How to make money blogging: sponsored posts, affiliate links, your own products and brand deals

You make money from a blog in several ways at once: sponsored articles for brands, affiliate marketing (a commission on sales from your links), display advertising, your own digital products or services, and barter collaborations. Money comes fastest when the blog has a clear niche, steady readers from search, and is connected to a profile on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, because that is where brands most often look for creators today.

A good order for most bloggers looks like this: first a niche and regular posts, then affiliate links and your own products, and in parallel an active social profile through which brand deals arrive. You can win those deals yourself by writing to companies, or through creator platforms such as Blogger Bank, where brands publish tasks and you apply to them. Below we walk through each path: how it works, where to start and what to watch out for.

Choose a niche before you choose a business model

Every monetization method depends on who reads your blog. A brand pays to reach specific people, not for general traffic. A blog about everything is hard to sell because nobody knows whom to recommend it to. A blog about dog care, driving older cars or furnishing a small flat tells an advertiser right away whom it will meet.

See which topics attract collaborations among creators in the catalog: pets, automotive, home, food or technology. Each of these niches has companies selling products that need explaining, and a blog post does that better than a short video.

A good niche meets three conditions: you know the subject well enough to write about it for years, people search Google for advice on it, and there are products people buy in it. Without the last condition a blog can be popular, yet earning from it will be hard.

Sponsored articles

Sponsored content is a post a brand pays for so that you describe its product, service or the problem it solves. For many bloggers it is the main source of income, because one well-written text keeps bringing in readers from search for years.

How to do it well:

• Write in your own voice. Readers come to you, not to a brochure. A text that sounds like a leaflet works neither for them nor for the brand.
• Tie the product to a real question. Instead of a “dog food review”, write a guide on how to change a dog’s diet and show the product as one of the solutions.
• Agree the scope in writing. Topic, length, number of links, deadline, number of revisions and how long the post should stay on the blog.
• Label the collaboration. Readers must see at once that it is an ad. We cover the rules in our guide on labelling influencer advertising.

Be careful with orders that are only about “a link to a website” with no value for readers. Such posts erode your audience’s trust and do not build your standing with the brands you want to work with long term.

Affiliate marketing: a commission on sales

In the affiliate model you recommend a product through a special link or code, and the shop pays you a commission on the purchases that come from it. It is a natural model for a blog, because a reader searching for “which vacuum for pet hair” or “what to pack for a first camping trip” is often close to buying. The term is explained in our glossary under affiliate collaboration.

What works best:

• Comparisons and roundups. “Which one to choose” or “what to buy to start” posts attract readers ready to decide.
• Guides with a gear list. A recipe linking to a baking tin, a travel story linking to a backpack, a PC build write-up with a parts list.
• Updating old posts. Every so often check that links work and products are still available.

Recommend only what you know or have tested honestly. Affiliate income quickly loses its point once a reader buys something bad on your advice. To see how such programmes look from the brand side, read our piece on an affiliate programme with creators.

Display advertising

The technically simplest way is to put ad units from an ad network on your blog; the network picks the ads itself and pays for impressions or clicks. You don’t have to find advertisers or negotiate.

It has limits, though. Income depends directly on traffic, so for a small blog it is symbolic. Too many ads slow the page down and put readers off, and a slow page does worse in search. Treat display as an add-on to large, steadily visited posts rather than as your main source of money. Before you decide, check the network’s terms and the cookie consent requirements.

Your own products and services

A blog is the best showcase for an expert. If readers come back to you for advice, some of them will gladly pay for more than a free post:

• Digital products: an e-book, planner, checklist, templates, an online course. You make them once and sell them many times.
• Services: consultations, workshops, writing for companies in your field, product photography.
• Newsletter: an email list is a channel no algorithm can take away. Through it you can sell your own products and recommend partners’ products.

A good product answers the question readers ask most often in comments and messages. If you have explained dozens of times how to plan a route through the Balkans, a ready-made itinerary is the natural next step for a blog in the travel niche.

