30 Ways to Make Money Online Blogging (On the Side) in 2026

I spent the first eight months of my blogging life waiting for AdSense to change things.

I’d hit 9,000 monthly visitors, written 47 posts, and every morning, I’d open my AdSense dashboard hoping to see a number worth talking about.

It never was. My best month? $22.

That was the moment I stopped treating display ads as a strategy, started looking for AdSense alternatives, and started treating them as what they actually are.

A side effect of traffic. Not a business model.

The 30 methods below are what I wish someone had mapped out for me on day one. Some you can start today with zero audience. Others need months of groundwork first, so if these are for you, start now.

I’ll tell you exactly which is which, so you don’t lose eight months the way I did.

Key Takeaways

• I’ll show you exactly how to earn your first $1K, and beyond, from a WordPress blog
• I reveal the 5 fastest methods to monetize even if you’re just starting out
• Cover why most bloggers stall at $50/month and what to do instead
• I break down which methods are passive and which require ongoing effort
• I tested 30 income strategies, so you know which are actually worth your time in 2026

Before You Start: What Makes a Blog Ready to Earn?

First, you need to understand the difference between a blog and a website.

A blog is a dynamic type of website, or a section within a website, characterized by content that is updated regularly.

While a “website” is an umbrella term for any collection of web pages, businesses often use their primary site to host fixed information like services, portfolios, and contact details.

Technically, a blog is always a website, but you can choose to use a dedicated blogging platform or build a comprehensive site that functions without a blog.

To build a WordPress blog, you’ll need to own a domain name and reliable blog hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet, such as Google.com or IsItWP.com, and web hosting is where your website’s content and files are stored online.

The combined cost of a domain name and hosting can be quite expensive, especially if you’re starting out.

That’s why we’ve worked out a deal with Bluehost to offer our users a FREE domain name and over 70% off on web hosting.

Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer »

Bluehost is one of the largest web hosting providers in the world. They’re an officially recommended hosting provider by the folks who created WordPress.

Before you dive in, keep in mind that these are not get-rich-quick schemes. You’ll need to put in time and effort to reap the reward.

Need help building a blog before you begin? No problem. For a detailed guide, check out our article on how to make a WordPress blog.

Here’s something most experts don’t tell you. Not every blog is ready to earn from every method.

Some methods work with 500 monthly visitors. Others need 50,000. Starting with the wrong method for your current stage is the most common reason bloggers quit before they see any real income.

Here’s a quick reality check.

You need a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Free platforms like WordPress.com or Wix restrict monetization. You can’t create custom ads, have limited affiliate tools, and no plugin access.

You need WordPress.org on your own hosting. That gives you full control over every method in this article. If you haven’t set that up yet, start a WordPress blog step by step before going further.

The good news if you are on another CMS or a third-party blogging account, you can quickly move to WordPress.org. Check out this post, I walk you through how to migrate from any CMS to WordPress.

Plus, here are more specific tutorials for migration depending on your case.

• How to Migrate From Medium to WordPress (No Downtime!)
• How to Move From Blogger to WordPress
• Switch From Wix to WordPress (Step by Step)
• How to Move Your Site From WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Different methods have different traffic floors:

• Affiliate marketing: works with as few as 200 to 500 monthly visitors, if your content targets buyer keywords
• Display ads (AdSense): works at any level, but only pays meaningfully above 10,000 monthly sessions
• Sponsored posts: brands typically reach out to around 5,000–10,000 monthly visitors in a clear niche
• Online courses and memberships: traffic matters less than audience trust, even 1,000 loyal readers can fund a launch
• Services (consulting, freelancing, coaching): zero traffic needed. Your blog is your portfolio

Realistic income timelines:

• First $100: 3 to 6 months
• First $1,000/month: 12 to 18 months of consistent publishing
• Full-time income ($5,000+/month): 2 to 4 years for most bloggers

None of this is a get-rich-quick scheme. But with the right method for your current stage, it’s very achievable.

How I Evaluate These Methods

🔍 Click to see how I assess each blogging income method

Here’s exactly what I look at when evaluating a way to make money blogging:

• Income ceiling: Can this realistically reach $1K, $5K, or $10K+ per month?
• Startup difficulty: Can a beginner implement this today, or does it need technical setup?
• Traffic required: Does this work with low traffic, or only at scale?
• Passive vs. active income: Does this earn while you sleep, or does it need ongoing work?
• WordPress implementation: Is there a plugin that makes this straightforward on a WordPress blog?

How I test:

• I run a self-hosted WordPress blog and test each method with real plugins and real setups
• Track earnings via MonsterInsights to measure actual conversion performance
• I review community feedback and real blogger income reports to validate methods at scale

---

Why Trust IsItWP?

At IsItWP, we’ve been the WordPress community’s go-to resource since 2009, helping over 2 million users build better WordPress websites.

Unlike review sites that skim product pages, we maintain active WordPress installs, run real test implementations, and write from direct experience with every tool and method we recommend.

30 Ways to Make Money Online Blogging in 2026

Now, 30 ways to make money online is a long list. To help you find your best fit at a glance, I have broken this article into different sections.

You can also use the table of contents below to navigate to any part of the article. Plus, I have added a table for each section. This way, you can compare all the methods in each section quickly.

Monetize Your Blog Content

These methods earn directly from the content you publish without building products or selling services. Most bloggers start here.

Method	Income Potential	Traffic Needed	Passive?
1. Display Advertising	$2–$35 RPM	High	✅ Yes
2. Affiliate Marketing	$50–$10,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Mostly
3. Sponsored Posts	$200–$5,000/post	Medium	❌ No
4. Direct Ad Sales	$100–$2,000+/mo	Medium	✅ Mostly
5. Email Newsletter	$500–$5,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Mostly
6. Paid Newsletter	$500–$10,000+/mo	Low	✅ Yes
7. Brand Ambassadorships	$500–$5,000+/mo	Medium	❌ No

1. Display Advertising

Best for: High-traffic bloggers in lifestyle, food, travel, or news niches
Income potential: $2–$35 RPM (revenue per 1,000 pageviews)
Traffic needed: High (10,000+ sessions to earn meaningfully)

Display advertising is the simplest way to monetize a blog and also the most misunderstood.

