Every time, an aspiring Blogger asks, “Can a free blog make money” the world around tends to look at the Blogger with disdain. And this must stop.
The truth is, a free blog can most certainly earn money if an individual is ready to explore numerous ways to monetise just like I did when I started.
Can a Free Blog Make Money & How Exactly?
When I first started my free blog back in 2007, I ensured that I will work very hard to earn something out of it. And I did.
Today, in the year 2023, the strategies to monetise a free blog have quadrupled. All you need now is to explore them one by one.
Right Platform + Loyal Audience= Monetisation for a Free Blog
For somebody starting out on a blogging journey, it is of paramount importance to prioritise two aspects right from day one.
| Pick your blogging platform wisely
Instead of aping what other bloggers are using, see for yourself what platform is best suited for your needs and which isn’t. If you feel like, you can even watch my video to find out about the best free blogging platforms. |
| Invest time on building a dedicated audience wholeheartedly
Building a loyal audience is the greatest skill that a Blogger must inculcate. And this must be prioritised from day one of your journey. Create content that stands out on your blog and always keep it niche-centric. That way you increase your chances massively to earn an audience that has a perfect sync with your blog. |
16 Proven Ways to Make Money From a Free Blog
As someone who started blogging long before it became a fad, I confidently suggest to you the following sixteen tried and tested ways to earn money on your free blog.
1. Stand Out as a Distinct Voice Blogger & Become an Audio Book Narrator
Not many Bloggers know this but one of the highest paying freelancing jobs in the world is to become an Audio Book Narrator.
If you have a good voice, please embed audio files in your free blog. This way your audience will connect with you not only by your words but also by your voice.
| Once your blog starts receiving at least 1000 visitors per month, start pitching your voice to authors for their audiobooks.
You need to sign up for Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) – Now a company under Amazon. There, you will find thousands of opportunities to where you can audition to be a background narrator for somebody’s Audio Book. Since you would have anyways earnt an audience beforehand connected by your words and voice, you can confidently show your work to the Audio Book Author and earn a contract for yourself. |
Having a loyal audience that loves your voice will prove to be an advantage at the time of pitching yourself to potential authors.
2. Personalise Your Blog with Doodles & See that Money Flowing
Doodling is a beautiful skill with even prettier rewards for Bloggers. A doodle can make you so much money as Blogger despite writing on a free platform.
Any Blogger who is creative enough to include doodles in his/her blog will surely have his work monetised faster than others.
| Fill your blog posts with quality doodles and let your audience know that you are a true artist without limits. A blog audience loves doodles.
Hence, share doodles not just in your textual content but even during adding images and commenting. Make your doodles symbolic of something and let your audience decipher their meanings. In about 4-6 months after starting your free blog, start creating small handmade doodle products on Etsy. Share them with your audience and see your sales growing through the roof. |
The world loves personalisation in products. Therefore, for Bloggers who can doodle, the opportunities are endless. So please start innovating your free blog and turn it into a beautiful space.
3. Earn Up To $200 by Writing for Greeting Card Companies as a Blogger
A Blogger who prospers in the art of storytelling or creating mini verses should surely consider writing for legit greeting card companies from around the world.
As many as 9 outstanding Greeting Card Companies pay writers to create content for them. As a Blogger, you must seize this opportunity.
| Since you anyways will be creating so much content for your blog, you should also consider creating some amazing pieces for Greeting Card companies.
Some very renowned Greeting Card Companies pay upto $200 per contribution. This is a very good payout for a Blogger. While applying to these companies, share a media kit showcasing the numbers of your blog. Also, each time you are selected, keep adding your experience to your media kit. |
On your blog, create a special section that says, ‘Greeting Card Services’ and quotes exact price points.
4. Transform Your Skill of Creating Catchy Blog Titles into Copywriting for $70 an Hour
Any Blogger whose headlines, captions and titles are outstanding must consider monetisation from Copywriting services.
Copywriting is the skill whereby attractive and catchy promotional material is created and you are paid money for it.
| A Blogger who has the knack of coming up with heart winning headlines is in for so much good news.
You can make up to $70-$310 per month even as a beginner Copywriter. This amount can be much higher if while being hired as a freelance Copywriter, your blog posts have outstanding headlines. A simple yet important skill of creating good headlines can bring you quality work. |
Constantly keep applying for a position of freelance Copywriter. Don’t give up just after a few attempts.
5. Make $50 Easily for Local Ads on Your Free Blog
Amidst the mad noise where most Bloggers talk only of Google Adsense, please go a step further and start prioritising local ads on your blog.
Your free blog can monetise really well with local Ads. In fact, the payout of local Ads is decent for a Blogger who is just starting out.
| A Local Ad is a means to promote the merchants, service providers, organisations and individual freelancers in your area. Anybody from a Local Tutor to a Florist to a Pet Care facility to even a Shop can be promoted with Local Ads.
