How I make money with my blog in 2023

[Shawn Gossman]

I figured I would share how I am making money with one of my blogs:

Hiking with Shawn - Shawnee National Forest

Shawnee National Forest and Southern Illinois State Park guided hiking services, videos, photos, & free trail guides by Hiking with Shawn.

www.hikingwithshawn.com

I run Google AdSense on my blog. I make anywhere from $150 to $500 a month, depending on how well my content does for a month.

I sell sponsored posts for $100 a post. I typically reject 9 out of 10 posts because they're too commercial or created really cheaply just to get backlinks.

I do brand deals. I typically get a product sent to me for free, test it, and then use an affiliate link, which earns me a commission when a sale is made through it. I also use affiliate links from REI, Osprey, and Amazon.

I post three times a day on Facebook every day. I earn content publishing bonuses of about $400 a month through that.

I run an online community through Patreon and earn about $180 a month.

I include "Buy Me a Coffee" donation links in all my blog posts. I usually make $5 to $25 per post.

I do public speaking and charge $150 for local speaking events. I typically do 3 to 5 of the events per year.

I'm doing all of this because of my video and written blogs.

 

[ryanbiddulph]

Good job Shawn.

Your strategy of publishing detailed blog posts helped to draw quality traffic; each income channel you note allows you to receive the money.

I am full bore on only publishing detailed content, mainly to social media, but then publishing genuine blog comments and also adding blogging insights on forums like yours. Really in building mode these days as my blogging strategy took a huge turn some 10 months ago and it's been a patient, relaxed process since then as all comes together.

I'm not giving any thought to my income metrics for my online courses and eBooks since I'm early into my building phase; customers tell me that they buy 'em and enjoy 'em so I'm on the right track and simply need to mindfully scale, as I have been, trusting my intuition.

Keep up the great work.