Blogs have been around for many years.

Many have been successful.

And, of course, there were failures too.

Can blogs be profitable today?

If so, how do you avoid failure?

Let’s get blogging…

Profitable blogs are achievable

So, you want to know if you can make money with a blog and be profitable.

The simple answer is a loud resounding YES!. 

The low entry cost to blogging ensures you’re VERY profitable.

Many people have found success in blogging. 

Let me name a few, and you’ll probably know them too:

1. HuffPost: $500 million per year
2. Engadget: $47.5 million per year
3. Moz: $44.9 million per year
4. PerezHilton: $41.3 million per year
5. Copyblogger: $33.1 million per year
6. Mashable: $30 million per year
7. TechCrunch: $22.5 million per year
8. Envato Tuts+: $10 million per year
9. Smashing Magazine: $5.2 million per year
10. Gizmodo: $4.8 million per year

[source: Top 10 highly paid bloggers]

1. HuffPost

Arianna Huffington founded Huffington Post. Arianna started the blog as a current affairs commentary then turned it to what it is today — a media empire.

HuffPost current yearly earning is estimated at $500M. 

The center of HuffPost’s success was the hundreds of posts published in a day.

Typically, publishing hundreds of posts will get you some love from Google. However, things have changed. 

Google has cracked down on website credibility and introduced EAT. 

EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

To be honest, I don’t know whether publishing anything on your website will rank highly on Google. 

The key is to keep blog posts related to your category and publish heaps.

2. Engadget

Founded by Peter Rojas, a former Gizmodo editor. 

Engadget is all about tech. Tech such as smartphones, laptops, wearables, apps, and even robots. 

Engadget monetizes its blog with affiliate links and ads. 

3. Moz

Rand Fishkin created Moz. 

I love Moz. I’ve spent a great deal of time learning from their blogs. 

Moz’s monetization stream is its SEO SaaS. 

However, they acquire their customers through content marketing (blogging), making this website a profitable blog.

4. Perez Hilton

No, not Paris Hilton. Perez Hilton, aka Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., is a TV personality and a gossip blogger. 

What made the blog successful is how it uses celebrity names to drive engagement to every post. 

5. Copyblogger

Brian Clark founded Copyblogger. Copyblogger teaches writing with a focus on copywriting.

Introducing podcasts into the mix paid great dividends for the brand.

Copyblogger monetizes by selling its yearly pro membership costing $495. 

6. Mashable

This great-sounding website, Mashable, was founded by Pete Cashmore. Pete was only 19 when he created this million-dollar blog. 

Mashable writes about tech, science, and everything good for the community. 

Mashable’s monetization model is a good mix of ads, affiliate, and sponsorship deals.

7. TechCrunch

Michael Arrington and Keith Tears opened up TechCrunch and covered all things high-tech. 

TechCrunch monetizes using ads and sponsorship.

8. Envato Tuts

Collis Ta’eed founded Envato Tuts.

Envato Tuts covers many guides and courses for photography, business, web design, music, graphic design, and even coding. 

Some of the contents are free, but you’ll need to pay a fee to get a glimpse of the more in-demand tutorials.

9. Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is a blog for web developers and teaches them how to start their agency or freelance.

SM teaches web devs to pitch to businesses and handle marketing. 

SM charges a monthly membership to access premium content and allows advertisers to reach their audience. 

10. Gizmodo

Peter Rojas founded Gizmodo. 

Peter Rojas sounds familiar? That’s because I mentioned him on the number 2 of this profitable blog list. 

Gizmodo has many sites all over the world, from UK, Japan to here in Australia. 

Gizmodo is all about tech, gadgets, and all the futuristic stuff. 

Some of their monetization methods are sponsored articles, ad space, ad network, and most likely affiliate links. 

Profitable blogs started small

Those 10 are just the tip of the iceberg of blogs that have started small and made it big. 

Many more profitable blogs are not mentioned. Seriously, there are too many.

Do you know that Legion Athletics uses blogging as part of their marketing?

The founder, Mike Matthews, built an 8-figure supplement business with the help of content marketing, which he talks about in his podcast.

He speaks about branding, marketing, and Mike Mathews’ sausage. I’m not kidding. Check it out. It’s a valuable resource for health and fitness bloggers. 

Don’t forget this guy, Pat Flynn, who created Smart Passive Income and grew it to a six-figure online business.

Smart Passive Income or SPI teaches ordinary people like me how to build an online business. 

SPI sells products and services such as ebooks, courses, and software as a service. SPI also makes money from sponsorship deals and affiliate marketing.

Read all about SPI’s income report by clicking on the following link: Smart Passive Income 2017 December Income Report.

And another profitable blog that started from zero is Adam Enfroy’s blog. Adam is a digital marketer by profession. 

Adam used all his past experiences from his job and created a blog that documented his journey from $0 to making six figures a month without advertising. He shows how you can do it too, in his blog. You can find out more about Adam’s method by clicking on the following link: Adam Enfroy.

We also have Neil Patel, who is a blogging advocate. Neil is a skilled marketer and has built million-dollar businesses. 

Of course, neilpatel.com started from a small blog. Neil is an aggressive content marketer. The first thing he does in the morning is to open up his laptop and write a blog. 

I’m not even going to guess how much he is earning with his blog. I can tell you that he is getting more than 1M visitors a month. You can take a guess how much that equates to in monetary value. 

Conclusion

Can blogs be profitable?

If you are still not convinced that blogs can be successful and earn you millions a year, then what can I say?

You don’t even have to earn millions of dollars with your blog. There are thousands of bloggers who have quit their 9 to 5 drag through blogging. There are too many to list and much more under my radar.

Use this as an inspiration to quit procrastinating and start a blog. 

I detailed how you can quit your job blogging about what you love in the following article: start a blog and make money on autopilot. Don’t worry; it’s all free, and I don’t throw out big numbers BS. 

I’m not going to exaggerate my earnings, so you’d buy my course, which I don’t have, by the way. 

No, I earn money by recommending what I used for my blogging business. One of them is called affiliate marketing. 

Want to know about the secrets to affiliate marketing? You can by clicking the following: How To Make Recurring Monthly Commissions.

Affiliate marketing is how I make money on this blog. And, if you clicked on the above link, I will earn a commission for qualified sales at no extra cost to you. 

That is how I can keep the site running and keep providing valuable resources. I want you to do the same too.