Most beginners start with Google AdSense because it’s easy to set up. That’s fine. But AdSense RPMs average $2–$5 per 1,000 pageviews.

You need a lot of traffic to earn anything significant. If you’re comparing options, there are several Google AdSense alternatives worth knowing before you commit.

The real money is in premium ad networks.

Once you hit 50,000 monthly sessions, you can apply to Mediavine, where RPMs typically run $15–$25. At 100,000 sessions, AdThrive (now Raptive) pays $20–$35 RPM.

For a blog with 100,000 monthly pageviews, that’s a difference between $300/month (AdSense) and $2,500/month (Raptive). Same traffic, but very different income.

Display advertising is passive once it’s running. But it’s a poor primary strategy for new blogs. Use it as a supplement while you build more active income streams.

👉 Set up Google AdSense on your WordPress site with this step-by-step guide. Once you hit 50,000 monthly sessions, apply to Mediavine.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Best for: Bloggers who review products, write how-tos, or cover any niche with tool or gear recommendations
Income potential: $50–$10,000+/month
Traffic needed: Low-Medium (buyer-intent content converts even at 500 visitors/month)

Affiliate marketing is the most reliable income driver for most bloggers and the fastest to start.

Here’s how it works: you join an affiliate program, get a unique tracking link, and earn a commission whenever a reader buys through it. Commissions range from 5% on physical products to 30–50% on software subscriptions.

The key is targeting buyer-intent content. A post titled “Best project management tools for bloggers” converts at 3–8%. A post titled “What is project management?” maybe 0.1%.

Same traffic, wildly different earnings. When I focused my editorial calendar on buyer-intent keywords, my affiliate income tripled in 90 days without gaining a single new visitor.

ThirstyAffiliates and Pretty Links both let you manage, cloak, and track your affiliate links from your WordPress dashboard.

For example, check out the screenshot below to see how Pretty Links cloaks URLS. As you can see, Pretty Links specializes in branded, clean-looking URLs.

On the other hand, ThirstyAffiliates focuses on link categorization and click tracking. Check out the screenshot below to see what I mean.

Either is better than raw affiliate URLs dropped into posts, and both give you click-level data so you know exactly what’s converting. Check out my ThirstyAffiliates vs Pretty Links comparison for a full breakdown.

👉 Sign up for 2–3 affiliate programs in your niche. See the best WordPress plugins for affiliate marketers for tools to manage everything.

3. Sponsored Blog Posts

Best for: Bloggers with a defined niche and an engaged, trusting audience
Income potential: $200–$5,000+ per post
Traffic needed: Medium (brands typically want 5,000–10,000+ monthly visitors in a clear niche)

Brands pay to get in front of your audience. That’s the simple version.

A sponsored post is content you write that promotes a brand’s product or service. You get paid a flat fee. Rates depend on your niche.

For example, a finance blog with 10,000 monthly readers will command higher rates than a general lifestyle blog with 50,000 because the audience is more targeted and valuable to specific advertisers.

There are two paths to finding sponsors: wait for them to reach out, or proactively pitch brands you already use and believe in.

Direct outreach with a simple media kit, such as your traffic, audience demographics, and sample rates, works better than most people expect.

One thing you cannot skip: FTC disclosure. US law requires you to label sponsored content clearly. “This is a sponsored post” belongs at the top of the article, not buried in footer text.

The FTC tightened enforcement in 2024, and the rules apply even for small blogs.

If you publish sponsored posts on an ongoing basis, then you might want to install the WPForms plugin on your site.

If you are looking for a simple starting point, I’ve got you.

WPForms allows you to create a post submission form on your WordPress site.

With a post submission form, you can allow users to submit a post in WordPress without providing them access to your WordPress dashboard.

In addition, you can require your sponsors to make a payment while submitting the post for your review.

For more details, check out my WPForms review.

👉 Build a one-page media kit with your traffic and audience data. Start by pitching 3–5 brands whose products you already recommend organically.

4. Sell Direct Ad Space to Brands

Best for: Blogs with a niche audience specific brands want to reach repeatedly
Income potential: $100–$2,000+/month per ad slot
Traffic needed: Medium (5,000–20,000 monthly visitors in a defined niche)

This is different from display advertising networks. Instead of letting Google or Mediavine place ads on your site, you sell ad placements directly to brands yourself.

The advantage is clear: you cut out the middleman.

An ad network might pay you $5 CPM on a sidebar banner. That same slot sold directly to a relevant brand might fetch $200/month flat regardless of clicks or impressions.

The AdSanity plugin handles direct ad management on WordPress. This includes campaign scheduling, impression tracking, and placement rotation without touching code.

You’ll typically offer banner spots in your sidebar or header, newsletter ad placements if you have a list, or sponsored content slots on high-traffic posts.

The best way to attract direct advertisers with Adsanity or a similar tool is a visible “Advertise” page listing your audience profile, traffic numbers, and available placements.

Check out my Adsanity review for more details.

👉 Create an “Advertise With Us” page. Install AdSanity to manage your inventory. Approach brands already advertising on competitor sites in your niche.

5. Build and Monetize an Email Newsletter

Best for: Bloggers in any niche who want recurring, platform-independent income
Income potential: $500–$5,000+/month (newsletter sponsorships average $20–$50 per 1,000 subscribers)
Traffic needed: Low-Medium (500+ email subscribers is enough to start monetizing)

Your email list is the only audience you actually own.

Even consistent organic Social media followers disappear when algorithms change. While SEO traffic drops when Google updates. Email subscribers? Those are yours.

