People often come to me as an expert at monetizing blogs. Although my experience making money online is not limited only to blogs, I’ve been able to extract a lot of income from not necessarily a lot of traffic.
For example, my proofreading business was able to generate a salary level income – sometimes as much as $15,000 in one month during peak season – from barely 100 unique visitors a day to the website. My card game site made $500 to $1,000 a month on 500 to 1,000 visitors a day, although this was before Google Analytics, so the “real” traffic numbers are likely less.
So what’s the secret to making money with blogs and getting the best return given less than stellar traffic? Read on and find out…
How Do Blogs Make Money?
Let’s look at how blogs make money. Whenever I’m asked that question I answer with the following three methods –
- Advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling products and services
You can make money with your blog by placing advertisements on it, by selling products as an affiliate where you earn a commission for each sale you refer, or by selling products and services of your own. There are many derivatives of these three methods, but at the top level, this pretty much covers it.
To break that down into more practical ideas, here are some of the ways bloggers currently make a living online.
- You can place Google Adsense advertisements on your blog
- Allow sponsors to pay you money for placing banners on your blog
- Go to a site like Clickbank and find a product you can write about and promote as an affiliate
- Create an ebook, set of audio or video materials, or home study course you sell them from your blog
- Launch a membership site and promote it via your blog
- Conduct a series of live webinars that you charge people money to attend
- Host your own seminar or workshop and sell tickets to it on your blog (and record it to make a product you can sell)
- Add a shopping cart to your blog and source physical goods at wholesale you can sell at retail
- Provide consulting or coaching services and charge by the hour for your time
Other options to earn a return from your blog that doesn’t directly result in money in your pocket, but can eventually, and are definitely a benefit, include…
- Generating a well known brand, creating mass exposure for your name or what you do – and possibly become famous
- Invitations to speak at conferences and seminars
- An opportunity to publish a print book or several
- Consulting to large companies resulting possibly in employment opportunities or large retainer fees
- Free products to sample and review on your blog
- VIP or press access to industry only events and parties
Now you know how blogs make money in terms of concepts and some practical ideas to implement the concepts, next let’s take a look at some case studies of bloggers I’ve personally met or interviewed and how they have made money from their blogs.
Case Studies: These Bloggers Make Money
I’ll be as brief as I can with these explanations as I want to show you how diverse the ways bloggers make money by providing lots of examples. I’ve included some monthly income totals where possible, but the accuracy of the figures is very likely off, so don’t quote these as concrete numbers. Here we go…
Yaro Starak
Income: $20,000 to $50,000 a month
Niche: Blogging, Internet Marketing, Entrepreneurship
Blog: Yaro.Blog
I’ll start with my own example, since I know it best. I first started making good money with sponsors paying me to place banners and text links on my blog. Next, I did affiliate marketing, initially starting with Perry Marshall’s products like his ebook and renaissance club, since I was studying his materials at the time. This led to promoting all kinds of affiliate products and services, from Aweber to 1ShoppingCart, and then the big launches that occur in the Internet Marketing niche.
After two years of blogging I launched my own course, Blog Mastermind, then another Membership Site Mastermind, and another in partnership with Gideon Shalwick, the Become A Blogger Premium video course. Then I started doing elite coaching at a minimum of $5,000 a person.
You can hear more of my story from a presentation I did explaining my history here.
Frances Kerr
Income: $4,000 to $8,000 a month
Niche: Alternative Health, Skin Care, Acne Treatment
Blog: www.highonhealth.com
I worked very closely with Fran, helping her to grow her alternative health, acne treatment and skincare blog. She made money first with Google Adsense, though it wasn’t much. Next, she started selling banners to sponsors and then reviewing affiliates products like ebooks and DVDs. After about 18 months she wrote her first ebook on acne treatment with food, which resulted in a steady income stream, which has continued to this day. Next, she launched her own online store with a shopping cart and started selling physical goods like skincare creams and chocolate. She added a coaching program and membership site, a second ebook and does private consulting for an hourly fee.
You can hear Fran explain her entire story in this podcast interview I did with her.
Alborz Fallah
Income: $100,000+ a month
Niche: Cars
Blog: www.caradvice.com.au
Alborz and I used to work a part-time job at the local university computer help-desk. This particular job had the luxury of lots of spare time, which I used to write some of the very first articles on my blog. Alborz saw me blogging and jumped on the bandwagon, leading to the creation of Car Advice.
I spoke to Alborz consistently over the years as his blog grew. It took some pestering, but I finally managed to convince him to try Google Adsense on his blog, which immediately resulted in $20 a day and quickly grew to over $100 a day, then $200. Next, he started adding banners from car companies who sponsored the blog because they could see how well it was doing in search engines for terms related to their cars. A big change occurred when he took on investors, helping the site reach car manufacturers to test drive cars, which has led to Alborz driving some of the most exotic cars on this planet, including the Bugatti Veyron. With investors, next came staff writers and then corporate sponsorship deals, which is like selling banners on your blog, but instead, you are cutting $30,000 campaign deals with a car manufacturer, rather than $100 a month for a small banner.
Car Advice is now much more than just Alborz, but continues to derive the majority of its income from advertising, though merchandising like DVDs and even possibly a television show are likely extensions of what started off as just a humble blog. You can hear more about the early days of Car Advice in an interview I did with Alborz back in 2008.
Income: $15,000+ a month (this needs updating, I’m waiting for confirmation from Mitch)
Niche: Sports (began with College Football)
Blog: www.sportschatplace.com/
Mitch joined my Blog Mastermind coaching program during the very first intake in 2007 and immediately stood out as an action taker, attending virtually every coaching call we held, which he does even today three years since the program first opened (that’s value for money!). Mitch began with his passion for college football, starting CFBPlace (College Football Place) where he quickly established his authority at picking the winners of matches.
Like Alborz, Mitch was hesitant for a very long time to attempt to make money from his site, but recently started monetizing his blog. I don’t know the specifics, but I do know Mitch’s site earns income from affiliate programs, especially in relation to betting on sports (his site now has a team of writers who pick the winners of games). Advertising banners, some of which go to affiliate programs, are his main source of income, however, he is going to launch a premium sports picks membership site, which will no doubt ramp up the income significantly.
When Mitch first got started I interviewed him to find out how he was able to rapidly increase his traffic in such a short period of time.
Leigh Peele
Income: $10,000+ a month (This is data from 2009, so she is no doubt doing different numbers now)
Niche: Fat Loss
Blog: www.leighpeele.com/
Leigh was also one of my very first Blog Mastermind and Membership Site Mastermind students, who really took my training and ran with it. Leigh monetizes her blog by selling an ebook via Clickbank called The Fat Loss Trouble Shooter and by offering members-only sections on her blog. Access to parts of her blog are for members only, which she charges money to access.
Back in 2008, I interviewed Leigh when she was just starting to implement what she learned from my programs, where she explained how she went from $20 to $4,500 a month from her blog.
Will Hamilton
Income: $15,000 a month
Niche: Tennis
Blog: www.fuzzyyellowballs.com
Will Hamilton is a professional tennis coach who turned his knowledge and passion into a six-figure income, combining his blog with an email list and using YouTube as the main source of marketing. He creates videos, uploads them to YouTube, drives the traffic from YouTube back to his blog (he puts the videos on his blog too), some of them opt-in to his newsletter, and he sells his membership site to make money. Last time I talked to him he had over 600 paying members who pay $25/month.
You can hear Will explain exactly how he does what he does in this in-depth interview I did with him in audio and video.
Olivier Roland
Income: 14,000 Euros a month
Niche: How To Start A Business
Blog: www.des-livres-pour-changer-de-vie.fr/
Olivier Roland is a French Blogger who participated in both my Blog Mastermind and Membership Site Mastermind training programs. Olivier has enjoyed success cementing himself as a leader in business and blogging, but doing so in the French marketplace, proving that the same principles, when applied in other languages, can work. Olivier had a very rapid rise to success, launching his first training program only twelve months writing to his blog. Although before this he did spend ten years running his own technology business.
You can hear the full story of how Olivier started his blog and launched a successful training program in under two years in this interview I did with him for my podcast in January 2011.
Pat Flynn
Income: $10,000+ a month
Niche: Architecture and Information Marketing
Blog: www.smartpassiveincome.com
Pat Flynn’s story is very inspirational. He lost his job as an architect during the global financial crisis. His blog was originally used simply as a storehouse for notes he was taking as he studied for a specific qualification called the LEED exam. Strangely enough, the blog took off because other people were searching for information about the LEED qualification and his notes showed up in search results. Eventually, this lead to releasing an ebook, which was just a collection of his blog posts that Pat then sold from his blog. He quickly found himself making six figures a year. He used his success to start another blog about Internet marketing called Smart Passive Income and started making money by promoting affiliate products and later creating and selling iPhone applications.
Pat explained how he was so quickly able to go from newly fired from his job to making $200,000 a year online in this interview I did with him.
Robb Sutton
Income: Full-time income (he lives off it, but I don’t know how much)
Niche: Bikes and Blogging
Blog: www.robbsutton.com
Robb Sutton is seriously into mountain bike riding. He translated his passion into a blog, then a full-blown community website of mountain biking die-hards. I don’t know how much Robb makes, but I do know he scores plenty of free stuff – even free mountain bikes worth thousands of dollars – thanks to his blog. He has sponsors who place banners on his blog and I suspect he also uses affiliate marketing as he recommends bikes and bike parts on his blog.
Robb’s specialty is scoring free goods thanks to your blog, which you can learn how to do in this interview with Robb.
David Risley
Income: Six Figures a year
Niche: Computers and Blogging
Blog: www.davidrisley.com and www.pcmech.com/
David Risley, like many people who teach how to profit from blogs, first learned his craft by starting a blog in a different niche – in this case, computers. David monetizes his computer blog, PCMech, with sponsors, Google Adsense and a premium members area. His DavidRisley.com blog is focused on selling David’s training programs, with a little affiliate marketing thrown in. David has done a great job integrated his blogs as membership sites, adding premium sections available only to paying members.
You can listen to David explain how he started making money with blogs in this interview I did with him.
More Bloggers Who Make Money
This is just a small sample of the people currently using blogs to make significant income online. On top of the list above, there’s a few others I didn’t mention as you probably know them already, for example –
- Katie Freiling, who uses her blog as a branding and community leadership tool and she makes well over six figures a year selling her training products and promoting other products as an affiliate. You can listen to the interview I did with Katie here.
- Jeremy Schoemaker who runs a multi-million dollar online business with 12 staff, has leveraged his Shoemoney blog for selling his products, promoting affiliate products, landing speaking engagements, building his email list and cementing himself as one of the most well-known Internet marketers. I interviewed Jeremy to get his full background story.
- There’s also Darren Rowse, John Chow and Brian Clark, who all rose to prominence teaching how to profit from blogging and all are multiple six-figure earners, or millionaires.
- Darren also has a hugely successful blog in the photography niche, which he monetizes by selling ebooks, affiliate marketing camera-related products and through sponsorship.
- Steve Pavlina has one of the most basic designed personal development blogs, but also one of the most popular, with millions of readers. He makes as much as $100,000 a month promoting affiliate products, using Google Adsense and this year has been running live workshops in Las Vegas, which he fills to capacity at $500 a head using his blog for promotion. You can find an interview I did with Steve here.
- Tim Sykes specializes in penny stalk trading and earns over a million dollars a year from his blog teaching others how to do it. He sells digital products, a membership site and all kinds of penny stock trading related materials. I interviewed Tim, which you can listen to here.
What Is The Best Way To Make Money With Your Blog?
As you can see by all these amazing examples, plenty of people are earning a lot of money using blogs, covering all kinds of different niches, and using all kinds of methods to generate the income.
At the end of the day, the answer to the question of what is the best way to make money with your blog is a combination of what you can gain the most leverage from, what level of work is required to make it work, what are your personal preferences, what goals do you have, how clear are you on how things work, what are you afraid of and what situation you are in.
Your blog traffic obviously plays a huge part in your success, but many bloggers earn a lot with comparably little traffic, so don’t think you have to be the next Car Advice delivering millions of visitors a year to make it work. Pick a good niche, find the best points of leverage given your traffic and style, then get to work going after the dream.
In my experience, the majority of bloggers who break the six figures a year mark or better, do so focusing on a combination of money-making methods. You need to test different advertising formats, combine that with some affiliate marketing, maybe some pay per lead campaigns, or do product launches and consulting. Build out a product funnel and foster a huge email list to sell it to and keep testing until you find what works and what delivers a level of income you are happy with.
Need A System To Follow? Join Blog Mastermind
Many of the examples above are from people who participated in my Blog Mastermind training program. I won’t pretend that I’m responsible for their success – they put in the hard work – however having training from someone who has walked the path you want to walk is an undeniable advantage.
If you want to follow a step-by-step system for building a profitable blog, my coaching program Blog Mastermind is the way to go.
If you enjoyed this article, please tweet it, you can share it on Facebook or on your preferred social network. And of course, if you haven’t done so already, please join my email newsletter on this page (enter your name and email at that link to join).
Here’s to you building a profitable blog.
Yaro
Professional Blogger
Hey Yaro, just noticed that the first link in the Car Advice case study is pointing to the wrong domain (caradvice.com instead of caradvice.com.au)
Great post by the way 🙂
Love the comment about your proofreading business and how it only needed 100 people a day to make good money. My guitar blog is easily getting that many people a day, so now I’m inspired to finish my ebook ect.
Thanks for writing such encouraging content!
Fixed that link – thanks Danny! So many links in this article, it took a while to get it finished.
If you write such a post 3 years down the road, my name will be in the list.
YARO! What incredible timing for me to find this article. 3 months ago I was getting about 5 visitors a day. The last couple weeks I hit the 100 visitors a day, and had my first 200 visitor day yesterday… and it’s consistently going up!
I had to comment on this Dany’s reply because I just crossed the same threshold of 100 visitors a day & I’m thinking through my conversion strategy to start turning my traffic into profit.
This post was incredibly helpful! I’m gonna check out your blog mastermind. That sounds like great timing for me.
Joe Shaw
Wow Yaro! This is such an inspirational post, and I’m honored – truly honored to be included in it. As you know (since I’ve told you several times), even though I was ot a part of your Blog Mastermind program, I have you and your blog to thank for inspiring me and helping me realize that this dream was indeed possible.
Pat & Yaro, both of you are the most giving, transparent business owners on the Internet. Both of you truly come across as wanting to help people first and foremost. Thank you for leading the way and inspiring others by your ACTIONS.
Mike
Thanks Mike – I appreciate that – to be put in the same sentence as Yaro is truly amazing. Thank you 🙂
Very interesting read Yaro. I have been reading lots of information on your site and have found it enthralling and have learned a lot. One thing that is yet to assist me though is traffic, I understand the money making activities and we are very slowly implementing some of these on our site however getting the traffic to a stable number of visitors is currently eluding us. Any general advise for increasing traffic?
Hi Andrew, I was just reading Yaro’s excellent post and thinking that I must send the link to my students, then I was ALSO thinking, I bet I know what they will ask me next…..surely all these monetisation techniques depend on traffic, so how do we get traffic?
LOL
By blogging of course!
Easy to say and so hard to do!
Or it seems to be. Because you have to blog daily at least, if not more, to get decent traffic and 99% of bloggers seem to find that impossible. Yaro talks about it in many of his posts, and the difficulty seems to be that people are unwilling to commit to the effort of blogging without a guaranteed outcome of income, and so they never blog, and it’s a vicious circle.
Looking forward to Yaro’s reply……
Cheers
Nicola
Hey guys, the answer to the traffic question is right in front of you…go listen to all the interviews with the people above. I linked to an interview for almost all of the case study people, and in those interviews they detail exactly what they do to get traffic, which is different each one.
The answer to these questions are everywhere, but you need to put in the effort to study what others say and then go out and test it for yourself.
Yaro..I gotta agree with Pat.. – very inspirational post.. it’s great to see others succeed and how they got their success. Makes us think about what’s truly possible online..
Hopefully.. I’ll be up there, soon enough :0)
Talk soon
Hector
Great case studies Yaro! I would love to see Clay Collins added to this list. I had a chance to talk with Clay when I interviewed him on the Internet marketing “freedom” business his running. For what I know, Clay’s business model is also a mix of many different methods. He earns income from affiliate products, joint venture products, membership sites, niche sites, coaching.. a LOT of different things! I heard his latest product has a price tag of ~1500-2000$, which I find amazing. Absolutely a great guy to learn from!
And it’s been very exciting to see this blog grow during the years. I think you got possibly one of the greatest track record for growing a business through blogging (starting from 2004?) that I’ve seen anywhere. Can’t wait to see where you’re at by the end of 2014!
Cheers!
That’s a comprehensive list of case studies Yaro! I hadn’t realised how many of these people I’ve watched right from the beginning.
It’s also great to see how your blog has grown. When I first heard you write about a work week that confined to a “single-digit” range a few years ago, I wasn’t really sure that it’d be enough to bring constant visitor returns and consistent, secure revenue.
I noticed how you were (and still are) only posting once or twice a week, where as most bloggers tend to print out content round the clock getting revenue margins nowhere near yours, then gradually slow down (giving the impression that they’ve burnt out).
It’s great to really observe, first-hand, the effects of persistence and perseverance, through all these case studies.
Hey Yaro,
Thanks for the awesome post and also a mention of me too. This is by far one of the coolest post you’ve written (and inspirational too) with so much proof that your stuff really works. I always love recommending your programs and I’ve seen so many great results in my life. Big thank you!
I wonder if it’s even possible to make at least a hundred dollars with only an average of 20 visitors a day. I’m trying out google adsense with amazon so far. No money made with amazon affiliates so far so I’m thinking of ways to attract advertisers at a low price at first.
Great sucess stories!! I love them!
Wooow… caradvice.com.au makes $100,000 monthly!!
This is sweet because it allows us to look at the business models of entrepreneurs with comparable products and look for aspects that we can make work for us. No doubt this will be a top post, thanks Yaro!
Thanks for seriously changing my life. I know I can be long winded but to sum it all up, thanks to your help, I used to work for someone else so I could have money to go to football games, big time boxing, and other sporting events, now my job is to go to events like these and others and run my own business based on them. Definitely not a “get rich quick scheme”, A real business with multiple income streams.
Hey Yaro,
Great post and it gives people like myself a lot of inspiration. I’m glad the majority of people are on this list; I read the majority of the blogs from these people and I recommend people go ahead and follow their blogs, as people like myself has learned a lot. It’s great to see all these people who are succeeding, also Yaro I want to thank you for all the recommendations on how bloggers can make money, I’m going to take action and start implementing things similar to those.
Cheers!
Karl
Hi Yaro
Very inspiring post. You have shown that with a little foresight and alot of ingenuity anyone can make money online and live the lifestyle we all dream of; for me that is more time with my family and more overseas holidays.
Thanks for sharing.
Michael
Yaro – still trying to work my way through the interviews, but the information is great. Being reminded that online businesses CAN succeed is a true motivating factor. I follow your posts daily and I can say that I have learned a lot from you. Keep the good info coming
This was a great post to look what the big timers are doing. This is a good motivation to taking action instead of watching tv or something. Thanks Greg Ellison
Great most, man. And its an honor to be in it. 🙂 Its like Darren said the other day on Twitter… some days it just feels surreal that we make our living doing this.
Anyway, look forward to meeting you finally in Vegas. 🙂
Yaro,
Great article, thank you!
Listened to your interview of Pat. Love his authenticity.
Blogging brings the whole scene of “extra money” into the reach of everyone.
Peace,
Paul
Great post Yaro. It really inspires one to take it to the next level. With all these examples of people making a lot of money from their blogs, and providing the interviews sharing how they did it, we have no reason to try out some of the things they mention so we too can start making good money each month from our blogs. Thanks for making this top notch knowledge so accessible for us.
Yaro,
Loved the post! It’s the case studies that make it very special.
Well, I think most bloggers know the different ways of making money, but most of them fall short of motivation when they see that traffic is not really favoring them. Andrew and Nicola have already touched this point earlier and, like you said, the answers are all there… it’s just a matter of finding them.
But well, knowing the answers is one part of the equation. You may even get a lot off traffic, but you may not make more than a few cents from it if the equation is not right. Traffic can only be balanced by dedicated effort to continue to produce promising content. The problem is that most bloggers make it feel like it is very simple to get to these large sums of income. And when others try to do it that simply, failure is very much certain. I would say that effort is the most important factor in making it to the top. There’s no point in trying to make money without first setting the foundation right and dedicating continued efforts towards content.
Success always,
Mark
Yaro,
This is fantastic post – it seems that making money blogging doesn’t require archaic knowledge, after all. The thing is, people always stop when they see their blogs is not making enough money online. They stop blogging and blaming the gurus for misled them into believing that blogs can make money for them.
The truth is, yes, blogs can make money for you and I – and more.
You mentioned about the intangible benefit of running a well-established blog. I feel that my Noobpreneur.com blog helps me establishing my personal branding. Like you mentioned, I also receiving some book review requests – along with the free books sent to me as a token of appreciation – nice!
Of course, the income from ads is also nice, but the intangibles are what benefiting me the most.
Cheers!
Looks like a nice list of ways to monetize a blog and provides some inspiration.
Just started my own blog about a month ago and have about 5 people following me 🙂
I’m curious how long does it take a blogger like the ones you have listed to get to the point where they are making enough money to live off of?
I certainly have a number of ideas as to how to make money in my niche but it’ll take some time to get there.
Yaro,
This post has me so pumped and ready to go! I have been slacking on taking my blog to the next level. Not anymore.
I will do what it takes to make it on your list next time. 🙂
Dave
“The PA Coach”
Alborz is a big inspiration to me as we share a passion for automobiles. My focus is more towards racing history and I’m hoping to start something in that area soon after I’m done with designing the layout and such. A few friends of mine that are totally new to blogging was asking me if it was possible to run ads on blogspot blogs and make any money from it? I told them I wasn’t sure as I never tried that route and went with my own hosting from the start.
Hi Yaro,
Great substance and detail. Of all your posts, this is my favorite. There is a lot of material here and I look forward to listening to and implementing the material I haven’t seen prior to this post. I just launched my blog a couple months ago and I have used your blog as a source of inspiration. You always offer actionable material in an inspiring way.
Best,
Zachary
As always, you never disappoint. This is a great article full of many different ways to monetize a blog and build income.
It’s good to know that people are really succeeding in this space and there is “hope” for the newbies and strugglers.
By the way, the link to your Elite Coaching program is displaying a directory listing:
https://yaro.blog/elite/
Thought you would like to know.
Several good friends of mine that are totally new to blogging was asking me if it was doable to run adverts on blogspot blogs and make any income from it? I informed them I wasn’t certain as I never ever attempted that route and went with my personal hosting from the commence.
Hello Yaro, thank you for this great post exposing a lot of different ways to go to make money with a blog and the very motivating set of case studies. I agree 100% with this analysis and I will use the article as another tool to inspire my partners to persevere.
I would also like to draw attention to the fact that you talk about other people’s success, include nofollow links to their websites and use your email list to invite them, and everyone else to come and read the post. This results in numerous and highly motivated comments and obviously more traffic and more deep links to your blog. In all, a great example of how to succeed in this business. You are the best. Thanks again.
Thank you for this inspiring article! I am now just starting to work on my blog and I need to really focus on what I am trying to accomplish with it.
You have given me much food for thought.
Yaro,
Good tips and it’s always cool seeing real life case studies of people having success in other niches outside of internet marketing.
Always love the great quality content you put out!
Brian
What’s good about this is that you could make money not only with a blog that tell people how to make money online.
I blog about productivity at work and I hope to make money out of this in the future because I am committing myself to sticking with the blog as long as I can.
Any suggestion how to improve the blog to get it ready?
This was a great post and very motivating to many of us inspiring bloggers to be successful in our own blogging efforts. In any case, your topic above “Add a shopping cart to your blog and source physical goods at wholesale you can sell at retail” really piqued my imagination as i’ve been wondering for a while how other successful bloggers harvest shopping carts from endless.com and so on within their blog. The other options to grow income from blogging were also very intriguing and keeps people like me motivated.
What was your biggest takeaway you would say from when you went from a moderate blogger to making a full time income from monetizing your efforts?
Dwight Anthony
Financially Elite Blog
Wow! Yaro, i never knew you make so much money out of this blog. Good on ya mate!
Your Message Thanks for sharing. It motivated me to do much better after reading all the real life case study of making money from the blog. Cheers !
Yaro,
This is one of the most valuable posts that I have read. What makes it so valuable are the case studies – very inspiring.
I am an Entrepreneur and it’s truly great to read how bloggers are literally pursuing their passions and finding a way to monetize their interests.