Barter collaborations

Barter is a collaboration where you get a product or service instead of money. Early on it is a good way to build a portfolio, test yourself working with a brand and have something to write about.

For barter to pay off, ask yourself three questions: does the product really fit your readers, is the amount of work proportionate to its value, and has the brand clearly described what it expects. Barter is also income, so it is worth knowing how to account for it. We cover this in our article on influencer taxes, barter and invoices.

Connect your blog with Instagram, TikTok or YouTube

This is the most important step if you want regular brand deals. Budgets for creator collaborations increasingly go to social media, and brands look for creators by their profiles. The blog gives you depth and search traffic, while a social profile gives you reach and quick contact with brands.

How to combine them in practice:

• Turn posts into short formats. One guide becomes a few carousel slides, a short video with the key tip and a behind-the-scenes story.
• Send traffic both ways. From the profile, link to the full post; from the blog, link to the profile where you share things as they happen.
• Offer brands packages. A blog post plus a reel or video gives the brand both quick reach and a text that stays in search.
• Prepare a media kit. Describe your blog readers and profile followers in one place. We show how in our guide to the influencer media kit.

More on earning from social media itself in our articles on how to make money on Instagram and how to make money on YouTube.

How to land your first brand collaborations

Brands won’t find you if they don’t know you take on collaborations. Start with simple things:

1. Add a “Work with me” page to your blog. Say what you write about, who reads you, which forms of collaboration you offer and how to reach you.
2. Show examples. If you have no paid collaborations yet, write an honest review of a product you bought yourself. It shows brands how you work.
3. Write to brands whose products you use. A short message with a concrete post idea works better than a vague “happy to collaborate”.
4. Apply to tasks. On creator platforms brands describe what they are looking for, so you don’t have to guess who has a budget.
5. Meet deadlines. A satisfied brand comes back, and long-term collaborations are worth more than one-off orders.

Search traffic is the foundation of every path

Whether you choose affiliate links, ads or sponsored articles, everything rests on readers who reach your blog from Google. So write posts that answer specific questions from people in your niche. Check how people phrase those questions in search and use their words in the title and the first sentences of the text.

A few simple habits help: one post answers one main question, the answer comes at the start, and details, examples and photos follow. Link your posts to each other so readers stay longer, and refresh your most popular texts from time to time. Brands are more willing to pay for a blog post that already collects readers from search, because they know their article will be visible too.

A starter plan: what to do this week

• Describe in one sentence whom you write for and what problem you help solve.
• List the questions readers ask most often and plan posts to answer them.
• Add affiliate links to posts where you recommend gear or products.
• Set up or tidy your profile on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube and link it from the blog.
• Add a “Work with me” page and prepare a simple media kit.
• Apply to your first brand tasks in your niche.

The most common mistakes of bloggers who want to earn

• Monetizing before you have readers. Ads and links on a blog without a steady audience bring no income and may put off your first readers.
• A single income source. When one programme closes or one collaboration ends, you are left with nothing. Combine several paths.
• A blog without social media. Great texts without a profile where brands can find you mean fewer enquiries.
• No contract or written terms. Without agreed terms, disputes over revisions, deadlines or payment come easily.
• Unlabelled advertising. Hiding a collaboration damages trust and risks legal trouble.

How Blogger Bank solves a blogger’s search for paid collaborations

The hardest part of earning from a blog is regularly reaching brands that really have a budget for creators. On Blogger Bank you create a creator profile with your social accounts, such as Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, and get access to brand tasks:

• Instead of sending dozens of messages to companies that never reply — you browse tasks where brands have described what they are looking for and apply to those that fit your niche.
• Instead of arrangements scattered across emails — all of the brand’s expectations are described in the task, and the contract with you opens automatically once the brand chooses you.
• Instead of chasing payments and approvals in several places — the conversation with the brand, material approval and payment are in one place.

See in the influencer catalog how other creators in your niche present themselves, then create a creator account and apply to your first task.