Many people start blogging with the dream of making money or turning their blog into their career. However, it's not as easy a thing to do as some people believe.

So who actually pays bloggers? Brands, ad networks, platforms, and even readers themselves, among others.

If you're wondering how bloggers actually get paid, here's a breakdown of the many different ways.

Third-party advertising

Display ad networks like Google AdSense pay bloggers for showing ads on their site, either per view or per click. Once your traffic grows, bigger networks like Ezoic, Mediavine, and Raptive often pay more than AdSense, each with its own entry requirements.

I've covered how these all currently work, including thresholds, in my 10 ways to make money blogging.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is when a business pays a blogger commission for sales, or sometimes leads, generated by a special tracking link the blogger shares with their audience.

It's one of the most popular ways bloggers earn, and I've written a full explainer on what affiliate networks like Awin are and how they work if you want the details.

There are three main types of affiliate deal:

• Pay per click (PPC): paid a small commission every time someone clicks your link, regardless of whether they buy anything, this type is much rarer
• Pay per lead (PPL): paid when someone you refer signs up to something, like a newsletter or free trial, rather than for a purchase
• Pay per sale (PPS): paid a percentage of the sale value, or a fixed amount, when someone buys through your link, this is the most common type

The best way to succeed with affiliate marketing is to recommend products and services you've actually used and trust, so you can give an honest review rather than just dropping links.

Selling digital products

Bloggers can create and sell digital products like ebooks, courses, and printables to their readers. If you've built a large, engaged audience that trusts your expertise, this can generate significant revenue.

A food blogger might create an ebook of their best recipes, while a finance blogger might build a course on managing money. My husband sells downloadable shed building plans on his blog, he offers a thorough step by step guide as a free blog post, but also sells the digital plans themselves, complete with professional SketchUp imagery and full cut lists.

Selling your expertise as a service

Bloggers can offer services related to their area of expertise too, coaching, consulting, or freelance writing, using their blog to showcase their skills and attract clients. A fitness blogger might offer coaching to help readers hit their goals, a marketing blogger might consult for businesses wanting to improve their strategy.

Coaching in particular can be delivered one to one, or turned into a course for a more passive form of income if you don't want the ongoing time commitment of individual sessions.

Creating a membership site

Bloggers can create a membership site where readers pay monthly or yearly for exclusive content and resources. It's a good way to build a community around your blog and generate recurring revenue, though it generally needs an established, sizeable following first to work well.

Brand collaborations

Brands often contact bloggers directly to promote a product or service. This can take a lot of forms, sponsored posts, video content, event coverage, writing ad copy, or hosting a giveaway on the brand's behalf.

Donations

Some bloggers accept donations from readers in exchange for the value of their content, platforms like Patreon and Direct.Me make this easy to set up. It's unlikely to be a huge income stream on its own, but it can be a nice extra, especially for readers who want to support work they find genuinely useful.

Fancy buying me a coffee? I accept donations via Patreon or Direct.Me, thank you.

Selling physical products

Bloggers can also sell physical products related to their niche through an online store, a food blogger selling their own kitchen products, or a travel blogger selling guides and merchandise, for example.

A few things worth thinking through if you go this route: what to actually sell (your own line, a partnership, or drop-shipping so you don't need to hold stock), which e-commerce platform to use (Shopify and WooCommerce both have plugins that work directly on a WordPress blog), and how you'll handle shipping and where you're willing to ship to.

You'll also need to clue up on distance selling laws and make sure you're compliant before you start.

Public speaking

Established bloggers are sometimes invited to speak at conferences and events in their niche, which can build credibility and bring in income through speaking fees, book or merchandise sales, or sponsorships tied to the talk. It's also a genuine way to network with other people in your industry, which can lead to further collaborations down the line.

Refer a friend schemes

Refer a friend schemes are a bit different to affiliate schemes, anyone can take part, not just bloggers, and they're usually for sharing a product or service you already use with friends and family. Bloggers can widen their reach by sharing these links with their audience too, though some schemes restrict public sharing in their terms, so it's worth checking before you promote one widely.

Here's a list of some of the best refer a friend schemes in the UK.

A word about bloggers and "free stuff"

There's a common misconception that bloggers get things for free. If you're looking for how to get free money and things, this isn't the right career path for you.

Even when a blogger is "gifted" something, it's in lieu of payment and requires work in return, hours spent researching, reviewing, and creating content and images, plus years spent building the traffic, stats, and audience that made the brand want to work with them in the first place.

It's still classed as payment by HMRC too, so the RRP has to be declared and tax paid on it, which means it's not even really free, the blogger is essentially paying to review it unless the brand covers the tax as well. That's a whole other conversation, but it's why "bloggers get free stuff" is more myth than reality.

Some bloggers sell gifted items on afterwards too, through eBay or Facebook Marketplace, as a way to actually turn the item into real cash rather than just keeping it.

You'll also need a blog with a substantial following or certain metrics before most companies want to work with you this way in the first place.

Platforms connecting brands and agencies with bloggers

There are many online platforms that offer paid work to bloggers, including Publisuites and ValuedVoice, both of which I've had good, consistent work through.

You can find more in my larger list of platforms to find paid blogging opportunities.

Final word

There are many ways bloggers make money, and most successful bloggers use a mix of several rather than relying on just one.

Between advertising, affiliate marketing, brand collaborations, your own products or services, and more, it's worth working out which combination genuinely suits your niche and audience rather than trying to do everything at once.

If you haven't started a blog yet and want to give it a go, WordPress is a great place to begin, it's my favourite blogging platform.