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When people ask how much do bloggers make, my answer is simple: it varies. But on a personal level, I’m able to tell them that as bloggers, my partner Tom and I make more money each month than we once did from both of our full-time jobs combined.
In fact, I can even go as far as to say that our blog earns us more money monthly compared to what we would earn in a YEAR working as a teacher in the Philippines or as an engineer in the UK.
So yeah, you could say that bloggers earn a pretty decent income – just as long as you have a solid strategy to go with your blog.
In this article, I’m here to answer all of your questions about how much money you can make blogging, and how much bloggers are earning today.
You’d be surprised at some of the answers! Ready to find out who’s making the big bucks and how you can do the same with your blog? Keep reading to find out how.
How Much Money Do Bloggers Make?
As mentioned, the amount of money that bloggers make varies greatly. This figure can be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars a month to an impressive 6 figures!
It all depends on the way an individual blogger chooses to monetize their blog.
On our own travel blog, Adventure in You, we regularly make 5 figures each month, utilizing a huge range of monetization methods, not just a single money-making technique.
As you can see from our 2019 income statement above, blogging is truly our bread and butter, our full-time dream job that brings in a steady income while allowing us to live the life we want.
But the thing is, we’re nothing special in the world of making money with blogging. There are so many bloggers out there who have turned their website into a full-blown business and use it to support themselves.
Check out these other blogs in a range of niches that successfully earn a massive income from blogging:
- The Flooring Girl – Blog about different types of flooring that makes $22,000+ per month (having a super specific niche pays!)
- Just a Girl and Her Blog – Lifestyle blog earning $40,000 per month
- Pinch of Yum – Food blog making more than $60,000+ per month
- Busy Budgeter – A blog about organizing your money, home, and life that makes $86,000 per month
- Succulents and Sunshine – This blog about succulents (yes, the cute little plants) makes more than $200,000 a year
- The Blonde Abroad – Travel blog and beyond that made more than $1 million in 2019
- Sarah Titus – Printable and parenting blog Sarah Titus made more than half a million dollars ($516,103) in January 2020
While these examples don’t represent the majority of bloggers, it goes to show how much money can be made in the world of blogging with a good idea and some dedication.
Even if they aren’t raking in the millions, there are still plenty of bloggers out there who make more each month from blogging than they would with many full-time jobs.
Take a look at these:
- Green Thickies (Health Blog) – $15,000+ monthly
- Fit Mommy in Heels (Fashion Mom Blog) – $11,000+ monthly
- A Sassy Spoon (Food Blog) – $10,000+ monthly
- Practical Wanderlust (Travel) – $5,800+ monthly
- The Fab 20s (Millennial blog) – $5,000+ monthly
- Another Mommy Blog (Mom Blog) – $2,500+ monthly
If you’re dumbfounded by people making money through blogging, take a look at some stats to back up these findings.
According to a 2019 content creator survey, 24% of the 200 people surveyed made less than $500 per month. Even though this seems small, think about having an extra $450 padding your wallet every single month…
Even more staggering, the same survey revealed that 39.3% of content creators made between $500 and $1,999 per month.
On the higher end of the spectrum, 5% of the content creators surveyed regularly make more than $15,000 per month, leaving the remaining 31.8% to make between $2,000 and $14,999 each month.
As you can see, the amount of money bloggers can make varies hugely. There’s no set amount that a blogger is able to earn, but rather various ways to make money through blogging. It’s a combination of different monetization methods that leads to the highest earnings and the potential to turn a website into a full-time job.
What makes blogging (and entrepreneurship, in general) so appealing is there’s no ceiling on how much you can earn each month.
This is entirely up to the blogger alone, along with how they choose to use their skills to earn an income online. That’s why bloggers’ incomes vary so much – it’s completely up to the individual to earn on their own terms.
Some people blog for years and never make money from it because there’s no business strategy behind it. These are hobby bloggers, or people who simply blog as a form of self-expression. These kinds of bloggers are in a whole different category from the ones on this list.
