Do you want to know the best ways to make money online that aren’t scams? WordPress is the world’s largest publishing platform, powering more than 30% of all websites.

You can earn money online by doing what you love by using WordPress and blogging. You can work from home on your own schedule, and there is no cap on how much money you can make.

In this article, we will discuss the top “proven” ways to earn money online by blogging with WordPress.

First and foremost, these aren’t “get rich quick” schemes. If you’re looking for a quick way to get rich by making money online, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Don’t be duped by images of expensive cars, mansions, or working from the beach. Every single one of them is a scam, and you will waste your time and money if you purchase any courses or training from them.

Unlike other “make money online” articles, this is a comprehensive guide on how to earn a living from home legally by blogging and using WordPress.

Many of these methods necessitate an initial investment of time and/or money. You will reap the benefits as long as you are willing to put in the effort.

You must first have your own self-hosted WordPress blog before you can use any of these methods. We have a step-by-step guide for beginners on how to start a WordPress blog.

The procedure is simple to follow whether you are 20 or 60 years old. However, if you require assistance, our expert team can set up your blog for free. → Obtain Your Free WordPress Blog Setup By Clicking Here!

After you’ve set up your blog, you’re ready to proceed with this guide.

Because this is a lengthy article, we’ve created a table of contents for your convenience.


Table of Content

Monetize Your Blog Content

  • Make Money With WordPress Affiliate Marketing
  • Display Google AdSense on WordPress
  • Use a WordPress Advertising Plugin to Sell Ads Directly
  • Sell Sponsored Blog Posts
  • Get Paid to Write Reviews
  • Earn Money by Flipping Websites
  • Get Public Speaking Gigs as an Influencer


Create a Paid Membership Website

  • Create Restricted Members Only Content
  • Create a Private Forum
  • Make a Questions & Answers Website

Create a Directory Website With WordPress

  • Create a WordPress Job Board With Paid Submissions
  • Create a Paid Business Directory
  • Create a WordPress Event Calendar With Paid Submissions

Sell Digital Products With WordPress

  • Sell Ebooks on WordPress
  • Sell Online Courses
  • Host a Paid Webinar

Sell Services Online Using WordPress

  • Offer Freelance Services
  • Start Your Own Consulting Business
  • Become a Coach

Sell Physical Products Online Using WordPress

  • Start an ECommerce Business With WooCommerce
  • Create an Online T-shirt Store With WordPress
  • Create a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store
  • Create an Amazon Affiliate WordPress Shop

Offer Platform as a Service

  • Create an Online Marketplace Website
  • Make an Auctions Website
  • Create a Job Marketplace website

Become a WordPress Designer or Developer

  • Develop WordPress Plugins
  • Sell WordPress Themes
  • Sell Graphics on Your WordPress Site

Donations

  • Accept Donations

Monetize Your Blog Content

Advertising is frequently the first thing that comes to mind when considering how to make money blogging.

Yes, you can make money with ads on WordPress, but there are other ways to monetize your blog content. Here are a few tried-and-true methods:

1. Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product or service to your audience via special tracking links and then receive a referral commission for each purchase made after clicking your link.

When you help a friend in opening an account at your bank branch, this is an example of online marketing in action. They usually give you a gift card or a bonus of some kind.

Similarly, many products and services available online have affiliate programs in which you can participate. Every industry has affiliate programs available (niche).

If you want to get started with affiliate marketing, consider the products you already use that your readers might be interested in as well. Then you can check to see if they have an affiliate program that you can join.

You can choose from a long list of products to promote:

Once you’ve decided which products to promote, you can manage your affiliate links with a WordPress plugin like PrettyLinks.

It enables you to quickly insert links into posts, create branded links, auto-replace keywords into links, and even track how each link performs on your site.

Affiliate marketing is the simplest way to make money because it allows you to promote a wide range of products. Almost every well-known retailer, including Walmart, BestBuy, and Amazon, has an affiliate program.

See our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing for more information, and also check out these affiliate marketing tools and plugins to help you increase your earnings.


2. Display Google AdSense on WordPress

Google Adsense is a simple way to monetize your blog. All you have to do is add a Google script to your website and start displaying ads.

