 90 days), you earn a percentage. Commissions range from 5% for physical products to 50% or more for digital products and SaaS tools.

I focus on recurring commissions whenever possible. A hosting company that pays me $65 per signup is great. But a SaaS tool that pays me $29 per month for as long as the customer stays? That builds real wealth. My recurring affiliate income hit $4,200 per month in late 2025, and I didn’t have to write a single new article to earn it.

Creating Content That Converts

The biggest mistake bloggers make with affiliate marketing is writing thin “review” posts that read like ads. Nobody trusts those. What works is comparison content, tutorial content, and honest reviews where you mention real downsides.

My highest-converting affiliate posts follow this format: I explain a problem, show how I solved it, mention the tool I used (with my affiliate link), and include screenshots of my actual results. One post about WordPress hosting generates $1,800 per month because I showed real speed test data from my own sites.

Disclosure Requirements

The FTC requires you to disclose affiliate relationships. Don’t hide it. I put a clear disclosure at the top of every post with affiliate links. Something like: “This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you.” It hasn’t hurt my conversions at all. Readers respect honesty.

Sponsored Posts and Brand Deals

Once your blog has traffic and authority, brands will pay you to write about their products. I got my first sponsored post offer at around 30,000 monthly pageviews. It paid $200. Fast forward to 2026, and I charge $1,500 to $3,500 per sponsored post depending on scope.

Getting Your First Deals

You don’t need to wait for brands to find you. Create a “Work With Me” or “Advertise” page on your blog. List your traffic stats, audience demographics, and past collaborations. Join influencer platforms like Aspire, GRIN, or CreatorIQ to get matched with brands. But honestly, the best deals come from direct outreach. Find brands in your niche, email their marketing team, and pitch a collaboration.

Pricing Your Content

Most new bloggers undercharge. Badly. A sponsored post isn’t just writing. It’s access to your audience, your credibility, and your SEO authority. My pricing formula: $100 per 10,000 monthly pageviews as a baseline, then adjust up for niche authority and social reach. A blog with 50,000 monthly pageviews should charge at least $500 per sponsored post. If a brand pushes back on price, they’re not your client.

Staying Authentic

Here’s my rule: I only accept sponsored posts for products I’d genuinely recommend. I’ve turned down $4,000 offers because the product was mediocre. Your readers trust you. That trust is worth more than any single paycheck. Mark sponsored content clearly, give honest opinions, and never compromise your editorial standards for money.

Selling Digital Products

Digital products changed my income trajectory more than anything else. The margins are insane. You create something once and sell it forever. No inventory. No shipping. No customer service nightmares (mostly).

E-books and Guides

My first digital product was a 45-page PDF guide on WordPress speed optimization. I priced it at $19. It took me two weekends to write. In its first year, it sold 340 copies for about $6,460. Not life-changing money, but nearly passive. I updated it once, and it kept selling.

The key is solving a specific problem your audience already has. Don’t write a general “blogging guide.” Write “How to Get Your WordPress Site to Load in Under 1 Second.” Specific sells. Vague doesn’t.

Templates, Printables, and Tools

Templates are my favorite digital product because they’re fast to create and highly repeatable. I sell WordPress starter templates, SEO audit spreadsheets, and content calendar templates. My best-selling template pack brings in about $800 per month with zero ongoing effort.

Printables work great in certain niches like education, fitness, and organization. Tools and calculators (think ROI calculators or keyword research templates) work well in business niches. The common thread: save people time. If your product saves someone 5 hours of work, pricing it at $29 to $49 is a no-brainer.

Online Courses and Memberships

I launched my first online course in 2019. It made $12,000 in the first month. That single launch taught me more about business than 10 years of blogging did. Courses are the highest-value product you can create from a blog.

Building Your First Course

Pick a topic you’ve written about extensively on your blog. If your most popular posts are about SEO, create an SEO course. You already have proof that people want this information. I use a combination of video lessons, downloadable resources, and community access.

Don’t overthink the platform. Teachable and Thinkific both work fine for most bloggers. I’ve used Teachable for years and it handles everything from payment processing to student management. The course doesn’t need to be 40 hours long. My best-performing course is 6 hours of content priced at $197. Students consistently rate it higher than my longer courses.

Membership Models

Memberships create predictable monthly revenue, which is something every blogger craves. I run a small membership community where members pay $29 per month for access to monthly workshops, a private community, and early access to my tools. It currently has about 180 active members. That’s $5,220 per month in recurring revenue from one product.

The challenge with memberships is retention. You need to deliver consistent value or people cancel. I spend about 8 hours per month creating content for my membership. That’s a solid return on time invested.

Freelance Services and Consulting

Your blog is the best portfolio you’ll ever build. Every article you publish demonstrates your expertise. I’ve landed consulting contracts worth $15,000 or more purely because a potential client read my blog and reached out.

Turning Your Blog Into a Client Magnet

Add a services page to your blog. Be specific about what you offer and who you help. “I help WordPress site owners improve their Core Web Vitals scores and organic traffic” converts better than “I offer web development services.” Show results. Case studies with real numbers are your best sales tool.

I charge $200 per hour for one-on-one consulting. That might sound steep, but my blog has already pre-sold my expertise before the client ever books a call. They’ve read my articles, seen my results, and already trust my advice. The blog does the heavy lifting so I don’t have to do hard sales.

