There are many awesome ways you can make money with your blog. But one of the easiest ways is by earning passive income. Keep reading to learn what passive income is and how easy it is to make money with it in this extensive guide!
Any income that you can make from your blog is great. And there are a lot of ways you can make money blogging.
But one of the easiest ways to make money blogging is by earning passive income.
You may have heard other bloggers talk about how they recently started a blog and now their blogs are rolling in money while they sleep.
And you’re left wondering how in the world they’re doing that while you’re working your butt off and still trying to make ends meet!
The good news is – you can do it, too!
Once your blog starts bringing in a steady stream of traffic, you can start earning from passive income.
What does this mean for you?
It means you can go on vacation and still make money from your blog!
You can go to sleep at night and wake up to money in your bank account!
How do you do that? Keep reading for 6 totally genuine ways you can start earning passive income from your blog.
What is passive income?
Passive income, when relating to bloggers, is income that is earned from your blog on autopilot.
It’s the result of you doing the work once and continuing to make money from that work in the future with minimal upkeep.
Some people believe that passive income is getting paid for doing nothing. That’s not the case at all. You still have to put in the work and effort.
Just as an example, let’s say you create an eBook. You do all the work involved in writing your eBook – drafting the outline, writing the chapters, editing, etc.
Finally, your eBook is complete! Now you have to set up a marketing strategy so customers can find you. The marketing strategy you put in place will allow customers to purchase from you continuously without you having to do a ton of active work.
Money is now regularly coming in after the original process of creation, promotion, and automation.
This is called “passive” income because you are not “actively” earning the money.
And yes, you can continue earning passive income while you sleep!
Why is passive income so important?
Passive income allows you to have freedom. It’s not connected to your time, so you have the freedom to do other things with your time, such as write more blog posts or travel.
Another reason it’s so important is for financial security.
In our family, my husband works outside of the home and I’m the stay-at-home parent homeschooling our daughter. Having a passive income is important for us because if he were to lose his job, we’d still have money coming in.
The more you can bring in passive income, the better off you’ll be in the future.
Think of all the freedom you’ll have not being a slave to money!
You can pay off student loans or medical bills or even set up an emergency fund or a kids’ college fund.
Steps to Monetizing Your Blog for Passive Income
Below are some steps to follow if you are thinking about setting up your blog for passive income.
1. Choose the right niche
Before you even get started with a blog, you need to make sure you know exactly what niche, or topic, you want to write about. Your niche is what your blog posts will be focused on as well as the target audience you’re trying to reach.
To read more about how to find your blog’s niche, click here.
2. Create quality content
Quality content is so important because it gets your blog ranked on search engines like Google. The higher you rank on Google, the more traffic you’ll get.
Plus, people are visiting websites because they have questions that need answering. You want your content to answer those questions so those visitors will become readers and sign up for your email list to get more.
To learn how to write quality content to keep readers wanting more, click here.
3. Create evergreen content
Evergreen content is content that is not time sensitive and continues to drive traffic even after it has been published. It stays “fresh” over long periods of time. It never goes out of date.
News articles and posts about the latest fashion trends are not evergreen content because they are constantly changing.
Common evergreen formats include:
- Lists
- “How-to Tutorials
- Videos
- Top Tips
- Product Reviews
6 Ways to Start Earning Passive Income as a Blogger
1. Selling your own digital products
One way to earn passive income and monetize your blog is by selling your own digital products. Examples of digital products are:
- eBooks
- eCourses
- digital art
- informational guides and printables
- stock photos
eBooks and eCourses are very popular. After you put in all the effort of creating your eBook or eCourse, and then market it, the hard part is over. When people learn about your product and purchase from you, the earned income flows right into your account passively.
Create your own online course for FREE with this link!
I create most of my digital products in Canva. With Canva, there’s a free version and a paid version. If you’re planning to create digital products to sell, I’d highly recommend the paid version.
With Canva Pro, you have access to 2 million free stock photos. Also, you’re allowed to use your own fonts and brand colors, and share templates to sell with your audience. It’s a pretty amazing way to grow your digital product business!
Click here to get a free 30-day trial to see if it’s right for you!
Keep in mind that the digital products you create and sell should be relevant to your specific audience. It needs to solve their problems and help them.
Think about who your audience is and exactly what they need from you. What problem do they have that you can easily solve?
2. Affiliate Marketing
With affiliate marketing, you are promoting products and services for other businesses on your own blog. Whenever someone clicks the link and makes a purchase, you get paid a commission.
Affiliate marketing is considered passive income because you write the blog post with links once (initial work) and when someone buys the product you’re recommending, you earn money from it. And you continue to earn money from those affiliate links as long as your blog post is up to date and still available.
The best way to earn money through affiliate marketing is to join affiliate programs that would be beneficial to your audience, then share their products on your blog.
