Are you wondering if it’s still possible to earn money from blogging in 2020?

Do you also want to learn how to make money blogging so you can change your life?

Back in 2015, I also wondered about the same things.

And turns out, people do make money from blogging.

Lots of it.

I’ve personally met dozens of bloggers making $1000 a month to as high as $100,000+ a month.

The number feels so crazy just typing it.

But as crazy as it may sound, it is REAL.

In fact, when I decided to launch this blog last year, I too had lots of doubts if I’ll ever be able to earn money from my blog.

Today, however, I’ve successfully built a money-making blog that not only allowed me to quit my regular day job and escape the rat race, but it also allowed me to help other people achieve the same thing!

Now, before you take the first step towards your successful blogging journey, first you need to ditch the generic advice given by the so-called “Expert” bloggers.

These so-called “Expert” bloggers sell you the dream of passive income and the ability to earn $$$ while you Zzz.

But the truth is, these so-called “expert” bloggers started probably over a decade ago and are the only ones profiting the most in the blogging industry today.

Moreover, most blogging advice given by these “expert” bloggers is harmful, not helpful.

They say the same things over and over again like start a blog about your passions, write great content and stay consistent.

Then, when your blog starts generating enough traffic after a few years, you can start monetizing it with Google AdSense.

But the good news is, making money from blogging doesn’t have to take years.

Plus, there are now lots of other ways to make money from a blog apart from Google AdSense.

And in this MEGA Guide, I’ve shared 10 PROVEN ways that you can learn to earn serious money from your blog.

But, before we begin, I’d like to answer some common questions that I get asked a lot on a regular basis.

In fact, I bet you might also have many of these same questions in your head.

So, why not clear the confusion before starting your blogging journey?

Let’s get started!

Q:1 – Is Earning Money from Blogging Realistic?

Yes, it is. But you ought to put in the hard work consistently. Earning money from blogging is definitely not quick and easy. But it is possible even if you start your blog today.

Q:2 – Is Making Money from Blogging Legit?

Yes. But as with any legit business, blogging also has its own rules. And if you’re looking for ways to become successful overnight or just want to scam people for easy money, this guide isn’t for you.

Q:3 – Do Bloggers Really Make Full-Time Incomes from Blogging?

Yes. There are thousands of bloggers who easily make full-time incomes from blogging. Some of them are even making millions from blogging. But these bloggers have been consistent with their blog for years.

Q:4 – How Much do Bloggers Make?

It varies a lot. As I said, some bloggers make millions of dollars per year. Others (including me) make a healthy full-time income. A few make less. And many make no money at all.

Q:5 – How Long Does It Take to Make Money Blogging?

If you’re starting a blog for the first time, it would probably take from 6 months to 2 years to be able to earn a full-time income from it. So, if you want to earn some extra cash right away, maybe blogging isn’t the best option for you.

On the other hand, if there is no urgency and you’re curious about blogging, below I have shared everything from starting your own blog and how to make your first dollar to earning a full-time income from blogging.

Laying The Foundation to Start Earning Money from Blogging

Before we look at the ways to make money blogging, let’s quickly go through a couple of things that are required to run a successful blog.

The first obvious thing you’ll need is a blog. Now, I have already created a massive 10 steps guide on How to Start a Blog in 2020.

So, if you don’t already have a blog, you should definitely read my guide on how to build and launch your first blog.

Here’s a special discount link for SiteGround to purchase a Domain and Hosting for your blog.

In the guide, I have explained every single component of starting a blog, from picking the right blog niche and purchasing a domain & web hosting to installing WordPress and more.

All the components mentioned in the guide are essential. So, if you want to make money blogging, make sure you get every component right in the beginning to be able to monetize your blog later successfully.

And once your blog is up and running, you need to start publishing content.

Lots of it.

In fact, It’s already proven that publishing blog posts regularly generates more traffic and attracts more repeat readers.

Moreover, potential advertisers will also take notice that your blog is active and has regular readers, which will eventually lead to a business partnership.

