Before we get to the core topic and explain how you can generate passive income with your blog, we first want to explain what exactly passive income is. We also answer the following questions about “Generate passive income with your blog”, among others:
Definition: What is passive income?
In contrast to pursuing a conventional profession, there is no clear relationship between time expenditure and return when generating passive income. The big advantage is that you can make a multiple of the profit with little effort. So you generate cash flow. Even if you have to invest a lot of time and commitment at the beginning and will probably get little money for it, it will pay off at a later date. Because money can flow into your account even if you no longer do the job or do it a lot less.
So you can see that with an established blog you already have the best basis for building passive income.
Passive income with a blog: the requirements
It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or already have a blog: There are certain prerequisites for really earning passive income with your own blog. But you shouldn’t hang your head at this point, because these requirements will be met by themselves if you are a passionate blogger and blogging as a passionate hobby. Here we go.
1st requirement: lucrative niche
The competition is now fierce and there are numerous blogs on the internet. Therefore, you should serve a niche with your blog. Blogs about topics like fashion or lifestyle are a dime a dozen. This is not a good prerequisite for earning passive income from your blog. Therefore, set yourself apart from others as much as possible and choose a topic that makes you and your blog special. So don’t position yourself too broadly, but stay in your niche. Know your target audience and align your topics with them. Create new incentives on your blog from time to time to stay up to date. So try to write and publish new blog articles at regular intervals. Always try to observe current trends and integrate them into your content.
2nd requirement: expert status
Only those who can show a high reach will be able to monetize their blog. Therefore, you have to be prepared that you will not become super successful and well-known with your blog overnight. You build up your readership slowly and steadily – and above all with good and convincing content. Try to appear as an expert in this area and acquire thematic expertise. If blogging is your passion, it will happen automatically – don’t worry. Accordingly, you must also prepare your posts attractively and supplement them with pictures or videos. Try to inspire your readers with a relaxed writing style.
3rd requirement: range
If you already run a blog, you will certainly have one or two followers to show for it. If not, you need to work on that. That’s not bad, everyone started small. And you have to start somewhere. The important thing is that you start building this reach now. Because the more people you reach with your content, the more money you can make. To give you a guideline: Your blog is successful if you have at least four-digit visitor numbers every day. Because only from this number one can also speak of significant income.
Passive income with your own blog: the sources of income
But how exactly do you generate passive income with your own blog? What are the sources of income? There are different options. And we would now like to name some of these possibilities.
advertisements
In order to generate passive income through your blog with advertisements, you should have as much traffic as possible. The larger the stream of visitors, the more interesting the blog is for advertisers. If you don’t have that many visitors yet, you should first focus on traffic generation. Here it is important that you do not make your blog available to every advertiser. The content of the advertising should already match your topics and the target group, otherwise, it will only be annoying and scare off your readers.
Sell your own products
You can also sell your own products through your blog and generate passive income. Of course, you have to have your own products first. If you want to sell your own products, you first have to develop them, manufacture them and then sell them in the last step – and that involves a lot of work at first. It is not only about physical products, but also about digital ones.
Are you a garden professional and have you written a guide for the perfect balcony garden? Why not sell this as an eBook or whitepaper through your blog? Perhaps you also have a blog about drawing and illustration and are working on your own “how-to guide” for beginners? Then sell this one. Digital products are complex to create, but once they are made, you can easily generate passive income with them.
guest posts
Do you have a well-known blog and have already received requests for guest contributions or sponsored posts? Perfect! Because nothing is easier to sell than just a place for visibility. Products or services of the cooperation partner are then usually presented within these guest contributions. This can also take the form of a testimonial, sweepstakes, or casual mention. The more visitors you have to your blog, the more money you can ask for a sponsored post.
affiliate marketing
One of the most lucrative ways to generate passive income with your blog is to use so-called affiliate marketing. The principle is really simple and you will surely have heard of it before. With affiliate marketing, you embed a link on your blog from a partner you work with. As soon as a visitor clicks on the link and buys a product in the partner’s online shop via this link, you will receive a commission for this.
Let’s stay with the example of the garden professional. If you now want to publish a blog article in which you write about flower pots, then you could mention in a paragraph that you prefer to use the beautiful and colourful flower pots from XY. This is exactly where you would put the partner’s affiliate link so that your readers – if they are interested – are immediately in the online shop and can buy.
Example: The Wedding Blog
A good affiliate marketing example is the wedding blog “Love for Wedding” by Sandra and Jan Metzmacher. The couple from the Ruhr area put a lot of time and effort into planning their own wedding. The two researched and recorded everything from engagement events to the wedding dress search, the selection of the location and decoration to the wedding ceremony. They spent so much time on all sorts of topics related to the – for many absolute most important – celebration that they then considered sharing this information with others. The idea for her wedding blog was born.
They compiled all the information they had gathered while planning their own wedding on their blog. The focus here was – and still is – on the content itself. Of course, Sandra and Jan also include affiliate links in their posts and thus monetize their accumulated knowledge. But by sharing their own experiences and recommendations here, their posts become credible. And their readers build trust.
What is so clever about Sandra and Jan’s affiliate business? It is an evergreen topic (timeless relevance) that is associated with a great deal of emotion, societal values and passion. Doesn’t everyone want the perfect wedding? Totally smart, then, to position yourself in a niche where participation is very high.
Don’t forget regulations and laws
But back to passive income. Because if your blog is only to become your second financial mainstay, there are also a few requirements that must be taken into account and adhered to. Regardless of which side job or business idea you use to generate passive income, you must declare the income to the tax office as a second income. The best way to do this is to ask the tax office how you have to declare and tax your second income.
Conclusion: Passive income through your blog
So you see, there are a few ways to monetize your hobby. Please keep in mind that you still have to blog regularly so that the number of visitors does not collapse and you can constantly earn money. Of course, this cash flow does not come about by itself, you have to invest a little time to generate passive income.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about passive income with your own blog
What is passive income?
In contrast to pursuing a conventional profession, there is no clear relationship between time expenditure and return when generating passive income. The big advantage is that you can make a multiple of the profit with little effort.
How many blog readers do I need to have enough reach?
Your blog is successful if you have at least four-digit visitor numbers every day. Because only from this number one can also speak of significant income.
Among other things, you can generate passive income with the following options: Advertisements, selling your own products, guest posts or affiliate marketing.