You will be compensated each time a user clicks on the ad. These are known as CPC ads.

What exactly is CPC? CPC is an abbreviation for “cost per click.” When you use Google Adsense to display CPC ads, you will be paid a set fee each time a visitor clicks on an ad.

The advertiser determines the cost per click. (This is in contrast to CPM ads, which pay you for ad views rather than clicks.) CPM is an abbreviation for “cost per thousand impressions,” where M is the roman numeral for 1,000.)

When you first start out, Google Adsense is a good place to start earning money online.

To get started, see our guide on how to monetize a WordPress blog with Google AdSense, and for more information, see this tutorial on how to optimize your AdSense revenue.

Looking for an alternative to Google AdSense? Try out Media.net. They also have a large pool of advertisers and good payouts.

3. Use a WordPress Advertising Plugin to Sell Ads Directly

Although Google AdSense is simple to set up, the amount of money you can earn is limited. The earnings from each ad click will differ.

Marketing banner ad space directly on your website can be much more profitable. You negotiate the price and terms on your own, rather than relying on an intermediary who takes a cut of the money.

We discussed the distinction between CPC and CPM ads earlier, where you are paid per click or per thousand views. While one of those models could be used to sell banner ads, most bloggers charge a flat rate instead. Keeping track of views or clicks is more difficult than charging a flat rate.

Still, selling ads directly requires more effort to manage than using Google AdSense. Instead of simply adding code to your website, you’ll need to negotiate pricing, come up with an agreement and terms, and handle administrative tasks like invoicing.

Using a WordPress ad management plugin, on the other hand, can make the process easier. We recommend AdSanity, which allows you to manage both Google AdSense and your own ads.

See our guide on how to sell ads on your WordPress blog for more information.

4. Sell Sponsored Blog Posts

Some bloggers are not interested in displaying advertisements to their readers and are unsure of how to monetize a blog without ads.

You give up some control over the content displayed on your site when you use ad networks. Ads may irritate or offend some readers, and an increasing number of people are using ad blockers, which reduces your earning potential.

Sponsorships are an alternative method of monetizing a blog.

A sponsorship works in the same way that it does in sports, TV shows, and other industries. A company basically pays you to represent their product, talk about it, and promote it to your readers.

To begin, create a one-page media kit that includes your traffic statistics, social media following, audience demographics, and any other information that will make your site more appealing to advertisers. Then you can approach businesses to negotiate a sponsorship agreement.

When publishing sponsored posts, it is critical to be aware of the disclosure laws in your area.

In the United States, for example, a blogger who publishes a sponsored post must follow the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines. This includes disclosing any sponsored posts. You can accomplish this by prefixing your post title with a sponsored post prefix in WordPress.

5. Get Paid to Write Reviews

You can make money on your site by writing paid reviews, which is similar to sponsored posts.

This is a slightly different monetization strategy than the previously mentioned review site with affiliate links.

Instead, you get to try out products in your niche for free and even get paid to write a review.

The procedure for accomplishing this may be similar to that for obtaining sponsored posts. You should review products that are relevant to your niche and would be of interest to your target audience.

You can approach businesses on your own to inquire about paid reviews. There are also websites, such as PayPerPost, that can connect you with businesses that may be interested.

6. Earn Money Online by Flipping Websites

If you know how to create a WordPress website, you are far ahead of the majority of people. Entrepreneurs may prefer to purchase pre-existing websites that they can use for their own businesses.

If you can create a WordPress blog and get traffic to it, you can sell it and profit from your efforts.

This necessitates understanding the types of websites in demand, as well as how to price and sell them. Websites such as Flippa act as auction sites and brokers for selling websites.

If you know how to create a WordPress website, you are far ahead of the majority of people. Entrepreneurs may prefer to purchase pre-existing websites that they can use for their own businesses.

If you can create a WordPress blog and get traffic to it, you can sell it and profit from your efforts.

This necessitates understanding the types of websites in demand, as well as how to price and sell them. Websites such as Flippa act as auction sites and brokers for selling websites.

