How Do Blogs and Websites Make Money Online?

One of the most successful bloggers of our time, John Lee Dumas, the owner and host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, makes around 200K US dollars monthly from his website.

How does he manage this?

Read on to find out!

In this article, we’ll break down the most popular blog and website monetization schemes and share real-life examples of successful entrepreneurs using these strategies to earn fortunes.

Monetization strategies

Launching a website always starts with an analysis of revenues and expenses. It usually covers two questions:

–          How much does it cost to create a website? 

–          What are the best monetization strategies to cover your initial investment?

The simplest ways to make money through blogging are by writing sponsored content, finding affiliates, and posting PPC and CPS ads.

Yet, for any strategy to work, you must have an exciting blog that keeps users engaged and coming back. How to achieve this?

Robert Farrington, the founder of The College Investor, advises: “For an online business, like a blog, creating the best is about creating the best content… Then, you need to do it consistently — multiple times per week, every week. And finally, you need to do it over a long period — at least one year. If you do all three, you are likely to succeed.” Only as you find your way to build up a considerable following can you start thinking of making money.

Now, let’s review each of the monetization strategies closer.

Sponsored content

Sometimes, big and small brands approach bloggers to write about their products. This is the simplest and most common way to make big money from a blog or website, often used by world-renowned bloggers and entrepreneurs. Michelle Gardner, the author of Making Sense of Cents, makes much of her money from sponsored ads. Most of her materials teach how to make or save money, and she masterfully adds sponsored content on the same topic. For example, her latest sponsored article discusses the best reward credit cards to save up in 2023.  

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is about placing links from other brands on your website. If a visitor follows the link and buys your partner’s product, you get a return (usually 5% or 10% of the revenue). 

Many successful bloggers drive the lion’s share of their incomes from affiliates. One of the most outstanding examples is Pat Flynn, the author of smartpassiveincome.com. He doesn’t just regularly cooperate with affiliate partners but has also made 22.2 K US dollars with one referral link (It was Michael Hyatt’s book Best Year Ever).

PPC and CPC

PPC stands for pay per click, and CPC reads as cost per click. These marketing strategies require you to post advertising on your website, and you get money each time a user clicks on the ad.

Yet, a customer doesn’t necessarily have to buy or click on something. With CPM (cost per a thousand impressions), seeing an ad is enough. A website owner is paid each time an ad is viewed 1000 times.

You can also get paid for 1000 page views, page impressions, etc. This sort of advertising is called RPM and means revenue per thousand – you get money each time something happens 1000 times. Although payment rates are usually low (you get about 2$ per 1000 impressions), successful bloggers make fortunes from RPMs by merely negotiating for better prices.

For example, Jennifer, the owner of ShowMeTheYummy, has raised her RPM rates from $3 to $65, which made her $46,000 instead of $2,000 without increasing her audience.  

Justin Weinger, the owner of SoOverThis, a website specializing in financial advice, constricts his monetization strategies to pure advertising. His primary and only source of revenue is different types of paid ads, like display ads, etc.

Branching out into other projects

Starting a paid course or writing a book is a natural next step for any blogger who gathers enough following and expertise. Many successful people went this way and built fortunes. Here are some examples:

John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneurs on Fire started his blog to inspire young entrepreneurs to strive in their businesses. Now, he makes most of his money from selling his books, courses, and paid membership to his podcasts. Jackie Beck, the founder of JackieBeck.com, makes most of her money from selling her app.

Key takeaways

The main secret ingredient of a successful blog or website is to care about the quality of blog content. Only authentic, helpful, fresh ideas can bring you a huge following and attract advertisers. Your website should be visually appealing and highly functional, and a company providing dedicated development team services may help you with this. To learn more, continue reading https://mlsdev.com/services/dedicated-development-team on how to hire an offshore development team. 

Author’s bio: Anastasiia Lastovetska is a technology writer at MLSDev, a software development company that builds web & mobile app solutions from scratch. She researches the area of technology to create great content about app development, UX/UI design, tech & business consulting.