Writing with Anjali: Ways to Monetize Your Blog Without Much Traffic in 2024

Hey Anjali,

I write on very niche topics and while I have an audience, it’s not enough to qualify for many ad partners.

Hey Anjali,

I have just started blogging and wanted to know if there’s monetization options for those with a small audience.

Hey Anjali,

I would rather not display ads on my blog…can I still earn from it?

These are questions I have faced myself in my blogging career, especially as someone who is trying to be as eco-friendly as possible for me. And while there are many ways to monetize a blog, from partnering with ad agencies, using tools like Publisher Growth, affiliate links, sponsorships, launching an e-product, and getting a subscription-based blog like Substack, Ghost, or Medium, and starting a Patreon, many of these require that you have a sizeable audience.

But what if you wish to start small?

You are not optionless. And here are some ways I have used to try and monetize my blog with varying levels of success.

1. Affiliate Links

If this was a blog on sustainable ways to monetize your blog or even freedom for blog content, I might have thought twice about including this. Even in this blog, sharing this is a story of failure to an extent. While I got quite a few wonderful affiliate partners such as Wear Miho, selling sustainable items which have a higher price point from a blog with a small audience is difficult. And brands that give small bloggers affiliate rarely give pat-per-click or pay-per-view options. But I still feel it is not impossible…

Of course, there is a conversation to be had about responsible affiliate partnerships and consumerism…but as a way to monetize a blog on a small audience, this might just work. But I wouldn’t recommend it for it did not work for me yet.

However, here’s what did allow me to generate some revenue via my blog despite having a small audience.

• Kofi/Buy Me a Coffee Links

#tipyourwriter is a campaign, I need to see on social media. This one is similar to a Patreon and requires some additional work.

How it works is simple.

You add the link to your kofi page or buy me a coffee page on your blog and supporters can pay what they wish. This is known as donation or tip.

A great way to look at it is, you are rendering a service with your writing and this is how you can get a tip for it. Kofi even allows you to share specific goals people can support.

People can subscribe with a monthly fee or make a one-time donation. And you can share content that is exclusive to kofi supporters, or is available to everyone who visits. This can be the content you share on your blog coupled with BTS or you can share nothing extra on your kofi and just use it as a place where people can tip.

The best part is for one-time donations, kofi doesn’t charge you a fee.

Now I suggest, having something extra there for people who are paying or visiting, but I also support that knowledge should be free, so I leave this dilemma up to you. Just know, you need Stripe or Paypal for your page to work.

You can even sell products on your Kofi shops and get commissions, do live streams, and more! Want to see what I post on my kofi? Here’s some tea…should I coffee?

But Anjali, I hate to increase the payment steps! And God, I don’t want an extra platform to maintain. What can I do?

Oh I got you. Here are the areas I have found most success which do not require readers to leave my blog.

• Connecting with Stripe or using another QR

First things first, Stripe charges a fee to monetize your blog. And the QR didn’t work for me for the longest time because connecting with Stripe while easy requires a lot of items to be just so. Yet, this is also kind of how I got my first earning from my blog- someone reached out because they couldn’t scan the QR and wanted to know an alternative way to support.

Bestie, if you can make Stripe work for you, this might just make monetization with a small but supportive audience as easy as ABC.

All you have to do is make a Stripe account, get a QR, and copy and paste it at the end of your blog. Another way which I use for Muses_Saga is connecting to Razorpay and getting a merchant QR that is displayed at the end of the blog.

And another quick and easy way to get payment for your work without your readers having to leave your blog is provided by WordPress itself, if you like me have a blog on WordPress…

• WordPress Donation Blocks

These are a simple and efficient way to monetize your blog. You simply go to Tools>Monetize> Donation Blocks. WordPress then guides you on how to connect with Stripe and customize the donation block for your needs.

Or you can start putting some content for paid subscribers only.

Anjali, these are all well and good…but is there more? Of course! The last way I monetized my blog is…

• Selling Products and Services

Products had a small success on my online reading website, Muses_Saga. We sold both e-products and physical ones to our small audience but that might also be because our products weren’t available elsewhere. They are books and planners we have published. Writers often have a circle that bring with them who are eager to own copies of their work.

However, if you wish to avoid the hassle of shipping and such, selling only digital downloads is a great option. Or you can do what I do and make merch, with a partner who handles printing, creating, inventory, and shipping beyond the design on Canva.

Yet, the most success I have had by far is using my blog as a portfolio. Make like a business and add a CTA offering your services as a writer, consultant, and more. If you target the right audience, you will get clients.

Do these have a higher chance of turning into stable income if you have a large audience? Of course.

But just by itself, sometimes even without clients, these methods on this blog funded some meals in a cafe for my partner and I, so I won’t say they’re useless, my guy.

Look, there is no alternative to having an audience when it comes to monetization of your blog. Still, these served me well with a small audience. More important, they allowed me more power over what is displayed on my blog.

That is the true meaning of blogging for me, freedom. Freedom to work when I want. Freedom to voice my opinions. And freedom from ads that do not serve the planet…but that’s another blog.

What do you think?

Will you be trying any of these methods to earn from your blog? Let me know in the comments below.

Oh and bestie? Don’t forget to post #tipyourwriter when you share this piece.

For tipped content see: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/anjaliroongta/ways-monetize-your-content-without-ads

Updated: 07-01-24