That’s why in 2026, the bloggers earning the most reliable income are the ones who treat email list-building as seriously as content creation.

The good news is you can use both organic traffic and social media to grow your newsletter as well. So do not neglect them.

The monetization side is often underexplained.

Most people know “build an email list.” Far fewer know that a newsletter with 2,000 engaged subscribers can earn $500–$1,000/month in sponsorship revenue alone.

At $25 CPM, one sponsor slot per weekly issue generates $50/week. Add affiliate links inside emails, and the number climbs further.

OptinMonster is the easiest way to grow your email list on WordPress. It creates popups, slide-ins, and inline opt-in forms that trigger based on reader behavior like exit intent, scroll depth, and time on page.

The difference between a static opt-in box and a behavior-triggered one is typically a 3–5× improvement in conversion rate. See the best lead generation plugins for WordPress to compare your options.

Check out my OptinMonster review for more details.

I also like to use Beacon.by for lead magnet creation. It can turn any blog post into a checklist, eBook or any other lead magnet with a click of a button.

Check out my Beacon.by review for more details.

👉 Install OptinMonster. Create a lead magnet like a free checklist or short guide to give readers a reason to subscribe. Start monetizing with a sponsor slot once you hit 500 subscribers.

6. Start a Paid Newsletter Subscription

Best for: Bloggers with a loyal, niche-specific audience who produce consistently valuable content
Income potential: $500–$10,000+/month (500 subscribers at $10/month = $5,000/month)
Traffic needed: Low (loyalty matters more than volume)

A free newsletter builds an audience. A paid newsletter builds a business.

The model is simple: readers pay a monthly subscription ($5–$15 is standard) to access premium content.

This could be a weekly deep-dive, an exclusive analysis, a resource library, anything your free readers wish they had access to.

The math is compelling.

If 2% of your 1,000 email subscribers convert to a $10/month paid tier, that’s $200/month. With 5,000 subscribers and the same 2% conversion, you’re at $1,000/month in fully passive recurring income.

And unlike ad revenue, it doesn’t disappear when traffic dips.

MemberPress handles the entire paid newsletter infrastructure on WordPress, from subscriber payments, content access gating, and member management. It does all this without needing third-party platforms.

Check out my MemberPress review for more details. Plus, you can compare it with alternatives in this best WordPress membership plugins roundup.

👉 Identify your highest-value content type, the thing your readers would actually pay for. Set up MemberPress with a starter paid tier at $5–$7/month and announce it to your free list first.

7. Brand Ambassadorships

Best for: Bloggers with established niche authority and consistent audience engagement
Income potential: $500–$5,000+/month per partnership
Traffic needed: Medium (10,000–50,000 monthly visitors in a defined niche)

A sponsored post is a transaction. A brand ambassadorship is a relationship. With an ambassadorship, a brand pays you a monthly retainer to be their ongoing advocate.

With this approach, you can mention them in posts, feature them in your newsletter, and promote their product consistently over time.

The payment is recurring. And for mid-size bloggers, this is often more lucrative than chasing individual sponsored posts.

Brands prefer ambassadorships because they get consistent, authentic exposure rather than a single mention. You benefit because it’s a predictable monthly income.

The best path to landing one: Make sure you are already using and recommending the product publicly.

Many bloggers turn organic affiliate relationships into ambassador deals by approaching the brand with data.

“I’ve referred 47 sales to you this quarter through affiliate links. I’d like to discuss a more formal partnership.” That’s a very different conversation from a cold pitch.

👉 Identify 2–3 brands you already recommend regularly. Pull your affiliate referral data. Pitch a 3-month ambassador arrangement with a flat monthly rate.

Build a Paid Community

These methods go beyond individual content pieces. You’re building a space your audience pays to belong to.

Method	Income Potential	Traffic Needed	Passive?
8. Members-Only Content	$200–$3,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Yes
9. Sell Online Courses	$500–$20,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Mostly
10. Paid Webinars	$500–$5,000/event	Medium	✅ Recordings
11. Virtual Summit	$5,000–$50,000+/event	Medium	❌ No
12. Private Forum/Community	$300–$5,000+/mo	Medium	✅ Mostly

8. Create Members-Only Content

Best for: Bloggers with loyal readers who want more depth, resources, or exclusive access
Income potential: $200–$3,000+/month (50 members at $10/month = $500, immediate recurring income)
Traffic needed: Low-Medium (you need trust, not just traffic)

The fastest way to add a recurring income stream is to put some of your best content behind a paywall.

You don’t need to create anything new to get started.

Take your top 10 blog posts, repurpose them into downloadable PDF guides, template packs, or video walkthroughs, and offer those as a members-only library. Charge $10–$20/month.

That’s immediate recurring income from content you’ve already produced. Remember, Beacon.by that I talked about earlier? This is the perfect place to use it.

MemberPress is the cleanest way to set this up on WordPress. You create membership levels and define which content each level can access.

Plus, MemberPress handles payments, renewals, and access control automatically. Setup takes a few hours, not weeks.

Here is a guide on how to create a membership site. And plugins to help you create a membership site.

If you want to add video to your membership, this guide to creating a video membership site walks through the full setup.

👉 Use MemberPress to create a “Pro Access” membership tier. Start with 5–10 exclusive resources. Launch to your existing readers first; people who already follow you are the most likely to pay.

9. Sell Online Courses

Best for: Bloggers who’ve built genuine expertise in a specific, teachable skill
Income potential: $500–$20,000+/month (courses priced $97–$997, 5–20 sales/month is realistic)
Traffic needed: Low-Medium (a small engaged audience converts better than large passive traffic)

A blog builds your authority. A course is how you cash it in.

Online courses consistently have the highest income ceiling of any blogging monetization method. This is because you’re selling the outcome, not just the information.

A reader will scroll past a post about “How to grow your Instagram following.” The same reader will pay $197 for a course that promises them 1,000 new followers in 30 days. Specificity converts.

