How do bloggers make money?

Bloggers make money in 5 main ways:

• Advertisements: selling space on their web page or website for companies to advertise on
• Affiliate marketing: promoting a third-party's products in exchange for earning a commission
• Products: creating physical products to sell to their audience (e.g., merch)
• Services: creating physical or digital services to sell to their audience (e.g., a guide or workshop)
• Partnering directly with brands: sponsored posts, product reviews, or a long-term partnership

Nowadays, a big part of learning how to make a living blogging is learning the art of digital marketing.
While marketing tactics like search engine optimization (SEO) and Google advertising can help you get plenty of page views, digital marketing helps you build relationships by allowing your audience to interact with the authentic you. With strong relationships comes greater loyalty, which enables you to influence your followers’ purchasing behavior and influencers can access some of the best-paid opportunities out there.Promoting your blog is the first step to building a substantial audience (which you need in order to have a profitable blog). Consider these four tips for building your blogger brand on social media.

Choose the Right Channels

Being a blogger means you’re already spending a lot of time building out your editorial strategy and writing every post. To maximize the time you set aside for social media, make sure you’re choosing the social media channels your audience is actually on.
For example, if your blog is focused on marketing tips or freelancing, choosing a business-focused platform like LinkedIn is definitely smart. If you’re starting a travel or food blog, Pinterest can be a powerful platform for driving readers to your blog. If your target audience is Gen Z, consider TikTok.

Some social media channels and forums to consider include

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• Snapchat

Find out what social media sites your audience is using the most and which ones fit your niche, and promote yourself on those channels. Join relevant online communities (like LinkedIn or Facebook groups) and use those to promote your blog.

Keep Your Branding Consistent

When people visit your social media pages, they should feel like it’s an extension of your blog. Your blogger brand should be one cohesive experience, so the relationships you build on social media translate into results on your website.

Part of this is keeping your voice and tone consistent in every caption, as well as making sure your blog name, domain name, and social media usernames all match. Beyond that, your visual branding should match your blog aesthetic. Use the same logo or headshot for your profile picture, and utilize complementary photography styles and color palettes.

While you definitely want to promote each of your blog posts on your social media channels, you should also give your followers a look at the blogger behind the keyboard. Whether you’re replying to comments or sharing a personal update, show off your personality, interests, values, and hobbies!

Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories are super engaging ways to share more about yourself and interact with other users. Authenticity is important – give your audience a little insight into who you are!

Build an Email List

Building an email list and creating a newsletter is a great way to keep existing readers engaged. Create sign-up opportunities on your blog (at the end of your blog posts, on your homepage, etc.) and start building out your list. Consider using an email-marketing service like Mailchimp to help automate the process

Sell Digital or Physical Products or Services

Once you have a robust following, consider creating an eCommerce platform within your blog. Sell products related to your blog or what your readers need. For example, if you are writing a fashion blog, consider creating your own line of loungewear that your audience can purchase. Think about a problem your audience may have and try to solve it by selling your own physical products.

Additionally, consider creating a paid-membership community or opportunity. If you have experiences or skills that could benefit others, create workshops or guides with all of your best advice and sell them to your audience. Consider packaging all of your strategies, tactics, and tutorials into an online course or digital product. Maybe you can host an online workshop to connect directly with your audience and help guide them in a specific aspect of their lives or professional careers.

The great thing about this avenue is that you don’t need a massive following to get this up and running – you can create physical or digital products or services from the get-go and sit back as you watch your channel grow.