Secret: The keys to making money blogging in 2024
I have an important warning to make before we begin.
I have dedicated a good portion of my career to working for some of the people I will list in this list. These are bloggers who make money by blogging.
Some bloggers do not hesitate to publish their turnover, while others keep this data extremely confidential. So, in this guide, I will only share the revenues that have been publicly disclosed. Even if I know the incomes of other bloggers, I cannot share them, it's like breaking the trust they have placed in me.
Rest assured, however, those that I am going to reveal will be enough to inspire you!
You should also know that, from my experience, I have seen that there are rules to be followed to estimate the amount of money generated by a blog. Certainly, it is not precise, but it still approaches the real value (with a few details). If you understand these rules well, you will be able to calculate the income of bloggers based on the size of their audience.
Moreover, for some people on this list, I have only estimated their income based on the size of their audience. Indeed, it is simply an estimation.
Ramit Sethi - I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Revenue: confidential
If you dig a little into the site, it is quite obvious that the blog generates most of its revenue from infoproducts. I consider this site as one of the best to learn if you are considering making money through blogging, thanks to infoproducts. Don't forget to sign up for its mailing list - you will start receiving launch funnels and you can see how it all works.
It is also possible to purchase some products on the products page. It is also an excellent source of inspiration to see what an amazing info product sales page looks like.
Marie Forleo - marieforleo.com
Recipes = Several million per year (in my opinion)
Marie has been running a blog for some time now. She has also put a lot of work into her YouTube channel.
She has a great reputation! I suppose most of her income also comes from info products, especially her flagship program B-School. I have been following the blog closely for some time; she usually launches B-School once a year.
If you want to produce positive and high-quality content, I advise you to take inspiration from Marie. She is also skilled at finding a balance between her content and her sales.
Steve Kamb - Nerd Fitness
Recipes = Over a million dollars per year.
Steve makes over seven figures with his business. He focuses on selling infoproducts, coaching, and bootcamps. He has also written a book titled "Level Up Your Life".
What I love most about Steve's company is how he chose a specific theme to address on his blog. He easily stands out from all the other fitness blogs. The fitness space is very competitive, but by focusing all his activities onFitness for nerds It clearly stands out from the competition. Even in the most competitive categories, there are always opportunities to target a particular niche and make money through blogging.
Amy Porterfield is a well-known digital marketing expert with a website at amyporterfield.com
Recipes = At least 2 to 3 million dollars per year according to my estimation
The "About Amy" page indicates that she has created a multi-million dollar business, which I absolutely believe, given the size of her audience.
I suppose that the vast majority of her income comes from her info products, but it seems that she also does promotion with her affiliates. Her affiliate page is quite elegant and well done. It is an excellent example of how toPromote products in an authentic and non-aggressive manner.
Jon Morrow is a Smart Blogger
Recipes = Over 1.2 million dollars per year
Jon claims that he has made over $100,000 per month in affiliate income, which is quite impressive.
He also has several info products available for purchase on his website. I bet that these info products alone bring in around 30 to 50,000 dollars per year. I don't know what Jon's email funnels look like, but if he does it in an aggressive manner, he could easily have a few million in additional revenue from the info products.
Darren Rowse - Problogger.com
Recipes = Approximately 10 million dollars per year (in my opinion)
Problogger has been around since 2004. That's quite an eternity! It is one of the first blogs that dealt with the theme "how to blog". Darren is also the owner of Digital Photography School, which has 8 times more traffic and revenue than Problogger.
If we consider the revenue report for the first half of 2016 that Darren made, we see that 46% of his revenue from the two sites came from affiliates, 31% from info products, and the rest from other things.
Seth Godin - Seth's blog
Recipes = Over 2 million dollars per year (estimated)
Seth Godin had already achieved a lot of success before his blog: he wrote 18 booksbookshas built and sold a businessTo Yahoo, and then wasVice President of YahooThere was then his blog, which then made him a leader in marketing (the theme of his blog). If you are trying to find an ideal example of an opinion leader, you will struggle to find a better example than Seth Godin.
