Discover the different types of blogs that actually make money. Learn what they are, how they work, and how to get started with them.
Most successful blogs aren’t created just for the money – their owners want a creative outlet that lets them make cool things and help other people.
That said, it’s a lot easier to grow your blog and give it to the time and attention it needs when it does make money.
For new bloggers, it can be hard to visualize what a profitable blog looks like, so I’ve listed some common types of blogs that make money, how they do it and the pros and cons of that blog type.
And if you’re looking for the best blog niches to make money, I’ve listed those further down.
Ads have been around as long as blogs have, and they’re still a great way to get started monetizing your blog. Some networks have traffic minimums you’ll need to reach before you can join, and others, like AdSense, have no or low standards that can also mean low earnings per visitor.
That said, ads can be a good way to bring in a baseline income to cover your blogging expenses, and with enough traffic, it’s more than possible to make a few thousand dollars each month off ads.
Learn more: Google AdSense, Mediavine, AdThrive, The Top 4 Blog Advertising Networks
Affiliate marketing is a pretty standard operating procedure for blogs at this point, so instead of explaining how it works, let’s just say that affiliate marketing can generally make a lot more money than display ads, so it’s a smart option when you’re ready to jump in.
The key to affiliate marketing is partnering with affiliate programs that are aligned with your readers and the goals of your site, and to offer value to your audience.
Put their wants and needs before your potential affiliate earnings. You don’t want to pitch everything under the sun – stick to what your audience wants and offer affiliate products and services that make sense.
Learn more: Affiliate Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide
The first two types of blogs use other people’s products to earn money, but here we start to get into creating your own products.
An eBook is a great first product to create because you’re already in the business of creating content – often, selling an eBook is simply a matter of repackaging and branding your content.
And if you think people won’t pay for your information, think again. Bloggers often give away more information for free than they need to, and you’d be surprised to know how many people will gladly pay a few bucks for valuable info, especially if it impacts their health, finances, relationships and so on.
Learn more: How to Write, Publish and Sell an eBook
Here’s where we really start to level up: selling courses! Online courses are all the rage these days, but there’s good evidence to suggest they’re not going away anytime soon.
People love to learn stuff, and if you can teach your audience something useful, a course is a great way to monetize your blog.
Learn more: How to Make Money with an Awesome Online Course
Like ebooks, digital products are relatively easy to create and sell, especially if they meet the needs of your audience. Digital products might include printables, checklists, graphics, music, video or documents.
Learn more: How to Create and Sell Digital Products: A Roadmap With 6 Ideas to Get You Started
When done right, e-commerce is a great way to monetize your blog, though it doesn’t work for every niche or blogger, so testing here is key (ie don’t place a wholesale order from overseas if you don’t know how the stuff will sell).
If your blog’s on WordPress, you can use a platform like Woocommerce to create a store, or use Shopify on a subdomain (shop.yoursite.com).
Learn more: Uncrate gets millions of visitors each month, and some of them go to the blog’s shop at Uncrate Supply, where they offer products aligned with their core audience
Like online courses, online memberships are popular these days, and for good reason. Some folks aren’t up for paying hundreds of dollars for a one-time course, but they are game for a low-fee monthly membership that offers access to resources, community, etc.
The key here is determining what your membership looks like: what do members get each month, how do you provide that value and how do you retain members for the long haul?
Learn more: How to Build a Membership Website in Under a Day
If products aren’t your thing, it’s more than possible to offer services on your blog. If your blog’s about Pinterest, for example, you can offer Pinterest management or other social media services.
The key, as always, is to ensure you’re offering services that your audience is actually interested in, otherwise your traffic won’t convert to customers.
Learn more: 10 Profitable Services for Bloggers to Offer
Consulting is another great way to monetize your site and potentially less time-consuming than services. For example, if I take on an SEO client, I may spend all my time updating their on-site elements like title tags, descriptions and so on.
But if I work with them as an SEO consultant, I can provide them with a project plan and they can implement the game plan themselves. So consulting in this way can be slightly easier to scale.
Learn more: A Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Consulting Services
This should’ve been earlier on the list but I forgot about it until now so here we are let’s go with it. Sponsored content is in the realm of ads and affiliate marketing, and there are all types of ways to make it happen. Reach out to brands, offer value and remember to focus on what they get out of it.
Learn more: How I Make $3,000+ Per Month With Sponsored Posts
If when you say “types of blogs that make money” you actually mean the types of blog niches that make money, ignore the section above: I got you.
I’ve gone over some of the best niches in the past, and the basic idea is to not go too broad (don’t be Walmart), and to not go too specific (don’t be the weird dirty exotic pet store that never has any visitors).
You want to be in a niche that has traffic, advertisers, brands, searches, problems, the whole nine yards. But you want to do it with a specific angle.
If you’re a food blogger, try to find a subniche like keto recipes or family-friendly foods. If you’re a personal finance blogger, try to focus on something like savings or debt and avoid covering every financial topic under the sun.
For bloggers, the best niches are those with lots of questions and problems because those turn into Google searches. And the more Google searches a niche has, the more opportunities for content. Woohoo.
Here’s a look at some of the most popular blog niches that make it easier to make money, and a few examples of each.
Now that you’ve seen 10 types of blogs that make money and 11 blog niches that are ripe for monetizing, the question is: what type of blog will you start and grow?
There’s no right or wrong answer, and often it takes a ton of trial error to figure out exactly what works for you, your interests and your audience. But the best way to figure it out is to keep trying ’til something clicks.
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