Yes, many successful bloggers probably start off with hobby blogs… but in order to truly see your blog thrive and grow, you need to treat it like an actual business. This means setting goals, targets, and being comfortable with investing in yourself.
Bloggers who make money with their websites have a dream and a vision and have made it happen through the methods I’ll walk you through in the next section.
How Bloggers Make Money
There’s no cookie cutter formula on how bloggers make money from their websites, as this really depends on the monetization strategies they want to use on their blog.
On Adventure in You, we use a combination of monetization methods which brings in a comfortable monthly income for ourselves.
Some of the main monetization strategies we use are:
- Affiliate marketing
- Digital products
- Advertising
But there are loads of other ways to make money with a blog like:
- Creating an online course
- Running a membership website
- Brand partnerships or sponsored content
- Dropshipping or selling physical products
- Freelancing
Each monetization strategy brings in a different amount of money and provides a different degree of value to your audience.
Let’s look at some of the most common ways bloggers make money and the earning potential of each.
Affiliate Marketing
Since affiliate marketing is our jam, I’ll use Adventure in You as an example here.
In 2019, we made over $90,000 from affiliate marketing alone. This is our main source of income from our travel blog and we rely on it on top of other different monetization methods.
Affiliate marketing is the most common way bloggers make money as it works no matter the niche you’re in.
Take Blair Staky, a lifestyle blogger, who made $9,866 just from affiliates in March 2020. Or the fashion blog Chic Pursuit which made $8,718 from affiliate marketing in January 2020.
Digital Products
Lots of bloggers create digital products in the form of downloads or printables that can be sold to an audience.
Sarah Titus is one of the queens of digital products, making more $2,677,000 solely from printables between January and April 2020. Amira, the blogger behind A Self Guru, made $22,138 in November 2019 by selling legal templates online… while working a full-time job!
Digital products are an amazing way for bloggers to create something using their expertise to sell to their readers.
Advertising
Running display ads on a blog is a really simple way to earn an income, so long as you have decent traffic.
For us, although ads aren’t a huge focus, in 2019 we made more than $40,000 through display ads from AdThrive. In March 2019, the blogging duo Two Wandering Soles had $5,838 in advertising revenue with the ad network Mediavine.
Sponsored Content
The amount of money that bloggers make from sponsored content varies hugely. It all depends on the brand or company partnership and their terms for specific bloggers.
Some sponsored posts can go for between $50 to $200 while others can go up to $1,000 per post!
Bailey from Whole Kitchen Sink earned a whopping $4,173 from sponsored posts in January 2020 and even more staggering, Fit Mommy in Heels made $9,500 with sponsored content!
Online Course or Membership Site
The popularity of online courses has been on the rise and they’re a great revenue stream for bloggers, as long as you have a unique selling point and can provide your audience with a lot of value. It takes a decent amount of work up front, but the blogger gets to set the terms and conditions, putting you in charge of your own earning.
Online courses can be priced from anywhere between $10 and $2,000, and a membership to a website can be as low as $5 a month and as high as $1,000.
Important Disclaimer: Don’t create an online course if you’re not an established expert around a particular topic. We only decided to create our course, the Blogging Fast Lane, when we knew we had a unique strategy to share with others.
Beyond that, we actually use our blog Adventure in You to continuously test new strategies to make sure what we teach is up to date. Although course creation is a booming industry, only truly do it if you believe you have value to share.
Freelancing
If you’re a blogger with a particular skill set, you can actually call on it to make money.
Whether it’s writing, design, social media, trip planning, mentoring or anything else under the sun, freelancing is another way for bloggers to take control of their income and make some money.
Ell, the creator of Boss Girl Bloggers, made $2,425 in August 2020 through offering Pinterest management services, and food blogger Kylie, behind Midwest Foodie, made $3,525 from freelance photography in May 2020.
As you can see, bloggers make money in tons of different ways, and they’re not just limited to what’s on this list! Bloggers are completely in control of the way they choose to monetize their blogs, which is part of the fun.
As a blogger, I love being in charge of how I want to make money and who I want to partner with to do it. I get to choose the affiliate programs we join, pick the brands or companies we work with, and develop resources to sell on our blog.
