How to Make Money Blogging: Pick the Right Revenue Model
Ads, affiliates, sponsors, products or services. The right one depends on who your readers are and what they came to do, not on someone's income report.
In July 2025, Pew Research tracked the browsing of 900 US adults. With an AI summary on Google, they clicked a regular result on 8% of visits, against 15% without.
One study, yes. But it matches what bloggers keep saying.
Fewer clicks for the same rankings means each visitor you do get has to be worth more.
The short version: start from who would pay, and for what. Pick one model that fits your traffic, run your own numbers, and add a second only once the first one works.
The 6 steps at a glance
| # | Step | About |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Work out who pays, and for what | 1 hour |
| 2 | Pick one model that fits your traffic | 30 min |
| 3 | Run the numbers with your own figures | 30 min |
| 4 | Set it up, and follow the disclosure rules | A few days |
| 5 | Build reach you control | Ongoing |
| 6 | Review after 90 days, then add a second model | 1 hour a quarter |
Step 1. Work out who pays, and for what
Every blog that earns has answered one question. Who pays, for what outcome? Advertisers pay for attention, shops pay for sales, readers pay to solve a problem, clients pay for your time.
Here are the five models side by side:
| Model | Who pays | What you need | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display ads | Advertisers, through an ad network | Lots of pageviews, mostly from rich countries | Low earnings per visitor; ads slow pages |
| Affiliate links | Shops, a commission per sale | Readers who are comparing and about to buy | Programs change rates and rules |
| Sponsorships | Brands, a flat fee per post or email | A clear audience a brand wants to reach | You have to find and pitch them |
| Your own products and memberships | Readers | A problem they’d pay to solve | You build, sell and support it |
| Services and consulting | Clients | Expertise readers trust | Capped by your hours |
Now look at what your readers came to do. You’ll usually see a pattern. A post on “what is a VPN” draws people who are learning, while “NordVPN vs Proton VPN” draws people about to buy.
And “how to fix a hacked WordPress site”? That reader might hire you.
Check it: for your ten most-read posts, write down what the reader probably does next and one offer that would fit that moment.
Step 2. Pick one model that fits your traffic
Your traffic decides more than people admit, and it’s the one number you can’t fake. Display ads need volume, while a service can work with a few hundred of the right readers.
| Monthly traffic | What tends to fit |
|---|---|
| Under 1,000 visits | Services, affiliate links in comparison posts, building an email list |
| 1,000 to 25,000 | Add entry-level ad programs; test a small product or paid newsletter |
| 25,000 and up | Premium ad networks open up; sponsorships get easier to sell |
Going with ads? These are the entry rules, as each network’s own pages stated them in November 2026:
| Network | Entry requirement |
|---|---|
| Google AdSense | Your own content that meets its policies, and you’re 18 or over; no traffic minimum on its eligibility page |
| Journey by Mediavine | 1,000 sessions in 30 days from tier-1 countries such as the US, Canada, UK and Australia |
| Mediavine Official | $5,000 or more in annual ad revenue |
| Monumetric Propel | 10,000 to 80,000 pageviews a month, WordPress or Blogger, a $99 setup fee |
| Raptive | 25,000 pageviews a month; below 100,000, half the traffic from the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand or Australia |
| Ezoic | 250,000 monthly active users |
Two things trip people up. Networks count different things (sessions, pageviews, active users), so check which your analytics shows.
And meeting a minimum isn’t approval. Each network reviews your content too.
Check it: you know your last 30 days of sessions and pageviews, where they came from by country, and which networks that qualifies you for.
Step 3. Run the numbers with your own figures
Do the math before you commit a year to a model. It’s quick. The numbers below are made up to show the method.
For ads, earnings are pageviews divided by 1,000, times your RPM (revenue per thousand pageviews). At a hypothetical $10 RPM, 10,000 pageviews earn about $100 a month.
Real RPMs swing a lot. Don’t trust anyone’s RPM table.
For affiliate links, multiply visitors by the share who click, the share who buy and the commission. Amazon’s rates vary by category and country, so look up yours.
For a product, it’s readers reached, times buyers, times price, minus fees and the hours it takes you. Then compare all three.