For your first ever Ad, charge small since you have no previous experience to show. Start with an amount of around $50 for 2 Ads in your blog. Then create a page on Facebook and learn to run Ads there that will be visible only to the target audience in your area. Once your Ads start to send more people to the people from which you’ve charged money and their goods start selling, then you can easily charge higher to the next set of people. The payout for you then should start at a minimum of $100 for one Ad placed on your free blog for one month. |
Facebook is an excellent platform for running Ads and getting people on your free blog. Learn the skill of running an effective Facebook Ad campaign.
6. Turn Your Free Blog a Market Place for E-Book Promotions
E-Books are picking up massively on the internet. However, what is not picking up is the number of sales for them. The reason being, people don’t know that they exist.
Therefore, allow your free blog to become a mini market place where E-Book Authors can promote their books in a variety of ways.
| Create a distinct space on your blogs that will serve as a mini market place for E-Books by others. Be on the lookout for people who are new at publishing E-Books and need an audience.
Pitch your own free blog as a market place for E-Book promotions by showing the statistics of the audience you’ve earned so far. Start with an amount as less as $20 but try getting at least 5 E-book promotions per month. Those alone will help you make $100 (20X5) monthly. Once their sales start picking up because of your blog, increase this amount to $60 for 30 days. |
Your job as a Blogger should be to promote the latest E-Books of budding authors. That way, they get visibility and you earn for your hard work.
7. Use Your Blog to Get Promotional Campaigns by Mini, Micro and Major Brands
In the times we live in, every second person tends to call himself/herself an Influencer. However, your audience alone will decide who is the real Influencer and who isn’t.
If you create value driven content on your blog with all your heart that actually helps your audience solve a problem, learn a skill or even impacts them positively, register yourself on Influencer Networks.
| An Influencer Network helps to connect Bloggers with Mini, Micro and Major brands.
If you are focused enough to build a good audience from the start, then registering on an Influencer Network will benefit you a lot of money wise. Reason being, the engagement on your blog being goodwill draw good offers. You can choose from platforms like Acorn, IZEA and She Savvy. |
As a registered Blogger on the Influencer Networks, you will keep getting notified via email each time you are considered for promotions.
8. Get Paid $10 for Publishing Quality Reviews on Your Blog
With eCommerce exploding like anything and the world moving more and more towards ordering everything from home, there lies a great opportunity for Bloggers to earn revenue out of this industry trend.
Create a dedicated section on your blog just to write reviews for people and organisations whose products or services match your exact niche.
| When a new product or service enters the market, it needs visibility. And a Nano Influencer comes in very handy for them.
This might appear surprising but companies actually prefer Nano Influencers to big ones. The reason being, Nano Influencers are nominal and work way more ethically. Your job as a new Blogger is to become that Nano Influencer and pitch your blog to them in order to get paid well for reviews. For every review, you write, charge $10. |
Constantly research new products and services entering the markets that belong to the same niche as yours. Look for the latest products on Etsy, Amazon, and even on country-wise eCommerce websites.
9. Include Poetic Pieces in Your Blog & See the Monetisation Avenues Growing
If poetry is the literary genre that fascinates you, then start adding your verses to your niche blog. Make sure that the niche of your poems is exactly the same as your blog.
Poetry on its own doesn’t monetise on blogs easily. However, by adding poetic pieces to your blog, the avenues to monetise increase significantly.
| Any Blogger who is fond of writing and reading verses has got to include them more and more as inherent parts of a blog.
Your audience needs to connect with you as a Poetic Blogger. Did you know there exist up to 19 rare ways to make money from writing poetry? Once you have credibility with your growing audience, they will follow you not only on your blog but everywhere. You have got to try this out. |
Sad are the people who say that poems don’t monetise. They not only monetise but do so in a stable way. All you need to know is the exact need of the audience and the changing poetic trends of the times.
10. Double Your Blog Income by Becoming a Ghostwriter for Others
The best part about building a quality audience on your blog is that they themselves will start seeking your assistance for improving their writing style.
Ghostwriting implies that you write for somebody under their name and get paid. So, if your audience knows for a fact that what and how you write is appealing, they will start hiring you for their own blogs.
| Before you agree for providing Ghostwriting services via your blog to others, make sure you have evidence that you have been hired.
Ideally, charge a 20% amount before starting work. Take this as an advance amount. The rest of the money should be charged based on the quantity of content you create and the time you invest. Just request the person who has promised to pay you to give his/her offer over an email. That way, both of you have will have access to a complete record that has been discussed. |
Some people get conflicted when it comes to Ghostwriting. But you shouldn’t because you are being paid well and what you are writing is surely reaching the world.
