How do blogs make money? Top 5 money making methods of 6 figure blogs

Last Updated on June 6, 2022

When I first found out that people were making six and seven figures each year from blogging, I was shocked.

I mean, how could running a website bring in that amount of money?

How do blog makes money in the first place?

Interestingly, the six figure formula looks different for every successful blog, but there are some common themes.

If you’re wondering what ways six and seven figure blogs make money, you’re in the right place.

Many successful blogs publish income reports, but they can be difficult to sort through. Often income reports are outdated— leaving you wondering if it’s still possible to make money blogging in 2022.

Other times, it can be difficult to sort through an income report and understand where the money is actually coming from.

In this post, I’ve broken down the top 5 ways that six and seven figure blogs make money, with recent examples of each

Top 5 ways blogs make money in 2022

Ads

Display ads are one of the most common ways that bloggers make money. If you have a website, you can sell space on your website for advertisers to place ads. Some ads pay you based on how many people view the ad (CPM). Others pay you based on how many clicks your website generates (CPC).

For some bloggers, ad income alone is enough to make a six figure income.

However, ad income can vary greatly based on your niche, and requires a large amount of page views to make substantial income.

✅ Pros of making money with ads: Passive income, requires little to no maintenance, easy to get started
❌ Cons of making money with ads: Requires a ton of traffic, can be difficult to get accepted to premium ad networks that pay more, may reduce credibility in some niches

How to get started making money with ads

The first step to making money with ads is to apply to an ad network.

If you’re just starting out, the best ad network to get started with is Google Adsense. While they do not have blog traffic requirements to apply, you’ll want to make sure you meet the criteria for acceptance before applying. For example, it is important that you have a base of unique, valuable content to be accepted.

Don’t be discouraged if you’re not accepted on the first try– I had to apply twice before being accepted and know several others who had the same experience.

As your blog traffic increases, you can move to more premium ad networks like the following:

• Ezoic– Requires good standing with adsense
• Mediavine– Requires 50,000 sessions in 30 days
• Adthrive– Requires 100,000 sessions in 30 days

These networks are difficult to get accepted to, but can double or even triple your ad income.

Examples of blogs that make money with ads:

• Midwest foodie blog makes over $18,000 dollars a month in just ads through Adthrive.

• Adam Enfroy makes $12,000 dollars a month + with ads from Mediavine.

• Victoria from A Modern Homestead made over $75,000 in 2021 from ad income. Victoria also mentions that this income was entirely passive, and her blog continued to grow even after taking time off and posting less.

• Living the Dream made almost $7,000 from Mediavine ads in May 2022. This income came from over 200,000 page views on two separate travel blogs they run.

Services

Bloggers that make money with services have clients that pay them in exchange for providing a particular service. Some of the most common are coaching, mentorship, consulting, web design, monthly memberships, or more.

Providing services can be extremely rewarding if you want to use your knowledge and skills to help others. However, service based businesses can be difficult to scale. (After all, you only have so much time!).

✅ Pros of making money with services: you set your own rate, high income potential even with low traffic, great for those with a skill others want to learn
❌ Cons of making money with services: You must have credibility/authority to make sales, NOT passive income

How to get started making money with services

To make money from your blog with services, you first need to decide what service you can provide to your readers.

Then, create a “Services” page on your website, where you explain what you have to offer. Provide your readers a way to get in touch, whether that be a contact form or application form.

Treat your blog as a means to getting customers to your services page.

When you brainstorm content ideas and write them, focus on things that would attract your ideal customer and prove to them you have credibility in your niche. Link them to your services page throughout your content.

Examples of blogs that make money with services

• Sadie Smiley makes $10k per month with her monthly membership PIPs and VIPs

• Adam Enfroy made $8,000 in March 2021 with SEO consulting for just two clients.

Selling Online Courses

Some of the most successful blogs make a large amount of their money selling their own courses.

This is one of the top ways bloggers make money in terms of income potential. In fact, many bloggers make money with courses teaching others how to build and scale a successful blog.

But you course doesn’t have to be about blogging. There are successful online courses in any industry, from art, to personal growth, to fitness.

✅ Pros of making money with online courses: high income potential, mostly passive income
❌ Cons of making money with online courses: Large amount of up front time and effort, requires marketing/promotion

How to get started making money selling courses

First, think of a topic in your niche that you are an expert in and can teach others about. What is something that you know how to do, that readers of your blog want to know how to do?

It’s best to start small for new blogs. The more specific you get, the less competition you have at first.

For example, if you want to create a course about painting with watercolors, there’s probably a ton of courses out there like that already. Think about how you can get more specific with your course. Maybe you could teach a course about how to paint watercolor greeting cards, instead. That way, you’ll have less competition for your ideal customer.

