Ok, I’ll be honest with you. This post is really just me organizing my own options to make money from blogging in the future.

Once I reach financial independence through dividend investing, I plan to work full-time on blogging.

That’s when I will create a product or service to sell. As of right now, I have Google Adsense ads, Amazon affiliates links and I do have a how to start a blog page with a link to my hosting affiliate, Bluehost.

However, I am not running this blog as a business by any means right now. Blogging is a personal project and a place to document my dividend income.

My Experience Making Money from Blogging so far

I have enjoyed some success with making money from blogging over the past 3 years, and then some success with another blog nearly a decade ago.

I’ve received income for publishing sponsored posts that included links, and I have also received income for freelance writing and publishing a post with links. 

Related post: A Blog Post About Sponsored Content that’s not full of S–T

In addition, I earned affiliate income from blogging during my year off. Unfortunately, though, I had to stop promoting my most suitable and most profitable affiliate due to a conflict of interest. I have not been able to find a natural affiliate match since then.

Besides that, I have experience through a previous blog I was involved in. I had the opportunity to run product giveaways, cover fashion and photography events, and hold charity art shows that were marketed through the blog. All great experience in hindsight.

1. Ebook

If I’m looking for the best way to provide value from a blogging perspective, an ebook would be a great option to make money from blogging in 2019

It’s low cost to produce, it can be an extension of the existing content, and it provides a good opportunity to test the market. To put it bluntly, it’s a product that can be priced in the $2 to $5 range, which makes it a small commitment for potential customers. 

Mind you, I have absolutely no experience with this. But I am beginning to see how I could use my angle to provide value in an ebook on personal finance, dividend investing or financial independence. 

Of course, I feel like I need to build more credit first and prove I can sustain an investment portfolio over a longer period of time. I would need to get serious about marketing and advertising if I had a product to sell.

2. Products

It wouldn’t be that hard to set up a store and have RTC branded products for sale…what do you think? 

I mean, I actually have a really good idea that is financial independence related. It could be made through a connection of mine too. Perhaps I could even go to local Trade shows in Toronto to sell it and promote RTC in person.

But here’s the thing about products: it’s a commitment. You have upfront costs to create the product. In turn, you must make sure that the cost is low enough so that you can make money by selling it.

Another issue with the product route is that RTC is not a product company! I wouldn’t even expect a product to sell well right now because it doesn’t provide value. 

If I was to take on the challenge of creating and trying to sell a product, I would be creating my own passion project.

I see it as something that would be a cool feature to have for the blog—branded products. Maybe it would generate a small amount of money annually but I doubt it would be anything substantial. 

3. Sponsored Posts and Links

Out of all the ways to make money from blogging on this list, I’ve personally made the most from sponsored posts and links.

The only problem is that I don’t make an effort to list it as a service anymore, and I’ve never made an effort to sell it yet.

Furthermore, it can be challenging to find partnerships that are beneficial for both the blogger and sponsor. It really has to fit. I would never feel comfortable promoting a sponsor I don’t believe in or that I feel is shady.

Once I am ready to treat the blog as a business, I will list this as a service and spend time selling it each year.

4. Google Adsense or another Advertiser like Mediavine

The only one of these income options I have even been working on is Google Adsense lately. That’s because it’s basically passive income.

As my blog’s traffic has slowly increased over the years, Google Adsense jumped from a few cents per month, to 5 cents per day, to $1 here and there, and now it seems to be increasing steadily by the month. 

I mean, it’s not a lot of money. But it’s cool to see it increase a little over time.

I view $10 earned per month from blogging and compare it to how much it would cost me to buy a stock that pays $10 per month. 

Regarding Mediavine, this is another advertising network similar to Google Adsense that you need more traffic to apply for. From what I’ve read, the income is much higher on average than Google Adsense.

5. Sell Advertising 

If you’re really a hustler, you could create a sell sheet that details your blog traffic and social media community to sell advertising. 

You could sell banner ads, advertisements within posts, awareness and giveaway campaigns, and more for income. 

In my humble opinion, most blogs that are built up enough could make money from blogging if they worked hard enough. It’s a lot of work, though.

For example, it would be possible to find work if you sent 100 emails per day or spent all your time DM’ing companies for work.

6. Freelance Writing

Of course, there’s always freelance writing.

There are freelance job boards on blogs such as Problogger, and there are investment websites that pay bloggers per article.

In my opinion, the best value for a potential RTC sponsor would be for me to write the post and include links that are clearly labeled as sponsored.

7. Affiliate Marketing

As mentioned earlier, I have had some success with affiliate marketing, but I had to discontinue the most successful affiliate. 

I still have Bluehost and Amazon as affiliates at this time. However, I don’t put the effort required to sell them. This is partially because they are not the best fit or that I haven’t figured out how to optimize them.

Ideally, I could promote a broker and provide a valuable reason to use my affiliate link. Since this could be a conflict of interest, though, I am avoiding it for now.

But for the record, I think the right affiliate has potential to be one of the best ways to make money from blogging in 2019. It’s such a low cost way to make money if it fits and if you have an ability to sell it.

8. Social Media Management

I almost considered social media management at one point during my year off but I really wasn’t ready then.

To be honest, I do have a lot more experience now. I’ve worked in social media professionally, and I learned a lot about it over the last few years through blogging. I also have experience with Google Adwords and paid advertising.

Frankly, I’d be running Instagram and Facebook ads all the time if I had a product or service to sell.

Anyways, since I have become so accustomed to growing social media accounts and posting daily, I could seek out companies that are looking for help with social media.

From there I could create a package based on posting a certain amount of content per day for a monthly or hourly fee.

9. Consulting

I have to mention I would only be comfortable consulting if I had a proven track record of success first.

For example, if I was a full-time blogger I could offer blogging advice for an hourly price.

On the other hand, once I reach financial independence through dividend investing I could offer personal finance and budgeting advice. 

Options like this may be available as services by RTC down the road.

I’m talking years and years down the road, though, when I figure this all out.

Concluding Thoughts

I’m not afraid to fail at trying the money making strategies mentioned in this post. I guess I’m a marketer at heart.

In short, my long term plan is to build up my dividend income while simultaneously building this blog up as my main hobby. 

Once the money is right I plan to pursue blogging more seriously. But that sounds like an excuse huh?

Maybe I should find a way to do this all right now…

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This post contains advertisements by Google Adsense. All links in this post are internal links except one. All opinions are my own.