Types of Blogs and how they make money

Updated on July 10th, 2022

Letters and numbers signifying types of blogs

You’ve probably heard that blogging is a great way to make money.  But how do people actually make money through writing articles online?  Well you’re in the right place.  In this article, I’ll explain the types of blogs and how they make money.

Number one, I believe that it’s so important to enjoy what you are writing about.  This is critical whether or not you are intending to monetise your blog.  Passion for your niche will keep you coming back to write more frequently.
 

Serve Your Readers with High Quality Content

 
Even more critically, it’ll mean that you write with the intention of providing high quality, relevant and useful content to your readers.
 
This mindset of having the intention of serving your readers, should be paramount. Thoughts of monetisation should come later.
looking through glasses reading a magazine
Having said that, there are two direct ways of earning money from your blog, being advertising and affiliate marketing.  There are also other indirect methods which I will discuss below.
 

Types of Blogs

1.  Blogs with Advertising

Ads are one of the most obvious ways that website owners make money.  Running ads on your site these days is a numbers game as the reality is that not many people click on them.  Your site needs to be attracting a high amount of traffic to make ad revenue attractive.
 
One site that uses ads well for revenue generation is Viralnova.  Advertising suits the content of this site and doesn’t seem out of place.
Viral Nova - Types of Blogs and how they make money
Ads may have worked better in the early days of the web but most blog readers are now awake to click ads.  They aren’t as likely to click on them unless the offer is compelling or there is a hook to get them in.  This hook might consist of a “newsy” question which sparks the reader’s curiosity.
 

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is the most well-known advertising provider.  You can advertise on your site using Adsense rendered text links, images (or banners), animated images etc .
You’ll be paid by one of these means depending on the type of ad:
  • PPC (Pay per click) or CPC (Cost per click)
  • CPM (Cost per Mille (thousand)) is the cost for every 1,000 potential customers who have the ad served up to them.  The potential customer doesn’t need to click on the ad.
  • CPA or PPA (Cost per Acquisition or Pay per Acquisition) is where you are paid when the customer clicks on an ad and it results in a confirmed sale.

 

Ad Sense - how can a blog generate income
In my mind, not all blogs are suited to advertising.  I’m sure you’ve visited websites that have all sorts of ads running.  They often look messy or outdated.  Accordingly, there is a real skill in implementing ads and they should be used judiciously if at all.

 

Pros of Types of Blogs running ads:

  • Easy to setup and install ad code on your site.
  • The provider will serve up the ads automatically.
  • You can concentrate on the quality of your blog content and monetisation takes care of itself.

Cons of Types of Blogs running ads:

  • You need a lot of traffic which can be expensive if it’s paid traffic.
  • Ads can detract from the seriousness of your content is some cases.
  • You don’t have much control over what ads are served up on your site.

2.  Blogs with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a method by which the blog owner can review or recommend products or services.  By signing up with the provider, the blog owner (affiliate) will be rewarded for referring customers to the provider.  This reward which is called an affiliate commission is paid to the blog owner when their referral results in a sale.
 

How Affiliate Marketing Works

How it works is that the blog owner will firstly sign up as an affiliate with the provider. For example, a blog owner might sign up with Amazon as an affiliate under their Amazon Associates program.  As part of this affiliate arrangement, the provider Amazon will give the the blog owner (affiliate) a special affiliate link (or links) to include in their blog.
Amazon Associates - How a blog can generate Income
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you can promote products that you use and love.  For example, you might really like a type of WordPress hosting but obviously you don’t own your own hosting company. 
 

Use Affiliate Marketing to Share Products that You Use and Love

By writing about these products in your blog, you can help the provider whilst at the same time you can earn yourself an affiliate commission.  It’s a win-win situation! 
 
So for example, you might be writing a blog about camping and mention a tent that you use in the post.  By including the affiliate link to the tent on Amazon you could be rewarded if Amazon makes a sale through your link.
 

