How Do Bloggers Receive Their Money?

If you are not a blogger, or new to getting paid as a blogger, it isn’t always clear bloggers get paid. I mean….where does the money come from and how does it get there?

I’ve been a blogger for a few years, monetizing my websites through partnerships, affiliate offers, and display advertising.

It sounds complicated when you aren’t doing it. But it really isn’t a big deal or that complex.

Here’s what I know.

cup of coffee on a table with a laptop and a notebook

Getting Paid for Display Ads

You have probably seen lots of websites that show ads. But if you aren’t doing it yourself, you might not understand how those ads get there, and how the blogger earns money from them.

There are a few different ways bloggers end up putting advertisements (in the article, on the sidebars, headers and footers). The most common way is through an ad network, like Adsense, Ezoic, Monumetric, and others.

You sign up with your website to the ad network, and then the network does all the work getting the advertiser’s ad onto your site. In most cases, all you have to do is put some code on your website, or give the ad network access to your site to set you up.

Once the ad has been running and people either look at the ad, watch a video, or click, the blogger has earned money. At the end of the month (or in 60 days), the ad network will send a payment to the blogger. This can be in the form of a paper check, a direct deposit to a bank account, a paypal transfer, and others.

Due to the availability of some payment gateways in some countries (but not others), if you live in a country that doesn’t have a certain payment option, you might not be able to participate in a particular ad network program.

However, since you are working with the ad network, you are not on the hook to collect the ad revenue at all. You just get the payment when it is due to be paid.

If you decide to contract with advertisers on your own, you can do that, and receive your payment in all the ways that money can be transferred (paper check, direct deposit, payoneer, paypal, Venmo). There isn’t just one way to do it, but since you are contracting directly with the advertiser, it will be up to you and the advertiser to make sure that payments are made as contracted.

There isn’t just one way to send and receive money, but generally it should be above board and trackable.

woman sitting in front of a palm tree looking at a laptop

So with ads, when do bloggers get paid?

There are many different types of ads that bloggers get paid for. Some ads are pay-per-click ads, which means that the blogger only gets paid if a viewer clicks on the advertisement. Others are ads that pay out when the ad is loaded (meaning seen by the reader) even if it is not clicked on.

Bloggers usually get paid for a month’s worth of revenue at a time, for all the accumulated clicks and views which earned them money.

Again, that money will be transferred or sent out to the blogger the same time each month, through the pre-arranged payment method.

Getting Paid for Affiliate Programs

Signing up to promote products through an affiliate program isn’t terribly different than signing up with an ad network, except that you as the blogger will have to create the content on your site.

(Remember, with display ads, for the most part the advertiser and the ad network take care of all of that).

When someone clicks on a link and buys a product (triggering a commission to you), the affiliate network or the company will have the responsibility of paying you. The reason I say this is that some affiliate programs are managed directly by the company and some are taken care of by a big affiliate network, which manages the affiliate programs of potentially hundreds of companies.

Bloggers get paid just like they do for display ads: through checks, direct deposits, paypal transfers, and a few other options depending upon the country.

woman sitting at a desk with pen in her mouth

What about for recommending products (like sponsored posts)?

There isn’t really any magic here. Sponsored posts are usually the result of an agreement between the blogger and a company, for an agreed upon product (the post) and price.

In the agreement (should be written), the payment options should be disclosed and confirmed (check, paypal, etc). Sometimes brands will agree to provide product instead of money, which could be attractive to the blogger who is more interested in the accessories and items, perhaps valued more than the money offered.

How about guest blogging?

Another way bloggers can and do make money is by creating content for other sites, either as a ghost writer or as themselves. Bloggers often make arrangements to be paid per word, or on a flat fee basis for certain size/length post.

In general, as a blogger, I would want to be paid for my services as a blogger through something easy to transfer money with, like paypal or venmo. I don’t want to wait days for a paper check to arrive, and I am not interested in giving out my routing number and account number to random people on the internet.

Thinking about making money blogging?

I’ve created a series of posts for blogging beginners, and I’m adding posts on a regular basis to my blogging archives. I recommend that you check out these ones before you get started:

You can find out more about blogging in the blogging archives section.

Any Questions?

Don’t worry if blogging seems overwhelming. We all have to start somewhere. I have come right out in my posts on this site and admitted to how bad I was when I first started blogging years ago. Those failures helped me learn what I needed to know to succeed.

The primary thing you need to do is to take action, consistent and persistent action.