The key to a course that sells: it solves one specific problem for one specific person. Not “everything about marketing.” One thing, one result.

Check out this list of the best course creators for WordPress. Here is a guide to help you create the perfect course for your niche.

LearnDash has a built-in LMS (Learning Management System) that works directly in WordPress. You drag and drop lessons, set prerequisites, track student progress, and drip content over time.

Compare it with alternatives in this best WordPress LMS plugins guide to find the right fit for your course structure.

Need more direct comparisons? Check out:

• Learndash vs. LifterLMS – Which One is Better?
• LearnDash vs MemberPress: Which One Should You Use?

👉 Write down the #1 question your readers ask you most often. Build a 4-week course that answers it completely. Price it at $97–$197 and launch it to your email list first.

10. Host Paid Webinars

Best for: Bloggers who communicate well and want high-income events with low overhead
Income potential: $500–$5,000 per event ($47–$197 per attendee × 30–100 registrants)
Traffic needed: Medium (needs an email list to fill seats reliably)

A paid webinar is a live online session that your audience pays to attend and is one of the highest-income-per-hour activities a blogger can do.

Consider the math: a $97 webinar with 50 attendees is $4,850 for 90 minutes of your time. You run it live, record it, then sell the recording for months at $47. Same content, ongoing passive income.

Webinars work best when they solve an urgent, specific problem. “How to write a viral blog post in 2026” beats “blogging tips” every time. The more specific and timely, the higher the registration rate.

You’ll need a landing page. SeedProd makes this drag-and-drop on WordPress. Plus, you get plenty of webinar templates you can start with instead of a blank canvas.

Check out my SeedProd review to see how you can build a webinar landing page.

After that, you need a webinar platform like Zoom. Use this guide to see how to integrate Zoom Webinars with WordPress.

Finally, use WPForms, the best drag and drop form builder, to collect registrations using a form on your site.

You can connect to your preferred email marketing tool like Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, AWeber, and so on. Then send emails to promote and remind your audience about the upcoming event.

If you want deeper guidance on building the sales side of this, this guide to building a sales page in WordPress is worth reading before you launch.

👉 Pick your most-asked question. Design a 60–90 minute live training around it. Charge $47–$97 per seat. Run it live, then sell the recording at half the live price.

11. Host a Virtual Summit

Best for: Bloggers looking to grow their list and income simultaneously with one event
Income potential: $5,000–$50,000+ per summit (All-Access Pass model)
Traffic needed: Medium (your guest speakers’ audiences do the heavy lifting)

A virtual summit is one of the most underused income strategies in blogging and one of the few where you can earn $10,000+ in a single week.

Here’s the model: you interview 15–30 experts in your niche over 3–5 days. Attendance is free for 24–48 hours per session. To watch everything on-demand, attendees buy an All-Access Pass for $97–$197.

Every speaker promotes the summit to their own audience and brings you thousands of new email subscribers in the process.

The income math: 500 All-Access Pass buyers at $97 = $48,500.

Realistic for a well-organized summit in a strong niche. And every speaker sends you their audience; you keep those subscribers long after the event ends.

It’s more work up front than any other method on this list. But the income and list growth make it worth running at least once a year.

SeedProd handles your summit landing pages, and WPForms manages speaker applications and attendee registrations.

👉 Outline a 3-day summit in your niche. Identify 10–15 potential speakers. Build your summit page with SeedProd and collect speaker interest via WPForms.

12. Create a Private Forum or Niche Community

Best for: Bloggers building around a shared identity or strong ongoing community need
Income potential: $300–$5,000+/month (monthly membership model)
Traffic needed: Medium (loyal readers beat large audiences here)

People don’t just want information. They want belonging.

A paid community gives your readers a place to connect with each other, get your input, and access exclusive resources. Most importantly, all for a monthly fee.

The key difference from a course: a course has a finish line. A community has ongoing value. Recurring income is the result.

BuddyBoss is the standard WordPress platform for this.

It creates a full social network experience, including member profiles, activity feeds, private groups, and direct messaging, all inside your existing WordPress site.

Read the BuddyBoss review to see how it compares with alternatives. Pair it with MemberPress for payment processing and access control.

👉 Build your community around one core outcome your readers want. Use BuddyBoss for the platform and MemberPress for membership payments. Start with a founding member rate ($19–$29/month) and cap early access at 100 spots.

Sell Digital Products

I like this approach because there is no inventory, shipping, or customer service calls. Digital products are the highest-margin thing a blogger can sell.

Method	Income Potential	Traffic Needed	Passive?
13. eBooks	$300–$3,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Yes
14. Digital Templates	$300–$5,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Yes
15. AI Prompt Packs	$200–$3,000+/mo	Low	✅ Yes
16. Full Digital Store (EDD)	$1,000–$10,000+/mo	Medium	✅ Yes
17. WordPress Plugins	$500–$20,000+/mo	Low	✅ Mostly
18. Themes and Graphics	$500–$10,000+/mo	Low-Medium	✅ Mostly

---

13. Sell eBooks on Your WordPress Site

Best for: Bloggers who write well and have deep knowledge of a specific topic
Income potential: $300–$3,000+/month (passive after initial creation)
Traffic needed: Low-Medium

The eBook is the original blogging product, and it still works.

The key in 2026 isn’t writing a 200-page comprehensive guide. It’s a focused 30–50 page resource that solves one specific problem completely.

For example, you can create an eBook on “The 5 plugins every food blogger needs” as a $9 download. “How to get your first 1,000 email subscribers” at $17. Specific. Practical and priced accessibly.

Check out the best eBook plugins here.

Easy Digital Downloads handles all of this directly on your WordPress site. The buyer pays, gets instant download access, and you never touch the transaction again.

It has an interface similar to WordPress pages, making it super easy to use.

