How to Monetize Your Blog in 2021

Making money through blogging is absolutely possible in 2021! It’s been a huge dream of mine to make money online and passively through blogging. I’ve been in the blogging space since 2017 and am continuously learning more about the industry. The first thing you want to consider before blogging is, “what is your niche?” By definition, a niche is a topic that is very specific. Personally, I’m like more people where I have many interests, which has its upsides and its downsides.

First Things First, Why is a Niche Important for Monetizing a Blog?

If you haven’t been following me for several years, you’ll know that I was once in the travel niche. This is why you’ll find some travel-related content on this blog as well. But after the pandemic of 2020, I come to realize that traveling is more of a fun pastime for me and isn’t something I wanted to focus on for the next few years of my life.

My blog is now evolving into the beauty and business space. These two niches have always been my interest outside of travel. I’ve always been passionate about makeup and beauty and I’ve always loved helping others feel and look beautiful by sharing the knowledge and skills I know. In addition, I’ll touch on my business experience and progress. This will include tips on how to grow your own e-commerce business that I’ve learned along the way!

So why is this important when it comes to making money through blogging? Well first off, you may have heard about a little thing called SEO, Search engine optimization. This is where a search engine like Google or Pinterest, will rank your articles in their algorithm. And if your blog post is about multiple topics, search engines will have a difficult time recommending your blog to the appropriate audience.

Now that begs the question, why do I write multiple niches you ask? Well, to be frank, it’s because I’m still finding my specific niche. Currently, I’m in the testing process of finding which topic I’ll stick to. And what I’ll want to write about for 3+ years. Also, I need to gather more information about what is driving readers to my blog. For more info about finding a niche, send me a dm and I’ll create a separate post.

So We have a niche, How Do I monetize My Blog?

Display Ads

Let’s assume you’ve written about 50 posts or so on your niche. Well, congrats! You are considered an expert in your niche. So the next step is to rank and gain those page views. The best way to do this is by marketing and driving traffic to your blog! Once you are able to hit over a certain amount of page views, you’ll be able to join ad agencies that will display paid ads on your website.

The best ad agencies to consider are the following:

Google Adsense (The easiest to join)
Mediavine
- (Mediavine requires at least 50,000 sessions which you can via Google Analytics). As of this post, I am only at 1.1k monthy page views. Therefore, my next target goal would be to hit 50k monthly sessions.
Shemedia
1. For smaller creators and bloggers, I highly reccomend checking out She Media. This is my current ad agency which you’ll find on my page today!

Although, some bloggers prefer not to have display ads at all. One main reason is that ads may lower the speed of the site. Another reason is that some bloggers prefer their space on the internet to not look cluttered with advertisements. Fortunately, there are other ways to monetize a blog!

Monetize your blog through affiliate marketing

Essentially, affiliate marketing is where a blogger or creator promotes another brand or person’s services. or products. There are many avenues to affiliate marketing. One that you may be familiar with is via Amazon. There is a bit of a learning curve with Amazon Affiliates. Although, it’s worth learning especially if you are an avid Amazon shopper!

Another popular way to monetize via LTK aka Reward Style/LiketoKnow.it. If you are interested in any of these programs, click their links to learn how to apply.

Besides these platforms, you can promote and earn affiliate marketing income directly from businesses that offer them!

Monetize your blog by selling your own digital goods or services

This is one of the strategies have yet to implement but I am highly interested in doing in the near future! Here are 3 examples of digital goods or services you can offer on your blog: