Blogging
How to Make Money Blogging
A blog earns in layers, one method at a time: affiliates first, then products, then sponsors, then ads. Each layer needs the one before it. Skip the order, and the blog earns nothing well.
This guide assumes you already have a blog with readers. If you do not, start with our how to start a blog guide — a blog with no traffic has nothing to monetise, and filling it with advertisements before it has readers only drives them away. What follows is the monetisation order that works, the method that earns at each stage, and the honest timeline and risks of each.
The order that works
Blog monetisation has a natural order, and it follows the reader’s trust. First, affiliate links, on pages where readers are already deciding what to buy. Second, digital products, once you know what your readers will pay for. Third, sponsorships, once a sponsor can see a real audience. Fourth, display advertising, once traffic is steady enough for it to be worth the space on the page. Each layer earns a little on its own and together they make the blog resilient: when one layer dips — a programme changes its terms, an advertiser leaves — the others carry the site. A blog that depends on a single layer is a blog one decision away from zero.
Layer one: affiliate links
Affiliate income is the first layer because it needs the least traffic to start working. A single comparison page that helps a hundred ready buyers decide can earn its first commission while the site as a whole is still small. The method is covered in detail in our how affiliate marketing works guide and the content strategy guide; the blogging-specific points are short. Add links only where they help a reader who has already decided to buy. Disclose the relationship at the top of the page, before the first link, under the FTC rules explained in our disclosure guide. And measure EPC per page — earnings per click — not total clicks, because EPC is the number that tells you whether a page is earning or merely busy.
The risk of this layer is dependence. A merchant can cut the commission, shorten the attribution window, or close the programme, and your income from that programme ends the day they do. Diversify across programmes, and never let affiliate links become the only reason a page exists: a page that helps no one without a purchase earns no trust and no lasting traffic.
Layer two: digital products
Digital products — templates, guides, worksheets, presets, checklists — are the second layer because they need something affiliate links do not: knowledge of what your readers will pay for. You learn that by watching which posts get read, which questions get asked, and which affiliate products your readers actually buy. A product that answers your readers’ most repeated question, in a form they can use immediately, is a product that sells. A product invented from a list of “profitable digital products” is a product nobody asked for.
Products earn more per sale than affiliate links, and you keep the customer relationship — the email address, the feedback, the repeat purchase. They also cost more to build well: a template that is genuinely useful takes real work, and a product with errors or thin content damages the trust the blog runs on. Price them honestly, support the buyers, and state the refund policy plainly. The digital-products section of this site covers pricing and funnels in detail once those guides are published.
Layer three: sponsorships
Sponsorships arrive when a brand can see a real audience and wants to borrow its trust. A sponsored post, a sponsored mention, or a brand partnership pays more per placement than advertising, and it pays for your judgement rather than your traffic. That is also why it carries the highest trust risk. A sponsored recommendation that contradicts your honest opinion costs more than it pays: readers who feel sold will not come back, and the FTC treats an undisclosed sponsored endorsement exactly as it treats an undisclosed affiliate one — as a misleading endorsement.
The rules for sponsorships are simple and non-negotiable: disclose the sponsorship with the content, in plain language; recommend only products you would recommend without the payment; refuse sponsors whose products you cannot stand behind; and keep sponsored content a small share of what you publish. A blog that is mostly sponsored content is not a publication any more; it is an advertising channel, and readers treat it as one. Do not accept a sponsorship that requires you to hide a weakness or to promise a result you cannot verify.
Layer four: display advertising
Display advertising — adverts shown on your pages, paid per impression or per click — is the last layer because it needs the most traffic to be worth anything. A site with a few hundred visits a day earns almost nothing from display ads, and the adverts cost the reader’s attention and the page’s speed. At steady, larger traffic, advertising becomes a real layer: it pays on every reader, including the ones who would never buy anything, and it needs no selling from you. Our website monetisation guide covers advertising — including the AdSense question, without any promise of approval — in detail.
One warning belongs here, because it is the most expensive mistake in this layer: never buy traffic to inflate advertising impressions, and never encourage readers to click adverts. Both are invalid-traffic violations under Google’s Publisher Policies, and one violating pattern can cost the whole advertising account. Advertising income that depends on traffic you manufactured is not income; it is an account waiting to be closed.
What not to do
The fastest way to destroy a blog’s income is to chase income figures instead of readers. Do not publish an earnings claim you cannot substantiate, do not show an income screenshot as proof, and do not repeat a guru’s income figure as if it were a fact about your blog. The FTC requires a reasonable basis — competent and reliable evidence — before an earnings claim is published, and a disclaimer cannot rescue a false claim. The same applies to the blog’s own story: “I earned this from this method” without evidence is banned on this site by the same rule that governs every other page.
Also avoid the monetisation shortcuts that circulate in this niche: paid-to-click schemes, traffic-buying for ad revenue, follower-buying, and engagement pods that manufacture the appearance of an audience. Each one is either a policy violation, a deception, or both, and each one costs more in trust and account risk than it ever pays. A blog that earns honestly, slowly, is worth more than a blog that earns quickly and cannot last.
A realistic first year, by layer
The timeline below is an estimate, labelled as such, built from the consensus of the guides that rank for this question. It assumes one thorough post a week on a narrow topic, and no paid promotion.
| Period | What to build | What may start earning |
|---|---|---|
| Months 1–3 | Ten thorough posts; the first comparison page | Usually nothing. The first affiliate clicks may arrive. |
| Months 3–6 | More decision pages; the first product idea from reader questions | First affiliate commissions, small. Do not judge the blog by them. |
| Months 6–12 | First digital product; sponsored enquiries begin if traffic is real | Affiliate income steadies; product sales begin; advertising still not worth the space. |
| Year 2 | All four layers in place, each measured separately | Income that can be judged as a business, layer by layer. |
Read that table as a plan, not a promise. A blog that publishes rarely, or publishes thin content, will not follow it. A blog that publishes well and consistently may beat it. The judgement that matters is not whether the blog earns in month six — it is whether each layer exists, is measured, and is improving. If the affiliate layer’s EPC is rising, the blog is working, whether or not the total is impressive yet.
Last checked: 14 November 2026.