Ads aren’t the only way to make money from your blog. If you’ve recently launched your blog but have no clue how to monetize and make money from your blog from day one, then this post will be helpful for you.
Of course, you would need to write great content and bring traffic for it to work.
But yes, AdSense isn’t the only way for you to monetize your blog.
Since ads bring in lazy money with zero manual labor, they are the go-to choice for most beginner bloggers.
But the problem is that since AdSense pays peanuts, you have to spam your site with loads of ads to bring in any legitimate income!
This is where your site takes a hit and frankly, it is not something you would want to do on your blog.
But you also need income, now what do you do?
It’s simple.
You write great content and monetize in many different ways listed below that not only bring legitimate earnings but are also consistent and long-term.
So without wasting time, let’s go!
How to monetize your blog from day one
Here are the best ways you can use to monetize your blog without Adsense and start earning immediately.
Affiliate Marketing
The most lucrative way you can make money from your blog is through affiliate marketing-hands down.
The income is very passive and once you learn how affiliate marketing truly works, there is no limit to how much you can expect to earn.
Yes, it’s a bit harder than what these online gurus make you believe, but still, it works.
Since it can be hard to guess how much one can earn through affiliate marketing, let’s look at a few examples to get a clear picture:
Earnings made through affiliate marketing by super-affiliates:
- Tom Dupuis earns $150,000 per year through affiliate marketing
- John Crow earns around $50,000 per MONTH.
- Michelle also earns over $50,000 per MONTH.
Of course, you will not immediately earn these mouthwatering amounts at the very beginning. These people are super affiliates that poured in a lot of hard work for years to get where they are now.
But it’s very doable to earn a few hundred to a couple thousand or even more per month in your first year or two if you are serious about blogging.
The reason I said it takes a year or two is that the amount you’ll make is very dependent on your knowledge and ability to successfully earn through your blog.
There is a bit of a learning curve for beginner bloggers and that is what takes time to start earning handsomely. An experienced affiliate marketer or blogger will take only a fraction of the time you’ll take with a NEW site to rank in thousands of dollars per month.
That is because, they know the ins and outs of the game, and without a guide, it takes a while to figure things out.
So how do you earn through affiliate marketing?
Join affiliate programs in your niche.
For example, you are writing a post about the “10 best gaming phones under $300.” You sign up in amazon associates and link all the phones you are talking about in your blog. Once someone clicks on the link and purchases the phone, you are paid a commission.
You can add affiliate links to your blog posts from day one without waiting to reach a certain number of readers. So even if you have little traffic and someone decides to purchase through your link, then VIOLA, you start earning through your blog.
People are even earning through free sites like Medium, Quora, Reddit, Youtube, and even WordPress.com.
Here are a few affiliate networks to join
(Some affiliate programs in these networks require you to get a bit established before they accept your request to join)
Once you are accepted, you can even insert affiliate ads and banners (shortcodes provided by your program) to your sidebars and in your post to promote the product.
Selling Physical Products
Selling physical products like t-shirts, mugs, or any equipment is also a great way to monetize your blog.
You can integrate WooCommerce with your blog and sell anything you want. You can also link or even integrate POD sites to your blog to sell any item you see fit for your blog.
Integrating Etsy shops is another super popular way to sell your products.
Set up an Etsy shop and list up the products you sell, for example, handmade jewelry. Advertise your handmade jewelry to your readers by integrating your Etsy shop into your blog so it’s easier for your readers to browse through your products.
You can also integrate POD sites with an Etsy storefront and sell through your blog.
Here is how it’s done:
Let’s assume: You want to sell t-shirts. You look for reputable on-demand printing service and you use Etsy as a storefront. List all the products that you would like to sell (t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone covers, bags, etc) and market them on your social media, to your readers, and relevant groups and forums.
This way, you can sell your items internationally without having to think about inventory and shipping. All of that is taken care of. You only need to make relevant content on your blog and market.
If you wish to go local instead of international, there is a way for that too.
Let’s assume: You write about baking and making desserts and currently reside in a small town in California. You can make a “Buy cheesecakes” page on your blog and advertise that you sell custom cheesecakes for people living in your town and a few other neighboring towns.
You add price, pick-up location, pre-order details, etc.
You can market your services in your local Facebook groups and other places where people are looking to buy cheesecakes.
Since you are knowledgeable about baking, people are more likely to trust you and buy from you than any other person just selling cheesecakes. They will trust your expertise and maybe even recommend it to other people.
Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products is simply a lot more hassle-free than selling physical products on your blog. Not to mention, digital products have a higher chance of conversion than physical products.
You can monetize your blog by offering e-books, online courses, templates, designs, guides, sheets and charts, photographs, stock photos, printables, music, notes, and a lot of other stuff.
There is no limit to how creative you can get and the best thing is that you don’t have to worry about shipping, timely delivery, customer location, damaged goods, or manual labor.
It doesn’t even have to take a lot of time; you can come up with something of value if you are knowledgeable about your niche.
Making your own digital products
Let’s cover the 2 easiest ways most people monetize their blogs through selling digital products.
Online Courses:
Let’s assume: You blog about digital and social media marketing. Now you want to make a course about “How to reach 100k monthly views on Pinterest in 3 months”. Since you’ve done it yourself and know all the tips and tricks, the only thing left is to compile your knowledge into a simple course and sell it.
