When I was first getting started with my online nutrition business, I was constantly turning to Google to figure out ways to make money from blogging. 

I saw TONS of people who were seemingly blogging as their full time job, traveling the world and working from their computer, and I was like...WTF?!  How do people actually making money from blogging and sharing their life with people?

And the weird thing was, none of these bloggers ever seemed to talk about exactly HOW they made money solely from their blog. 

So, after blogging now for almost 2 years, with lots of trial and error on my own blog, i’m going to share what i’ve found to be the best ways to make money from your blog, and how to turn your blog into a real business so you can quit your 9-5 (and do whatever the F you want ;)).

Option #1 Affiliate Links:

Option #1 when it comes to making money from your blog is to use affiliate links. So let’s say you’re a nutritionist and you are consistently blogging about the supplements you use, the foods you eat, and the natural products you love. You can sign up for an affiliate account with companies like amazon, thrive market, blue apron, vital proteins, etc. and every time you mention a product, link to it with your unique affiliate link, and someone buys through that link, you make a small commission.

One tip for using affiliate links successfully on your blog is to ONLY link to things that you actually love and use frequently - AND that are relevant to your readership and audience. For example, if you’re a holistic health coach, you’re probably not going to be recommending toxin-filled makeup because that’s not what your ideal audience is into, and it's going to really confuse your readership (not to mention taint your brand). 

The downsides to affiliate links are that you have to continue to promote them, over and over if you want to continue to bring in revenue. You cant just link to something once and expect to be making passive income, and this is pretty much true for anything you sell online. You have to be consistent.

Another downside is that you generally have to have a pretty big audience if you want your affiliate links to generate more than a couple bucks a month - and most of us don’t when we’re first starting out.

On the other hand, becoming an affiliate for a higher priced program or course that you’ve been through personally is often a really good way to make extra cash from your blog because these courses tend to start a higher price point and have a higher commission percentage.  For example I offer a pretty generous commission on affiliates for my Digital Nomad Nutritionist Course, because if one of my students has gone through it and found success, I definitely want to give them an incentive to go share it with their friends and make some extra cash. 

Option # 2: Ads

Option #2 for making money from your blog is from ads. You can enable Google Adsense on your blog (which i’m sure many of you are familiar with seeing when you click over to different websites). On some blogs, you’ll see ads for things on the side bar, or as you scroll down the page. Then, if anyone clicks on one of those ads from your website, you get paid a small amount.

You can also get paid per the amount of impressions the ad gets, so if you have a large amount of blog or website traffic, this can be really beneficial. The problem with this though, again, if you’re just getting started, is that without a ton of website traffic, you’re probably going to making a couple bucks per month, tops.

*Also* ads are annoying (sorry - they are.) If someone is new to your site, spamming them with ads is probably not going to leave a very good impression. Plus, if they click on an ad, they are being taken away from your website-which in my opinion is totally not the point of having a blog in the first place.

However, if you still do want to try the ads route, go for it! I recommend FIRST increasing your organic blog traffic so that your ads result in a bigger commission though.

Grab my free worksheet on how to increase organic blog traffic below:

Option #3 Patreon 

Option #3 for making money blogging (or anything you do online, really) is through a Patreon account. If you’re providing a ton of value each week to your audience- let’s say through a podcast or blog posts or video trainings, you can sign up for a Patreon account and people from your audience can choose to donate a certain amount of money per month or per episode (or per whatever content you create).

This is a great way for content creators to make passive income off of their loyal followers and audience, without having to ever launch a product or service. The downside though, is that you have to constantly promote your Patreon account if you ever want anyone to donate, and usually the donations are not very big, so unless you have a massive audience, again, this probably won’t be enough to pay your bills.

Don't worry - now i'm going to chat about what I DO recommend and what led to my most recent 5 figure month. 

At this point my suggestions have all had downsides so now i’m going to tell you my number one recommendation for making money from your blog, and that is…to use your blog as a vehicle to attract your target audience - through providing FREE value, information, education, and inspiration in the form of your content.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking - "how am I going to make money if i’m giving away everything for free?" Well, what you’ll be getting in return from creating all of this free content, is the contact information, email address, trust and good will of the people that are consuming it.

So while you’re growing your audience this way and collecting their info in exchange for your AMAZING free content, my best advice is to then start creating or putting together a product, program, service or resource that you can eventually sell to these people - who already know, like and trust you.

This could be something as simple as promoting 1:1 sessions with you, it could be an e-book, an online course, a group coaching program, a 6 week fitness plan or meal prep guide, audio/video trainings, or something else. The options are pretty much endless of what you can create launch and sell online. And the best part about this option, is that YOU choose the price, you choose how often you want to promote it, and you are in control of how much money you make.

Let's say you decide to create an online nutrition course that is 6 weeks long and provides meal plans, educational resources, supplement recommendations and a private online community and you charge $300 for it. You could sell only 10 courses per month and just from that, be making 3,000 per month, which is definitely a livable salary (depending on where you live), and that revenue is all coming from your blog.

So, start to think of your blog as a vehicle to get people interested in what your message is and what you're all about.

Use your blog as a form of FREE advertising, especially if you know how to rock the SEO on your website - that builds you a following of interested people who will then be ready and willing to buy whatever you're selling.

And now that you know exactly how to start making money from your blog - you might be wondering HOW to actually get people there. If this sounds like you, be sure to download my free cheatsheet below on how to increase your blog traffic using SEO.

And if you're like me and prefer to consume your content via video, be sure to check out my YouTube video where I talk about how to make money blogging HERE!

Tell me: how do you make money from YOUR blog? What methods have you tried and what has been the most successful for you?

XO,

Amie