Seth's blog is one of the most unique and oldest ones dealing with marketing. For the past twenty years, he has been publishing articles every day.
For a long time, he did not monetize it (unless you consider presenting his books from time to time as monetization). However, for the past few years, he has started selling infoproducts including the altMBA and The Marketing Seminar. I myself have gone through The Marketing Seminar. Seth's website indicates that in total, over 5,000 people have taken the course. At $800 per sale, that represents approximately $4 million, spread out over several years, not to mention the altMBA's revenue.
Neil Patel is a website owned by Neil Patel and can be found at neilpatel.com
Revenue = I'm not even going to try to guess
You should know that Neil is also a co-founder of KISSmetrics. He also works on multiple projects at once. So I'm not even going to try to guess his total income. All I know is that he has publicly stated that on his main blog, he was able to generate over 2.5 million visitors per month. I'll let you calculate the revenue yourselves.
Selena Soo - selenasoo.com
Recipes = Over 1.6 million dollars per year
Selena said she earned 1.6 million dollars in 2017. I assume that the majority of her income comes from the infoproducts she periodically launches to her email list. Given the progress of her business, she has built up a rather impressive portfolio of infoproducts.
Sam Dogen - Financial Samurai
Recipes = around 1 million dollars per year
Sam gives some hints about what he does with his website. First, he shares the value of his e-books: $36,000 per year.
However, he does not reveal his Adsense income or his affiliate income.
I remember Sam saying at one point that he had a million visitors per month. In fact, you can see it in Ahrefs' analysis, this tool places Sam's blog in that range. With his numerous affiliate links (with Adsense), I think he should be making a million dollars a year.
Brian Dean - Backlinko
Recipes = Over one million dollars per year
He adds info products to his mailing list twice a year. I also believe he has a course on SEO and another on YouTube. With the volume of his traffic, each of these launches should reach a six-figure number, maybe a million dollars per launch.
Moreover, in some interviews, he admitted to making money from blogging, a seven-figure number.
Blacklinko is an excellent example of a company that focuses heavily on traffic generation; it is this traffic that will then convert into subscribers. Subscribers will then receive offers for info products in their email.
Admit it, you too, you want to make money by blogging in this way, that is to say: one million dollars per year, with a super small team and quality info products.
James DahleWhite Coat Investor
Recipes = Over a million dollars per year
James used to publish his annual income in his blog articles, but he stopped doing so when his blog became more popular. Perhaps you would like to seethe state of his blog in 2019 His last reported income was $187,862 in 2014. He mentions several times that he now runs a seven-figure business, which means his current income is at least one million dollars per year.
By browsing through its website, you will notice that the majority of its revenues come from affiliates, advertisements, and sponsorships.
His email list is extremely small compared to the size of his blog - it only has over 21,000 subscribers. And with a small mailing list, any product launch will be limited to five figures. He has an info product on creating your own financial plan for $499. If he focused on email conversion and became good at info products, he could add one to two million dollars in additional revenue to his business.
Tim Ferriss is the author of the blog tim.blog
Recipes = Approximately 10 million dollars per year (in my opinion)
Tim has a huge blog that has been around for a long time. He created it even before launching his first book, The 4 Hour Workweek.
Currently, I assume that the majority of Tim's income comes from sponsoring his podcasts. I have seen advertisements on his blog in the past, but it seems there are none currently.
His podcast sponsorships amount to $36,000 per hour. With 4 or 5 hours per episode, this represents at least $144,000 per episode. Tim produces an average of six podcasts per month, which would generate $864,000 per month or $10,368,000 per year.
For the sale of podcast sponsorships, I have no idea. I have no experience in that area. In addition, websites of this size tend to be extraordinary... It has a very large influence, and therefore, it definitely charges more than usual.
Tim has also used his blog to promote his books over the years. These include The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans, and Tribe of Mentors.
Timothy Sykes - timothysykes.com
Recipes = Over 25 million dollars per year
Timothy has been around for a while now, and mainly sells infoproducts on how to invest in stocks starting from one cent.
