How I Make Money Blogging 2021: 4 Revenue Streams Ranked Worst to First

Four ways. Ranked worst to first. That is the promise I made at the top of this video, and it is one I intend to keep. Most blogging tutorials dump ten strategies on you without telling you which ones actually move the needle, and you end up spending all your energy on the lowest-paying option while ignoring the one that could replace your income.

I am Alston Godbolt, and I run alstongodbolt.com. I have helped thousands of people across multiple platforms build passive income with affiliate marketing and internet entrepreneurship. In this post I will walk you through every income stream I use with my blog, explain exactly why I ranked each one where I did, and show you how to stack them so they work together instead of against each other.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear picture of the four blog monetization methods that actually generate daily income
An honest ranking of each method from lowest earner to highest, based on real results
The specific traffic thresholds ad networks demand before they will work with you
A breakdown of why Amazon’s 24-hour affiliate cookie creates more risk than most beginners realize
The real reason digital products let you keep 95% of every sale while affiliate marketing can hand you as little as 3%
Why email marketing sits at the top of the list and how it multiplies every other income stream
A simple action sequence you can start this week whether you have 0 posts or 100
A free tool to help you figure out which of these streams fits your current situation best, at finder.platformproof.com

The Ranking: Why Order Matters Here

Before I get into the specifics, I want to explain why the ranking matters. These four income streams are not equally valuable, and treating them as if they are is one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make. Most people start with ad revenue because it feels safe and automatic. The truth is it is the lowest-paying option on the list. If you spend your first year optimizing for ad clicks, you are optimizing for the least amount of money possible.

The ranking I use is simple: worst to first based on the percentage of income each method actually contributes to my daily revenue. By the time you finish reading, you will know exactly where to put your energy and in what order.

Method #1 (Worst): Ad Revenue

Ad revenue sits at the bottom of this list, and I want to be honest about why. It is not that ads are bad. It is that the payout is genuinely low. When I look at what Google AdSense contributes to my daily, weekly, and annual income compared to the other three methods, it barely registers. Think of it as the icing on a cake. A nice little extra. Not the main event.

Here is how ad revenue works in practice. You partner with an ad company like Google AdSense. They automatically place ads on your blog pages. When visitors land on your site and see or click those ads, you earn a small amount of money. The process is largely passive once it is set up, which is why it appeals to beginners.

Google AdSense is the most popular starting point because they will approve almost anyone. Even if you have minimal traffic, you can get AdSense ads running on your site relatively quickly. That accessibility is genuinely useful when you are starting out and trying to understand how monetization works.

But once your blog grows, AdSense alternatives become worth exploring. Networks like MediaVine and Media.net can pay meaningfully more per thousand views. The catch is that many of these networks require you to demonstrate consistent traffic before they will work with you. Some won’t approve your application unless you are pulling 100,000 page views per month, maintained consistently over three to six months. That is a high bar for a new blogger.

There are other ad network options worth knowing about. The article I referenced in the video, published by Kinsta, lists 21 AdSense alternatives for 2021. If you want to move beyond AdSense eventually, that list gives you a starting point for research.

One caveat worth flagging: some ad networks, including Ezoic, have been reported by bloggers and forum members to slow down page load times. If your site loads slowly, Google penalizes your search rankings. You will show up lower in search results and get less organic traffic. Always weigh the revenue gain from a premium ad network against any potential drop in site speed before making the switch.

Another practical note: most ad networks hold your earnings until you hit a minimum payout threshold. For many networks, that threshold is $100. You will not receive a transfer to your bank account until your balance crosses that line. When you are just getting started with low traffic, this can mean waiting weeks or months for your first payout.

Your niche also shapes your ad earnings significantly. If your blog covers the make money online space, advertisers in that niche compete hard for your readers’ attention, which drives up what they are willing to pay per thousand impressions. If you blog about something like basket weaving, the advertiser pool is smaller and the payout per thousand views is lower. Neither niche is wrong, but understanding this helps you set realistic expectations.

My recommended approach: get 20 to 30 solid blog posts published first, then apply for AdSense. Once you are in, treat ad revenue as a nice bonus while you build the higher-value income streams below.

Method #2: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing moves up the ranking because the commission potential is higher than ad revenue, but it still comes with some real limitations that I want to be upfront about.

