How Do Bloggers Get Paid?

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Just like you, one of the first questions that came to mind when I first started my blog was “how do bloggers get paid?”

I mean who’s paying these bloggers to post and publish their articles?

How are they making money with a blog?

How is this all possible?

Today, I’m going to make it clear and answer your burning questions!

 

Don’t forget to bookmark this page or save it here on Pinterest so you don’t miss out on this information!

 

How To Make Money Blogging

Before I answer your questions, I’m going to take a step back and recap the various methods you can use to make money with your blog. They are the methods I personally use to consistently earn over $20,000 per month blogging from home!

There are many ways that bloggers can earn an income online, but I am going to go through these four most commonly used methods:

 

1. Display Advertising

These are just simply the ads you see when you enter a website’s post or page and here is an example of how that would look on your blog:

How much money you earn with these display ads will depend on the traffic you bring back to your blog. This was one of the first methods I used to make money with my blog, and I applied for Google Adsense when I was a beginner.

I remember earning my first $100 check from Google by using Adsense, which was deposited straight into my bank account. It was an exciting moment because I knew that earning that first income was the first milestone of my blogging journey!

But before you blindly apply for Google Adsense, I highly recommend you to set up your blog properly, and have your pages along with a collection of content ready!

I know many people who make the mistake of applying to Google Adsense immediately because they get too excited, but end up getting rejected because their blog isn’t presentable, user-friendly, or set up properly.

This is something I teach beginners like you in my affordable ebook, The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days to help you set up and launch your blog properly right from start! It will also save you months of research and ensure you avoid costly mistakes that beginners commonly make (including myself when I was a total beginner).

This is honestly the guide I wish I had when I was a beginner because I remember being totally lost when I was trying to figure out what to do and where to go!

Once you understand how to drive a substantial amount of traffic to your site, you can always consider other options like:

• Monumetric – requires 10,000 monthly pageviews
• Mediavine – requires 50,000 monthly sessions (equivalent to approximately 55,000 to 60,000 monthly pageviews)
• AdThrive – requires over 100,000 monthly pageviews

This is an example of one of my display advertising earnings on Finsavvy Panda, my other blog, with Mediavine:

I personally use Mediavine on my two other blogs because their team is amazing! I plan on staying with them despite having over 100,000 monthly pageviews on each of my other two sites. I highly recommend them once you reach your goal of 60,000 monthly pageviews!

When you have over 50,000 monthly page views, you can expect to earn between $1,000 to $2,000 per month by just having ads on your blog. The earnings could even fall below or rise above this range given the same number of pageviews.

There are a lot of factors that impact your ad earnings and due to its more complex terminology, it is beyond the scope of discussion in this post for beginners. I can always write a separate post about display advertising and how it works if you are interested. Just e-mail me at ling@finsavvypanda.com and let me know.

 

2. Affiliate Marketing

I earn a majority of my income with affiliate marketing and it’s one of my favorite ways to make money with my blog!

Here is a screenshot of one of my affiliate earnings:

You can think of affiliate marketing as a referral or recommendation of any product and/or services you use.

When you refer that product to your readers, and they actually use what they call your “affiliate link” or “referral link” to purchase the product, you will earn a commission.

Let’s suppose you started a beauty blog and you talk about skincare and makeup products. If you write a review or mention a skincare product that you love to use, and your reader clicks on that link to make a purchase, you could earn anywhere between 2% to 10%. Depending on the affiliate program, if the customer decides to purchase other products using your affiliate link, you’ll still get a kickback on those too.

There are many affiliate programs that you can join, and the commission can range between 1% all the way up to 75%. It varies on the program and type of affiliate.

You can check out here how I made over $15,000 in a single month just by using affiliate marketing alone.

Learn more about affiliate marketing for beginners and how it works here.

 

PRO TIP: I never recommend total beginners who just started their blogs to jump right into affiliate marketing. Instead, I highly recommend learning how to set up your blog properly and writing valuable content for your readers. Next, learn how to drive traffic back to your blog, so you can start earning with display advertising. These are the first baby steps I recommend taking before diving deep into learning affiliate marketing strategies. You should master one thing before moving onto the next level.

 

3. Offering Your Products and Services

This is a fantastic way to make money with your blog or website!