7. Get Public Speaking Gigs as an Influencer

If you promote your own brand alongside your blog, you will gain a decent following over time, establishing you as an influencer in your field.

This recognition can help you get some public speaking jobs. Speaking at conferences is a lucrative source of income for many bloggers.

Speaking at events, whether paid or unpaid, helps you promote your blog and personal brand. If you are skilled at networking and public speaking, you will be able to discover a plethora of new opportunities along the way.

Here are some general guidelines to follow if you want to make money as a paid public speaker.

Be an authority in your field. If you don’t have enough knowledge or skills right now, start learning right away.
Be consistent – You must constantly promote your expertise on the topic via your blogging and social media activities.
Make it known that you are available. You can make an announcement on social media or contact event organizers privately.
You might not be able to find paid public speaking opportunities right away. Many successful public speakers began their careers at smaller, more casual, and free community events and meetups.

Create a Paid Membership Website

If you don’t want to sell ads or sponsored posts, there are plenty of other ways to make money from your blog. One popular method is to charge your audience to access specific content or areas of your website. Here are a couple of approaches.

8. Create Restricted Members Only Content

Your most devoted fans are die-hard fans who may be willing to pay to read more of your work. You can set up a members-only area where they can share more detailed blog posts, downloads, videos, audio content, and other resources.

Because you must constantly create premium content for your paying members, membership sites can be a significant time investment. However, because they are recurring revenue, they can be very profitable (subscriptions).

A WordPress membership plugin makes it simple to set up a membership site. We recommend using MemberPress, which is the most user-friendly and robust WordPress membership plugin.

We have a comprehensive guide to creating a WordPress membership website with step-by-step instructions to assist you in getting started.

9. Create a Private Forum

Another option for creating a paid membership site is to set up private forums to which users must pay to gain access. Forums are an excellent way for your audience to get personalized advice from you. Other members of the community can also interact and assist one another.

While moderating a forum can be time-consuming, a paid forum is an excellent way to generate recurring revenue from your WordPress website.

To begin, you must create a forum on your website. Here are our picks for the top five best WordPress forum plugins.

10. Create a questions and answers community

Answers to questions Stack Exchange and Quora are massive online communities. They assist you in developing a driven, motivated, and highly engaged online community.

You will need to spend some time, just like in forums, building a sizable community. Following that, you will be able to monetize user-generated content on your website through advertisements, affiliate ads, and other means.

Popular question and answer websites can obtain direct advertising and sponsorship deals from industry advertisers. This allows them to negotiate a much higher rate and additional perks.

See our guide on how to create a WordPress Questions and Answers website.

Create a Directory Website With WordPress

Creating a directory or listing website is another way to make money online with WordPress. Then you can charge visitors to advertise their listings on your website.

Here are some directory ideas to get you started.

11. Create a Paid Business Directory

Web directories may conjure up images of the early days of the internet before bots began indexing everything automatically, but they are not entirely obsolete.

Generic web directories are obsolete, but local or niche directories can be extremely beneficial.

Directories may collect reviews of local businesses, distribute the best podcasts on a specific topic, or list the best products in a specific niche.

Following our tutorial, you can easily create a web directory in WordPress. There are also numerous directory plugins for WordPress to choose from, many of which allow you to accept payments in exchange for submissions.

12. Create a WordPress Job Board With Paid Submissions

Another possibility is to set up a paid job board. Companies can pay you to submit a listing if they want to advertise an open position to your audience.

It is much easier to create a successful job board if you focus on a specific niche. With minimal competition, you can become the go-to site for anyone looking for a job in that industry.

This works well for established blogs in a specific niche. ProBlogger, for example, has become well-known for their job board for professional bloggers.

It is simple to set up a paid job board with WordPress. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see our tutorial on how to create a job board in WordPress with WP Job Manager. You can charge for job post submissions by using the WooCommerce Paid Listings addon.

13. Create a WordPress Event Calendar With Paid Submissions

Instead of a job board, you could create an event calendar where people can pay to have their events advertised. This also works well if you already have a large audience, because businesses will be willing to pay to reach out to you.

A paid event calendar is an excellent way to monetize a local or industry-specific website. You could promote local events, conferences in a specific industry, or even webinars or live streaming events.