Check out my Easy Digital Downloads review for more information.

For broader distribution, you can also publish to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Amazon’s self-publishing platform pays 35–70% royalties. Even 5 sales per day at $17 is $2,550/month from a single eBook.

Check out the best digital download plugins for WordPress. Then, see how to sell digital products online with WordPress for the full setup walkthrough.

👉 Identify your most popular blog post topic. Expand it into a 30–50 page focused guide. Install Easy Digital Downloads and price it at $9–$27.

14. Sell Digital Templates and Downloads

Best for: Bloggers in productivity, design, business, or lifestyle niches
Income potential: $300–$5,000+/month (templates sell repeatedly with zero fulfillment effort)
Traffic needed: Low-Medium

Digital templates might be the most overlooked income stream for bloggers right now.

Think Notion templates, Canva social media kits, Excel budget trackers, and Google Sheets editorial calendars.

These sell consistently because they save time. And time is the one thing people will reliably pay for.

The best part: if you’ve been blogging for a year, you’ve already built tools for yourself. That Instagram content planning spreadsheet you made? That blog post brief template? Those are sellable products.

And unlike courses, you build them once, and they sell indefinitely.

Easy Digital Downloads handles the delivery automatically. You upload the file, set the price, and the plugin manages payments, file delivery, and licensing.

The best part is that you can allow your users to pick the most convenient payment options so that you don’t lock out anyone. They can pick Apple Pay, Cash App, Credit Card, Google Pay, and so on.

If you’re deciding where to sell, this guide to the best platforms for digital products compares all the options.

👉 List 3 tools or templates you’ve built for your own workflow. Package one as a download. Price it at $7–$37 and put it on your site today.

15. Sell AI Prompt Packs and Digital Tools

Best for: Bloggers in marketing, content creation, business, or productivity niches
Income potential: $200–$3,000+/month (high perceived value, zero fulfillment cost)
Traffic needed: Low

This one is specific to 2026 and it’s growing fast.

AI prompt packs are curated collections of prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, or other AI tools, organized around a specific use case.

Some of the best I have seen include “50 prompts for writing product descriptions with AI,” “30 prompts for a week of social media content with AI,” and “The blogging workflow prompt library.”

Bloggers who’ve built expertise with AI are packaging that knowledge as products.

The income potential is real. Prompt packs priced at $17–$47 require zero ongoing work after creation. At 5 sales per day on a $27 pack, that’s $4,000/month from a single file you wrote in an afternoon.

Again, Easy Digital Downloads is my go-to. It handles delivery exactly as it does for any other digital file.

👉 What AI workflow have you optimized in your own blogging? Build a 20–30 prompt pack around it. Sell it as a digital download for $17–$37.

16. Build a Full Digital Store with Easy Digital Downloads

Best for: Bloggers with multiple digital products or software to sell
Income potential: Scales with your catalog — $1,000–$10,000+/month across multiple products
Traffic needed: Medium

Once you have more than one or two digital products, it’s worth building a proper digital storefront.

Easy Digital Downloads transforms your WordPress site into a full digital marketplace. Sell any file type including eBooks, templates, prompt packs, software, photography, music, and fonts.

Each product gets its own page, pricing tiers, licensing options, and download delivery. Customers create accounts and manage their own purchases.

The platform shines when you build a catalog over time. One product earning $300/month is decent. Five products each earning $300/month, all running from the same WordPress site? That’s a real business.

And if you want others to promote your products for a commission, pair EDD with AffiliateWP to run your own affiliate program from within WordPress.

You can create an affiliate registration form to make this easier. Then have AffiliateWP send your affiliates’ payments automatically.

Check out my AffiliateWP review for more details.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create your own affiliate program. Then, see the best WordPress eCommerce plugins guide to understand all your storefront options.

👉 Install Easy Digital Downloads. List your first two products and set up Stripe or PayPal. You’re open for business on day one.

17. Sell WordPress Plugins

Best for: Bloggers with WordPress development skills or a budget to hire a developer
Income potential: $500–$20,000+/month (scales with user base)
Traffic needed: Low (plugin marketplaces drive their own discovery traffic)

If you’ve ever thought “I wish WordPress had a plugin that did X,” you’re looking at a product idea.

The two main paths: sell through CodeCanyon (Envato’s marketplace), where you share ~30% of revenue but get access to their large buyer audience; or sell directly from your own site and keep 100%.

Most successful plugin developers do both. CodeCanyon for discovery, own site for renewals.

A freemium model works especially well. Release a free version on WordPress.org, build a user base, then convert users to paid plans with premium features. That’s how most of the plugins in this article operate.

If you are looking for ideas, here is my personal list of the best WordPress plugins.

👉 Search WordPress.org for plugins in your niche and read the feature request threads. If users consistently ask for something that doesn’t exist yet, that’s your product.

18. Sell WordPress Themes and Graphics

Best for: Designers and developers who blog about design or WordPress
Income potential: $500–$10,000+/month
Traffic needed: Low-Medium (marketplace traffic helps significantly)

WordPress themes and graphic assets like stock photos, icon sets, font bundles, and UI kits are a natural extension for design-focused bloggers.

You can sell themes through ThemeForest, which offers high volume but lower margins. Or directly from your own site, which means lower volume, but better margins.

The most successful theme authors do both. For design assets, Creative Market and your own Easy Digital Downloads store are the cleanest channels.

The advantage for bloggers: your content is already demonstrating your design expertise. Readers who trust your tutorials are your most likely buyers.

If you are looking for ideas, here is a list of the most popular themes today.

👉 Identify a theme type or design asset that’s underserved in your niche. Build it, list it on your site, and cross-link it from your most relevant posts.

Start an Online Store

If your blog has a loyal, niche audience and a recognizable brand, an online store is a natural next step.