However, one in particular case stood out above the rest – Alborz Car Advice blog appears to be generating significantly more revenue than the other blogs included in the post.
So, this brings the question, should you choose to blog about subjects with commercial/economic viability that would appeal to advertisers? With a blog about cars – it is obvious who would be potential advertisers, it would simply be a matter of great content to attract “eyeballs” and traffic. The more traffic, the more you can command for your advertising (In this case Automotive).
On the other side, what if your passion/blog is not about such a clearly obvious commercial potential? For example, writing a blog about how to be successful or make money online – plenty of content, but there is not a clearly identifiable advertiser, nor clearly identifiable audience in which to market.
Bloggers (If they hope to generate a certain level of revenue) should carefully evaluate the commercial potential of writing about subjects of passion or even choosing to blog within a specific niche. I would love to read more about the business side of being a Blogger.
Very Best,
Valerie
Great post! Super motivational for bloggers just starting out. You said that it took you a long time to finish the post because of all the links…well it takes a long time to read because of them too;) Loved them all though. It’s nice to see examples of successful blogs.
Yaro, your post makes an absorbing read. I didn’t know many people could make a lot of money by blogging or thru their blogs. From now on, whenever my readers ask me how they can make money blogging, I will refer them to your article by giving them the link.
Not only your post is entertaining, it is also educational, presenting the case on blogging for money and financial success, as distinguished from blogging as a hobby or for self expression.
I think now that a person can blog as a hobby and at the same time to earn money while enjoying blogging, by using the tips you explained in your post.
Hi Yaro,
You’re one inspiring icon that every blogger should be learning. One great thing about you is you do your job near to perfect. All these case study cannot be done if you’re not that kind of person. I wish one day I’ll be like you 😉
Great to read all the success stories you’ve had from coaching people – a brilliant resume and showcase for your coaching:)
Great job but I would like to mention that while many started out with Google Adsense, Google Adsense is today not like it was 10 years ago. today adsense makes you nothing, I am an example. Nobody is clicking ads today because everyone knows what they are and click rates are hugely under rated and suck.
I often wonder sometimes why people who claim to make so much money continue to sell their products for ridiculously high prices it is as if when their income grows so does their spending and their hunger for more money. Crazy world we live in, capitalism at it’s prime example.
Interesting post Yaro!
And about Google Adsense income, I think niche blogs and websites are the way to go. The right search traffic from Google is the highest converting traffic for an Adsense monetized site/blog. And most people don’t realize this. That’s why most blogs who do well with Adsense are the ones with good organic rankings and are blogging in a very specific niche…
Hi Yaro,
Thank you for such an inspiring and informative post! I plan on listening to some of those interviews.
I love hearing success stories about blogging! I mean, sometimes you wonder if what you’re doing is really making a difference when it’s just you sitting there with your computer sending out snippets of content into an unseen world!! It’s nice to know that IT IS making a difference and there are people making a significant income doing so!
Re: “This lead to promoting all kinds of affiliate products”
Since you operate a proof-reading business, you might want to correct the spelling of “lead” to “led.”
wow!! This is really inspiring…Alborz achievement is amazing!
You sure are entertaining reading.
Mark
Hi Yaro
Thanks for the info about blogging, we are just starting our business so have lots to learn, will be reading all your e-mails and watching your vidios, have a great trip.
Hey Yaro,
I have listened to a lot of these interviews in the past and they are full of amazing information. I actually started following you before any of these other guys on your list here, but because of the interviews you have done, I was able to be exposed to them as well.
To help answer the getting traffic question:
Right now I have 2 main blogs, and I started them about 2 months apart from one another and I used the exact same traffic techniques for both. However, one of them is on the front page of Google right now for about 2000 different keywords and keyword phrases (Nowhere close to what Yaro’s ranking for I’m sure) – But the other blog has yet to gain much momentum in terms of the Search Engine Traffic. With that said – I do get traffic from other places, but it is much more work.
So if you want to rank well in the search engines like Google, and attract traffic from other areas as well – Then I would recommend doing these 3 things
1. Your Niche Topic – If the niche you choose is too over-saturated it will be next to impossible for you to get good search engine traffic.
2. Consistent blog posts – If you want to be like Yaro and only post once or twice a week, that’s fine. But you will have to do at least that. You can’t post 10 times one month and then 2 times the next month – then not at all the month after that – then go back to 10 times a month. Your blog won’t go very far that way. I recommend posting daily or every other day.
3. Just get out there – I try to be everywhere, places like – social media, commenting on other blogs, forums, etc. And you want to actually be active in those places. Don’t join facebook just to have a fan page. Be sure to update your page daily or weekly. RSS Feeds do most of the work for you these days.
I hope you don’t mind me writing a novel here Yaro. I appreciate your blog and the wealth of information that it provides.
Take care –
Brian M. Connole
i Blogger
Hi Yaro,
A fantastic post! As someone who is currently studying Internet & Affiliate Marketing and Membership site creation, I really enjoy reading your blog. I have learned alot from your advice as well as that of others. I hope to have my membership site online within the next couple of months and to shortly begin affiliate marketing.
I fully intend to go through the case study interviews you posted here and study the methods of advertising and monetization employed by these successful folks.
Thank you for continuously providing a high value blog that helps so many people, including me.
I hope I get the opportunity to have the pleasure of meeting you one day, perhaps soon if you come to NY in October as I live in the US.
Have a great day.
Yaro,
This is an all-inspiring article. I placed a link to my web site for others to read.
I learned a lot and I enjoyed reading the comments, too.
People should realized how important their comments are because it is another way to learn more about online marketing as well to see what others are doing.
What I have learned lately is that there is a connection to an increase in my adsense earnings (all of a sudden) using adwords for an affiliate ad I’m testing. When I place the ad on pause, my adsense earning went down and so I restarted again with my budget price. Unfortunately I’m on a budget and miss over 1200 clicks going on “pause”
for 1 day. If anyone have anything to add to this, let me know. Adwords is asking if I want to recover the clicks for $30.00 or not, as well as increase my budget to $30.00 a day. I’m doing $6.00/day .10/.05 cents/click for now and I also have google ads on my landing page. And so, I believe people click on those ads, too. In case you want to know what I’m marketing, it is toys. Some of the other ads I was testing, were not doing anything and I believe Google is in the business of making money-I’m playing the game safe because it could get out of control and you find yourself over-budget!