Pros of Types of Blogs utilising affiliate Marketing

  • It’s less subtle and less intrusive than obvious advertising on your site.
  • You can promote and support products that you use and believe in while earning a commission.

Cons of Types of Blogs utilising affiliate Marketing

  • Some bloggers may link to products with the highest commissions rather than what they actually believe in.
In this video, Franklin Hatchett explains how this website is making $100,000 per month, mainly with  affiliate marketing:

3.  Types of Blogs which earn money indirectly

Blogging can also earn you money indirectly.  Some of the ways this is possible are:

Include a Blog in your Business Website

Many large businesses in recent years have become aware of the benefits of including a blog as part of their corporate website.  Each time a new post is written, a copy will be sent to all the customers on the mailing list.  The post might be also shared on social media posts.
 
Regular posting like this is great for building engagement with your customers.  This is because your customer can see that you’re a dynamic company who is on top of current trends.  Your customer is more informed and will be clicking on your website to see the post.
 
A company that does this really well is Yoast, who specialise in search engine optimisation.  Here is a link to their blog, which always has useful and relevant content.
Yoast SEO Blog - Types of Blogs and How they Make Money

Blogging can also improve the SEO of your site.  Regular blog posts will help your website rank higher in search results and thereby make your products more visible in Google search.  When your customers click on the website to view the post, they are more likely to notice another post then stay on your site for longer. 

Another advantage is the realm of backlinks.  Backlinks or as often are called inward-bound occur when other sites link to your website.  

Your customers will be more likely to link back to you as you’re providing such useful relevant content which you are regularly being updated on.  These backlinks are super-powerful for SEO as Google views them favourably when ranking your site.

Include a Blog in your Shopify Store

Blogging is great for e-commerce business as it can dramatically improve the search engine rankings of your store.

One great example is by Press who sell cold-press juices and juice cleanses and have a Shopify store selling these products.

Their blog, The Squeeze Magazine contains an amazing catalogue of articles on all aspects of health and nutrition.  This provides fantastic engagement and trust with their loyal customers.

Squeeze Mag

 

Promote your own physical or digital products.  

In a blog you can talk about the benefits of software that you’ve made or an app that you’ve developed.  You can link to the product in your posts,  thus providing a type of marketing funnel to the product.
 
For example, Neil Patel often blogs on his SEO-focused website NeilPatel.com about keyword research.  He’ll discuss the difficulties and various ways of doing keyword research.   This provides a perfect segueway into mentioning UberSuggest which his excellent free keyword tool.
Uber Suggest - Types of Blogs and How they Make Money

Summary of Types of Blogs that make money

Whilst you can make significant income in some situations from running ads, affiliate marketing is usually the best way to monetise your site.  You can do this by endorsing products or services that you earnestly believe in and provide subtle links in your blog to those products.
 
Blogging is also fantastic for promoting your own physical and digital products and online business presence and credibility.
 
If you’re interest in creating a blog, we’ve written a useful guide which you might find useful.  Please find the guide at this link.

Click here for a list of blogs which currently make over $10,000 per month in passive income!

 

Frequently Asked Questions – types of blogs

Should I run both advertising and affiliate links on my blog posts.

Yes, especially if you make your advertising appear less intrusive.  Many sites do run both advertising and affiliate marketing programs. By signing up with an agency such as Mediavine or Adthrive, they can help you to make your ads seem more integrated and less blocky.

What is a recurring affiliate program? 

Some affiliate programs will continue to pay you for as long as the referred person remains a customer.  These are considered by many marketers as the best affiliate programs.  One good example is the Getresponse affiliate program. 

Can you still make money with blogging?

Yes, blog sites continue to make considerable income in many niches.  They can take some time to set up but the income can be well worth it.  Some great examples include Neil Patel, WPBeginner & Shoutmeloud

Can I monetise a brand new blog?

Yes but it’s unlikely that you’ll earn much money until people start finding your site.You can set up Adsense advertising as early as you want as there is no minimum traffic requirement. 

Likewise most affiliate programs will accept you as long as you have a decent looking website.

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

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