So, start publishing useful blog posts consistently and you’ll soon start getting a bit of traffic coming in.

And once you start seeing regular traffic, your blog will be ready for the monetization stage.

This brings us to the fun part of this post…

How to Make Money Blogging: 10 Income Streams That’ll Help You Make Serious Money

So, how do bloggers make money?

Like I said earlier, there are now dozens of ways to earn money from blogging.

Below, I have mentioned 10 proven, most reputable, and broadly applicable blog monetization strategies.

These are all tried and tested blog monetization techniques that have been (and still are) used by most popular & most successful blogs & bloggers.

In fact, I have personally tested many of these monetization strategies on this blog and they have helped me a lot, from earning my first blog dollars to now making a healthy full-time income.

But that’s enough about me for now.

Without any further ado, let’s look at the different ways you can make money blogging in 2020.

1 – Freelance Services

Freelancing is obviously not for everyone. But, it’s definitely a great way to start earning your first blog dollars.

In fact, when I started Screwed Up Engineer last year, freelancing is what made up 80% of my blog income.

And, apart from the money, starting out as a freelancer also allowed me to build relationships that I needed later to earn money in other ways.

Moreover, since you’ve recently launched your blog, chances are you’ll hardly see any traffic on your blog in the initial months. This means your chances of making passive income will be straight-up zero.

But, if you have a skill that you can sell, like becoming a freelance writer, graphics designer, or anything that people will be ready to pay for, then you should definitely do it.

You see, your blog won’t be ready for other monetization channels for at least the first 6 months.

So, if you just want to start earning some extra revenue as soon as your blog is up, then offering freelance services on your blog is definitely the best option.

2 – Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are a tried and tested blog monetization technique in the blogging industry.

It’s a win-win strategy for both bloggers and advertisers.

What’s a sponsored post? – It’s a sweet deal between a blogger and an advertising company where the company pays you a fixed amount of money in return for you publishing a blog post about their brand or products as the go-to-resource.

However, you need to make sure that your sponsored post is not just plain advertisement and comes across as genuine, unique, and are free of any sort of sales pitch.

But how can I get sponsored post gigs?

If your blog is attracting a couple-thousand visitors every month, then you may be already receiving sponsored post opportunities.

But, in case your blog hasn’t reached that level of traffic yet and you still want to get sponsored post gigs, then here’s what you can do:

First of all, make a list of at least a dozen of products or services that you might already be using or have used in the past.

Now, pick a couple of products or services that you would be eager to advertise on your blog if given the opportunity.

Next, go to the official websites of the selected products & services, find someone from their PR or marketing department, and track down their email addresses using Hunter.

Once you have the email addresses, it’s time to write them a cold email with your sponsored post offer.

Here’s a cold email template for sponsored post gigs:

Dear [PR/Marketing Executive Name],

My name is Jaimin and I love using your [Product/Service].

I run a super-active blog at www.yourblogurl.com and I just realized that everything I write about is closely related to your niche. In fact, your [Product/Service] fits perfectly with what my regular readers are looking for.

So, what do you say we partner up for a sponsored post on my blog?

Currently, my blog has around [number] readers every month and I also have a list of [number] subscribers.

Can we schedule a phone or skype call to further discuss this opportunity?

Let me know…

Cheers,
Jaimin

This is just a rough email template, so make sure to personalize it a little to convert as many gigs as possible.

3 – Sponsored Reviews

Sponsored reviews are slightly different from sponsored posts.

For example, instead of writing educational posts and indirectly mentioning & linking advertisers’ products, you’ll be writing a direct, authentic review post of a product.

Although, the process of getting sponsored review gigs is quite similar to sponsored posts.

For example, you need to find and approach companies in your niche for the products your readers would be interested in and then publish a detailed review post of their product on your blog.

Now, if you don’t want to manually find companies and send cold emails, you can also sign up on platforms like PayPerPost that can help you easily connect with potential companies who might be interested.

