Writers who are curious about blogging often ask me if there’s a way to make money from blogging. A certain hesitancy is understandable given that writers—whose product is the writing itself—worry about giving their work away.
There are lots of ways writers are earning money off of blogs. They’re making money directly through ads and paid premium sites. And they’re earning indirectly through book deals and consulting.
Here are a few ways writers are making money from blogs and some good blogs to check out for inspiration. For example, you could:
• Score a sweet book deal like: Seth Harwood
• Use it to market ebooks via Kindle like: Joe Konrath
• Sell your ebook on Smashwords e-publishing platform like: Zoe Winters
• Get involved in affiliate marketing like: Darren Rowse
• Host a premium membership site like: Brian Clark
• Request donations like: Leo Babauta
• Run ads like: Heather Armstrong
• Market your speaking and consulting services like: Chris Brogan
These are just a few of the methods I’ve seen bloggers use to make money. And note that many writers use a combination of these methods to earn money from their blogs.
Now, I’ll be the first one to tell you that blogging is no get rich quick scheme. In fact, I think all of the above writer/bloggers would tell you it takes years of dedicated blogging to reach the tipping point when your efforts start to pay off monetarily.
Whether or not it’s worth the long-term effort is a question you need to ask yourself. And of course, blogging as a pure creative outlet is a wonderful thing. If that’s your blogging goal, feel free to ignore this post.
Questions, comments or tips on ways to make money blogging? Please drop a comment. Thanks for reading.
-Maria Schneider
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Flickr photo by: pagedooley
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I’ve been blogging for almost 3 years. Blogging has become my main source of income in the past few months. But I make very little money from my own blog (about enough to cover my hosting fees and maybe a cheap dinner out each month). I make my money blogging for other sites. Again, it’s not a get-rich-quick kind of thing, but I’m able to make enough money to cover my basic expenses by writing for four or five other blogs on a regular basis.
I’ve been writing for other blogs for almost two years now, and I’ve been lucky in getting opportunities to write for some of the most popular blogs on the web (Mashable and Smashing Magazine are both in the top 10 blogs).
Building up a successful and profitable blog is tough and there’s tons of competition. But it you treat your own blog as a portfolio of sorts and then make money by blogging for others, it can be a really profitable and rewarding career.
One of the best parts is that I rarely have to actively seek new work—blog owners come to me to see if I can write for them. It’s definitely preferable to sending out query letters for articles to mainstream publications, only to wait for weeks or months to get a rejection back. And online writing, in my experience, also pays a whole lot better than most print publications.
Thanks for this post, Maria. It’s genuinely helpful and your observations help save the rest of us a ton of time. And always, I appreciate a healthy shake of reality salt on top.
Another way to earn money from blogging is to sell reprints of your posts to websites, magazines, or newsletters. It’s not a huge moneymaker, but $10 here and $25 there add up, and it’s not that much extra work, since you’ve already written the posts. Potential markets depend on your niche, but if you do a bit of digging, most niches have markets that welcome reprints because they’re less expensive than brand new content and can help fill in their content gaps.
Thanks Cameron, Christina, Susan: all 3 of you set great blogging examples!
Maria,
The lesson here is that the best way to make money is by diversifying your “portfolio”.
As well, doing all of the necessary things to build a solid foundation in terms of driving traffic and making your blog someplace that people will want to visit is crucial to your successful monetizing efforts.
George
Maria, another concise, helpful post; lately you’ve clustered a lot of good bloggings on blogging (“blogging squared”), which have aided me in refining my own halting movements towards blogification. Thanks, as always, for posts with impact. And sometimes with candy.
I’ve only had time to read a little on the blogging. As soon as I can get some extra time I will come back and read everything thouroughly. This looks like an excellent website to help writers. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, thanks for the shout out! I don’t get most of my readers from Smashwords through, even via the link on my site. Most people either download the free PDF or buy it on Amazon Kindle. I’ve made the most money so far via Kindle sales of my novella. I don’t consider my blog a “direct” form of income, but an indirect form, i.e. it’s a hub for my stuff and where people can find out more about me and what I’m doing and it “may” entice them to read or buy.
But I also know likely a lot of my Kindle sales come through other sources, they just hear about me from someone, or a search on Amazon brings my book up to them. I’ve also got the PDF up free at places like Scrib’d as well, and so I don’t know if I would classify my blog as a “making money blog,” It’s more like a billboard advertisement to get my name and work out there.