Check it: one line of math per model, with your real traffic, and every number you’re guessing marked as a guess.
Step 4. Set it up, and follow the disclosure rules
Ads
AdSense has no traffic minimum, so it’s a common first step. Google says publishers receive 80% of the revenue after the advertiser platform takes its fee.
So that’s 80% of what’s left after the buying side, which is less than the advertiser spent.
Ads cost you page speed. Watch your Core Web Vitals after adding them, and keep the post readable.
Affiliate links
Join programs that match the posts you’ve already written; you don’t need many.
Amazon Associates reviews your account after three qualifying sales within 180 days, and your own orders don’t count.
Sponsorships
Pitch brands your readers already use. Send your audience numbers and one or two post ideas, and keep the email short.
The rules for all three
Disclosure is where bloggers get into trouble. In the US, the FTC says a connection readers wouldn’t expect, like a commission, should be disclosed “clearly and conspicuously”.
Put it near the link, before the click, in plain words: “I earn a commission if you buy through these links.”
In the UK, the ASA says affiliate marketing must be “obviously identifiable”. It has ruled against posts whose affiliate links carried no label such as “#Ad”.
Check it: on your phone, a reader can see which links earn you money before they click.
Google has a separate rule for search: mark paid placements with rel="sponsored". That’s for search engines. Readers still need the plain words.
Your own products and memberships
Selling subscriptions? This is what the main platforms keep:
| Platform | Its fee | Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Substack | 10% of each payment | Stripe processing, 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment |
| Ghost | 0% transaction fee | Hosting (Ghost’s or your own) and Stripe processing |
| Patreon | 10% for creator pages published after August 4, 2025 | Processing and payout fees |
Before building a course or product, sell it first, as a pre-order or a paid beta. A waitlist proves interest. Money proves someone will pay.
The lines keep moving, too: Substack is adding podcast ads and brand formats.
Check it: every paid placement carries
rel="sponsored", and each product idea has at least one real pre-order or paying beta user.
Step 5. Build reach you control
Search traffic can drop overnight with an update. One small case study measured about 0.9% click-through on AI Overview impressions, which is why you want another way to reach readers.
An email list is the reach you control most. You still depend on a provider, but you can export the list and take it anywhere.
Give people a reason that matches the post they’re reading, like a checklist or the next part of a guide. A generic “subscribe” box gets ignored.
Check it: every post has a sign-up form with a specific reason to join, and you’ve exported your list once to confirm you can.
Step 6. Review after 90 days, then add a second model
Track your revenue per post and per traffic source, beyond the monthly total. If a handful of posts bring in most of the money, update and build on those.
Once the first model earns steadily, add one that fits beside it, like a newsletter plus sponsorships. One model run well beats four run badly.
Blog income may be taxable. Keep records of what you earn and spend, and check the rules where you live.
Check it: a quarterly sheet with revenue by post and by source, and a note on which second model you’ll test next.
What’s overrated
- income reports, because you hear from the bloggers who made it and rarely from the many who didn’t
- “passive income”, when products and posts need updates and support every month
- ads on day one
- twenty affiliate programs where three that match your posts would do
Why it matters
Most advice on making money blogging is a list of every model at once. That’s how blogs end up with ads, ten affiliate programs and an unsold course, all earning a little.
So pick one. Match it to what your readers came to do, and prove it with real money before you add the next.
Got a small blog with expert readers? Don’t wait for ad traffic. A services page or one useful product can earn more from 500 of the right readers than ads will from far bigger numbers.
Common Questions
How long does it take to make money from a blog?
Usually months, often a year or more. It depends on the model: a services page can bring a client in the first month, while display ads need traffic that most new blogs take a year or longer to build.
How much traffic do you need to make money blogging?
It depends on the revenue model. Google AdSense has no traffic minimum, Journey by Mediavine needs 1,000 monthly sessions and Raptive needs 25,000 monthly pageviews, while services and affiliate links can earn from a few hundred well-matched readers.
Can you still make money blogging with AI search reducing clicks?
Yes, though search alone is a weaker bet. Pew Research found Google users clicked a regular result on 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without, so blogs that also build an email list and sell to readers directly depend less on search.
