How in the hell do you make money just taking photos of your clothes? Whenever I go to a family gathering or meet new people I always get asked “How do you make money as a blogger? Are you doing this for free? Do brands work with you?” I know though! I totally get it. I can definitely see the confusion because part of our job is making it all look effortless and natural. Of course, a lot of what we do take a lot of time, effort and yes … mucho mullah! So here’s the 411 for those of you who are still confused by the term “blogger”, or those of you that don’t see why fashion bloggers would ever spend their time taking photos of themselves every single day. Especially though, for those of you who want to start making a bit of money as a blogger, but don’t know where to start.

Here’s 6 ways to make Money as a blogger:

Sponsored content. For me sponsored content is the number one way I make money on the blog and instagram. Not all my posts are sponsored of course. I initially started blogging because i love sharing things I am passionate about with others. The minute I only share sponsored content it the minute I become unnatural and unrelatable. However, blogging is hard work and I can’t buy those things I love (let alone run a successful blog) without money. If brands are approaching you to showcase their stuff you should really try and get paid! Especially when some of them give you deadlines and posting restrictions.
Time is money and blogging takes up a lot of time! How much to charge depends on the number of followers someone has, their content, engagement with followers, how much it costs to hire a photographer maybe and how long it takes you to write the post. All of this adds up! If I really really love a brand I might just share it with my followers in exchange for free product or even just share it for nothing, but lets be honest.. if a blogger does this 100% of the time you are just loosing money.
Affiliate Links. You can make commission off of everything you post. I never post affiliates for things I don’t like. Thats just a bunch of hulabaloo (whatever that is). My followers come to my page because they like my style and trust my taste. I make sure to always be true to myself and my style while posting affiliates. I get a lot of questions asking where to get what I am wearing and adding a link only makes it easier for them to get to it. So while you are helping your readers find what they are looking for you get a small percentage for every sale. Win-Win situation right there. The great thing about affiliates is that sometimes you see money rolling in months later.
Years ago I wanted to test out this strategy, so I wrote a post called “Swimsuits for your bodytype“. I made sure to make it SEO friendly and inserted as many links as I could while of course recommending swimsuits I thought were cute. Years later I still see money trickling in from this post. Affiliate links are awesome because you basically can make money while you sleep if you do it right.
As a fashion blogger I love to use RewardStyle and ShopStyle also but there are so many other sites you can use!
Selling a product. Selling a product or service is just another great way to make money blogging. It’s a great way to have another stream of cash flow coming in from the blog. I have seen bloggers make coffee table books (I’ve bought three from bloggers I love!), sell e-courses, have consultations and even seen some sell something as little as a cutely decorated blog planner or wallpaper for the computer. Whatever your expertise is, there is something you can sell on the blog.
I studied graphic design back in college so I used that skill and illustrated a t-shirt design that said “All you need is Cali” (check it out here). The tees would sell like crazy! I promoted it on my blog and social media channels by wearing my own design and styling it plus had a side banner on my front page. There are so many ways to make extra money by selling something. Think about what you are good at and what people might like to buy or invest in from you.
Advertising/ Banners. Your website is prime real estate!! You can use that to your advantage and have companies, brands or services pay you to put their ads on your page. How much you charge and where you place it is up to you. For myself I haven’t jumped on this bandwagon quite yet because I have found that my blog makes more money in other areas. However, that’s not to say you wont make more money with ads than you do with anything else. It’s all so relative and depends on your niche, your blog and your readers.
Hosting: This doesn’t apply to everyone because in order to make money this way you already have to have a pretty strong following. If you do already have a strong following, bloggers can be paid to host a big event and share the event with their followers. Normally for this the brand or company reaches out to the blogger or blogger might include this rate in their media kit to let the brands know they are open to do this.
Marketing Campaigns: Sometimes companies need special content for their social media or websites and ask for bloggers to create the content. This is different than sponsored content because when it is sponsored the blogger has the creative freedom to create the content they like and showcase the products in a way that in natural to them. If it is a marketing campaign the brands team might be coordinating and organizing the campaigns and a lot of time ask for certain requirements, strict deadlines and sometimes have a set budget. A lot of times they work with a lot of other bloggers at the same time to get a stronger push.
I myself have been paid just to shoot product for brands that don’t even need to be shared on my own channels. It was for their own marketing purposes and I was happy to be the face of the campaign.
While there are so many ways to make money most bloggers make sure to do about 3 or more of these tactics all at the same time. With social media and how quickly we are ever evolving it’s so so important to not put all your eggs in one basket. You never know where you might blow up and do extremely well or what platform could easily just never work for you.
I would love your two cents on this. What’s another way you could make money blogging? Also which do you find is the most effective? Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter here.
ABOVE WEARING : Skull cashmere sweater dress, PYLO HAT