Method	Income Potential	Traffic Needed	Passive?
19. eCommerce (WooCommerce)	$500–$50,000+/mo	High	✅ Mostly
20. Subscription Shopping	$1,000–$10,000+/mo	Medium	✅ Yes
21. Print-on-Demand	$200–$3,000+/mo	Medium	✅ Yes
22. Amazon Affiliate Store	$200–$5,000+/mo	Medium-High	✅ Yes

---

19. Start an eCommerce Business with WooCommerce

Best for: Bloggers with a strong brand identity and an audience with shared purchasing habits
Income potential: Highly variable $500–$50,000+/month
Traffic needed: High (eCommerce needs consistent traffic to convert at scale)

WooCommerce turns your WordPress blog into a full online store, and it’s free to install.

The key to making this work as a blogger: sell products that directly align with what you write about.

A food blogger selling branded spice blends. A hiking blogger selling custom gear packs. A parenting blogger selling a productivity planner. The blog builds trust; the store converts it into revenue.

WooCommerce handles everything from inventory to checkout to shipping. Extensions add subscriptions, product bundles, bookings, and more.

You can start with 5 products and scale over time without switching platforms. Follow the step-by-step guide to creating a profitable online store to get your first WooCommerce store live.

Check out my WooCommerce review for more details.

👉 Make sure you have good WooCommerce hosting before anything. Identify 3–5 products your audience asks about most often. Source or create them. Install WooCommerce and set up your store as an extension of your existing blog.

20. Subscription-Based Shopping

Best for: Bloggers whose audience has recurring purchasing needs
Income potential: $1,000–$10,000+/month (recurring revenue compounds every month)
Traffic needed: Medium (retention matters more than constant new traffic)

Subscription commerce is one of the most stable income models available to bloggers with a product audience.

Instead of selling products once, you sell ongoing subscriptions. A monthly box, a replenishment bundle, and access to exclusive products.

The income is predictable. Customer lifetime value is dramatically higher than one-time buyers.

WooCommerce plugins and extensions handle everything: recurring billing, failed payment retries, subscriber management, and cancellation flows.

What works best: subscriptions around consumables (coffee, supplements, craft supplies) or curated discovery boxes in your niche.

Learn how to accept recurring payments in WordPress if you’re setting this up for the first time.

👉 Survey your audience with a WPForms poll: “Would you pay $X/month for [specific recurring product]?” If 20%+ say yes, you have product-market fit.

21. Print-on-Demand Products

Best for: Bloggers with a strong brand, catchphrase, or recognizable visual identity
Income potential: $200–$3,000+/month (passive after setup, 20–30% margin per item)
Traffic needed: Medium

Print-on-demand lets you sell physical merchandise like t-shirts, mugs, notebooks, and phone cases, without holding any inventory.

Here’s how it works: a customer orders on your site, the print-on-demand provider prints and ships it directly to them.

You never touch the product. You earn the margin between production cost and your retail price.

This works best for blogs with a loyal community and a recognizable brand voice.

A phrase that runs through your blog, a visual element readers identify with, a running joke — these become merchandise people actually want to own.

Both Printful and Printify integrate cleanly with WooCommerce. You design products in their dashboard, push them to your store, and they handle all production and fulfillment automatically.

👉 Identify 2–3 products that fit your blog’s identity. Connect Printful or Printify to your WooCommerce store. Start with a mug and a t-shirt and see what resonates.

22. Build an Amazon Affiliate Store

Best for: Bloggers in product-heavy niches (tech, home, outdoor, baby gear, beauty)
Income potential: $200–$5,000+/month (commissions range 1–10% by product category)
Traffic needed: Medium-High

An Amazon affiliate store is a curated product shop where every link earns a commission.

You create product pages around themes your readers care about, like “Best cameras for travel bloggers,” “The gear I use on long hikes,” and link everything to Amazon.

Every qualifying purchase through your link earns a commission. Amazon’s rates range from 1% (electronics) to 10% (luxury beauty), with most categories at 3–5%.

The advantage: Amazon’s conversion rates are high because customers already trust the checkout.

The downside: the cookie window is only 24 hours, and commissions are lower than most direct affiliate programs. Use it as a supplementary income stream, not your primary affiliate channel.

The best Amazon affiliate plugins, like AAWP, keep your product listings auto-updated with live Amazon pricing. Follow this step-by-step guide to building an Amazon affiliate store in WordPress to get set up.

👉 Join the Amazon Associates program. Build a “Resources” or “Shop” page featuring your 10 most-recommended products.

Sell Your Services and Expertise

Your blog builds trust and authority every day. Services are how you convert that authority into high-ticket income — often without needing much traffic at all.

Method	Income Potential	Traffic Needed	Passive?
23. Consulting	$1,000–$20,000+/mo	Low	❌ No
24. Freelance Services	$500–$8,000+/mo	Low	❌ No
25. Online Coaching	$1,000–$10,000+/mo	Low	❌ No
26. YouTube Channel	$200–$10,000+/mo	Low to start	✅ Mostly
27. Podcast Sponsorships	$200–$5,000+/mo	Medium	❌ No

---

23. Start a Consulting Business

Best for: Bloggers who’ve developed genuine expertise in a commercially valuable skill
Income potential: $1,000–$20,000+/month ($75–$500/hour, project-based)
Traffic needed: Low (your blog is your portfolio — 500 monthly readers can generate leads)

Consulting is where blogging income can get large, quickly.

A consultant gives strategic advice. Unlike freelancing, where you do the work, consulting means you diagnose the problem, recommend the solution, and the client implements.

Rates reflect that difference. A blogger with 2 years of SEO content experience charging $150/hour for consulting earns more per hour than most agencies.

The blog is your proof of work.

A post that ranks #1 for a competitive keyword is a better pitch deck than any resume. Clients find you through your content, already pre-sold on your expertise before they reach out.

WPForms handles consultation inquiry forms on your WordPress site. You can build a multi-step form that qualifies leads before they reach your inbox, filtering out anyone who isn’t the right fit for your rates.

