Blogging can be a lucrative hobby if you do it well.
Back in the 90s when blogging first started, the common motivation of bloggers was to share a diary of their activities on the Internet. However, people soon realize that you can make money online blogging.
In this post, you will learn how to make money blogging in Canada in 10 different ways.
Requirements to make money blogging in Canada
Before we dive into the 10 methods, let’s first understand the basic requirements for making money blogging — having a blog, and patience.
1. Have a blog
You first need to have a blog before you can think of making money through it.
The general steps for creating a blog are highlighted below:
- Choose a niche
- Choose a domain name
- Register your domain and host it
- Design your blog
- Start publishing content
I have explained all these steps in detail under the free course: “How to Start a Blog and Make Money in Canada“.
When creating your blog, I recommend you register your domain at NameSilo and host it with SiteGround to get cost-effective results.
However, creating a blog is not enough. Your blog needs to generate traffic before you can monetize.
There are different ways you can generate traffic to your blog. The common ways include:
- Optimizing your blog and posts for search engines (SEO)
- Sharing your posts on social media platforms
2. Have patience
Looking to get rich quickly? Sorry to disappoint you, blogging is not the answer. It may take months or a year before you can start earning from your blog.
However, it all boils down to your commitment to generating traffic. The more traffic you have, the more your blog’s earning potential increases.
I know it can be discouraging to remain consistent in the blogging journey without the money coming in. Believe me, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
To ensure you don’t lose blogging motivation along the way, check out these newbie tips.
How to make money blogging in Canada
Now that you have your blog up and running, it’s time to explore ways you can get monetary compensation for your efforts.
Here are 10 ways to make money blogging in Canada.
1. Display ads
With this monetization method, you allow a given ad network to display ads on your blog and pay you whenever someone views and clicks the ads. Some of the popular ad networks include Adsense, Ezoic, and Mediavine.
Generally, ad display provides one of the lowest earnings. But Ezoic pays relatively better than most ad networks as they offer publishers 90% of revenue share and have a low minimum withdrawal threshold of $20.
Pros
- Fastest way to start generating money from your blog
- Everything is handled by the ad network you can make money even while sleeping. It’s truly a source of passive income.
- Easy to get started compared to other monetization methods
Cons
- Low earnings rate
- Your ad network can suspend or ban you if you break their rules, even if unconsciously
- It may affect the experience of your readers as you don’t have full control over what ads to display on your blog; however, you are able to exclude some controversial niches.
2. Join affiliate marketing
With affiliate marketing, you earn a commission whenever you refer someone to a product or service.
To get started, you need to join the affiliate programs of businesses in your niche by applying through affiliate networks or directly on their websites.
Affiliate networks, such as Aragon Premium, connect you with different partners, saving you the stress of looking for individual companies to promote. If you want to promote general products, join the Amazon Associates program. Some companies, however, don’t partner with affiliate networks, so they require you to apply on their websites.
Bear in mind that not every company has an affiliate program. You can easily determine if a company has an affiliate program by navigating to the footer of its homepage. Check for terms like:
- Referral program
- Refer a friend
- Partners
- Affiliates
One honest piece of advice — don’t be shady in promoting companies for the sake of earning commissions. Ensure that what you’re recommending is something you can recommend to yourself.
In addition, you should always provide a disclosure when you feature affiliate links in your posts. It can be as simple as saying: “This post contains affiliate links“, or just adding an affiliate tag as shown below:
Pros
- Affiliate marketing has higher earning potential than most blogging monetization methods
- Easy to get started irrespective of your traffic level
Cons
- Slow earnings especially if you have low traffic
3. Accept sponsored posts
The moment your blog starts generating significant traffic, companies will start contacting you for sponsored posts. These are posts that are meant to promote a product or service on your blog.
You can determine the price that goes for each sponsored post request. However, your blog traffic level will be the major determinant of the amount companies will pay for a sponsored post on your blog. Another factor that will influence the price is whether you’ll write the sponsored post yourself or a company will do so and have you publish it.
Finally, ensure you also provide a disclosure whenever you publish a sponsored post on your blog.
Pros
- Higher earning potential depending on your blog traffic
- More flexibility as you determine the price and determine what companies to promote
Cons
- You need to have significant traffic to attract businesses. You can, however, try reaching out to brands to request ambassadorship even with low traffic.