It is a great niche. I have 3 grandchildren and toys is always an on-going thing.
I need new tennis rackets for them now that the swimming lessons are over. (for everybody including myself). It looks like sports is a great niche from reading this article as well.
I’m wondering if it is normal for ones’s clicks reduce on weekends. Anyone know if you’ve experience this? Maybe this is why?
Thanks Yaro, again and much continued success to giving us the Best!
Peace, Love, and Blessings
Thelma Harcum
Such an excellent post and a great layout to show all of the naysayers out there that blogging is in fact a true business. This should be a motivator to anyone who is new to making money on the internet (or just blogging itself) that with hard work and persistence, it can really pay off.
One of the kickers I think that makes the authors of these blogs so much money is that they have one thing that separates them from the rest – passion. They actually CARE about what they write, and they truly enjoy it. That’s why I always say, if you’re doing something you’re passionate about, it doesn’t feel like work at all.
As someone who is new to the internet and making money online, I appreciate you offering a deep insight on the possibilities of making an income blogging! Thank you for the much needed motivation 🙂
Update! Good News! My adsense earning just went back up. I feel like I’m playing the stock market!
What I’ve been done in the last 4 hours is that I wrote 3-4 short articles, place my affiliate links and adsense ads on some page, twitted on twitter. and vaccum my carpet. I know Yaro is not a big adsense person, but this is exciting news for me to start earning anything. It look like if you are competing against yourself, you just as well get paid for it. However, I know that adsense ads do take the focus away from a special product you might be marketing for yourself or someone else.
I’m starting to add sub-headings to My articles that kind of dress the article up a bit. It really show you care about what’s about to follow and reinforce what you want to say in the article. Almost like another tag.
The tags and categories in this article that Yaro wrote are good examples to follow.
I’m thinking of writing a one-minute book about some things I’ve discovered in the last few weeks that might help somebody else with the copy and paste issues and how to save time!
Talk to you all later. This is turning into a ” comment article forum”.
Thelma
Some great stories – thanks for sharing and inspiring.
I have tried to keep the blogs I am administering (for me and for clients) as non-commercial as I can, at least on the surface.
The posts often have links and there are subtle banners on the sidebars, but I never felt comfortable including ads (like Adsense) that I don’t have control over. Is this misguided thinking?
This is a great post, I never knew there were so many bloggers who are making big money on their blog. This is truly inspiring. Google Adsense is a great way to get started with monetizing your blog and then you can move on to other things.
Yaro I have been receiving your newsletters for some time but I barely read them and have in fact deleter (without reading). OOPS! I just get so much mail. And then I got this one about the Case Studies. I love these true, genuine stories and I am hooked.
Going to listen to one of your vids before heading to bed.
I won’t be easy and it won’t be fun perhaps, but how about interviewing a few who failed? It will either confirm that their actions, methods and habits were opposite to those by the winners, or reveal that there is an intersection, which anyone has to do, fail or succeed, and isolate the few actions and methods that really make the difference, or at worst reveal that it’s all about topic selection or being early.
I can see what the winners have in common. What I don’t see yet is what really distinguishes them from the losers in this game, not by the account of the latter, at least.
An avid follower of yours!
This is very inspirational Yaro. Thanks for posting. I plan to listen to some of these interviews.
Thanks for this great article, I’ve played around with blogging in the past but never tried to monetize them… it’s simply amazing how many blogs there are now! Think I’ll give it a go.
Cheers!
Most inspirational !
I always take a lot of pleasure reading success stories like these ! Hope one day I’ll be one of them, though.
Fighting my way through but I’m wondering sometimes if the French speaking market (where I’m involved in) is big enough to expect great results. Time will tell …
Anyway, thanks for your great posts ! Please keep it up.
All the best,
MaxR
Awesome post, Yaro. This case study really did inspire me.
Like always, thanks for the inspiration Yaro.
Excellent read. It is always good to know how you stack up against the big dogs so to speak. I’m really inspired to do more now. I love reading stories like this because they serve as an inspiration to keep pushing and to keep trying harder.
You can always use live blogging. I have use platforms like ustream or http://www.tvmad.com and it has worked for me better than I’d had ever hoped.
Cheers
Hey Yaro,
I like reading success stories such as these, it keeps me very inspired to continue to take action to reach my personal goals as well. I also enjoyed reading about the variety and diversity of niches that result as great sources of income online.
Hey, what do you know, I just found an article you write about this back in 2005 and commented on it. Had a few questions (about php banner ads, google adsense, paypal donate button, etc.) and then decided to check out your main page and low and behold another post like that one. How fortuitous!
This one has even more great ideas. I guess there have probably been quite a few developments in web advertising and revenue earning in those five years. Things do move fast on the Internet, after all. I particularly like the addition of affiliate advertising. I think that one might work well for my site. I just hope I can figure out how to be successful with it. Thanks again, Yaro.
Oh, and a quick question, how do you get products to review? Are there any sites that hook you up with companies that you’d recommend or do you just need to write a letter of interest and submit them to businesses? Thanks.
The cases you highlighted really put it all into perspective Yaro, and that such a wide variety of ideas can make really good money online. With these cases, they should really give inspiration to those who have been wondering/debating about getting started online. The income is definitely real! Would love to own a site like Alborz has, cars has always have been my passion, and It’s about time I start pursuing my passion!
Till then,
Jean
These kinds of posts are always so inspiring. I was actually pretty surprised to see that I had already been following most of these blogs through my rss reader. Can’t wait until the day that I can make a site about my passions and earn a ton of money while doing it!
Yaro, thanks for this blog. Blogging is something that I had never considered, however, this is very inspirational. This is something I am definitely going to consider.
Congrats to everyone who got our there and did it.
Thanks for this, Jeff. I always learn a lot from your blog. I hope to apply some of your tips soon!
Yaro,
Thanks for the great overview on money making bloggers and their various approaches to making a great living by working their passions.
Alex Mandossian, another top info-marketer, speaks of bamboo as a metaphor for growing an online business when he speaks to audiences. He tells audience members to “be like bamboo” in the sense that it takes the plant a couple of years of slow growth beneath the soil before it ever breaks through the surface. Then once it does it experiences some of the fastest growth rates of all plants.
If one didn’t know better and gave up on the bamboo plant before it ever appeared above the soil, it’s likely you could miss the point entirely that it was about to take off like a rocket.