Start by adding one to a high-converting contact form setup on your site.

👉 Create a “Work With Me” page. List the specific problems you solve. Add a WPForms multi-step inquiry form that qualifies leads before you spend time on discovery calls.

24. Offer Freelance Services

Best for: Bloggers with marketable skills (writing, design, SEO, social media, development)
Income potential: $500–$8,000+/month
Traffic needed: Low (your blog and freelancing platforms are independent lead sources)

Freelancing is the fastest way to earn meaningful money from a blog, even before you have significant traffic.

The model: your blog showcases your expertise, you offer that expertise as a service.

A copywriter blogs about email marketing and offers email sequence writing. A developer blogs about WordPress performance and offers site speed audits.

The blog is the portfolio. The services page is where visitors become clients.

Beyond your own site, Upwork and Fiverr are additional channels you can feed from your blog.

Embedding your Upwork profile on your services page adds third-party credibility. Client reviews are visible, and it shortcuts the trust-building process for new visitors who find you through Google.

Check out these WordPress freelancer themes to make your services page look the part.

SeedProd helps you build a high-converting services landing page without touching code.

👉 Create a dedicated services page with SeedProd. List one core service with a clear deliverable, timeline, and starting price. Add a WPForms contact form for inquiries.

25. Online Coaching

Best for: Bloggers who’ve achieved a result others want and can guide people 1:1
Income potential: $1,000–$10,000+/month ($200–$1,000 per client per month)
Traffic needed: Low (5–10 active clients is enough for $2K–$5K/month)

Coaching is the most income-efficient service a blogger can offer, and it’s often confused with consulting.

• Consulting: you tell the client what to do.
• Coaching: you help them figure it out and hold them accountable.

Sessions are regular, ongoing (3–6 month engagements typically), and high-touch. Rates are correspondingly higher.

The math is simple. Five clients at $500/month = $2,500 recurring. Ten clients at $500/month = $5,000.

You don’t need a large audience to fill a coaching roster. You need clarity on who you help, what result you deliver, and a simple application process to filter the right clients.

WP Simple Pay handles recurring coaching payments via Stripe directly on your WordPress site. This allows you to get payment via credit card, Cash App, Alipay, and more.

So, no third-party invoicing platforms needed.

WPForms handles the application form that screens potential clients before you spend time on calls. You can even build your form with AI.

If you want to learn how to set up the payment side, this guide to accepting Stripe payments in WordPress covers it step by step.

👉 Define one coaching offer: “I help [specific person] achieve [specific result] in [timeframe].” Set up a WPForms application form and WP Simple Pay for payment. Accept your first 3 clients at a discounted founding rate.

26. Launch a YouTube Channel Alongside Your Blog

Best for: Bloggers comfortable on camera who want to diversify traffic sources and income
Income potential: $200–$10,000+/month (ad revenue + affiliate links in video descriptions)
Traffic needed: Low to start (1,000 subs + 4,000 watch hours to monetize)

YouTube and blogging are a natural pair, and most bloggers who start a channel regret not doing it sooner.

The synergy works like this: a blog post that took 4 hours to write becomes a 10-minute YouTube video in another 2 hours. The video drives traffic back to the blog. The blog’s SEO drives traffic to the video.

Both grow faster together than either does alone.

To amplify this, you can create a YouTube feed on your blog with Smash Balloon. So when you create a YouTube video, it appears on your blog as well.

Users can click on it and view the full video without leaving your blog. Check out my Smash Balloon review to see how you can also add feeds from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and more.

Remember, YouTube monetization requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time.

Once you’re in the Partner Program, RPMs run $2–$15 depending on niche.

The real income usually comes from affiliate links in video descriptions. This is where you earn the same commissions as from blog posts, applied to a second audience.

👉 Repurpose your 5 highest-traffic blog posts as YouTube videos. Add affiliate links to your video descriptions. Focus on search-intent topics (“how to do X”) for long-term views without constant promotion.

27. Accept Podcast Sponsorships

Best for: Bloggers who communicate well verbally and are building a topic-specific audience
Income potential: $200–$5,000+/month ($18–$50 CPM for host-read ads)
Traffic needed: Medium (1,000+ downloads per episode is the standard threshold for sponsors)

Podcast sponsorships are one of the most underrated income streams for bloggers who already have an audience.

Podcast listeners are highly engaged. They subscribe, listen to complete episodes, and act on host recommendations.

Host-read ad CPM rates run $18–$50 per 1,000 downloads, higher than most display ad networks. And unlike blog ad revenue, podcast sponsorships are often flat-fee deals, not impression-based.

Starting a podcast doesn’t require expensive equipment.

A decent USB microphone ($80–$150), free recording software like Audacity, and a hosting platform like Buzzsprout are enough.

Build a dedicated landing page for your podcast with SeedProd. Check out this guide to building a podcast landing page, which shows you exactly how.

Sponsors typically come through podcast ad networks (Midroll, AdvertiseCast) or direct outreach to brands you already recommend as affiliates.

👉 Launch with 5 recorded episodes before publishing. Once you hit 500+ downloads per episode, approach your existing affiliate partners about a sponsor slot.

Other Proven Ways to Earn

Method	Income Potential	Traffic Needed	Passive?
28. Flip Websites	$5,000–$100,000+/flip	Medium-High	❌ No
29. Accept Donations	$100–$1,000+/mo	Medium	✅ Mostly
30. Paid Product Reviews	$100–$2,000+/review	Medium	❌ No

---

28. Earn Money Flipping Websites

Best for: Bloggers comfortable with SEO and site growth who want large lump-sum payouts
Income potential: $5,000–$100,000+ per flip (sites typically sell for 30–40× monthly revenue)
Traffic needed: Medium-High (for the site being flipped)

Website flipping is internet real estate.