Here is the basic model: you recommend or promote another company’s product or service inside your blog content. When a reader clicks your affiliate link and buys that product, you earn a commission. You never hold inventory. You never handle shipping. You never deal with customer service. The company whose product you promoted handles all of that.

Affiliate programs exist in virtually every product category you can think of. If you are not sure whether a program exists in your niche, go to a search engine, type your niche keyword plus the words “affiliate program,” and you will almost certainly find options. Using VPNs as an example: searching “vpns affiliate program” pulls up dozens of well-paying programs.

You can also work with affiliate networks, which are platforms that host programs for many different companies at once. The major ones include:

Amazon Associates — one of the most common starting points because Amazon sells nearly everything
ShareASale — a large network with programs across many verticals
CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction) — another major network with well-known brands
ClickBank — popular for digital products in the make money online, health, and self-help spaces
FlexOffers — a solid option with a broad catalog of programs

Now for the honest part. Amazon Associates, despite being the most popular starting point, has one of the lowest commission structures in the industry. If someone buys a $100 product using your Amazon affiliate link, you might earn $3. That is a 3% commission on a sale you helped generate. For the volume of content it takes to drive consistent Amazon sales, that commission rate is a hard pill to swallow.

There is also the cookie window problem. Amazon operates on a 24-hour affiliate cookie. That means when a reader clicks your affiliate link, they have exactly 24 hours to complete a purchase for you to receive credit. If they click your link at 3pm on Friday but do not check out until 3:15pm on Saturday, you get nothing.

The last-click rule adds another layer of complexity. If a reader clicks your link, leaves Amazon without buying, then finds a different blog post about the same product and clicks that blogger’s affiliate link before purchasing, the second blogger collects the commission. The last affiliate link clicked before the purchase gets paid. This is not unique to Amazon, but it is something every affiliate marketer needs to understand going in.

Despite these limitations, affiliate marketing is genuinely hands-off once your content is published. Write a solid blog post reviewing or recommending a product, embed your affiliate links, and that content can keep earning commissions for months or years without any additional work from you. That passive quality is what makes it worth building, even with the lower commission rates.

Method #3: Digital Products

Digital products move significantly higher on this list because the economics flip in your favor. Instead of earning 3% on someone else’s product, you keep approximately 95% of every sale. The remaining percentage goes to payment processing fees and occasional chargebacks, but the core revenue is yours.

A digital product is anything you create once and sell repeatedly without restocking inventory or shipping anything physical. On my own site at alstongodbolt.com, I sell products including:

The Unlimited Social Media Blueprint — a guide to turning a Facebook group into a sales funnel
The 60 Second Business Blueprint — a system for generating leads and sales using short-form video

When someone clicks the link and buys, the payment is processed automatically, the product is delivered automatically, and I never have to touch the transaction. Set it up once and it runs on its own.

The types of digital products you can create are broader than most people realize:

Ebooks in PDF format
Step-by-step blueprints delivered via Google Drive
Video courses hosted on a platform or delivered privately
Membership sites with ongoing content
Audiobooks
Patreon-style subscription content
Templates, swipe files, and done-for-you resources

For payment processing and delivery, I use ClickFunnels to handle the landing pages and checkout flow. A WordPress plugin can handle the same job if you prefer to stay inside your existing site. The important thing is that whatever system you choose, it needs to automate both the payment and the delivery so you are not manually sending files to customers every day.

There is a second advantage to selling digital products that often gets overlooked: you capture the buyer’s email address. The moment someone purchases your product, they become a known contact in your email list. That relationship has ongoing value because you can now market to them again, promote related products, send them to new blog posts, and build the kind of long-term customer relationship that compounds over time.

One important note: you do not need 100,000 monthly page views to start profiting from digital products. A smaller, engaged audience that trusts your content can generate meaningful digital product revenue. The math works because you keep nearly all of the sale price instead of a fractional commission on someone else’s product.

Not sure whether digital products, affiliate marketing, or email are the right starting point for you?

Answer a few quick questions at finder.platformproof.com and get a personalized recommendation based on your skills and situation.

Method #4 (Best): Email Marketing

Email marketing sits at the top of this ranking, and I want to explain exactly why before you assume it is just another way to send spam.

