Three less obvious ways to make money from your blog

Blogging has fast become a career for many these days, and we are now hearing of many success stories with people earning astronomical salaries from their blogs. Bravo to them I say. But, that doesn’t mean to say that because it has been done, you can’t get a piece of the action. The truth is, the digital career is so vast that so many people have a blog these days and each and every one of them has the potential to earn something from their blog. How crazy is that? But, not everyone wants to, and some people just don’t know how.

Of course, googling the topic or reading some of my articles will highlight some of the most common ways you can earn a crust from your blog. There is the opportunity of including affiliate links in the content you create. And we all know it’s very profitable, this blogger earns $2 million a year using affiliate links on her blog!

But you can also work with brands and collaborate on marketing campaigns, create sponsored content or use your social media following to extend their reach. I’ve listed 50+ blog networks that link bloggers with blog sponsors here.

However, there are some less obvious routes to making money, and I wanted to highlight three of them for you today. Maybe it will inspire you to consider one of them yourself.

Launching your own product

Many bloggers are now considering releasing merchandise or products of their own. It can be anything from something digitalized like coaching, courses on topics or an ebook. It might be something physical like your brand name on a mug or t-shirt or a quote you have created printed onto stationary or clothing. It can be literally anything. You have the platform to set up a store easily with Shopify, and you have the chance of making some cash from this venture. I personally own a shop + course academy, which I host via Teachable. You can also use Udemy to create and sell your course for free. 

However, if you are looking to do this, it may be worth considering analytical tools to ensure that you know you are on to a good thing. Trial a product and then see how it goes. Articles such as customer churn rate 101 – Omniconvert could then help you identify whether you are gaining repeat business, or whether it seems to be a one purchase thing. Information like this could be valuable if you want to expand in this area of money making from your blog.

Consider private advertising deals

Advertising opportunities can be huge, and many people choose something like Google Adwords to earn money from clicks on their blogs. However, you have space on your blog so why not set up private advertising deals as well. You could advertise a website or brand for a month for a set fee, perhaps including content within the packages. This could help you earn more faster than waiting for Google or any other ad representative to pay you per click.

Create an exclusive membership service

Finally, why not create a membership service where members who subscribe and pay a monthly fee get access to exclusive content or freebies such as printables, ebooks, courses etc. Whatever your niche is in the blogging world, you could make some of it exclusive. Again this is when a churn rate analysis could be worthwhile to help you determine whether it is a one time purchase or a continuous thing.

If you want to do it all, I suggest you use this platform that allows you to create a membership site, email marketing campaigns (so it’s also newsletter software) and hosting your online courses on just ONE site, which is like, the best ever!

I hope that this has inspired you to think outside of the box when it comes to making money from your blog.

If you’re looking for more ways to monetize your blog, download the free guide down below or check here if you want to get the complete guide to build a profitable blog in 21 days.