My Top 3 Blog Income Streams

I’ve been wanting to share this post for a while as a follow up to my previous blogging posts. When I shared about my success in increasing pageviews, I received a lot of positive feedback from other bloggers. Looking back I kind of wish I hadn’t shared that post. Not because I would have grown my traffic any differently, but because I focused way too much on pageviews.

I think as bloggers it’s great to have a lot of people visiting your site. The more people that drop in, the more reach you have. You also get more eyes on your products, ads and affiliate links. However, traffic doesn’t always equate income. I’m grateful that I set a goal for myself and pushed hard to reach it. But looking back, I now realize that my approach was wrong. There are many ways to monetize your blog aside from ad income (which relies heavily on traffic). In fact, ad income is one of my smallest sources of income for this site. So today I’m sharing with you how I’m monetizing this blog and why none of it is dependent on my traffic.

My Top 3 Blog Income Streams

Freelance writing

This is one of my top sources of income. As a blogger, I truly urge you to ensure that your blog posts are top notch. You truly never know when someone will stumble upon it. Specifically a brand. I currently write articles for other sites and get paid a set rate for my writing. Yes, it can be time consuming if you’re not a fast writer. You may also have to write about topics that don’t come natural to you, but I find that it also pushes me to improve my writing skills.

The articles never appear on my blog, so this source of income doesn’t depend on my traffic at all. However, my site served as a portfolio for my writing and helped the brands I work with find me.

Sponsored Posts

I’ll never get tired of saying it. Sponsored posts can be an excellent source of income for bloggers. Specifically those with smaller followings. When a brand is looking at your page they are not always judging you based on traffic. Your social media following, engagement and writing/photography skills also come into play. The more traffic you have the more you can typically charge, but my rate has never fluctuated much even when my traffic has.

Again this source of income is not solely dependent on my traffic. I can still secure partnerships with brands based on my previous work and social media reach.

Managing Campaigns

This is a new one for me and I’m truly enjoying it. I have always worked on the writing end of sponsored posts, but being able to manage a campaign opens up a different door. I love that I get to see a campaign launch and end successfully. I’m currently contracted by a network to do this. I have to recruit and select bloggers for campaigns through the network. I also have to ensure that bloggers are following instructions and campaign requirements to meet the brand’s expectations.

Although I was hired because I had previous experience in management and creating sponsored posts for the network, this source of income doesn’t depend on my pageviews at all.

Currently, I’m also dabbling with a few other sources, but can’t speak much about them since they’re still very new to me. However, I predict they’ll become more regular and perhaps replace one of my top three.

As you can see blogging can open up many doors and opportunities. Don’t get hung up on numbers and remember that traffic can be unpredictable. Algorithm changes can wreak havoc on even the largest sites. Think outside the ad income box and make way for your own income streams. Don’t limit yourself or depend on one sole source of income. Blogging can be a great side hustle or even a full-time income source. But remember that your blog should be used as a platform and as an extension of your brand. How much you get out of it will depend on how much work you’re willing to put into it.

Do you blog? Are you currently monetizing it? I would love to hear your feedback!