See our guide to the best WordPress event calendar plugins for instructions on how to do so on your site.

Sell Digital Products With WordPress

Selling your own digital products may be a good option if you’re looking for a low-maintenance way to make money online blogging with WordPress. While you must invest time in the creation of the product, your work after it is completed is minimal.

Here are a few examples of digital products that you can create and sell on your website.


14. Sell Ebooks on WordPress

Ebooks are a natural choice for developing digital products. They are relatively easy to create and write. If you’ve been blogging for a while, you can turn some of your older blog posts into chapters of a book.

After you’ve finished writing your book, you can create a cover using a tool like Canva and a PDF of your ebook.

Using a plugin, you can easily sell digital products on WordPress. To get started, check out our comparison of the best WordPress eCommerce plugins.

We recommend Easy Digital Downloads for digital downloads. It’s relatively simple to use and comes with all of the features you’ll need to set up your online store.


15. Sell Online Courses

Another great way to make money online is to sell an online course.

Courses are typically much more expensive than ebooks. You can charge a fee for your knowledge.

You must create the lessons for your course, as well as any supporting materials you wish to include, such as downloads, slides, checklists, templates, and so on.

You must also decide whether or not to provide personalized support for your course. Some websites provide two versions of each course: a basic version with no support and a premium version with email support.

Once your course is complete, you can deliver it to your audience using a learning management system (LMS) plugin.

We recommend using MemberPress because it includes a course builder.

See our guide on how to sell online courses with MemberPress for more information.

If you need a non-WordPress course builder, check out our article on the best online course platforms.


16. Host a Paid Webinar

Webinars are an excellent way to grow your audience, share your expertise, and expand your business. But did you know they’re also an excellent way to earn money online?

Webinars are similar to online courses in that they are live and frequently include a question and answer section.

It is simple to host a paid webinar with WordPress. Whether you use your website to host the webinar or simply to advertise it and register participants, it is critical to the success of your webinar.

See our list of the 9 best webinar software for WordPress users for more information on how to host a paid webinar.

Sell Services Online Using WordPress

Selling services is the quickest way to get started if you’re looking for easy ways to make money online. There is no upfront investment in developing a product or purchasing inventory.

Instead, simply create a “hire me” page on your website and begin searching for your first client.

Here are some suggestions to get you started.


18. Start Your Own Consulting Business

As a blogger, you are already an authority in your field. You can start earning money as a freelancer by offering your skills and expertise.

Freelancing is a popular way to make money online because it does not require any upfront time or money investment. You can simply begin offering your services to your current clientele.

You’ll need a way to invoice and collect payments from your clients once you start freelancing. We recommend FreshBooks, but there are other WordPress invoicing plugins available.

If you want to start freelancing to make some serious money online, check out our list of the best WordPress tools for freelancers, designers, and developers.

19. Become a Coach

If the title “consultant” does not feel right for you, you could consider becoming a coach instead.

A life coach provides advice, guidance, and accountability to help people set goals and improve their lives. Other types of coaches include blog coaches, writing coaches, and others.

Coaching sessions, whatever your area of expertise, can provide one-on-one assistance to your audience.

Set up a booking form so readers can schedule coaching sessions directly from your WordPress blog to save time and make things easier for your clients.

To get started, check out our list of the top 5 WordPress appointment and booking plugins.


Sell Physical Products Online Using WordPress

While selling digital products or services is a simple way to start making money online, nothing beats selling actual, physical products. Here are a few options for getting started with WordPress product sales.

20. Start an Ecommerce Business With WooCommerce

Do you have a product idea of your own? Why not open your own online shop?

Using the free WooCommerce plugin, you can easily create a shop or add a shop to your existing blog.

Starting an online store can be time-consuming because you must create or purchase the products and then ship them yourself.

However, selling physical products can be a rewarding experience, and sometimes a physical product is exactly what your target audience is looking for.

To get started, check out our WooCommerce tutorial on how to create an online store.

You can also use Shopify or BigCommerce as an alternative to WooCommerce.