Blogging is as much about business as it is about writing content, but the good news is that opportunities are practically endless when it comes to making money with a blog.
If you want more detailed explanations of each monetization strategy, click the button below to learn more about how to make money with your blog!
How Much Can Bloggers Make Per Post
The amount of money made by bloggers per post depends on the intention of the blog post in the first place.
In our blogging course, one of the first lessons we teach is on user intent, or understanding user’s behavior online.
Bloggers can create 3 types of articles: Inspirational, Navigational and Transactional.
Inspirational articles will make the least amount of money as their purpose is to… well, inspire readers rather than sell them something. Inspirational articles might be photo diaries, quote lists, things to do in different destinations, or other types of motivational content.
What these articles do is hook people in at the top of your sales funnel (and gets them onto your blog in the first place) by giving them useful information. From there, they can be redirected to more of your content that has a higher monetary value.
Navigational articles are the next part of the user’s journey. These types of articles are essentially “worth more” than inspirational articles as they point readers down the sales funnel, towards the right direction in terms of making a buying decision.
Navigational articles do this by presenting different options to readers. The main purpose of these articles is to inform, rather than to sell.
Finally, we have our transactional content whose sole purpose is to bring home the bacon. These posts are aimed at making money and are often laden with affiliate links.
Transactional content is for people who know they want to make a purchase but may need some more information or options before buying. Transactional blog posts are where bloggers make the most money.
The exact amount of money completely varies depending on not only the article type but the amount of traffic the post gets and the monetization strategy within it.
Many bloggers make money from posts using affiliate marketing, but the type of product being promoted determines the amount of money that stands to be made. If a more expensive product is being promoted, a blogger may earn more money from it compared to something that’s less expensive.
Affiliate programs also have different commission rates and payout terms, so the amount earned per post really depends on these specificities.
Besides affiliate links, bloggers can profit from sponsored posts, which again vary depending on what the unique brand or company is offering.
The bottom line?
Like with total blogging income, there’s no set amount of money that bloggers can make per post. This amount can be anywhere between $20 and $5,000… it just depends on the content itself.
Most Profitable Blogging Niches
Okay, the secret’s out! There are some blogging niches that are more profitable than others. Here are some of the most profitable blogging niches out there today.
Travel
If you’re an avid globetrotter, take your passion for travel online and share your love for the world with others. There are always people searching for travel advice and inspiration online, making this a very profitable blogging niche.
With a travel blog, you can earn an income from recommending travel gear, accommodation and transportation, as well as through creating digital products like guidebooks, packing lists or presets.
Travel bloggers can also beef up their earnings by doing sponsored posts or collabs as influencer marketing is at an all-time high.
Tech
Even when the rest of the world lags, the tech sector is bursting at the seams with new ideas, inventions and products. This makes the tech niche largely profitable as there’s literally always something to blog about.
Most tech bloggers earn a large chunk of their income from reviewing products and software, as well as providing courses on how to use them.
Food
While there are tons of food blogs out there, if you have a specific idea and some awesome recipes, this can be a very profitable niche. However, most food bloggers’ incomes actually come from display ads on their sites.
I checked out a ton of income reports from food bloggers and they consistently showed that ad revenue is the highest contributor to their income. Pinch of Yum reported $56,500+ from display ads in November 2018; A Sassy Spoon posted $63,700+ in all of 2019.
Finance
Kinda funny that finance is where the money’s at with blogging… I guess it just makes cents (see what I did there?).
People who blog about money can earn from providing financial coaching, creating printable budgets, and having display ads on their blog. In a Forbes round-up of 20 financial bloggers, most of them cite sponsored content or brand partnerships as a large income stream for their blogs as well.
Health & Fitness
One thing that never goes out of style is getting in shape. Health and fitness blogs are super profitable as you can do just about anything with them.
Recommend heath supplements or fitness equipment, start your own online workout classes, or create a virtual community of fitness junkies… the world is your oyster and the earning potential is unlimited!
This is just scratching the surface of profitable blogging niches out there.