4. Place banners
Some companies prefer to advertise their products and services themselves on your blog instead of using ad networks. These companies will design their ad banners and request you to place them in a strategic position on your blog where people will see them and take the desired action.
The major advantage of this over ad display is that you can set the price and determine which ads to display on your blog. However, your blog needs to be noticeable first before you can start getting requests for banner placements.
Pros
- High earning potential as you set the price yourself
- Greater flexibility because you can decide what banners to display
Cons
- Banners are static; they may not cater the demographics of all your blog readers
- You need to generate significant traffic to start getting requests for banner placements
5. Accept guest posts
This post you’re reading now is a guest post because I am coming from My Wealth Experience.
Imagine someone requesting to be a guest author on your popular blog like this: will you allow that for free? Probably not! Many bloggers will require you to pay a certain amount before you can publish a guest post on their blog, because the value of their blog will add to the guest author.
As with sponsored posts, you can determine how much to charge per guest post request. The more affordable your pricing is, the more requests you will attract.
Pros
- Higher earning potential depending on your blog traffic
- Helps increase your blog visibility as your guest authors will likely share the guest posts with their networks
Cons
- You need to generate significant traffic and build domain authority to attract guest posts
6. Re-publish your blog posts
You can also make money blogging by just converting your blog posts into other content formats such as:
- eBooks
- Courses
- YouTube videos
- Podcasts
Each of these content formats has its unique monetization methods which you can explore.
Before converting your blog post to any format, you should first understand how the format works and how to monetize it. In addition, you need to rearrange the content presentation to suit each format by adding relevant information and removing unnecessary ones.
Pros
- Easy to get started
- Helps diversify your income
Cons
- Can be time-demanding as it requires you to learn new skills
7. Create a membership community
You can build an engaging community with your loyal readers. For example, you can create a private forum, a Q&A community, or restricted members-only content. Of course, you should ensure that you provide your readers with added value through high-quality content, premium offers or other exclusive benefits.
One simple way to get a reward from your readers is to ask them to support your work by donating to your Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee account.
Pros
- Easy to get started
- It provides your readers the opportunity to appreciate your work
Cons
- It’s an unstable way to generate income from your blog especially if you have low traffic
8. Make personal sales
Whether you have a physical store or want to sell digital products like courses or ebooks, you can use your blog to generate sales.
You can even monetize your blogging skills by becoming a freelance writer to diversify your sources of income. You can find openings for keyword research, SEO content writing, and blogging, and more on freelancing platforms like Fiverr and job boards like Problogger. These are things you can do with your existing skills, since you are already a blogger!
Pros
- Easy to make sales as you already have an established audience that trusts your content
- Writing educational and informative content about your products or services can help your readers make informed buying decisions
Cons
- It can make your blog posts sound persuasive instead of informative or educational
9. Promote others’ merchandises
Creating products, selling them and fulfilling orders can be a daunting task if you are doing it all on your own. Below are some popular options so you can focus on just selling:
- Print-on-demand (POD): You make custom product designs and have your chosen POD company print and ship them to your clients.
- Dropshipping: You take orders and a fulfilment centre will ship the goods directly to your clients without your involvement.
- Private Label Rights (PLR) business: You buy existing products and customize and resell them as yours.
Whichever merchandise method you are going with, ensure you seek further knowledge before getting started.
Pros
- Easy to get started as you don’t have to produce the goods yourself
- High earning potential if you do the right thing
Cons
- Unstainable earning flow especially if you don’t have a significant traffic
10. Flipping blogs
Last but not the least, you can make money blogging in Canada by flipping blogs.
If you’re good at designing blogs or can outsource the tasks for a cheap price, you can make money by flipping blogs. You can even buy blogs at a cheap price, improve them, and resell them at a higher price.
To succeed with this method, you need to first define your target audience and design blogs that will appeal to them.
Other factors that potential buyers may consider when determining the value of your blogs include:
- Domain history
- Content quality
- Content management system (WordPress is the most popular)
Pros
- High earning potentials
- Easy to get started by using your blogging skills
Cons
- Earning can be slow cause it will take time to build sellable blogs
Final words
The income potential from maintaining a blog can be big if you utilize one or more methods above well. However, you may have to try different methods before you shout “Eureka!”
Finally, remember to pay your taxes when the money starts flowing in. Check out this guide to learn how to file your taxes as a blogger.
I wish you a rewarding blogging journey!