Bloggers need persistence and a dedication to getting better. If they can keep that kind of strong focus they will have a real shot at success. That kind of focus will get them past the slow growth phase where it appears little or nothing is happening, to the point where things begin to click and they are making money doing what thy love.
Great post Yaro!
Too much information to finish up in one day, I just kept right clicking one link or the other all through reading the post. I must confess, I ended up bookmarking this article. Thanks a million!
Just maybe, I will be the 1st African Blogger to make this list in one year’s time!
Some very inspiring stories for sure. These are the kinds of stories that inspired me to really work hard at IM. Being able to see real people with real success is a huge motivator, and it can be very hard (especially in the beginning) without seeing others succeeding.
It certainly is interesting to see how blogging has transformed from a hobby to a career. Of course, blogging for fun is okay too. Another thing to keep in mind when trying to make money off your blog is over-doing it on the advertising. Frankly, it can be more than a little annoying when you go to a webpage and you are bombarded by pop ups, banners, videos and rollover ads. Even worse, in my opinion, is when a page changes their entire background to an advertisement for something, ex. an upcoming movie, new music, etc.
.: Thank you Yaro, this is a great article with real case studies! Yes, I’m a passive reader and not so into giving out comments, but I like your blog a lot. I’m a bit late in monetizing this blogging world, but definitely catching up and learn it from successful bloggers like you. Thanks again Yaro 😀 :.
Wow, this post got me quite excited about blogging. I do mostly CPA marketing using PPC and SEO – but unfortunately I don’t know a lot about how to become a successful blogger.
Yaro, you are mentioning a few Blogging products, like: Blog Mastermind, Become A Blogger Premium… and I was wondering, which of all those products you would recommend most to get started with.
Thanks a lot.
To me it is about finding the niches! When i started doing that is when I started to find exactly 300 nichess that each make me $1 a day. It took about 6 months to do that!
Yaro, you are mentioning a few Blogging products, like: Blog Mastermind, Become A Blogger Premium… and I was wondering, which of all those products you would recommend most to get started with.
Have a look at my coaching page for details on which product is right for you – https://yaro.blog/coaching/
If you discovered a method to make a lot of money on the internet, where it only required a small amount of work to keep it running, easily replicated, easy to do, would it make more sense to keep it to your self or would you create some course and make your money telling other people how to do it?
Hi Yaro,
I made a really “raw” wordpress blog following steps at becomeablogger.com, but how do I create a section on the right side for sponsors and a section for a newsletter download (exactly like in your blog)?
Right now it’s just the default “Recent posts”, recent comments, archives, etc. Do you know where I can get “templates” instead of just “themes”?
Cheers!
Passion can lead to success ultimately. Look at Fallah, Will and Robb. Who knew their profession can be a money maker..
Good day!! I have been reading lots of information on your site and have found it interesting and informative,I have learned a lot. One thing that is yet to assist me though is traffic, I understand the money making activities and we are very slowly implementing some of these.
Seriously! I have already been searching yahoo all day just for this and i as a final point found it in this article!
Love the comment about your proofreading business and how it only needed 100 people a day to make good money.
It’s hard to seek out knowledgeable individuals on this matter, however you sound like you understand what you’re talking about! Thanks
Some great people indeed. They are an inspiration for all of us that we all can start to make an income online just by doing something that we like.
I only know Pat Flynn from his smartpassiveincome blog, but I bet the others are great people also!
I Will have to visit again when my course load lets up – however I am getting your Feed so i can read your blog offline. Thanks.
I like your blog site, just bookmarked it!
Heya, I just hopped over to your web page using StumbleUpon. Not somthing I might generally read, but I enjoyed your views none the less. Thank you for creating some thing worthy of browsing.
I really enjoyed reading your blog. It was well written and easy to undertand. Contrary to other blogs I have read. I also found it very interesting. Actually after reading, I had to go show the better half and she ejoyed it also!
This is a really good motivational post. I had a good time visiting the blogs listed and seeing how they each profit.
I’m making money online with my blog using Google Adsense & Clickbank. Confirmed. It’s actually easy to make money online.
a very good read very good blog will be looking out for more of these blogs
Yep; i use google adsense to sell advertising on my websites and it’s very easy to gain money!
We just couldnt leave your website before saying that we really enjoyed the quality information you offer to your visitors… Will be back often to check up on new stuff you post!
I think this is among the most vital information for me. And i’m glad reading your article. But should remark on few general things, The site style is wonderful, the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers
great article very informative will be back again to visit soon
At least 5 or 6 hundred visitors at your weblog now, nice results for single website.
kinda appreciated the article that you have written actually. it just isn’t that simple to discover even remotely good text toactually read (you know READ! and not just browsing through it like a zombie before going somewhere else), so cheers man for not wasting my time on the god forsaken internet. :p
Sometimes is quite hard to makey money from your blog,nowadays it take hard work such as quality contend and a lot of patience…but in the end you’ll make it.
Google Adsense & Affilate Marketing, both are working for me and are going to work for you if you do what you have to: write.
Hi there
what is your niche and what afiliate marketing you are using?
quite informative article. I am now in search of my niche and do a lot of thinking about it. I assume it will come.
Nice informations as my friends on top sayd! :d
Have blogged for several months around running my own business it was awesome to stumble across this blog post… Although I enjoy blogging and do it for love not money, it would be nice have this kind of income per month… I mean, getting paid to do what you enjoy! Result!
Really an inspirational post. There are lots of ways you can make money blogging. Its really a world of opportunity!
great stuff , i bookmarked it. very knowledgeable article.
Thanks
Misbah Mumtaz
Very inspiring, keep a spot for me haha!
This is a really good motivational post. am now in search of my niche and do a lot of thinking about it. I had a good time visiting the blogs listed and seeing how they each profit.
Hey, another great way of making money on your blog is to create great video content and use a service like VideofyMe to earn money from every ad view.
I was really shocked to see that Pat [SmartPassiveIncome] is your student, for you know, I’m his student:-)
Such an inspirational post for those who want to quit their jobs and start their business online. However, you have to be consistency in order to join these successful bloggers.
I always love your advice and your points help bloggers understand if they are taking their blog in the right direction. Thanks for always being the inspiration that you are.
