7 Ways to Monetise Your Blog for Passive Income (2025)

Last Updated on December 27, 2024 by Jan Barley

Monetise your blog for passive income or you may later regret not starting with the end in sight.

There’s no point creating a blog if you don’t plan to monetise it. It’s hard work generating enough SEO content to start getting traffic.

33% of bloggers never make a bean. Do you want to do all that hard work for nothing?

I’ve been a freelance writer since 2020. Writing content that performs is an ongoing commitment until you get to the point where you can hire writers to share the workload.

Imagine how it will feel in a year when your blog gets tons of traffic and makes sales while you sleep.

Read my post on the 7 types of blog content that Google loves, and your content will start ranking in SERPs.

That, my friend, is a reality that can and will be yours if you apply these 7 ways to monetise your blog in 2024.

#1: Harness the Power of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing will underpin your blog monetisation strategy.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

• You promote a vendor’s products or services on your blog
• The vendor gives you an affiliate link that tracks back to traffic from your blog.
• When you make a sale, the vendor pays you an agreed commission rate.
• You get a one-off payment or recurring commissions depending on the deal (the latter is preferable for passive income)
• The vendor tracks cookies for a determined period.

Choosing Relevant Affiliate Programs for Your Niche

• Affiliate products or services must be relevant to your niche: Ideally, opt for affiliate partnerships with vendors you trust. Promote products or services you use or have used that provide value to your audience.
• Don’t bother with affiliate programs paying low percentages: Although Amazon affiliate marketing is fantastic, the commission is tiny, around 3%, if I recall. Unless you’re selling big-ticket items, it’s not worth the effort. I promote vendors offering 25% or more affiliate commissions.
• Insert links with relevant anchor text: For instance, add your link in sentences like “the Ubersuggest Keyword research tool is free” or “Use Systeme for sales pages and email campaigns.” (note where I inserted the link).

#2: Create and Sell Digital Products

If you have a skill that helps others, create and market a digital course.

• Types of digital products: Create e-books, courses, Canva templates, and bite-sized video courses).
• Identify your audience’s pain points and create solutions: Research the market to discover these things. Instagram Threads is a great place to ask questions.
• Pricing strategies for digital products: Look at market prices for similar products.
• Platforms for hosting your digital products: You can host one free course on Systeme or five courses with the starter package. It is VERY easy to create a course in Systeme.
• Buy a DFY digital product: I joined Catalyst Collective – the founder is an ex Meta executive. Not only do you learn how to start a business, make a success of social media and create your own digital products. You can sell Catalyst and receive a 70% commission. Is Catalyst Collective good? Yes, it’s the best program I have bought and I no longer need to buy other digital products or courses.

#3: Leverage Email Marketing for Monetisation

Remember, you do not own your social media followers. If a platform closes your account or gets hacked, you lose your followers. Building an email list is the best way to protect your business and create a following eager to buy your products or services.

• Create a capture page: This is a one-page website to get people to subscribe to your newsletter
• Build and nurture your email list: Don’t rush to sell to your email list. Give value away freely and build trust with your subscribers.
• Implement automated email sequences: Structure your emails into a timed sequence. Send the first email immediately after subscribing, followed by another within 3-4 days and then one or two weekly. Don’t bombard your subscribers with fluff and nonsense.
• Monetise your email marketing: Add your links to offers, freebies, templates, products and services, but only in small doses. Avoid the hard sell. Lead with value.

You can create a capture page of your own by taking the free certified course on building sales funnels.

#4: Launch a Membership Site or Premium Content

A membership site can become a cash cow if you have sufficient content and the time to nurture your members. Low ticket memberships have become a “thing”, with an average $7 membership fee.

Don’t underestimate low ticket memberships. Jessa of Template Creators has multiple low-ticket memberships generating 6-figure months.

• You get recurring revenue through memberships.
• Offer exclusive content to subscribers.
• Offer membership upgrades and 1-2-1 services.

The most popular Membership platforms are: –

• Circle
• Skool
• Mighty Networks
• Thinkific
• Kajabi
• Podia
• Kartra
• Membervault

Most membership platforms cost around $99/month, so building a following and a waiting list is a good idea. That way, you know those monthly fees are covered before starting your membership.

#5: Provide Coaching or Consulting Services

Coaching and consulting services aren’t passive, but you could generate recurring income if you create an email list.

You don’t need to be a super coach; you can make a successful practice if you’re just a few steps ahead of your clients.

• Identify your expertise and target audience.
• Set up your coaching or consulting packages.
• Organise a system for managing appointments and payments, such as Calendy, which is relatively low-cost.
• Scale your services through group coaching or workshops. Working 1-2-1 limits your income. Scaling can make a significant difference financially.

Start with small groups, but don’t start with a free service. The pain of paying bias makes it uncomfortable for people to upgrade to paid from free.

#6: Sell Print-on-Demand Merchandise

Print-on-demand is perfect for the time you have a more extensive following. Don’t try to do it when you have 20 followers, 😊

You can either set up an e-commerce store such as Shopify or use a print-on-demand service where you only need to upload 300 dpi images.

• Choose the right print-on-demand platform: Printful and Printify are the two most popular POD platforms.
• Design merchandise that appeals to your audience.
• Integrate your store with your blog or insert links to your shop.
• Promote to your followers and on social media.

Alternatively, open an account with Redbubble. I opened a store there a couple of years ago. I lost interest after a while, but still get a few sales come through each month.

#7: Explore Podcast Sponsorships and Advertisements

Podcasting is something I want to do, but I keep avoiding the task. Still, forget about me. Podcasting can be a fabulous way to monetise your blog with integrated ads.

• Start a podcast to complement your blog.
• Find and secure podcast sponsors (Ideally relevant to your niche).
• Integrate ads seamlessly into your podcast content.
• Cross-promote your blog and podcast for maximum reach.

Conclusion

Monetising your blog doesn’t have to be an impossible dream. These passive income strategies are relatively easy to implement.

I suggest using one strategy at a time, or it could become overwhelming. It takes time, but as you gain confidence and experience, you will master these blog monetisation techniques.

Content monetisation is a must for bloggers and digital marketers. I put together 9 best passive income ideas for digital marketers, which you might find helpful.

Keep going and believe that success is only a matter of commitment, consistency and time.

Hey, if you want to generate additional income whilst you’re building your blog, read 38 websites that pay bloggers to write.

Pro Tip: Set up your blog with Google Console and Google Analytics. Once you have 10,000 monthly users, you can apply for the Journey by Mediavine program and start getting paid for ads on your site.

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links on this page. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.