And the good news is, just like sponsored posts, you can earn great money by writing paid product reviews on your blog.

4 – Affiliate Marketing

If you would like to create some passive income streams on your blog, then Affiliate Marketing is by far one of the best choices.

What is Affiliate Marketing? – It’s basically about recommending digital products or services to your readers using special tracking links and receiving referral commissions for every reader that buys after clicking your special link.

What I like the most about affiliate marketing is that it entirely skips the cold outreach phase that freelancing and sponsored posts & product review posts require.

Plus, affiliate marketing also earns you a lot more money for a single sale compared to a single click on Google AdSense.

Just look at the affiliate income report of Digital Photography School.

Darren Rowse, the founder of Digital Photography School, made over a whopping $500,000 in Amazon Associates referral commissions by promoting photography equipment.

And the best part is, affiliate marketing programs are now available for almost every blog niche.

So, if you’re considering to start affiliate marketing and earn passive income from your blog, then you can simply get started by thinking about the products that you already use and that your readers are maybe interested in as well.

However, if you’re confused about how to find and pick the right products for affiliate marketing, then here is a list of best affiliate networks for bloggers.

• Amazon Associates
• CJ Affiliates
• Shareasale
• Rakuten
• Clickbank

Before you sign up on any of these affiliate networks, just make sure you thoroughly read the rules, guidelines, terms, and conditions so that you know what to expect from each network.

5 – Sell Books or eBooks

Quite a few bloggers have successfully turned their blogging success into major book deals.

Mark Manson, for example, had published a blog post titled “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” in 2015.

And soon enough, his blog post went viral, earning himself millions of readers, which eventually led to a major book deal from HarperCollins.

As of today, he has sold over 3,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone.

But, apart from book deals, many bloggers also prefer selling self-published eBooks on their blogs.

And if you think about it, writing and selling your own eBooks is another great way to make money blogging.

For starters, from all the sales you generate, the majority of profit will come straight to you as there will be no middlemen, no distributors, or publishers.

That means you’ll get to keep the maximum (if not entire) profit margin to yourself without having to reinvest any money after the book is written.

Not a bad way to earn money from blogging, right?

But let’s get real for a minute.

To be able to generate sales for your eBook, you’ll need to first have a considerable amount of traffic coming to your blog. And not just traffic, but it’s also crucial to have a huge list of subscribers.

You see, subscribers are simply your loyal readers who are interested in everything write. These are the people you need to think about when writing your eBook and make sure that your eBook aligns with their interests.

So, if you’re sure that you have a sufficient amount of subscribers and you feel confident that you have the knowledge, skills, and experience to write an eBook well, you should definitely consider doing it.

6 – Launch Online Courses

If your readers often come to you because of your expertise in a subject or if you simply have a skill that you can easily teach others, then you can definitely monetize your skill or expertise with an online course.

Online courses are one of the few fast-track ways to make money blogging.

And the best part is, online courses usually sell for quite higher prices than eBooks.

Ramit Sethi, for example, has earned over $10 million dollars from his suite of premium online courses.

To get started, all you need to do is film a series of educational and instructional lesson videos about a particular subject or topic and launch them as a premium online course on your blog.

If people, especially your blog readers, know that you’ve mastery at something, then they’ll definitely pay for your expertise to accelerate their learning curves.

Now, if you do decide to create and sell your own online course, then I have already found the 3 most popular platforms to create online courses:

• New Kajabi
• LearnDash
• Teachable

7 – Sell Physical Products

I know that you probably just want to write content and earn passive income from blogging without having to worry about finding good products to sell and shipping packages.

But before you skip this, just hear me out.

While selling digital products such as eBooks or Online Courses are an easy way to make money from blogging, but there is nothing like selling physical products.

Though I’ve never personally sold any physical product on my blog, but I do know for sure that selling physical products on a blog can help you earn a great amount of money.

Plus, you no longer need to invest a single penny on inventory as you can now just dropship your products.