To create your course, sign up for Teachable.

Teachable a platform that will walk you through creating and launching your online course step by step.

Examples of blogs that make money selling courses

• Ryan Robinson makes $17k per month in sales of his course, Built to Blog

• Create&go made $480,000 in 2021 with their online courses for blogging and weight loss.

• Anastasia Blogger made $27,000 in one month from sales of her Pinterest marketing course.

Affiliates

If you’ve ever clicked on a link to buy a product on a blog, chances are, it was an affiliate linke.

In an affiliate program, bloggers refer their readers to another company’s product or service.

When that reader makes a purchase, that company will pay the blogger commission.

Affiliate programs vary greatly in how they work. Some, like amazon, pay commission on each sale. Others, like Convertkit, pay commission on recurring monthly memberships.

Some top earning bloggers make a ton of money with just one or two affiliate programs. Others use many different affiliate programs to generate income.

✅ Pros of making money with affiliates: Mostly passive income, requires little work to add to blog content
❌ Cons of affiliate income: Some programs are difficult to get accepted to, doesn’t work well with every industry/niche

How to get started making money with affiliates

The best way to get started making money with affiliates as a blogger is to think about what products or services you rely on that would be most helpful to your audience. Research whether they have affiliate programs and apply if so.

A few affiliate programs you may consider applying to:

• Amazon Associates: Make money by linking amazon products in your blog posts
• Rewardstyle: For fashion, beauty, and lifestyle bloggers, make money for several different retailers in one place
• Blogging tools that you already use like Convertkit, Bluehost, etc.

Examples of blogs that make money with affiliates

• Ryan Robinson makes $17k per month in affiliates. What’s more interesting is that over half of this total ($9,400) is from a single affiliate program, bluehost.

• Finsavvy Panda makes $20,000 in affiliate income, mostly with bugeting/ saving tools and amazon associates

• Create&go made $445,000 dollars with affiliate income in 2021. They promote products that have helped them build their blog & business.

• Adam Enfroy brought in $78,000 from 58 different affiliate programs in March 2021. One in particular that has generated a lot of income for him is the ConvertKit affiliate program. With Convertkit, Adam gets paid 30% every month one of his referrals remains a customer. So even if he’s not getting new sales, or new people clicking on his affiliate links, he still makes a steady income flow from this one affiliate program.

• Blogambitioous makes the majority of her income with affiliate revenue, totaling $135,000 in 2021, with the main affiliate network being Rewardstyle. Bloggers often use Rewardstyle for fashion and lifestyle products.

Sponsored Posts Income

Sometimes, companies will pay bloggers to write an entire post about their product or service.

This could be in the form of a product review, a tutorial, or something else entirely.

This is called a sponsored post. Typically, a blogger and a company will work our an agreement for the blogger to write a post about their product by a certain deadline. They would decide on things like the content of the post, the amount they will pay the blogger, and more.

✅ Pros of making money with sponsored posts: Get paid up front, Large income opportunity from a single blog post
❌ Cons of making money with sponsored posts: NOT passive income, can reduce credibility if too many posts are sponsored

How to get started making money with sponsored posts

Sponsored posts are not just opportunities that will fall into your lap if you are a blogger. You will likely need to pursue sponsored post opportunities on your own to get started.

First, you’ll want to create a media kit on your website. A media kit is a dedicated page to share facts and statistics about your blog and audience. You can think of it as a way to provide brands with evidence for why they should want to work with you.

Then, sign up for influencer networks that can help you find sponsored post opportunities. Don’t be intimidated by the word influencer. Many networks consider bloggers influencers and see blog posts as valuable content. A few to get started:

• Blogmeetsbrand
• Acorn
• Tapinfluence

Examples of blogs that make money with sponsored posts

• Thrifts & tangles made over $6,000 in December 2021 with sponsored posts. While they only had 1,800 blog page views, Tyler had a large social following of 27,000 at the time.

• Kate Kordsmeier made $47,000 in one year of blogging with sponsored posts. In her post about sponsored content, she writes about how you can get sponsored post deals by joining influencer networks, creating a media kit, and reaching out.

• The Savvy Couple makes $30,000 in some months from sponsored posts. They go through sponsorship networks like BlogMeetsBrand to find opportunities.

Closing thoughts on how blogs make money

Did the earnings in this post surprise you? I hope this post provided some transparency on how bloggers are making money in 2022, and inspired you to get started monetizing your own blog. There are so many different ways you can make money blogging, and I hope this helped you decide which is best for your blog.