While it may be tempting to latch on to one of these niches in hopes of making money, this is not how you want to go about choosing a blogging niche!
In fact, there are lots of bloggers out there who start blogs in niches they think are profitable and then end up making zero money because they have no idea what they’re talking about.
You should choose to start a blog in a niche where you have experience or expertise and write on topics you’re passionate about. This is the real key to making money with a profitable blogging niche!
If you aren’t sure where to start, click here to learn how to choose a profitable blogging niche, even if you don’t know what to blog about!
Tips on How to Make Money From Your Blog
When it comes to making money with your blog, here are some top tips and tricks to demystify the process even further.
Create a Monetization Strategy
If you’re just starting out with monetizing your blog, you should come up with a solid strategy from the get-go. The first question you should ask yourself is “how do I want to make money with my blog?”
From there, you can come up with a game plan.
Say you want to start making money with affiliate marketing. Take some time to research the best affiliate programs and decide which ones you want to join up front.
If you want to create digital products, have a brainstorming session to come up with possible products and how you’ll create them.
Want to have advertising on your blog? Dig deep to find out how much traffic you’ll need to make that happen and then start building out content that will boost your visibility online.
It’s taking the time to iron out the details up front that makes all the difference. When you do this, you can also see where different monetization strategies fit together and how you can integrate them seamlessly into your blog.
Grow Your Email List
When we first started Adventure in You, we really struggled to earn an income. We tried so many different methods to boost our affiliate marketing, sell our digital products, and get people to spend money with us.
It wasn’t until we grew our email list and implemented a trust marketing system that things really started to turn around.
Instead of using our email list to send out the occasional newsletter or promotion like most bloggers do, we used it as a way to connect with our audience and build trust with our readers.
By segmenting our lists and only emailing readers content that they were actually interested in, we were able to drive our email list back to our affiliate articles over and over again.
What this did was actually create an Affiliate Machine out of our blog.
Rather than affiliate marketing only working when someone landed on an article with affiliate links in it, we were able to send these targeted articles to people we know would eat them up.
With the process completely automated with ActiveCampaign, this Affiliate Machine works around the clock to deliver value to our readers while driving them back to the content that’s going to make us money.
If you want to monetize your blog, your email list is an invaluable resource that will help you not only earn some money, but actually create passive income for you and your blog.
You can learn more about how to grow your email list in this article.
Grow the Right Type of Traffic
One last tip I have for making money with your blog is to grow the right type of traffic.
What I mean by this is you should strive to gain readers who actually care about what you have to say and will find value in your recommendations and products… not just random people online.
You can do this by niching down right off the bat so that you have a super-specific topic to work from. Then, you can start to build up organic traffic with SEO.
Using SEO (or Search Engine Optimization), you can target specific keywords in your content so that when someone searches for them, your blog shows up as a result. This gets the right kind of eyes in front of your articles because it’s people who have been actively searching for what you’re writing about, rather than someone who just stumbled upon your blog by accident.
When you have the right type of traffic, you can build up your authority, recommend products, and offer services that your audience will enjoy and benefit from.
And that’s the true secret of how to make money with a blog.
Start a Money-Making Blog Today
My partner Tom and I have spent the past 5 years ironing out our monetization strategy to get it to the point where it is today. Beyond just making money with our blog, we’ve grown to love sharing this information with our readers and helping others profit from their passions online.
We’ve put together a free training where we walk you through the exact steps of how we turned our blog into a full time business. You can register at the link below!
When it comes to making money with a blog, the key is to have patience.
It took us a full 6 months to earn our first few dollars with our blog and then another year to actually see a meaningful income begin to form.
It will take time to build up your traffic and get readers who actually want to spend money with you. But if you focus on publishing quality content in your niche that’s optimized for SEO, you’ll be setting yourself up for monetary success right from the beginning.
It may take a little while for your efforts to compound, but once they do, I promise it will all be worth it.
So to the question of “how much money do bloggers make”, the answer is: the limit does not exist. Hopefully, this article has motivated you to start taking steps towards starting or monetizing your own blog!
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