Productized Consulting

This is my favorite evolution of the consulting model. Instead of charging hourly, you package your expertise into fixed-price offers. My “WordPress Speed Audit” is a productized service: $497, fixed scope, delivered in 5 business days. I’ve sold over 200 of these. The process is systematized, so each one takes me about 3 hours. That’s $165 per hour without the variability of hourly billing.

Group coaching is another smart move. I run quarterly group coaching cohorts with 15 people at $997 each. That’s about $15,000 per cohort for 6 weeks of my time. Way more efficient than one-on-one work.

Email Marketing Monetization

Your email list is the most valuable asset your blog will ever produce. Not your traffic. Not your social media followers. Your email list. I ignored email marketing for my first 5 years of blogging. That was my biggest mistake.

Building a List That Pays

Start collecting emails on day one. Use a lead magnet (free guide, checklist, template) to incentivize signups. I use ConvertKit for email marketing and currently have about 28,000 subscribers. That list generates roughly $8,000 per month through a mix of affiliate promotions, course launches, and digital product sales.

The math is simple. A healthy email list generates $1 to $3 per subscriber per month. Build a list of 10,000 engaged subscribers and you’re looking at $10,000 to $30,000 per month. It compounds over time because every new subscriber adds to your earning potential without any extra content creation.

Launch Strategies That Work

Email is where the real money lives during product launches. My course launch formula: send a free value email series for 2 weeks, then open the cart for 5 days with a launch sequence. This approach generated $12,000 from my last course launch to a list of 28,000. That’s about $0.43 per subscriber for a single launch. Do 3 to 4 launches per year and email alone becomes a six-figure channel.

Additional Revenue Streams

Beyond the core methods, there are several other ways to monetize your blog audience once you’ve built a foundation.

Podcast Sponsorships

If you start a podcast alongside your blog (and you should consider it), sponsorships become another revenue stream. Podcast sponsors typically pay $15 to $25 per thousand downloads (CPM). My podcast averages about 8,000 downloads per episode, which translates to $120 to $200 per sponsor spot. I run two spots per episode, so that’s $240 to $400 per episode. Not massive, but it adds up to $12,000 to $20,000 per year.

YouTube Monetization

YouTube and blogging complement each other perfectly. I repurpose my blog content into videos and my videos drive traffic back to my blog. YouTube ad revenue for tech content runs about $8 to $15 CPM. My channel generates about $1,200 per month from ads alone, plus additional affiliate revenue from video descriptions.

Speaking Engagements

Once you’re recognized as an expert through your blog, speaking invitations follow. I’ve been paid $2,000 to $5,000 for conference talks and webinar appearances. It’s not a primary income source, but 4 to 6 speaking gigs per year adds $10,000 to $30,000 to the bottom line.

When to Start Each Revenue Stream

Timing matters. Don’t try to monetize everything at once. Here’s the progression I recommend based on where you are.

Month 1 to 6: Foundation Phase

Focus on content. Write 30 to 50 solid articles. Set up Google AdSense. Start building your email list from day one. Join 2 to 3 affiliate programs in your niche. Don’t expect meaningful income yet. This phase is about building the foundation.

Realistic income in this phase: $0 to $100 per month. Most of that will come from random AdSense clicks and maybe your first affiliate sale. I made $47 in my first 6 months. It felt like nothing at the time, but it was proof the model works.

Month 6 to 12: Early Traction

By now you should have consistent traffic growth. Push toward 10,000 monthly pageviews. Start creating comparison and review content for affiliate marketing. Launch your first digital product (even a simple $9 template). Continue building your email list aggressively.

Realistic income: $100 to $500 per month. My blog hit $380 per month at the 10-month mark. Mostly affiliate commissions and AdSense.

Month 12 to 24: Growth Phase

This is where things get interesting. Apply for Mediavine when you hit 50,000 sessions. Create your first online course or premium digital product. Start accepting sponsored posts. Add a services or consulting page.

Realistic income: $500 to $3,000 per month. I crossed $2,000 per month at around the 18-month mark. The hockey stick growth curve started kicking in.

Year 2 and Beyond: Scaling

Now you’re stacking revenue streams. Premium ads plus affiliate marketing plus digital products plus courses plus consulting. Each stream feeds the others. Your blog traffic drives email signups, email drives course sales, course students become consulting clients, consulting insights become blog content. It’s a flywheel.

Realistic income: $3,000 to $15,000+ per month. My blog revenue crossed $10,000 per month in year 3 and has grown every year since.

The Revenue Stack That Works

After 18 years, here’s how my blog income breaks down in 2026:

• Affiliate marketing: 35% of total revenue
• Online courses and digital products: 25%
• Consulting and services: 20%
• Display advertising: 12%
• Sponsored content and brand deals: 8%

Notice that ads are only 12%. Most beginners think ads are the primary way to monetize a blog. They’re not. Ads are the base layer. The real money comes from products and services built on top of your blog’s authority.

My advice: start with ads and affiliate marketing to build momentum. Then layer on digital products and courses once you understand what your audience wants. Finally, add consulting and services for high-ticket revenue. Don’t try to do all 12 methods at once. Pick 2 to 3, master them, then expand.

The bloggers who fail are the ones who spend 6 months “researching monetization strategies” instead of publishing content. The bloggers who succeed publish consistently, test different revenue streams, and double down on what works.

Start today. Pick one monetization method from this list. Set it up this week. Your first dollar from blogging changes everything. Mine did.

Frequently Asked Questions