He managed to generate around 25 to 27 million dollars in revenue in 2016, with 20 million dollars coming from information products.
Josh Axe - Dr. Axe
Revenue = $11 million per year in 2015 (possibly in the range of $50 to $70 million per year today)
Dr. Axe is a large website, obviously with a huge audience. It has 17 million visitors per month, which is extraordinary. It plays aggressively in offering their info products. It is clear that he knows what he is doing. Specifically, his income is a mix of info products, affiliates, and supplements.
Supplements bring a lot. It is true that I do not have experience in health and sports, but I often hear advice that supplements are good for athletes.
With effective marketing, it is very likely that Dr. Axe currently makes between 50 to 70 million dollars per year through his blog.
If you want to make money blogging about health topics, you should take inspiration from Dr. Axe. He is a perfect example of a monetized health and fitness blog.
Peter Adeney, also known as Mr. Money Mustache
Recipes = approximately $400,000 per year
Peter touched about$400,000 per year starting from 2016Ahrefs reports that Peter's traffic has been stagnant since 2016. If this is true, I would expect his current revenue to be around $400,000. It appears that the majority, if not all, of the revenue comes from affiliates.
AJ Harbinger and Johnny Dzubak - Art of Charm
Recipes = 5 to 10 million dollars per year (in my opinion)
Jordan Harbinger has not disclosed the exact amount of revenue, but he stated that it is in the multiple seven figures per year. Based on the fact that the income is mainly from infoproducts (given the overall size of the audience), I believe that Art of Charm generates revenues of 5 to 10 million dollars per year.
In 2018, Jordan Harbinger parted ways with the Art of Charm, and launched his own podcast.
Pat Flynn - Smart Passive Income
Income = $2,171,652 per year
Pat Flynn publishes all his hereincome reports from his blog, going back to 2008..
I'm not sure if Pat has decided to stop, but it seems he hasn't published any new income statements since 2017. Either way, I highly recommend reading reports on his early income. This will give you a good idea of what to do to start making money from blogging.
The majority of Pat's income comes from affiliate offers and his own info products, with about a 50/50 split between the two. He has also published a few books, How to Be Better at Almost Everything and Will it Fly? Aside from the months when he received the publisher's advance, I bet these books have a negligible direct impact on his earnings.
John Lee Dumas - Entrepreneur on Fire
Recipes = $2,029,744 per year
No one really needs to guess John Lee Dumas' income, he publishes monthly income reports directly on his website.
He also classified these revenues by category:
Referral marketing is slightly more important than anything else. Otherwise, the distribution is fairly balanced between the infoproducts, affiliates, and its reviews (The Freedom Journal, The Mastery Journal, and The Podcast Journal).
To get an idea of how blogs actually make money, I highly recommend reading the monthly income reports for the past 12 months from Entrepreneur on Fire. This will give you a great idea of what a seven-figure blog looks like. I also recommend reading the income reports for 2012 and 2013, which will show you what income looks like in the beginning and how it evolves over time on the path to a million dollars per year.
Navid Moazzez - navidmoazzez.com
Recipes = They amount to 300-500,000 dollars per year (I think)
Navid is in the online marketing space and offers information products. According to his "About" page, he has earned over a million dollars in "a few years". It can be said without hesitation that he easily does six-figure deals on his blog. Hence my above assumption.
Tim Urban is the author of the blog "Wait but Why"
Recipes = At least $100,000, potentially $1 million or more per year
Tim Urban has become popular and his blog articles have been shared everywhere for some time.
This is probably an example of what most people dream of when they create a blog. They plan to write a bunch of things, a rabid fan base will appear out of nowhere, they will offer some t-shirts, posters, and a Patreon account to earn tons of passive income.
For Tim Urban, this is what happened. And he absolutely deserves it. His content is phenomenal. If he doesn't post for a certain period of time, his readers may get annoyed. Very few of us can write content like this. I can promise you that no one gets annoyed when I stop blogging. So, for us mortals, we should look at some of the other examples on this list to learn how to make money blogging.