21. Create an Online T-shirt Store With WordPress

WordPress makes it simple to set up your own t-shirt shop. Because almost everyone wears t-shirts, starting a t-shirt shop is an excellent way to monetize any type of blog. T-shirt design allows you to be creative while providing something unique to your audience.

It’s simple because there are services that allow you to upload your own designs and have them printed and shipped for you. You will receive a profit share.

Using Spreadshirt’s WP-Spreadplugin, you can easily create your own t-shirt shop on your WordPress site.

If you want a quicker solution, you can use a Shopify store that is linked to dozens of t-shirt printing companies.

22. Create a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store

Dropshipping is another method for setting up an ecommerce store on your WordPress website without having to manage inventory or ship items yourself.

Dropshipping requires you to create the store, manage the website, and provide customer service. A dropshipping service, on the other hand, will take your orders and ship them to your customers. They are an unnoticed third party that your customers are unaware of.

To set up a dropshipping store, you can use the WooCommerce plugin. A WooCommerce Dropshipping addon plugin is also available to help you automate the process.

23. Create an Amazon Affiliate WordPress Shop

One disadvantage of dropshipping is that you must find a good supplier, which can be difficult, and you must sometimes place a large order upfront. This can make it difficult to get started without a large investment.

If you want to set up an ecommerce site without having to ship products yourself, you could try an Amazon Affiliate shop.

This, like many of the other items on this list, works best if you specialize in a specific niche. It is impossible to compete with a large retailer like Amazon if you offer everything. However, in a small niche, you can distinguish yourself and truly stand out.

See our tutorial on how to set up an Amazon affiliate store with WordPress for more information.

Offering Platform as a Service

WordPress includes some extremely powerful plugins that function as full-fledged platforms in their own right.

You can integrate such a platform into your blog or e-commerce store and charge for it. You earn a commission on each sale, allowing you to earn passive income from user activity on your website.

24.Create an Online Marketplace Website

An online marketplace is similar to an eCommerce store in that users can both buy and sell their own products. WooCommerce normally assumes you have a single vendor website.

To create WooCommerce a multi-vendor site, you’ll need to have a plugin such as WC Vendors. Following that, vendors will be able to register on your website and begin selling.

You can profit by charging a commission on each sale or by allowing vendors to purchase membership packages for their listings.

More information can be found in our guide on how to create an online marketplace with WordPress.

25. Make an Auctions Website

A website for auctions allows users to bid on products in order to purchase them. This allows sellers to maximize their profits while also allowing customers to find one-of-a-kind deals.

Ebay is the most well-known example of an online auctions marketplace.

On your WordPress website, you can run auctions and even allow third-party vendors to list their products. You can earn money by charging for the listing or by taking a percentage of each sale.

The following WordPress add-ons are required to create an auctions marketplace.

  • WooCommerce (for shopping cart and payment features).
  • An auctions add-on
  • A multi-vendor add-on

See our guide on how to build an eBay-like auctions website with WordPress for step-by-step instructions.

26. Create a Job Marketplace website

A job marketplace, as opposed to a traditional job listing website, allows you to profit from each job listing. Fiverr and UpWork are two of the most well-known examples of online job marketplace websites.

You can market your job marketplace as a micro-job platform for people who work in the same industry as your blog. You can make your platform more competitive by focusing on a specific niche.

This will allow you to easily find customers and professionals who are unable to use large platforms due to excessive irrelevant competition.

You can charge a small fee for job postings or when a job is finished. More jobs completed successfully will bring you more customers and freelancers in the future.

For more information, see our step-by-step tutorial on how to create a Fiverr-like Micro-Job website with WordPress.

Become a WordPress Designer or Developer

If you are more technically inclined, you can earn money online by becoming a WordPress developer or designer. This will require more technical skills, but it is not difficult to get started.

27. Develop WordPress Plugins

WordPress’s flexibility and power are due to plugins. Plugins function similarly to apps in that they allow you to extend and modify any feature of your WordPress website.

Plugins come in all shapes and sizes, from simple code changes to complex software applications. You can create your own WordPress plugin if you have a basic understanding of how WordPress works and some basic PHP knowledge.

