Why do so many people want to blog these days? It may be a love of sharing ideas, writing, or analyzing what happens in their lives or business. But it may also be for the potential money that you can make with a blog. Many solo entrepreneurs, writers, and professional bloggers have tapped into the power of blogging. Many have been able to create a part-time or even a full-time income doing this.
In this article, we will look at some favorite blogs, their monthly income as of February 2018 and analyze how they generate their revenue and profit. Below are some of the top earning blogs for 2018.
The first section is dedicated to individuals who have created a blog to earn them monthly income, while the second section is focused more on professional magazines and online publications. Take a look at how they have monetized their blogs and try some of these ideas for yourself.
Individual Bloggers who make Big Bucks Through Blogging
1. ShoutMeLoud.com
Harsh Agrawal is the founder and manager of ShoutMeLoud.com. This blog is dedicated to helping work-at-home entrepreneurs to find their niche and generate a passive income from home. He offers helpful digital marketing tips and blogging tips through an email newsletter that you can sign up for. Agrawal reports that his monthly income is currently around $40,0055 and he generates his revenue through affiliate product, his products, and direct ads. That’s a pretty good revenue for someone who once just wrote his ideas as a hobby with a limited audience.
2. JohnnyFd.com
Johnnyfd.com is a blog hosted by a guy named Johnny who goes by “Johnny FD.” He is a San Franciso native but loves to travel around the world and have new experiences. This world traveler loves to share his travel experiences with others which he does on his blog. His monthly income is listed currently at around $9,114.66 as of February 2018. He says his income comes from drop shipping, book sales, and affiliate product promotion. This highly motivated blogger believes the sky is the limit and he enjoys making a passive income creating content people can benefit from.
3. Smartpassiveincome.com
Professional blogging king, Pat Flynn hosts Smartpassiveincome.com. He is into more than affiliate marketing, but he says that affiliate marketing is still a large part of his revenue. He pulls in a whopping $167,553.31 per month as of February 2018! That’s more than most people dream of making in a year or more. He sells his instructional materials, books, and other products. He also does consult with other booksellers and sells affiliate products on his sites. In addition to this, he is active with podcasts that reach a broad audience, and he creates software and apps that he puts out there. He even sells niche sites. The more you do, the more you’ll make.
4. MatthewWoodWard.co.uk
Matthew Woodward is the host of this affiliate marketing and SEO blog. He makes $25,718.28 per month as of the latest audit selling affiliate products, consulting, and other products. His site is highly focused on the topic of affiliate marketing and SEO, so he hosts a niche site that is specific to the marketing topic. Who says you can’t make money writing posts? He also loves helping his fellow affiliate marketers and bloggers to find their way in the sea of online marketing opportunities.
5. MakingSenseofCents.com
Michelle is the host of this blog which is niche-focused on saving and investing money wisely. Her philosophy is to “live more and do more,” and her positive attitude has drawn in over 300,000 readers. She reports that her monthly income this year is currently at $114,812 per month, not a bad income for someone to makes her living teaching others to make and save money! She says she focuses on affiliate production, online courses, and direct ads. It certainly sounds like Michelle knows how to “make sense of cents!”
6. Dumbpassiveincome.com
This blog is focused on finding ways to make a passive income through affiliate marketing. The blog manager is Matthew Allen, and though he only reports around $1,899.46 per month in income, that’s not bad for something he just set up and let it run. For those who have a more realistic goal for some extra monthly income, this might be a great blog to follow. It will also be interesting to see if Matthew’s income comes up over the next few months or years.
7. SingleMomsIncome.com
SingleMomsIncome.com is a site for work-at-home moms. It features great tips on saving money as well as how to buy a house and how to generate income from home. The blog owner makes around $6,648.63 per month as of the February 2018 audit, and she does it with freelance writing, ad networks, and sponsored products and posts.
8. Truevalhalla.com
Truevalhalla.com is a site run by Matthew Valhalla. He is a game designer and author who advertises on his blog and regularly reports his income on his site. He has a large following on his site and social media, and he reported a monthly income of $10,563 per month due to game sales, book sales, and website ads.
9. Pinchofyum.com
Pinchofyum.com is a blog hosted by Lindsay and Bjork, a husband and wife duo who are making over $7,000 per month with their blog. They focus on cooking, sharing recipes, and blogging. They make their income through affiliate product promotion, sponsored posts, advertising, and public speaking events.
10. JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com
JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com is a self-help blog with a monthly income of $33,659. The host, Abby Lawson, just seems like an ordinary girl, as the title of her blog implies. But as you read through the various posts, you start to see why she can generate such a high income. She offers some highly valuable tips, resources, and motivational posts about how to reach your goals as a solo entrepreneur. She makes most of her income from affiliate products and by selling her original products. She is truly an entrepreneur helping other entrepreneurs.
Professional Magazines and Blogs with Huge Blogging Incomes
Now that you’ve seen what everyday people are doing with their blogs let’s take a look at a few others who are generating a massive income with their sites and blogs. You’ll recognize many of the names of these popular sites. Look them up online and see what they are doing to generate this considerable revenue.
11. The Huffington Post
Arianna Huffington owns the Huffington Post (known as HuffPo). They run a Pay-per-click operation within their ad network where they get paid for ad clicks. Due to the huge number of subscribers and readers that they have, they can generate a monthly income of $2,330,000!
12. TechCrunch
TechCrunch is one of the most visited tech blogs on the internet today. While they don’t pull in the amount of money HuffPo does, it’s nothing to sneeze at. They say that they generate around $800,000 per month through advertising banners alone.
13. Mashable
Mashable is owned by Pete Cashmore, who once said he wanted to find a way to make money without getting out of bed. He would write articles and submit them for pay as he developed his own tech blog site that now has millions of daily views. He states that he makes his revenue through advertising banners that people click on as they are reading the articles and he pulls in a cool $600,000 per month.