When someone gives you their email address, they are raising their hand and saying they want to hear from you. That opt-in is the most direct signal of interest you will ever get from an audience member. Unlike a social media follower or a blog reader who found you through search, an email subscriber made an active choice to stay connected. They are telling you: I trust you enough to give you access to my inbox.

The reason this sits above every other income stream is that email amplifies all three of the methods below it. A single email can:

Send subscribers back to a blog post, generating additional ad revenue from the page views
Point them toward an affiliate offer with a link that takes them directly to a product page
Announce a new digital product launch and convert buyers immediately
Build the relationship that keeps them coming back as a customer for years

On my blog I use a free training offer to capture email addresses. Visitors see an opt-in form, enter their name and email address, and receive immediate access to free content that helps them get started online. That exchange starts the relationship.

For email collection and landing pages, I use GetResponse for the email software and ClickFunnels for the opt-in page itself. Both are tools that work well for this purpose, though there are other solid options available. The tool matters less than the habit of consistently building the list.

Here is the key concept: an email subscriber stays on your list until they choose to leave. That means every person you add to your list today is potentially a customer you can reach next month, next year, or five years from now when you launch something new. The value of that relationship does not expire the way an affiliate cookie does. It does not drop off when your blog post slides down the search rankings. It is yours until the subscriber decides otherwise.

That staying power is why email marketing earns the top spot. You can rebuild every other income stream if you have a strong email list. Lose your search traffic, lose your social following, lose your ad account, and a healthy email list still gives you a direct line to people who already trust you.

How to Stack These Four Streams (Step-by-Step)

Here is the sequence I would use if I were starting a blog from zero today, based on how these four income streams build on each other:

Step 1: Choose a niche. Pick a topic you know well enough to write 20 to 30 posts about without running dry. It does not have to be perfect. It just has to be specific enough that a reader can immediately understand who the blog is for.
Step 2: Publish 20 to 30 posts. Focus on genuinely useful content that solves real problems your audience has. Do not think about monetization yet. Build the foundation first.
Step 3: Apply for AdSense. Once you have that foundation, apply for Google AdSense and set up ads on your site. Treat this as passive income in the background while you focus on higher-value activities.
Step 4: Add affiliate links naturally. As you write new content, identify products and services you genuinely use or recommend. Join the relevant affiliate programs and weave links into posts where they add real value for the reader. Do not force them.
Step 5: Create a simple digital product. Look at your most popular posts and ask what additional problem your readers have that a paid resource could solve. Start simple: a PDF guide, a checklist, a short blueprint. Use ClickFunnels or a WordPress plugin to handle the checkout and delivery.
Step 6: Build your email list from day one. Set up an email opt-in offer immediately, even before you have the digital product ready. A free resource, a short training, a checklist — anything that gives readers a reason to share their email address. Use GetResponse or a similar tool to manage the list. This is the one task you should start as early as possible because your list grows with every post you publish.

The reason this sequence works is that each step feeds the next. Your blog content drives traffic. Traffic feeds ad revenue and affiliate clicks. A digital product converts some of those readers into buyers. Email captures those buyers and keeps them in your world, where you can promote every other income stream again and again.

Honest Drawbacks to Know Before You Start

I want to name the limitations of this model honestly, because glossing over them does not serve you.

Ad revenue is genuinely low. Even with decent traffic, the income from ads alone is unlikely to replace a full-time paycheck for most bloggers. It is supplemental income, not a foundation.

Affiliate commissions vary wildly by niche and network. Amazon’s 3% is on the low end, but even higher-paying programs often run below 30%. You are always splitting the sale with the product creator. If the product’s conversion rate is low or the cookie window is short, you can do a lot of promotion work for minimal return.

Digital products require upfront effort. Creating an ebook, course, or blueprint that is genuinely worth buying takes time. Most people underestimate this. The good news is that once the product exists, it sells passively — but you have to invest the time to build something worth selling first.

Email lists take time to build and require consistency to maintain. A list of 100 people who bought from you once is more valuable than a list of 10,000 people who never open your emails. The size of your list matters less than the quality of the relationship you have built with the people on it.

None of this generates income overnight. Blogging is a medium-term play. Most bloggers see their first meaningful income somewhere between six months and a year into consistent publishing. If you need money this week, this is not the path. If you are willing to build something that can pay you passively for years, the timeline is worth it.

Find Your X

You now have the full picture: four income streams, ranked worst to first, with the honest trade-offs of each. The next question is which one you should focus on first given your specific situation, your niche, your existing skills, and how much time you can realistically commit.