Instead of selling other people’s products through affiliate marketing, you can create your own products or services and offer them directly to your readers and followers.

Here are a few examples of products you can create and offer on your blog

• E-books
• Printables (e.g. wall art for home decor or printable binders such as budgeting, organization, meal planners, etc.)
• Online courses

Aside from creating products, you can also offer your services. These services can be 1-on-1 coaching in the area of your expertise. You can hold these coaching sessions in person or through videos if you live far away from the client.

For example, I know many personal finance bloggers who offer coaching to help their readers with their finances. Many people are living paycheck to paycheck and aren’t good with budgeting, so if you are an expert in this field, you can use your blog to gain clients!

 

4. Sponsored Posts

I personally haven’t done any sponsored posts before because I am focusing my efforts on display advertising, affiliate marketing, and product creation.

There are companies who will pay you a flat fee for writing a review about their product on your blog. If you have an Instagram account, those same companies may also offer to pay you just to mention their product on the platform to your followers. This is called sponsored posts and I know many bloggers who earn several thousands of dollars each month just by writing sponsored posts.

This is a great opportunity for you especially if you are a good and fast writer! That’s definitely not me – haha!

Just remember to only mention products that you true heartedly believe in because if you are doing it just for the commissions, your readers will see that you aren’t being genuine. You don’t want to lose your readers’ trust.

You can land a sponsored post opportunity when you directly reach out to the company and pitch them your ideas.

 

How Do Bloggers Get Paid?

Now that you have an idea of how bloggers make money with a blog, you are wondering how do bloggers get paid? In what form of payments and how does that work?

The answer depends on the companies and partners you work with.

You can get paid by:

• Direct deposit
• PayPal
• International wire transfers
• Mailed check

 

Direct Deposit:

With direct deposit, you would provide the company/partner/affiliate/sponsor you choose to work with your banking information.

All the companies, partners, and affiliates that I work with are safe and secured, so there is no concern. It’s like providing your banking information to your company’s HR department because that’s how they can pay you. 😊

 

PayPal:

If you’re not familiar with what PayPal is, it is basically an electronic eCommerce company that allows you to make and receive payments online.

You can make purchases online with PayPal, and at the same time, you can receive payments from companies as a blogger when you sign up for an account.

According to Investopedia’s definition of PayPal, “This allows customers to establish an account on its platform, which is connected to a user’s credit card or checking account. Once identification and proof of funds are confirmed, users can begin sending or receiving payments to and from other PayPal accounts online or through the company’s app.”

I personally use PayPal to receive payments because it makes transacting very convenient. I also use it to receive payments from my readers who purchase my online digital products such as this ebook here that guides beginners on how to start and launch their blogs correctly.

I recommend opening one after you start your blog. Signing up for a PayPal account is free!

 

Opening a PayPal account in the U.S.

If you reside in the U.S., it would be no problem finding out how to open a PayPal account there since it’s widely used.

 

Opening a PayPal outside of the U.S. (i.e. in a different country)

However, if you are trying to open a PayPal account in a different country, I recommend searching “how can I open a PayPal account in…” and fill in your country for specific instructions. For example, “how can I open a PayPal account in Canada” or “how can I open a PayPal account in the UK.”

 

International bank wire:

Unlike electronic payments like PayPal, these banks can cost a hefty fee. The fee depends on the bank, whether the wire is outgoing or incoming or domestic or international, and the amount that needs to be transferred. I personally haven’t used or come across this type of payment method, but it can and does exist.

 

Mailed check:

Depending on how you want to receive your payments, some companies give you the option to receive your check in the mail.

 

Start your blog and make money:

I hope this post helps you understand how bloggers get paid and how they make money with their blogs.

You may also be interested in reading about how long does it take for a new blogger to make money blogging?

Whenever you’re ready to start blogging, you can refer to my step-by-step tutorial here to start your blog! You can start your blog for as low as $2.95 a month when you use this tutorial guide!

Through this tutorial, you’ll get 60% off along with a free domain name! I highly recommend you check it out!

Once you start your blog using my tutorial, send me an email at ling@finsavvypanda.com to let me know! I’d love to hear from you and provide you with my best blogging tips! I look forward to hearing from you soon!

 

Happy blogging and making money, my friend!