When people find out that I blog for a living most of them assume I have a “real” job too. The first question I get when they find out that blogging IS my real job is “How do you actually make money doing that?”.

I’ve written out income reports in the past, but they don’t give the full picture. I do earn an income through my blog, but blogging has also opened up other opportunities for me because of the skills I’ve learned and the connections I’ve made.

When people find out I can make money blogging they are usually pretty shocked.

I mean, getting paid to sit at home and write in your pajamas sounds like a pretty good gig, right? There’s obviously a lot of work involved if you want to turn your blog into an actual business that earns you a steady income but for me, blogging has been a great way to earn an income from home.

A few years ago, my husband became a stay at home dad. We’d just had twins and our life was crazy so we needed more help at home. Having him home was the perfect solution for us at the time and my blogging income more than covered our expenses.

Money is something most people don’t want to talk about but I always find it so helpful seeing everything laid out. I’m not going to go into specific numbers here because the actual numbers vary every month (but if you want specifics you can find them in this post). Instead, I’m going to give you a look at all the options I have to earn money from home through blogging and give you some ideas about how you can get started if you are interested in starting a blog.

How do I Make Money Blogging?

There are a few main sources of income that make up the bulk of what I earn each month. My income does change month to month because I work on contract and commission and my ad income varies depending on traffic.

When I first started blogging, my income was not consistent enough to support my family. It was a great side-gig but I couldn’t count on having a steady income from one month to the next. After several years I could pretty con

Ad Revenue

Ad revenue is another way that I earn an income from my blog(s). I should note, I have several blogs and am building more all the time so my income does not come from a single site, although I know many successful bloggers who earn a great income from a single blog.

I started using Google Adsense and early on switched to an ad network. I’ve been with Mediavine for the past several years and have absolutely no complaints.

What I love about ad revenue is I earn an income even on those days or weeks when I don’t touch my site. Some months, my ad revenue pays my mortgage. My hope is it will continue to grow over time because a regular paycheck from a single source makes life much less stressful when you are self-employed.

Affiliate Revenue

Affiliate revenue is one of my favorite income streams because I get to recommend products and services that I already love. If you aren’t familiar with affiliate marketing, the way it works is I recommend a product and then receive a small commission when someone makes a purchase based on my recommendation. Affiliate revenue is fairly passive, at least once the initial work has been done, because when I publish a post that contains affiliate links that post continues to earn an income as long as it has traffic.

I routinely earn a commission for sales that were made thanks to posts that were published years ago. It’s a nice feeling when I know I have posts that will continue to earn an income without requiring me to put more work into them. As a mom of 6, that is HUGE for me.

MLM Sales

MLMs get a bad rap but the truth is, a lot of women earn a good income selling through a MLM company. I’ve sold through several using my blog, including SeneGence, and had great luck with it. Using a blog takes away the aspect of having to sell to your friends and family, which is a major part of why people get irritated with MLM sales.

If done right MLM sales can be a solid source of income. I don’t send private messages to people — cause that’s insanely annoying — but I do use Facebook ads, blog posts, and my newsletter to get in front of people who are interested in getting more information.

VA Work

I am not currently working as a virtual assistant (aka. VA) at the moment, but I have in the past and it is a great way to extend your blog income. You can find VA jobs with other bloggers or with small businesses and you can specialize in just about anything you are interested in.

If you are interested in becoming a VA, I’d recommend the Rockin VA course. Use the code “BusySAHM” to get a special discounted rate.

Freelance Writing

I started as a freelance writer before I became a blogger but blogging has made me a much faster writer and a more detailed researcher. Those skills make it easier for me to land freelance writing jobs and are an easy way to supplement my income when I need to. I’ve written directly for several children’s’ product brands as well as several local companies and it has been a great way to extend my blog income.

Many of the freelance writing jobs I’ve gotten since I started blogging have been ones that wanted to capitalize on my blog traffic. It worked out great because not only did I promote the work I did for them on my social channels but they promoted my blog through their channels as well so I ended up getting paid and getting some extra blog traffic, which then turned into ad revenue.

Places to find freelance writing jobs:

Social Media Management

The skills you learn as a blogger are very transferrable to many small businesses. Working as a social media manager is a great way to earn an income outside of your blog.

I’ve worked with local businesses, events, and larger brands on creating social content and managing their social media accounts. It has been a great flexible side job that uses the skills that I learned through blogging. Many of my clients come through connections that I have made blogging as well.

Product Sales

One of the great things about having your own platform is you can create products to sell. This is not something I’ve done a lot with to date, BUT I have several things in the works.

I know many bloggers who have huge success selling products of their own. The benefit to doing this is you are in control. You don’t have to worry about affiliate programs closing (which does happen) or share the profits with a third party. There are so many options to the types of products you can create too. You could do eBooks, courses, digital downloads, menu plans, subscription services and anything else you can come up with.

So there you have it. There are certainly other ways to earn money blogging but this is what has worked for me. Again, if you want to see specific numbers you can check out my income report. These numbers change monthly. Some months I focus more on affiliate

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How I Support My Family of 8 as a Blogger

How do I Make Money Blogging?