What is Dropshipping? – It’s arguably a new business model where all you have to do is run an online store, get orders, and pass them to your supplier.

In other words, you get the orders from your blog and your supplier will ship the products directly to your customers’ door-steps.

Here are a couple of example products that you can consider selling:

• Cosmetics & Skin Care products
• Hair Care products
• Nutrition & Supplement products
• Electronic Gadgets
• T-Shirts, Yogawear, Sportswear
• Backpacks & other travel accessories

Now, if you want to learn in detail about Dropshipping, then I recommend checking out the How to Start a Dropshipping Business in 2020 post by Oberlo.

8 – Public Speaking

Honestly, public speaking gigs are hard to come by.

But, if your blog takes off and you end up establishing yourself as an expert authority in your niche, then you should definitely consider offering public speaking gigs on your blog.

Though not all speaking gigs will earn you money, especially in the beginning, but you’ll definitely get lots of positive exposure and publicity for your blog.

And if you do it long enough, you will be soon recognized as a thought leader in your industry and can easily start charging fees ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for a 60-90 minutes talk.

There are now many platforms like Agent that can help you connect with decision-makers of various events happening in your industry.

Just remember, to get paid public speaking gigs, you need to establish yourself as an expert authority in your industry.

The more popular and active your blog is and the more recognition you have online, the easier it will be to get offers for public speaking gigs.

9 – Offer Online Consulting Services

Online consulting is neither everyone’s cup of tea nor every blogger wants to take this route to make a full-time income off their blog.

But, if you’ve it in you and if you are seriously interested in providing online consultation, then it can definitely earn you a surprising income.

Lots of successful bloggers are already offering online consultation services on their blogs and making a handsome amount of money from it.

Maria Killam, for example, is an expert interior designer and offers a huge variety of consulting services on her blog.

She currently charges $1,275 for each room design consultation.

And the best part is, becoming an online consultant is fairly easy too.

All you need to do is, create a Consultation Services page on your blog and mention how you can assist your readers with your expertise.

Next, you need to actively market your consulting services on the internet via social media and other marketing platforms.

You can even add an online calendar on your consultation services page so that visitors can easily check your available slots and make a booking.

10 – Launch a Software Product

If you’re a software developer or have a close friend who is, then you can easily partner up and launch your own software product and earn a decent amount of money.

The product could be either a small online tool, a WordPress plugin, or even an extension that you can sell for a reasonable price on your blog.

But what kind of software tool I can build?

Well, to come up with potential software product ideas, start thinking about the tasks your readers do on a daily basis and built a software product that can help your readers to streamline or automate their tasks.

In fact, if you already have a lot of loyal readers for your blog, you can simply conduct a survey by sending an email and see what problems they face in their everyday lives to collect software product ideas.

Once you have a list of ideas, you can start evaluating its market demand, competitors, and other important things to decide which will be the best option for you.

Bonus: 5 Unusual Ways to Make Money Blogging

First of all, if you’ve made it this far, then I first want to thank you for reading this guide.

You’ve now learned all the common and broadly applicable ways to make money from blogging and you’re now ready to apply them on your blog and start making money right away.

However, if you want to know about a couple of not-so-common ways to make money from blogging, please continue reading…

While all the above-mentioned blog monetization channels work perfectly for all blog niches, but if you’d like to take an unusual route to earn money from blogging and stand out from other bloggers, I know a couple of unusual ways you can make a full-time income from blogging.

Let’s dive right in!

Bonus #1 – Create Gated Content

If you’re receiving a steady stream of high traffic on your blog, and more importantly, if you know that your loyal readers are huge fans of your writing, then you should consider publishing “premium content’ and charge a monthly subscription fee from your most loyal readers.

Mark Manson, for example, earns a decent amount of money every month by regularly publishing premium content on his blog.

For those who don’t know, Mark is a best-selling author and is largely known for his witty writing style and unbelievably amazing knowledge on a variety of topics like Habits, Productivity, Relationships, and mainly Mental Health.