14. Perez Hilton
Perez Hilton and Mario Lavandeira run this blog that pulls in $450,000 per month. Somewhat of a gossip column about Hollywood celebrities, this site gets a lot of traffic each month which makes this site their revenue based on advertising banners.
15. The Blonde Salad
The Blonde Salad is a blog set up by well-known internet celebrity, Chiara Ferragni. The blog focuses on different fashions and looks that appeal to blondes (as well as others who want to be in style.) The site has personality, and it appeals to lots of people who want to make a scene in the fashion world but also be a regular person at the same time. Chiara generates a monthly revenue of $200,000 per month through private advertising.
16. Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is a magazine that is dedicated to offering tips for web designers and graphic designers. They are a bookstore also, offering both physical and digital books for purchase or download. Their eBooks are a bit pricey when compared to normal eBooks on the Kindle store or other platforms, but they advertise them as full of important content, so many of their subscribers will pay these prices. They even offer a section on jobs where freelancers can look for jobs and projects. They pull in $190,000 per month. Blog owner, Vitaly Friedman says their primary source of income is from advertising banners.
17. Timothy Sykes
Timothy Sykes runs this blog that focuses on day trading. He makes his income through affiliate sales by promoting other products. He makes $150,000 per month on his site. He has a call-to-action button right in the middle of his site when you enter his site which invites you to apply to work with him. He also has a “millionaire challenge” that asks people to look into his affiliate marketing plan and join his team.
18. Tuts Plus
Tech expert, Collis Ta’eed own tuts Plus. They are a site that focuses on highly specialized technical tutorials on web design, PhotoShop, and many other types of technology that many people want tutorials about. If you can write a useful tutorial for them, they will pay up to $300 per tutorial. They also take blog posts from freelance writers. They can afford to do this because they pull in an estimated $120,000 per month, almost solely from their membership area for sign-ups.
19. Life Hacker
Gina Trapani runs life Hacker. The site focuses on their slogan, “Do everything better.” They give tips that they call “life hacks” that allow you to manage your time better, do something better than you have done it before, or save money and resources while doing it. You have to check out their site to see what we mean. They pull in around $110,000 per month through advertising banners. People click on their ads when they visit the site. They must have a lot of views to get that many clicks and their revenue speaks louder than words.
20. Car Advice
Car Advice is an Australian-based car advice column that pulls in around $110,000 per month. They focus on providing important advice on purchasing a car as well as lots of nice photos featuring some of the hottest cars available in the Australian car market. They also have articles that discuss the trends in car manufacturing and sales to help car business owners, as well. They make their primary income through pay-per-click advertising.
21. Problogger.com
Problogger.com is owned by the king of blogging, Darren Rowse. He is a self-made billionaire, making most of his money from blogging, affiliate marketing, and digital product downloads. He started as just a normal blogger, then started adding digital marketing and affiliate marketing which has added up over time to an online empire. He is also considered one of the foremost authorities in affiliate marketing and digital product development, and he has his line of instructional media nd downloads, books, and more. He also participated in live events as an expert speaker. There is a popular “job board” on his site that attracts the attention of thousands of writers looking for work each week. He makes an astounding $40,000 per month on advertising banners alone. That’s not counting all of the other passive incomes he has set up with his line of informational products.
22. Venture Beat
Venturebeat.com is a site run by Matt Marshall with the logo, “Tech news that matters.” Marshall tries to educate people on the latest news coming from the technology world and claims to focus only on the most important news and not the more trivial stuff. He tends to focus on the latest deals with technology companies and keeps people informed on what is going on in the tech world as best he can. He has quite a few readers as is evidenced by his monthly revenue report of $100,000 per month. He makes this income from PPC ads.
23. Slash Gear
Ewdison Then owns slash Gear, and the site is focused on technology and the automobile industry. In fact, his slogan echoes this, “the definitive guide to tech and cars.” On the site, you’ll find information on all types of technology that is available for vehicles today and even some of the technology that is being proposed for the future. He used PPC advertising, and the site generates around $80,000 per month.
24. Talking Point Memo
This blog focuses on political ideologies and opinions held by the editors and creators of the site. Joshua Micah Marshall runs the site and features controversial topics that he knows will stir debate. He makes $50,000 per month on his site using the PPC advertising model.
25. Steve Pavlina
Steve Pavlina hosts this unique blog on tips that attempt to help entrepreneurs and others to think big and explore the options in life. He has created a good income on this blog (around $45,000 per month) all by using PPC advertising. He features articles on all kinds of topics and blog posts that he shares with his audience. He wants to inspire and motivate other self-starters to look beyond the obvious and focus on their goals.
Conclusion: Blogging is Good Money!
We hope you have enjoyed checking out this comprehensive collection of lucrative blogs that these freelance bloggers and publications have created for themselves. Both the self-starter entrepreneurs at the top as well as the well-advertised media publications on the second section illustrate just what someone can do when you set your mind to it.
- Want to get started with a blog of your own and make money online? It’s easy! Click here to follow our simple 3-step process, and get a free domain name in the process!
Whether you are an individual blogger or a big online publisher or magazine, there is plenty of money to be made in blogging. The key to success is first to have a great idea and then to figure out a way to monetize it. You’ll notice that some successful bloggers have used affiliate marketing primarily. Others have used a pay-per-click advertising model. Most of the high-profile online publications and magazines use PPC because it is often the best model for online magazines. Their readers come to their site to read their content, and while there, they click on ads related to the content.
Whatever your business model, you can also make a living blogging if you take the time to think about what strategy you will use to monetize your blog and then implement the plan to the extreme. With consistency, you’ll see the results.