Visit Udemy and watch how other creators have compiled their courses. Don’t copy them but note the pattern they use. You’ll get an idea about what approach to take in your own course.
Note the headline, subheadings, how each section is divided and what is included in each section, the total duration of the course, the setup, the audio and video quality, everything.
There are also many free courses on Udemy that are super popular. Watch a few of those too, to get a better feel. Conduct surveys, polls, and case studies to understand your audience more. If the idea of conducting surveys is too intimidating for you, then look at the comments section of people’s questions and problems on Quora, Reddit, Youtube, Discord, Udemy, and other blogs in the same niche. You will find golden information about your target audience’s problems.
If you feel overwhelmed and believe it’s going to take a while to learn how to compile an effective course, then don’t waste your time and buy a course.
For all the penny pinchers out there, listen: Time is money.
Selling Templates on Marketplaces
Let’s assume: You want to sell Pinterest Pin templates on your blog. Head over to Canva and make different designs and templates to sell. Once you’re done, make an account with any free marketplace like Etsy, eBay, or Amazon to sell your pins.
Head back to Canva and select share – share a link to edit – and finally, share a link to use as a template.
With Canva, you can make multiple digital products like cheat sheets, guides, logos, work calendars, printable sheets, etc.
Also, you need to have a Canva Pro account to access the editable template option.
Paid Membership
Offering paid memberships on your blog is another great way to monetize your blog and make money. You can give paying subscribers access to a community, lots of premium content, and features.
Many bloggers benefit from this form of monetization strategy because if you know what you are talking about and can make great content in your niche, more and more people would be willing to join.
You can make your blog a membership site by using the Memberpress plugin or Paid Memberships Pro plugin on WordPress.
Alternatively, you can also use Podia to build your private community easily with zero technical knowledge.
Selling Your Services (consulting, freelance, etc)
This one is a pretty popular way to make money from your blog as well as showcase your expertise in your field. Since your work speaks for itself, you have a higher chance of getting your dream client if you choose to sell services on your blog.
Selling your services on your blog is a pretty straightforward process. Create a “Hire Me” page on your blog and list your services.
Use WP forms to add a contact form on your page for clients to contact you. Market your services in relevant Facebook groups and update your LinkedIn profile.
You can also offer a free 15 min consultation or discounts on long-term projects for your clients.
Elna Cain is a great example of someone who uses her blog to sell her freelancing services.
Podcast
Podcasting has been a great blog monetization strategy for a long time. Not to mention people love listening to podcasts. If you gain a steady number of followers, then it’s very easy to make money from your blog with it.
Even though podcasting is a very saturated niche but still if you have something valuable to say, then people are more than willing to listen to you.
Also, when you get a little established in podcasting, sponsorship deals start to flood your emails.
Search and reach out to the people in your industry and offer them to join your podcast as a guest. Even 5000 listeners are enough to bring you nice earnings through your blog.
You can also use YouTube to gain exposure and build your name.
Job boards
Sites like Problogger come to mind when we talk about monetizing your blog through job boards. And if you have established even a little bit of name in your niche, you can easily expect to earn a couple hundred each month, if not more.
If you are well established, then expect to earn a lot more than that.
The best thing about job boards is that readers in your niche would greatly benefit from them as they read your blog and know what kind of jobs to expect.
Job boards not only benefit your site monetarily but also boost your traffic as the word spreads out about your site between the job hunters in your niche. It also boasts SEO ranking as your site would have more keywords related to your niche.
Let’s assume: You write about real estate. You can make a page called “Job Board” or “Jobs” on your site. You can then market your board to your social media and relevant real estate Facebook and Reddit groups.
So if someone wants to hire a real estate writer or an agent, they know they can get the best people through your job board as your board is very niche specific.
Companies actively search for specific job boards to weed out scams, lazy, or unqualified applicants. This saves companies a lot of time and effort.
So, there you have it.
I’ve just listed the best 7 out of the many different ways to monetize your blog immediately without ads. There are many other ways to make money from your blog like accepting donations, writing sponsored product reviews, etc.
Remember that each monetization strategy requires consistent and serious effort for it to work.
FAQs for review
Can you monetize a blog without ads?
You can monetize your blog from day one WITHOUT ads. The only obstacle will be bringing in traffic.
Is it possible to have a blog without ads?
Yes, very much. Numerous established bloggers earn 6 figures per month without displaying ads on their sites.
Can a free WordPress blog be monetized by AdSense?
While you can add affiliate links and accept sponsored posts, your free WordPress blog cannot be monetized by AdSense. This is why I always recommend starting your own self-hosted blog. It’s inexpensive, more professional, and legitimately allows you maximum freedom.
How do I monetize my blog?
You can monetize your blog in the following ways:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Selling Digital products
- Selling physical products
- Paid membership
- Services (consulting, freelance, etc)
- Podcast
- Sponsered product reviews
- Patreon & donations
- Job boards
- Ads
Comment and tell me if you found this post helpful! Also, share some monetization tips if you know.
*there are some affiliate links in the post. That means if you click through them and purchase something, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Happy blogging!