And for his all premium content, he charges a subscription fee of $4 per month and easily makes thousands of dollars in passive income every month.

So, if you’re confident that your most loyal readers will be eager to pay you for your premium content, then you can definitely consider creating a members-only area and publish premium content for your paying readers.

A word of caution: You should only consider going this route if you can consistently provide truly premium content to your paying readers.

But if you can publish premium content on a regular basis, then it’s definitely a very lucrative source for earning recurring passive income.

Bonus #2 – Accept Donations

Another unusual and the simplest way to make money blogging is by simply asking for it.

Though very few bloggers prefer this blog monetization channel because it’s not very effective and you’ll be relying on the generosity of your loyal readers.

However, if your readers are really satisfied with your blog and appreciate your content, then they’ll definitely consider donating money every month if you ask for it.

You can start accepting donations from your readers in a couple of ways.

For starters, you can just add a Stripe or Paypal donation button on your blog and add them to all blog posts you publish.

Another way to accept donations is by creating a dedicated donation page on your blog to make it look more professional.

However, the best way to get more donations is to offer something in return like a premium cheat sheet guide or a mini eBook, etc.

Bonus #3 – Sell Links within Posts

Once you start receiving a considerable amount of traffic on your blog, you’ll find yourself bombarded with emails for guest posts and link insertion requests in your existing posts.

Now, this is a great opportunity for you to bank on all your blogging efforts.

In fact, I personally use this monetization method on my blog and I regularly earn a decent amount of income from it.

However, if you’re considering this blog monetization strategy, then I highly recommend that you do so with extreme care.

Here are a couple of rules you must always follow:

• Prioritize readers’ experience over money
• Avoid forcing unnecessary links. It will affect readers’ experience and you may even get penalized from Google.
• Don’t insert too many links in a single post.
• Make sure every link that you add is relevant to the topic and in line with your readers’ interests.

Earning money from link insertions or paid guest posts is definitely legit as long as you keep in mind all of the above rules.

Bonus #4 – Host Paid Webinars

Webinars are a great way to build your brand and make money from your blog.

Webinars are kind of similar to online courses, the only difference is, webinars are live and they include a live question and answer session at the end.

But if you’re interested and already have an established audience, then hosting paid webinars are a great way to make money blogging.

For example, you can host a webinar on a topic that the majority of your audience is interested in learning and charge a small amount of money from people who want to attend your webinar.

Besides this, you can even partner up with other bloggers in your industry in a collaborative webinar project and double your brand’s reach and income.

In fact, more and more bloggers are now taking this path as one of the ways to earn money from blogging.

Bonus #5 – Become a Personal Coach

In case offering consultation services just don’t feel right for you, then you can most certainly consider becoming a personal coach.

Becoming a personal couch is quite similar to offering online consultation services.

A personal coach is basically someone who gives guidance, advice, and accountability to set goals and achieve them.

And the best part is, you can become a personal coach in almost every industry.

So, whatever your blog niche is, you can just start offering one-on-one help to the people who are interested and ready to pay you for it.

All you need to make sure is that you know what you’re doing and you’re confident about the value you can add in your clients’ lives through your expertise.

To get started, you can simply create a dedicated page on your blog just like consulting and add an online calendar to let your audience easily make a booking.

Concluding Thoughts…

I hope this blog post has helped you learn how to make money blogging in 2020.

So, are you ready to take action today and start monetizing your blog?

Remember, your speed to take action will determine if you’ll be able to make money from blogging.

And if you don’t already have a blog, make sure to check out my guide on How to Start a Blog in 2020 and follow all the steps to set up everything right.

In fact, I also highly recommend making a list of your favorite blog monetization strategies you’d like to try out once you start your blog.

It will definitely take time to go from starting your blog to making your blog dollars and earning a full-time income.

So, be consistent and I promise you the blogging success will come (as it did for me and for thousands of other bloggers).