Catherine
Hi Yaro, Interesting post as usual. I am starting to believe the money in blogging is not in adsense. It is in other things, notably selling products, guest speaking etc. I find that disappointing because I am not particularly interested in becoming a guest speaker type or in writing e-books.
I am also becoming convinced that most, not all, but most blog writers making money….are making it teaching the rest of us “how to make money blogging.”
I know there are some who make their money from other blog endeavors but I think some of that is smoke and mirrors and mostly to convince us that you can make money blogging.
I have been at this since 2005. I have had as many as 50 blogs on the go and as few as 1 which is all I have now. I have written something over 2500 blog posts, and used adsense, clickbank, amazon, adengage, and a few others. When I had 50 blogs on the go I was making around $300 a month, tops, from all those together through sheer hard work and volume.
I now believe that for many of us, (not all) there is no real money in blogging, it is only for people convincing the rest of us to blog and buy there courses, and for companies like adsense, who make millions from millions of little bloggers writing millions of blogs.
I haven’t given up blogging, not by a long shot, I blog because I enjoy writing, however I think it is time that folks realize that the dreams of riches from blogging are probably no better than winning the lottery or becoming a movie star.
Affiliate companies love us, we promote and advertise their products and only get paid if we sell a lot, or send a lot of traffic to them. But they still benefit because there are X number of new blogs starting everyday sticking ads and promos on them.
As for traffic, again, most of it is bloggers looking at other bloggers about how to make money, and getting traffic is the one and only thing that matters in terms of making money from a blog or website. That’s it. New bloggers could put a picture of a marshmellow and a dog on their site, put some ads and some affiliate links on it and if they can get loads of traffic they will make money. Optimization etc, is mostly bunk. Money comes from traffic. traffic.
Sorry to be so long winded. So here it is, after my 5 or 6 years of blogging, the last one full time, I believe that ( with very few exceptions) the only money blogging is from having websites selling other people stuff to make money blogging.
I’m afraid you’re more right than wrong, Rob. And just today I received a “double-guru-push” from Stuart Turnbull. He’s pushing Cockrum’s book, but he wants you to go to ANOTHER guru’s site to read HER list of reasons to buy Cockrum’s book!! Of course, she recommends the book highly, and has links to it. So Turnbull puts out one email that generates traffic for TWO of his friends.
First time I’ve seen something like that, but it didn’t slide past me what’s going on. Sometimes you have to wonder how dumb these gurus must think we all are.
yaro if you are in personal development what is your business plan and what product would you sell?
I’d pick an aspect of personal development and focus on helping people in that area –
1. how to get a relationship
2. how to beat anxiety
3. how to make money
4. how to gain muscle
5. how to lose fat
etc etc. Any of these are highly profitable niches all within the realms of personal development.
One thing that Yaro is constantly teaching us is the value of dragging old blog posts out of the closet and reissuing or repurposing them – like this one which, from the comment dates, looks like it’s been promoted on several different occasions.
Good content is “evergreen”, even if it sometimes needs a bit of an update. Once you have a quantity of content on your blog, it’s perfectly legitimate and acceptable to do a reprise of a previous article. After all, there will be readers who haven’t seen it or who’ve forgotten the lessons it taught, etc. And if you can add some updated content, that’s great for all your readers.
So, you might have a lengthy post about video editing software in your library, and you’ve just tried a new one. Rather than writing a whole new post, consider simply updating your previous post – especially if you are getting new readers who probably haven’t seen it.
I have gone through the pages. this gives valuable suggestion to be valuable as in life as in career.
You give me a lot of ideas to make money on web. The article inspired me very much. Thanks!
Thank you, Yaro. I found that your blog very useful in helping me.
For Pat Flynn of smart passive income does it for me. I love his way of presenting his points and most of all his openness. One the strategies he shared on his site about natural back linking has really help my blog to get better SEO ranking.
At the beginning, I think it is very important to get some evidence that what you are attempting to do is actually ‘doable’. So, this is a very nice article Yaro. It is very inspirational, especially for anyone just starting out.
Will 🙂
Very important topic and you just did an amazing job presenting it in a simple and clear manner.
Hi Yaro .
1-Can we depend ,only, on Google Adsense for making money online ?
2-What are the best ways to eliminate your niche competitors ?
Hi Yaro,
Im a new blogger starting out in the MMO niche. Firstly Thank You! this article is helpful and will definitely help to get the cash rolling.
One thing i have found is that i feel IM Marketers now are caring less and less about there followers and focus more on sales sales sales. Obviously thats how to make money but its refreshing to se someone like yourself who is a successful marketer giving back like this and i hope one day to be able to do the same but for now i have tried to operated slightly differently to status quo.
I am trying to consume as much knowledge as possible and would love any tips and advice about my blog if anyone has the time to give it a look:
laviemarketing.com
Much Love guys,
Rav
Thanks Rav, I appreciate the kind words. I suggest you download my Blog Profits Blueprint report as a good starting point to continue your education.
Good luck!
Yaro
I am big fan of Pat Flynn! So good to see his comment here. This is really nice post and actually inspiring one.Yaro keep sharing these awesome post 🙂
Blogging has come a long way. Started as a hobby and now turned into a money maker (if done right). Great job putting these case studies together. This will give bloggers a better perspective of how they can expand their income online. Pat Flynn’s story has always been very inspiring and I have shared it with almost everyone I know who is interested in blogging. Thanks a lot for this post Yaro.
Wow.. I am missing this page to tell you the truth Yaro
I keep going to read your post and search everything here but never find this page. This is the best page I have read so far. People who actually living the business online not just getting info of how to do business online
Dear Yaro,
A very nice post. I believe to have a blog is the key to most business online available on the internet. By having quality contents and high PR blog (like yours) will give you the power to sell basically anything on the internet.
Yes, as mention above several ways to make money online such as Google AdSense, Affiliate marketing, Referral programs and many more. With a great blog, you will go beyond your imagination. Thanks and it is just a thought.
Wowy, this post is packed with inspiration and motivation. Amazing case study! Thanks for sharing the experiences, income, and journeys of other bloggers and blogs, as well as your own!
Thanks Yaro for this brilliant post that rounds up so many ways on how to make money with a blog. The case studies you included are so helpful to learn more on how the big bloggers succeed.
I also made a blog just to get a decent income but it’s incredibly hard to get traffic.
Thanks for the information and advice.