I know that I haven't been very specific in estimating income. In fact, blogs like this one are difficult to pin down. Tim clearly has a very large audience that truly admires him. This doesn't necessarily mean he's swimming in money, although it's possible. Blogs with a massive audience like this one sometimes make a lot of money, and sometimes very little. It also seems that his main source of income is his online store. Unlike consulting, speaking engagements, info products, or affiliates, income from online sales is much lower. It's entirely possible that he's making a ton of online income, but only enough to lead a decent life.
It is quite common among online sales entrepreneurs. They claim to only bring in 50 to 100,000 dollars a year. Taking into account the cost of goods sold and overhead expenses, there is not much profit left.
Noah Kagan - OkDork, Sumo and AppSumo
Recipes: 10 million dollars last year
Noah's activity revolves around four complementary websites
Sumo.com: Free marketing tools to grow your business
AppSumo: Groupon for geeks
KingSumo: Web Application Giveaway or WordPress Plugin
BriefcaseHQ: Netflix for enterprise software
This system is very effective. The concept is similar to that of a pyramid: KingSumo helps grow your business through giveaways, Sumo (which is the base product) provides these businesses with the marketing tools they need, and BriefcaseHQ and AppSumo provide the rest of the tools. Creating a system of nested tools means you don't need to look for anynew clientsYou can simply market to the customers you already have.
In concrete terms, it's like buying another book from an author you already love. If you enjoy a book that an author has written, of course you will be willing to buy their other works!
He also put a lot of thought into setting up an appropriate pricing structure, optimizing recurring revenues, and many other elements.
Shane Parrish - Farnam Street
Recipes: Everything has been reinvested in the company, plus the fees of the speakers
Shane started his blog to track his learning and personal development - he didn't have big ambitions for the project, and the original url, 68131.blogger.com, proves it. Today, his newsletter has 200,000 subscribers and Farnam Street receives 1 million views on its pages per month.
How does he make money? Well, I want to clarify that here, these two terms are different: "earning money" and "making money". Shane says he reinvested most of his money in this business. "In 2014, I think we actually lost money. In 2015, we no longer lost money, which is a good thing. ... I will say that I never really earned a penny on Farnam Street (at the beginning). Everything was reinvested in content, experience, trying new things, and that's how I foresee the future, I hope."
He started by earning affiliate links on Amazon, then in 2014 he began his first 9-month partnership contract, newsletter sponsorships, speaking engagements, speaker fees, info products, a podcast, a book, and a membership plan for his website ($149 or $249).
His model is based on the production of free content to the public, but with restricted access to certain other content. Super fans are willing to pay for this. They would have access to more things: book club, discussion group, and the private site Ask Me Anythings.
If 5% of its 200,000 newsletter subscribers convert (10,000 members), and each of them signs up at the $149 level, this represents $1.5 million per year.
Shane regularly turns down conferences for $20,000 because that's not how he wants to make money. He also doesn't take money from his workshops. Before doing anything, he always asks himself what is in the best interest of the company. This means that the majority of income comes from memberships.
I agree with his advice: "The audience will increase if you broadcast good content." And: "I know how easy it is for people to copy our content and even our business model. That is why it motivates a large part of our activities. We want to do things that are difficult to copy and that means we cannot choose what is easy, because there is a lot of competition in what is easy".
Ready to make money blogging?
I know that the list above is mainly made up of bloggers who earn a lot of money.
But, did you know?
Some people have quit their jobs to devote 100% of their time to their blog, with the goal of monetizing it and making a living from their blog.
The list is too long for me to keep track of - I couldn't establish it.
What I would like to tell you is that it is entirely possible to create a blog and then leave your job (reasonably); you then become your own boss. Many people have done it before you.
But still, every year, I see new promising bloggers. It is still possible to start a blog today and benefit from its support. I have written hereA 12-step guide on how to start a blogIt will guide you through the entire process.