You build a niche site (or buy an underperforming one), grow its traffic and revenue, then sell it. A site earning $500/month sells for $15,000–$20,000 on marketplaces like Flippa or Empire Flippers.

A site earning $2,000/month sells for $60,000–$80,000. The multiplier is typically 30–40× monthly revenue.

For experienced bloggers, this is one of the highest-income applications of skills you already have: content strategy, SEO, monetization.

You’re not learning anything new. You’re applying existing knowledge to build an asset specifically to sell.

👉 Browse Flippa for underperforming niche sites in categories you understand well. Or start a focused niche blog with the explicit goal of selling it in 18–24 months.

29. Accept Donations from Your Readers

Best for: Resource-based blogs, tool creators, and community-focused content
Income potential: $100–$1,000+/month (depends on audience loyalty and content value)
Traffic needed: Medium (needs a loyal audience who values your work)

Some audiences want to support the blogs they love. The right move is to make it easy for them.

Donations work best for blogs where the content is the product, like open-source documentation, community resources, niche knowledge bases, and educational content.

If readers get significant value for free and you’ve built genuine goodwill, a subset of them will pay just to say thank you.

Charitable is the cleanest WordPress plugin for this.

It creates donation forms, manages campaigns, and processes one-time or recurring contributions without the high transaction fees some donation platforms charge.

Check out my Charitable review for more details. It is one of the best GoFundMe alternatives for WordPress.

Also, browse the best recurring donation plugins for WordPress if you want to compare Charitable with alternatives.

The key is keeping the ask low-pressure: “This blog is free and always will be. If it’s helped you, a small contribution keeps it going.”

👉 Install Charitable. Add a simple donation option to your sidebar or about page. Set a suggested amount ($5, $10, $25) and briefly explain what contributions support.

30. Get Paid to Write Product Reviews

Best for: Bloggers with expertise in a specific product category and an engaged audience
Income potential: $100–$2,000+ per review
Traffic needed: Medium (niche relevance matters more than raw traffic volume)

Paid product reviews are different from sponsored posts, and the distinction matters in 2026.

With a paid review, a brand specifically requests honest editorial coverage of their product. They pay a flat fee for the coverage, not for a positive outcome.

Your editorial independence stays intact. You disclose the arrangement and review honestly. Brands pay because they want visibility in front of your specific audience, not because they’re buying your opinion.

Rates depend on your traffic, niche, and engagement.

A WordPress-focused blogger with 15,000 monthly readers can command $300–$800 per review. FTC disclosure is non-negotiable: state clearly at the top that it’s a paid review.

Your readers’ trust is worth more than any single fee. Check out some of the best review themes to get started with.

👉 Create a “Reviews and Media” page listing your niche, audience, and review rates. Brands actively search for bloggers in specific categories — make it easy for them to find and contact you.

Which Method Should You Start With?

Thirty methods looks overwhelming. Here’s how to narrow it down fast.

If you’re brand new (under 1,000 monthly visitors):

• Start with affiliate marketing. Write 5–10 posts targeting buyer-intent keywords in your niche: “best X for Y,” “X vs Y,” “X review.” You don’t need traffic volume; you need the right traffic.
• One well-placed affiliate recommendation in a buyer-intent post can earn $100+ before you hit 500 monthly visitors.
• Pair it with OptinMonster to start building your email list from day one. The list you build in month 1 is worth more than any traffic milestone you’ll hit in month 12.

If you have a small, engaged audience (1,000–10,000 monthly visitors):

• Start with digital products or services. Your audience already trusts you, that’s the hard part.
• A $27 eBook or a $150 consulting hour requires almost no traffic. Five eBook sales per week at $27 is $540/month.
• Two consulting clients at $150/hour for 5 hours each is $1,500/month. Both beat display ad income at 10× the traffic.

If you have solid traffic (10,000–50,000 monthly visitors):

• Add sponsored posts and premium ad networks on top of what you’re already earning. Apply to Mediavine once you hit 50,000 sessions.
• Approach brands in your niche directly with a media kit. Start stacking income streams rather than replacing them.

If you have an established audience (50,000+ monthly visitors):

• Online courses, memberships, and brand ambassadorships have the highest income ceiling at this stage. A course launch to an existing email list can generate $5,000–$20,000 in a single week.
• A membership with 200 members at $20/month is $4,000 recurring before you publish a single new post.

The principle: match the method to your stage. The biggest blogging income mistake isn’t choosing the wrong method. It’s choosing the right method for the wrong stage.

That’s it. That marks the end of my list of the 30 best ways to make money blogging in 2026. If anything is unclear, check out the commonly asked questions below.

FAQs: Making Money Blogging in 2026

Final Verdict: Should I Try to Make Money From My WordPress Blog?

Absolutely. But start with a realistic expectation.

A blog isn’t a vending machine. You don’t insert content and receive money.

The bloggers who build real income are the ones who pick two or three methods matched to their current stage, execute consistently for 12–18 months, and resist switching strategies every time a new trend appears.

The best starting point for most bloggers: affiliate marketing (low-traffic, high-return) + email list building with OptinMonster (builds future income potential every single day) + one digital product once you understand your audience’s biggest unsolved problem.

You don’t need all 30 methods. You need the right 2 or 3, executed well. Pick one. Start today.

---

Resource Hub: Making Money with WordPress

Everything you need to go deeper on the tools and strategies that power WordPress income:

• How to Make a WordPress Website From Scratch – Build your monetization foundation right from the first page
• Best Blog Hosting for WordPress – Speed and uptime matter more than most bloggers realise. Pick the right host
• Best SEO Tools to Grow Your Site Traffic – More traffic feeds every income method in this guide
• Best Blogging Platforms for Beginners – How WordPress compares to every alternative in 2026
• Top Email Marketing Services – Choose the right email platform to monetize your growing subscriber list
• Best Course Creation Tools for WordPress – Full comparison of LMS tools for launching your first paid course

---