11. Offer Translation Services on Your Free Blog & Charge Per Article
At a time when Google is investing a lot of time, money and resources on prioritising Natural Language Processing (NLP), Regional Bloggers have a plethora of opportunities waiting in store for them.
Anybody blogging in a language other than English but well versed in both languages should most certainly look for translation opportunities.
| There was a time when Bloggers creating content in English were the only ones with hands full of gold. But that is not the case anymore.
Any Blogger having a grip over a native tongue as well as English can make use of Translation opportunities from across the internet. You can charge on a project wise basis or for a single article. People and organisations around the world are constantly looking for getting their work translated to more and more languages. And so you must offer your services to the right individuals. |
The world is facing a dearth of fluent translators, especially from the lesser spoken languages. So if you fit in this category, please start monetising from translation services.
12. Point Out Grammatical Mistakes by Other Bloggers & Make $5 Hourly
When Bloggers first start their journey, fluency in language can be an obstruction. Therefore, any Blogger who already is writing flawlessly on a free blog can offer proofreading services to other budding Bloggers.
The more you connect with people through your blog and be a part of the network, the higher will be your chances to know which author needs your proofreading service.
| Proofreading implies making corrections in a copy of work. These corrections pertain to the overall grammar and vocabulary of a piece of content.
If you are a Blogger well versed in a language, then please start offering your Proofreading services via your own blog. Charge $5 on an hourly basis if you’re really good right at the beginning. Proofreading is an excellent skill to have for Bloggers. |
Most Bloggers don’t even realise that skill is taken for granted as proofreading can reap so many benefits.
13. Share Your Art Work on Your Blog and Sell it There
Art Blogs are highly underrated. And so, if you are an artist or a DIY specialist making handmade items, please share them on your blog.
Handmade items are loved by people. So share your own creations via your blog. If you want, you can even put them on Etsy and share the links with your followers.
| Creating artwork takes time. And so, you must be rewarded for your beautiful creations.
Adapt a dual policy of selling Art Work. First and foremost, share your creations on your blog as pictures and leave your contact number or mail for people to reach out. Secondly, share links from Etsy with your followers. If you work hard enough to build a loyal audience then you can charge decently for your own creations. |
Never take your artwork only as a hobby. Commercialise your pursuit.
14. Assist Other Bloggers in Customising Their Free Blogs
When I first started my free blog, this was the first avenue I explored. I started helping new Bloggers set up their free blogs and customise it for them at a price much lesser than a paid theme would cost.
What I attempted years ago still holds relevant. You can monetise so much just by setting up people’s blogs and making them organised.
| As a Blogger making use of a free platform, you should delve deep and learn the working of that platform.
Having a thorough knowledge of the free blogging platform that you’re using will open up monetary avenues for you easily. Assist others in customisation and charge less than a professional. By doing so, you are allowing people to save money on their newly set up blogs and you in turn are still earning because you’ve assisted those people professionally. |
Setting up blogs for others is the easiest thing you can do. Yet it will pay you really well.
15. Transform Your Blog Into a Learning Space & Get Compensated for Teaching Online
If your niche is centred around teaching something to someone – skills, courses, lessons, grammar, language, calligraphy etc then please start taking online classes for the same.
On your free blog, create such quality content that people are able to learn something new with every blog post. Once you have around 50 posts, then announce that you’re up for taking paid online classes.
| Conducting an online class is super easy in today’s time.
All you need to do is sign up for a Video Conference app and conduct sessions in real time. In case you don’t want to invest money in the apps, just go make tutorials on YouTube. Once you have a decent number of subscribers, your tutorials will hill you earn well. |
If possible, try not to save money on a monthly video conference app subscription. Your blog is anyways free so invest here to see returns.
16. Use Gesture Drawing on Your Blog
The world today is a wonderful place for creative thinkers. And the avenues for Creative Bloggers is even higher. Hence, if Gesture Drawing is something you are good at, please commercialise your skill.
Including Gesture Drawing in your blog is a brilliant way of turning eyeballs to your content. A lot of people are on the lookout for such virtual figurines in their work. So offer them your services.
| Bloggers who are well versed in the art of Gesture Drawing can monetise per art they create via their blogs.
Centre your blog around Gesture Drawing. And then not only can you pitch your professional services but also teach people to learn the same. You can do this both online as well as by conducting workshops in your own city. |
An artist spends years learning a new trade. And so as a Gesture Drawing Blogger, you must charge for your skill and time.
This brings me to the end of this blog. I hope the curious question of, “can a free blog make money” has been addressed by me. Now it’s time for you to make your pick from all the options given above and start making money.
I'm committed to create a global tribe of Infopreneurs - One voice at a time. Come, join me in my journey.
The idea to start BE. was mine. The dream however is OURS 🙂