One of my favorite affiliate programs to earn passive income with is Ultimate Bundles. To learn more about their program and how to be successful with it, click here.
Keep in mind:
- While affiliate marketing is a nice (and easy) way to monetize your blog, it does take some time to earn enough income to make a comfortable living. It’s not a get-rich-quick kind of thing.
- Most affiliate companies have a holding time on your sales. This means that even if earn money today, you probably won’t see the deposit for up to 60 days after the sale.
3. Sponsored Posts
This is one of the most popular ways to earn passive income as a new blogger. Companies will pay you to write a post promoting their service or company.
Be sure that if a company reaches out to you for collaboration, that it’s a good fit for your blog and for your audience.
Also, only go with companies that you love and trust and fit well with your niche.
4. Ad Placement
It’s pretty easy for bloggers to place ads on their site and earn extra income from them. Even new bloggers just starting out with their blogs can do this.
However, too many ads on a website are extremely annoying. They’ll slow down your site and cause visitors to leave.
One ad network that is easy to use and doesn’t overdo ad placement is Media.net. Their requirements are easy to reach and they accept new bloggers. Click here to get Media.net for your site
Click here to read the top 4 ways to make money as a new blogger!
5. Memberships
Another source of passive income is to create a niche membership site. This is a site that has a section that is accessible entirely to members only. A site member pays a monthly (or yearly) fee in order to access the content.
Keep in mind that members will be expecting the content to be up to date, which will require ongoing work on your part. Membership sites require ongoing updates to keep paid subscribers interested and subscribed.
6. YouTube
Videos have become increasingly popular over the years. They provide your site more authority and they can provide passive income through ad placement.
YouTube does require a certain number of subscribers as well as a certain number of hours of watch time in order for you to have a monetized channel. There’s also a review process.
However, once the requirements are met, you can start to make considerable income!
4 Important Truths About Earning Passive Income as a Blogger
1. It takes a lot of effort
It takes effort to grow any new business and it’s the same with blogging.
Effort to build a community and gain their trust.
Effort to create and sell a product.
Effort to make a steady income.
You cannot get overwhelmed and frustrated and just give up if your blog isn’t growing and making money. You just have to put more effort into it and keep going.
2. It takes strategy
Becoming successful with passive income streams does not just happen immediately. You have to have a realistic plan in place. Every successful business has a realistic strategic plan in place for profit and growth.
3. It takes a bit of time
No successful business is built overnight. It will take time to get your blog off the ground and bringing in income. But that time will be worth it! Your main focus, in the beginning, is to narrow down your target market and create valuable content for your readers.
It can take a few weeks or even months to create the content required to generate enough traffic. Plus, it takes time for search engines to index your site and start showing it in search results.
4. It’s not expensive to get started
Many people have made thousands with their successful blogs and they didn’t have to go into debt to get there. Setting up a blog is not expensive at all.
You can start a blog for fairly cheap by purchasing a domain through Namecheap ($10/year) and by hosting with BlueHost ($3.95/mo).
Helpful Tips
- Be diverse. Select a few different passive income streams so that you can continue growing your business. Don’t just rely on one source to support you and your business growth. Mix it up! Make sure you have income flowing in from a few different places each month.
- Create a freebie. Entice visitors with a freebie in exchange for their email addresses. Send them weekly newsletters full of information and include your passive income links.
- Be patient! It takes time for income to start consistently rolling in. It’s not going to happen overnight.
- Don’t sound too salesy. Sharing about a product you use and love builds trust with readers and they’re more than likely to purchase from you if you’re sharing instead of selling. So add links without sounding too salesy.
- Branch out. Don’t just share passive income links on your blog, share them across all the social media sites you’re on as well.
- Know your niche. Make sure you narrow down your focus and know exactly who you’re writing for.
- Network. The more you get yourself out amongst other bloggers in your niche, the more well-known your name and brand will become. If another blogger has a question from one of their readers that they can’t answer, they may think of you!
Key Takeaways
- Earning passive income with a blog can help you earn a living working from home. It can also bring clarity to your blogging path. Once you know exactly who your targeted audience is and what they need, you can choose your passive income streams and start working on your strategy.
- Keep in mind that it’s important to select a few different passive income streams so that you can continue growing your business. Don’t just rely on one source to support you and your business growth. Mix it up! Make sure you have income flowing in from a few different places each month.
To recap:
3 steps to monetizing your blog with passive income:
- Choose the right niche
- Create quality content
- Create evergreen content
6 ways to start earning passive income as a blogger:
- Selling your own digital products
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Ads
- Memberships
- YouTube
Of these ways to earn passive income as a blogger, which appeals most to you? Will you be giving these ideas a try?
More blogging tips:
Branding Your Blog: A Step-By-Step Guide
14 Sites You Can Promote Your Blog for Free
Important Pages Every Blog Should Have