That is exactly what the Platform Proof Finder is built to help you figure out. Answer a few questions about where you are right now and get a clear starting point tailored to you at finder.platformproof.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to start making money from a blog?

Most bloggers see their first meaningful income between six months and a year after starting, assuming they are publishing consistently and building in monetization from early on. Ad revenue can kick in sooner since AdSense has no traffic minimum, but the amounts will be small until traffic grows. Affiliate income depends on search rankings and traffic volume. Digital products and email marketing can generate income sooner if you already have an audience from another platform.

How much traffic do you need before applying for Google AdSense?

Google AdSense has no official traffic minimum, which is why it is often the first ad network bloggers use. You can apply once your site has a reasonable amount of published content and is not violating their policies. I recommend having 20 to 30 solid posts published before applying so the reviewer sees an established site rather than a bare-bones one. Premium networks like MediaVine have much higher bars, often requiring 50,000 to 100,000 monthly sessions maintained consistently.

Why is Amazon’s affiliate commission so low?

Amazon sets its commission rates based on product category, and most categories fall between 1% and 4.5%. The reasoning from Amazon’s perspective is that they provide the traffic, the trust, and the fulfillment infrastructure, so the commission reflects only the referral portion of the sale. For bloggers who drive significant volume, even low commissions add up. But for most individual creators, Amazon affiliate income alone is not enough — you need to layer it with higher-commission programs and your own products to build real income.

What is the 24-hour affiliate cookie window and why does it matter?

An affiliate cookie is a small piece of data stored in a visitor’s browser when they click your affiliate link. It tells the merchant that the visitor came from you. Amazon’s cookie lasts 24 hours, meaning the visitor must complete their purchase within 24 hours of clicking your link for you to receive a commission. After that window closes, the purchase does not get credited to you even if you originally drove the person to Amazon. Other affiliate programs offer longer windows, sometimes 30, 60, or even 90 days, which is one reason some bloggers prefer non-Amazon affiliate programs for high-consideration purchases.

What tools do you need to sell digital products on a blog?

At minimum you need a way to take payments and a way to deliver the product. For payments, options include Stripe, PayPal, or a platform like ClickFunnels that handles both checkout and delivery in one system. WordPress plugins like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce can also handle digital product sales directly inside your existing blog. For delivery, simple products like PDFs can be fulfilled via a Google Drive download link, though a proper sales platform automates this and handles receipts, refunds, and customer access more cleanly.

Can you run affiliate marketing and sell digital products at the same time?

Yes, and this is actually one of the most effective combinations for blog income. Affiliate links and digital product promotions can coexist on the same site and even in the same email sequence. A common pattern is to recommend affiliate products at lower price points while using your own digital products for higher-value or more customized topics. The two streams serve different reader needs and do not compete with each other when your content strategy is clear about which problems each one solves.

Does your niche affect how much ad revenue your blog earns?

Yes, significantly. Ad networks pay on a cost-per-thousand-impressions basis, and the rate varies by the value of the audience to advertisers. Niches where advertisers compete heavily — finance, business, software, and make money online — typically earn higher rates per thousand views than niches with smaller advertiser pools. A blog in the personal finance space might earn $15 to $30 per thousand views from a premium ad network while a hobbyist blog in a low-competition niche might earn $3 to $5. Your niche choice is a real factor in your ad income ceiling.

What is the best email marketing platform for bloggers just getting started?

GetResponse is what I use and recommend for email collection. It has a straightforward interface, solid automation features, and pricing that works at early-stage list sizes. MailerLite is another well-regarded option with a free tier that lets you get started without paying until your list grows. ConvertKit is popular among content creators for its tagging and segmentation features. The specific platform matters less than starting early. The bloggers who build the most valuable lists are the ones who start collecting emails from their very first post, not the ones who wait until their traffic is “good enough.”

Sources

Kinsta — 21 Best AdSense Alternatives for Websites (2021)
Google AdSense — Publisher Program Policies and monetization requirements
Amazon Associates — Operating Agreement and commission rate schedule
ShareASale — Affiliate network publisher terms
CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) — Publisher overview
ClickBank — Marketplace policies and commission structure
GetResponse — Email marketing platform
ClickFunnels — Sales funnel and checkout platform