How to monetize your free WordPress.com blog (5 different methods!)

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I’m a member of several different blogging groups on Facebook and I’ve noticed the same question pop up a number of times:

Can you monetize a WordPress.com blog?
The answer is YES!

I’ve noticed some people don’t think WordPress allows monetization on their free platform, but this is untrue.   In fact, here’s a statement from WordPress.com:

We understand monetization is important for many site owners, and we welcome and support many methods of monetizing the hard work you put into your blogs and sites. [SOURCE]

Another myth is that you need LOADS of pageviews before you can start monetizing your WordPress.com site. Again, this isn’t true. While your options are limited if you only have a small readership, there are a couple of different tools that you can use to monetize your WordPress.com site from day one.  Keep on reading to find out more!

5 ways to monetize WordPress.com blogs:

To keep the site spam free, WordPress.com only allows the five following methods of monetization:

I’ll explain each method in detail below, give some useful tips and share some of my favourite monetization tools to help you get started quickly.

Important:  We’re talking about WordPress.com (the free version)
In this article, we’re focusing on the free version of WordPress (WordPress.com) BUT all the tips can be used on the self-hosted version too (WordPress.org). If you don’t know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, click here

1) Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is an advertising technique employed by brands (including big companies like ASOS, Target, eBay, Amazon, Zappos etc). The brands pay bloggers commissions on sales referred through specially tracked links.

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On their support page, WordPress.com confirm that they allow affiliate links on their blogging platform:

When blogging about books you’re reading, music you love, clothes that strike your fancy, gadgets you’re drooling over, or whatever interests you and your readers, feel free to post relevant affiliate links using either text or images.

As you might expect, WordPress do NOT allow links to gambling sites, get-rich-quick schemes, multi-level marketing programs, disreputable merchants, pornography, malware, or phishing-type scams on their platform. They also do not allow sites that ONLY exist to drive traffic to affiliate links.

The only catch?  Some affiliate networks and platforms won’t accept applications from WordPress.com users.  This is because their service might rely on coding or plugins that WordPress.com does not support.

WordPress recommends getting started with Amazon Associates. They have documentation detailing how to get started with Amazon affiliate links, which you can read here.

If you’re a fashion, beauty or lifestyle blogger, I recommend Shopstyle Collective too.  You’ll be able to link to clothing, homewares, makeup and books from all the top retailers like ASOS, etc.  They don’t have an approval process so you can get started straight away.  Here’s some further information about using ShopStyle Collective with WordPress.com.

2) Sponsored posts

WordPress.com allow bloggers to post sponsored content on their sites.

Here’s what’s allowed:

• You can be paid to write about a product or service
• You can write a post in exchange for a freebie
• Somebody can provide you with an article and pay you to publish it

However, there are a couple of restrictions:

• Your site should consist of MORE than just sponsored content
• All content must adhere to the WordPress.com Terms of Service

Finding sponsored post opportunities:

Here are three different methods to help you get started:

#1) Agencies – Sign up with an agency that pairs brands with bloggers looking for sponsored opportunities, such as:

Note: I’ve not used those three agencies, so I’m not sure of their requirements for signing up.  I found the suggestions at Food Blogger Central.  In that post, you’ll find 15 other suggestions and plenty of information on ‘how to do’ sponsored posts.  It’s really worth a read.

#2)  Twitter – Browse the #bloggerswanted and #bloggersrequired hashtags on Twitter to find opportunities.

#3)  Direct – Cold call or email the PR reps of companies you’d like to work with and simply ask them if they have any opportunities!  I’ve done this myself with success.  I was inspired by this video of Gary Vaynerchuk doing the same thing live on camera:

3) WordAds

Bloggers with high levels of traffic (commonly believed to be 25,000+ pageviews per month) can run WordAds on their site.  That is WordPress’s inbuilt advertising platform (it’s similar to Google Adsense).

Unfortunately, it isn’t the perfect monetizing solution.  You only get limited control over what’s displayed on your site, you have limited options on where to show ads and you must have a custom domain name.  But if you qualify, it’s worth trying!

Check out WordAds FAQs here.

4) Selling products (digital and physical)

WordPress.com are happy for bloggers to monetize their sites by selling either digital or physical products:

“You can sell your handmade products, art, books, or digital products such as ebooks or courses on your site using your PayPal account.” [SOURCE]

WordPress offer instructions for adding PayPal buttons to your blog here.

Alternatively, you can always sell products on ETSY, Zazzle, Gumroad and other platforms, then link to your products from your blog.

5) Asking for donations or tips

If you have a dedicated readership, consider asking them for donation or tips.  This is acceptable according to WordPress:

“You can also solicit donations or tips from your readers using the PayPal button or link.” [SOURCE]

Again, you’ll find the instructions for adding a PayPal button to your free WordPress.com here.

If you’re providing valuable content to your readers (for example, fiction, reviews, comics or gaming guides), you might find a Patreon an interesting option.  Your readers can purchase an on-going subscription and pay you an amount of their choice.  You can set rewards for different levels of subscription (for example, access to a secret Facebook group, the password for extra content, a follow on Twitter, etc).

UPDATE 2018 – WordPress.com has just introduced Simple Payments, which lets you create and embed credit and debit card payment buttons on your WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled sites with minimal setup. The feature is available on Premium and Business plans on WordPress.com.  Learn more here.

Just a note: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org:

My blogging platform of choice is WordPress, but I will always recommend the self-hosted version (WordPress.org) over the free version (WordPress.com). This is because bloggers using the self-hosted version are free to monetize their sites however they wish. (Plus, they can install whatever plugins they like and customise themes to their preference – handy if you want to test different advert locations, for example).

WordPress.com is a good solution for new bloggers who want an easy way to get started with no upfront investment. There’s no need to buy hosting, a domain name or theme. It also makes sense for people who aren’t sure if blogging is right for them and just want to ‘test the water’.

However, if you’re planning to take blogging seriously and generate income, you should consider using self-hosted WordPress.

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