Blogging can become an extremely lucrative side hustle or business with the right tools and skills.
While most blogs will fail within the first year or so, those that can survive past this point have a good chance of not only staying afloat but thriving.
In this post, I’ll discuss several types of blogs that are profitable, tips to making money with a blog, and various other factors that could affect how much money your blog makes.
Types of Blogs That Make Money
Below are some of the top types of blogs that make money. By starting one of these blogs you can better your chances of being profitable and making money online.
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Personal Finance & Investing Blogs
Personal finance blogs are a great way to make money because of how personal they can be. You’ll need to build trust with your readers to become a successful money blogger.
Some of the well known personal finance blogs include:
- Budgets Are Sexy
- Money Mustache
- Get Rich Slowly
- The Penny Hoarder
Personal finance and investing blogs primarily make money through affiliate offers in which readers click on links and a portion of any sales will go to the owner of the blog.
Some common affiliates include:
- Mortgage refinance offers
- Student loan refinance offers
- Credit card sign up offers
- Bank account sign up offers
Many personal finance blogs will also rely on display advertising as an additional source of revenue and some may even sell digital products.
Starting a personal finance or investing blog is more than just making money. It can be a great way to help others reach their financial goals, providing publishers with a sense of pride and fulfillment.
There are several key components to blogs about money including paying off debt, making more money, career advice, retirement savings, budgeting, and much more.
Related Reading: Is Blogging Worth It?
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Business and Marketing Blogs
Business and marketing blogs are a great way to make money because of the ability to monetize your content with affiliate marketing. These affiliates often pay well when compared to other types of blogs because of the natural higher price points of business to business products.
Some of my favorite business blogs include:
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich
- Smart Passive Income
- Ahrefs Blog
- Forbes
- Moz Blog
Business blogs are often read by entrepreneurs or those working a career in business.
There are many components to a business or marketing blog including Human Resources, marketing, sales, accounting, and many more.
Related Reading: Best Blogging Equipment
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Food and Recipe Blogs
If there’s one thing most people can’t get enough of, it’s food and recipes. This niche of blog is a great way to make money because of its’ vast audience and ability to niche down into smaller audiences that are still extremely large.
Most food, recipe, and cooking blogs will make money from display advertising with additional affiliate and digital product income to supplement.
Some of the more well-known cooking and food blogs include:
- Delish
- TheKitchn
- Simply Recipes
- Food52
Food and recipe blogs can be broken down into several categories: baking, general recipes, alcohol, and many more.
Some common cooking affiliate products include:
- Bakeware
- Cookware
- Storage containers
- Cooking accessories
- Small household appliances
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Fitness and Health Blogs
Fitness and health blogs can have astonishing affiliate income revenues because of their trusting audience similar to business and marketing blogs.
These blogs can either document a personal story about the individual's health and fitness or opt to offer more broad based advice.
Some of my favorite health and fitness blogs include:
- MyFitnessPal
- Bodybuilding.com
- The Fit Foodie
- ACE
Fitness and health blogs can make money through display advertising, affiliate marketing, and creating digital products such as workout or nutrition guides.
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Craft Blogs
Crafting blogs can be a great type of blog to make money because of it’s strong affiliate centric income potential. Whenever describing how to complete a craft, you can mention the supplies used and profit from affiliate marketing.
Some of the most popular crafting blogs include:
- Heart Handmade
- P.S. – I Made This
- The Spruce Crafts
Crafting blogs can be a great way to make money online because of its strong affiliate opportunities. Because many crafts require specific products, you can easily insert affiliate links on your blog to earn money passively.
Related: How Much Does it Cost to Start a Blog
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Parenting Blogs
Just like a food or recipe blog, parenting blogs are another great type of blog to make money because of the size of the audience. These blogs can be monetized through affiliate marketing and display advertising.
Some of the top parenting blogs include:
- Rookie Moms
- Foster the Family
- Parents.com
Parenting blogs can be a great way to express your opinions as a parent and help others deal with the common struggles of parenthood.
Related: What is Digital Real Estate?
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Entertainment Blogs
The reality is that people love juicy gossip. And this is what some entertainment blogs thrive off of. These types of blogs will rely on display advertising for a majority of their income with the addition of some affiliate income to supplement.
Some of the top entertainment blogs include:
- TMZ
- Entertainment Tonight
- People
Related: Best Ways to Make Money Online for Beginners
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News Blogs
News blogs seem less and less common these days as every media outlet tends to cover the news. But they can still be profitable. If you can build your blog with breaking news that is accurate, your readers will come to your site as a trusted source for their news.
Some popular news blogs include:
- Buzzfeed
- Mashable
- BBC World News
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Travel Blogs
Unfortunately because of COVID-19, travel bloggers have suffered tremendous drops in revenue due to the lack of travel, a primary source of their traffic, and revenue.
Despite this, travel blogs can be a good way to make money under typical circumstances because of high affiliate income.
Some of the most popular travel blogs include:
- The Blonde Abroad
- Wandering Earl
- Club Thrifty
- Journey Woman
Travel blogs can make a significant amount of money with sponsored posts and affiliate marketing. Many hotels or travel destinations will offer you free reservations to stay at their location in exchange for a sponsored post on your blog. Some destinations might add an additional cash bonus for your efforts.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Which Type of Blog to Start and How to Make Money Blogging
There are a few factors you’ll want to consider before choosing a blog topic to become a successful blogger and make money.
What are your passions?
There's no debating it's easier to write about something you enjoy. Therefore, it's smart to consider this when deciding what type of blog to start. After all, do you really want to write about juicy gossip all day if you start a news and entertainment blog? (Hint: No!)