You can distribute your plugins in a variety of ways as a plugin developer. Anyone, as long as they follow the WordPress plugin guidelines, can submit a free plugin to the WordPress.org plugin directory. This is an excellent way to gain experience and establish a reputation as a WordPress plugin developer.

When you’re ready to begin selling premium plugins, you can do so on a site like MOJO Marketplace or on your own WordPress site.

If you intend to sell plugins through your existing WordPress blog, make certain that the plugin you create directly addresses a need of your target audience. You can poll them to find out what problems they need to fix on their WordPress site, and then create a plugin to fix those problems.

The plugin can then be sold on your website via Easy Digital Downloads.

28. Sell WordPress Themes

If you enjoy web design and development, you could begin creating and selling your own WordPress themes.

This necessitates both design and technical abilities. You must be able to create a visually appealing design as well as code it for WordPress.

Using a WordPress theme framework like Genesis can help you get started. Then you’ll need to create and code a lovely child theme.

29. Sell Graphics on Your WordPress Site

If you prefer design to coding, you could create and sell graphics on your WordPress site.

Using an ecommerce plugin, you can create graphics such as stock images or logos and sell them on your website. You can also sell your graphics by joining online marketplaces.

30. Accept Donations

Finally, one way to make money from your WordPress blog is to simply ask for it.

You can begin accepting donations in a variety of ways. You could include a PayPal or Stripe donate button on your website. You could also use WPForms to create a donation form on your WordPress site for a more professional appearance and advanced features such as email marketing integration.

Donations are at the bottom of the list due to their limited effectiveness, as you must rely on the generosity of your readers. It is usually more profitable to offer them something in exchange.

What are the most frequently asked questions about making money blogging with WordPress?
Your Blog Master has assisted thousands of new bloggers in beginning their blogging journey. We’ve heard almost every question imaginable. Here are the top questions we get from new bloggers about making money online through blogging.

  1. Which of these tried-and-true methods is best for me?

It all depends on what you are passionate about and which method would work best with the topics of your blog.

For example, if you run a photography blog, affiliate marketing, advertisements, and paid memberships may all be effective.

Focus on providing useful, high-quality content that users will appreciate, and money will follow. Do what you love, and the money will follow, as the saying goes.

  1. How much money will I be able to make from blogging?

It all comes down to how much effort you put in and how much time you are willing to invest. To be honest, many new bloggers quickly lose interest and give up.

You will earn money based on the amount of traffic you receive, the monetization methods you employ, and the amount of work you put in. Many successful bloggers earn six or even seven figures.

  1. How long will it take for me to start making money from blogging?

Making money online isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme. Anyone who tells you otherwise is most likely attempting to defraud you. If you want to make money by starting a blog, you will have to work hard and devote a significant amount of time to it.

There is no easy way to predict when you will start making money. Some bloggers make small amounts of money right away after starting their blogs. Others are having difficulty getting their blogs to take off.

Those who work consistently and adhere to a predetermined strategy, on the other hand, are more likely to see encouraging results very early on.

  1. Where do I begin?

It’s simple to get started with your own WordPress blog. However, make certain that you are using the appropriate platform.

In general, there are two kinds of WordPress. WordPress.com is a hosted solution, whereas WordPress.org is self-hosted WordPress.

We suggest WordPress.org because it will allow you to start making money right away. For more information, see our WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org comparison.

To begin blogging with WordPress.org, you will need a domain name and a web hosting account. A domain usually costs $14.99 per year, and web hosting is $7.99 per month for a full year.

If you’re just starting out with a blog, this is a lot of money.

Fortunately, we were able to obtain a special discount from Bluehost. Your Blog Master users can take advantage of a 60% discount and a free domain name.

Click Here to Take Advantage of This Special Bluehost Offer

In essence, you will be able to get started for as little as $2.75 per month. Bluehost is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider as well as one of the world’s largest hosting companies.

After you’ve purchased hosting, you’ll be able to install WordPress. Follow the steps in our step-by-step guide on how to start a blog to get started in less than 30 minutes.

We hope this article provided you with a plethora of ideas for making money online with WordPress! Anyone can make money from their WordPress site with hard work and perseverance.

If you liked this post, please find and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Beginners Guide