Blogging has become one of the most popular ways to not only pass time, but also to make a little extra cash along the way. The problem is, it takes time to monetize a blog to the point where you can turn it into a passive income method. Many people give up before they reach that point.

The great thing about blogging is that you can turn it into a side hustle. It can be something you do when you have the time, when you’re sat at home bored and there’s nothing on TV, and you can do it from anywhere in the world, as long as you have your laptop with you and you have a good quality Internet connection. However, you do need to dedicate time to a blog if you want to make money from it – people aren’t going to follow you if you’re updating sporadically.

Of course, you might not want to go down the passive income or side hustle route, you might be looking to give up your full time job and settle down as a travelling or at home blogger and make your annual salary from that.

It’s possible, but again, it takes time. You’ll need to work on your side hustle for a while first, perhaps around a year or two, before you can see potential for giving up your regular job.

But, we don’t want to dull your dreams here – it IS possible.

How Much Money Can You Make From Blogging?

If you dedicate enough time to it, if you choose a niche that people want to read about and you have a talent for creating interesting, entertaining and thought provoking content, you can easily make cash. How much cash depends on many different variables, but let’s look at some average figures here.

Remember, these are not guaranteed amounts, but it does give you a guideline on what’s possible.

After you’ve created your blog and started getting regular amounts of traffic heading your way, you can monetise your blog and probably earn anything unto around $2000 in your first 12 months. That’s not bad going! Of course, you can increase that as your blog becomes more reputable and more traffic comes your way. From there, you have the potential to increase your revenue quite drastically over the first five years; some bloggers make over $30,000 per year!

Of course, to hit these dizzy heights you need to work on your blog quite a lot; that means you need to basically be a part time or even full time blogger. Around 30 hours per week is the average.

The more traffic you get, the more cash you get as a result, so always focus on attracting traffic and keeping your followers happy. If you can do that, the ways to monetise your blog become very easy indeed.

How to Monetise Your Blog

So, how does the money actually come from your blog? There are many ways you can look to make your blog into a money-spinner, but some of the most common methods include:

• Affiliate links
• Adverts
• Selling a digital product

Of course, that’s in no way and exhaustive list, but these are the easiest methods for a budding blogger to use.

Affiliate links are probably the most common. You can use this method by signing up with a good quality affiliate program, such as Amazon as one example. Then, you include links to their products on your site, usually via a blog post which allows you to seamlessly include the product. Whenever someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you will receive commission. The amount of commission you receive depends on the rules of the program you choose and the product itself; obviously, higher priced products give you more commission than lower priced products. Adverts also work in a very similar way to affiliate links and allow you to bring some cash in as a result of your blog.

However, with these two points you have to remember to mention somewhere on your blog, somewhere people can actually see, that you may be making money from the links you’ve included. A simple “this post contains affiliate links” is often enough. It’s about being honest with your followers, but if the post is good enough and the product is useful to them, they probably won’t mind at all.

Selling a digital product is a good way to make cash without even trying. This means you write an ebook, create a printable, write a course, or perhaps even record a song or a video, and you sell it on your blog. Whenever someone places and order and pays, often via PayPal as one method, you email them the product. This means you can make cash from just one product that you simply send out time and time again. You can sell many different digital products on your site over time, using follow ups and second editions to create interest.

Making Money From Your Blog Takes Time

It’s important to remember that you’re not going to start making money from your blog immediately. You need to establish your blog and start to see a steady stream of followers coming your way and then staying with you, before you can start trying to make cash. You should also remember that ‘less is more’ at first. If you constantly bombard your followers with things to buy and affiliate links, they’re going to become tired of it and assume that you’re just out to make cash. Remember, the first point of a blog is to inform people and entertain.

If you’re persistent and look for interesting ways to entertain your followers, money will surely follow.