Does your topic have a large audience?
Just because you have the passion to write about a topic doesn’t mean you should! You should judge the size of your audience before you get started to determine if it’s possible to make money given the audience size.
But don’t count out a topic just because it doesn’t have the largest audience.
TIP: Sometimes blogs with smaller audiences can make as much (if not more) than blog topics with larger audiences. These smaller niche blogs can have a more devoted audience and larger affiliate conversion rates.
How often does content in your niche change?
Starting a news and entertainment blog is quite different than a personal finance blog in that you’ll constantly need to update and publish new content for a news blog. Because your content changes so frequently, it can require much more time than a more evergreen niche such as health and fitness or personal finance.
How crowded is your niche?
Okay, so there’s a blog about nearly everything in 2020, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. Even if your topic has endless competition, you can still make good money blogging.
How? By using your own voice. People learn in different ways, so by saying the same thing as someone else in a different way, it might resonate with them more than your competition.
Related: Make Money Flipping Domains
How easy is your content to monetize?
Some types of blogs will be easier to monetize than others. For example, a blog that is about food and recipes has multiple ways to make money like display advertising and affiliate marketing. In contrast, a blog about frugal living might be harder to monetizer because your readers likely will not want to spend money therefore losing the ability to make money with affiliate marketing.
Related: What are the Mediavine Requirements
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Can You Really Make Money Blogging?
Successful bloggers can make millions of dollars per year (or even month!) from growing their audience and monetizing their blog correctly.
In short, YES, you can absolutely make money blogging. But the amount that you make is all tied to how hard you work.
Those willing to dedicate the time to growing their blog will earn much more money than those putting in the bare minimum.
You can also make money blogging by flipping websites for a profit. This can be an excellent option for those looking to monetize their marketing and writing skills.
How to Build and Grow Your Blog
Whenever you think of becoming a blogger, there are probably a few main tasks you think will need to be completed. For most, this means publishing content, sharing your content on social media, and setting up an email list. But that's just the beginning.
Growing your blog will entail much more work.
How Do Bloggers Get Paid?
There are many different ways you can monetize your blog to get paid for your efforts. Each method has its own benefits and drawbacks. Below, I'll take a quick look at some of the most common ways bloggers get paid.
Displaying Ads on Their Blog
One way bloggers get paid is by displaying ads on their blog. Whenever a visitor views the ad, the blogger will earn a small commission. If a visitor clicks the ad, the blogger will earn even more.
The amount of money you can make by displaying ads varies widely based on the niche your blog is located in, the number of users, and how much companies are willing to pay at any given moment.
Promoting Affiliate Marketing
As you’ve probably noticed, affiliate marketing has been mentioned a few times in this article.
The concept of affiliate marketing is simple. By promoting a company, the company will reward you with a small commission of any sales that your blog facilitates.
There are many different affiliate programs you can join to make money with affiliate marketing. Some companies may choose to run their own affiliate program while others will join an affiliate network. Below are a few affiliate networks you should consider joining:
- CJ Affiliate
- Impact Co
- Share-a-Sale
Creating Digital Products
Another way some bloggers will make money is by creating and selling digital products to their viewers. These products can be just about anything and can often become very profitable for those with a devoted audience.
Offering Sponsored Content
Similar to affiliate marketing, some bloggers will offer advertisers the ability to pay for a sponsored piece of content centered around their product or service.
Types of Blogs that Don’t Make Money
Making money blogging is certainly a challenge and I personally believe you can make money in just about any niche. With that said, some are easier than others. Here are a couple of types of blogs that you might find it more difficult to make money in.
Blogs in Multiple Niches
If there's one thing I've learned since starting my blogging journey, it's that you must appease your target audience. There is such a thing as being too broad.
Some bloggers might choose to try to create their content for “everyone”. By doing so, this type of content may not resent well with anyone, making it more difficult to gain viewership.
Blogs that are Rarely Updated
There’s no debating updating your blog with new content is critical to its success. And while many blogs will fail within the first year, those who are capable of keeping their content fresh and relevant will have a much greater chance of success.
Blogs without Strong Content
Just as you need to publish fresh content on your blog consistently, the content needs to be well-written and researched. Your readers want in-depth information about your topic that is backed by data or your own personal thoughts.
Blogs with thin content that only briefly cover detailed topics will have a more difficult time making money.
How To Make More Money with Your Blog
If you’ve already established a blog, you probably understand the challenges involved with monetizing your efforts. In this section, I’ll guide you through some tips to help you make even more money.
Understand How to Market Your Blog
Marketing your blog is essential to growing your audience and revenues. Do you understand the strategies involved? There are many methods to grow your blog some of which are outlined below.
Marketing your blog is about understanding your audience and their wants and needs. By connecting with them in the ways they prefer, you can grow your blog and make more money no matter what type of blog you own.
Understand How to Grow Traffic Sources
Any seasoned blogger probably understands the most common traffic sources including direct traffic, organic traffic, social traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic.
By understanding these sources you can formulate a plan to grow each source. For example, if you’re looking to grow your organic traffic, investing in search engine optimization is worthwhile.
Final Thoughts on Types of Blogs that Make Money
I firmly believe that any type of blog can make good money with the right dedication and perseverance. By monetizing your blog with affiliate marketing, display advertising, and selling digital products, making money with your blog can be quite simple.
Between personal finance, travel, parenting, and cooking blogs, there is certainly a niche for just about anyone's interest. The first step is to get started blogging today!
What are your favorite types of blogs? Comment below!
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