Don’t we all wish book blogging could be our career? Just sit at home (or Starbucks), read books, review them, and somehow manage to financially support ourselves.
Today I’m going to talk about whether or not I think it’s possible. Can you make money from book blogging? Will it be enough to support yourself?
Now, I’m not necessarily an expert. This post is purely based on my own research and observations.
How do bloggers make money?
If you look around at famous or well known blogs, they make money in a few key ways:
- Advertising banners
- Affiliate sales
- Membership areas
- Sponsored posts
Keep those in mind while reading this post, because I’ll be addressing most of them from the perspective of book blogging.
The Question: Can book bloggers make money from their blogs?
My answer: No. Let me tell you why!
Problem #1: We don’t get enough page views
This is the main reason why advertisements (and actually most of the other methods) won’t be hugely beneficial on book blogs. We don’t get enough page views.
When I surveyed book bloggers, one of the questions I asked was how many page views the blogger got per day. The results showed this:
As you can see, most book bloggers get less than 300 page views per day. In my survey of over 300 bloggers, only 2 reported getting over 1,000 page views per day.
So for the rest of this post let’s say the average book blogger gets 300 page views per day, which is 9,000 per month. (And even that’s very generous, considering most of the respondents reported getting less than 100 per day.)
Next, I dug around a bit to find out how much money bloggers earn per month. I came across Beauty Through Imperfection’s website, where Paula surveyed bloggers to find out how much they earn. Using her statistics[1] [2] I compiled this graph:
As you can see, the bloggers who make over $2,000 per month (which still isn’t much to earn a living..) mostly get over 125,000 page views per month. Now compare that to our average blogger’s 9,000 per month (feel free to cry a little).
If you look into the 9,000 page views per month range, you’ll see that the bloggers are earning about $100 and under. Sure, that might be enough money to buy a few extra books, but it’s not really going to get you places. It’s certainly not enough to quit your day job!
Just to reinforce these findings, I stopped by ProBlogger to check out their statistics. According to their results (from 1,500 entries), 63% of bloggers reported making less than $100 per month.
Of course, there are a couple book bloggers out there who do crank out over 100,000 page views per month, but they’re certainly in the minority.
Why do book bloggers get so few page views?
We can sit here all day and speculate, and I’m sure there are a lot of different reasons. Just based on my own speculations, I think one of the main reasons is just that reading isn’t super popular in the world. It’s sad, but I think there’s some truth to that.
If you compare book reviews to other blogging topics like:
- Fashion
- Health
- Celebrities
- Weight loss
- Web design
- How to blog
…how are books and reading going to compare? It’s sad, but I think more people are interested in fashion, health, and beauty than they are interested in reading. Just recently, one of my professors polled a class of 40 students and asked How many of you read books? and I was the only one who raised my hand. O_O
And if you want to just purely look at entertainment, I bet blogs about movies and video games get more page views than book blogs. Most people prefer to watch/play something than read it. That same professor I mentioned before said, “Of course none of you read! Why read when you can just watch the movie? All books have movies these days.” Seriously? That statement hurt my soul in so many ways. But that’s how people think these days.
Problem #2: Bloggers wouldn’t trust paid reviews
In the book blogosphere, it’s pretty common knowledge that paid reviews are frowned upon. More than that, book bloggers kind of despise them.
So if you consider that another big way to make money blogging is through sponsored posts (getting paid to write certain things or review certain products), I don’t think that would go down well for book bloggers. People will know that you’re getting paid to write your posts and you’ll probably lose traffic, and thus page views, and when you lose those you’ll get paid less for sponsored posts anyway.
Even if you don’t let your earnings affect your review, your readers may not see it that way. They’ll be skeptical of your review and your opinions.
Problem #3: Publishers won’t pay us to review
But building onto the previous point, sponsored posts require someone to sponsor you in the first place. If you’re running a book blog, your main sponsors are going to be publishers and/or authors. But let’s think about this… are publishers really going to pay bloggers to review books anyway?
No.
I can picture it, and it’s not pretty. I imagine I’m a publisher, the ARC requests are rolling in, then one blogger approaches me wanting money (and an ARC) in exchange for their review. I just throw my head back and laugh, because I can either pay that blogger to review the book, or I can say “Screw that” and give the ARC to one of the other thousands of book bloggers DYING to review the ARC for free.
The book blogosphere is overflowing with people reviewing books for free.. so why should publishers pay for it?
I think the only chance in hell that’s going to happen is if you somehow turn your blog into the next Kirkus, where your word becomes law, to the point where people will pay for it. You would have to be extremely well known in both the online and offline world for that to even possibly happen.
Problem #4: Book-related affiliate links give you almost nothing
How many of you are Amazon affiliates? How many of you make more than $5 per month from that program?
*crickets*
I personally have made less than $10 from Amazon affiliates in over 1.5 years of book blogging. Maybe even less than $5. And I’ve heard many other book bloggers report similar figures.
Why are the numbers so low for book bloggers?
What comes next is just pure speculation on my part, but I definitely think it’s a serious possibility.
As book bloggers, our traffic mainly comes from other book bloggers. Other book bloggers read our posts, and most importantly: our reviews. HOWEVER, how often do you see book bloggers mention that they “Don’t read reviews from other bloggers until after they write their own”? I see that statement a lot. It makes sense. Bloggers don’t want to read spoilers, they don’t want their own review to be influenced by someone else’s, etc.
But what’s the problem with that? It means by the time people DO read your review, they’ve already read the book, so they have no reason to click on your affiliate link to buy the book.
That’s just one possibility, but I’m sure there are a ton of reasons:
- People read reviews on their phone, but aren’t in a position to actually buy the book in that moment. So they buy it later when they’re on their computer, but at that point they just search for the book directly instead of clicking on an affiliate link.
- If most traffic comes from book bloggers, maybe those bloggers already got a free copy of the book from a publisher (ARCs).
- Book bloggers read a lot and many of them are super selective about the books they purchase, or they place themselves on book buying bans, or they just get books from the library.
So how can you make money blogging?
I think the best way to make money is not through blogging itself. Instead, use your blog to drive traffic to a freelance business.
For example, blog about books and build up a good following. Then launch a book-related business (blog tours, editing, book cover design), and your blog will funnel traffic into your freelance business.
With this method, most of your money will come from your client projects, but your blog will help increase traffic to your website, thus increase your number of clients. So you’re not exactly making money through blogging, but your blogging does help you make money. Blogging can drive traffic towards a freelance business.
Examples of this in action:
- Icey Designs: Hafsah’s book blog, Icey Books, is very successful. Her popularity there brings attention to her design site, where she makes blogs, websites, and book covers. She also just published her first book and I think her popularity in the blogosphere is definitely helping her get the word out about her new novel.
- Parajunkee Design: Rachel’s successful blog helps her find clients for her design business, where she makes blogs, websites, and book covers.
- Xpresso Book Tours: Giselle started with her book blog Xpresso Reads, and the success of that helped drive traffic towards her book touring business.
And my own site, Creative Whim. Starting my book blog Nose Graze has definitely increased my clients and sales on Creative Whim!
Summing it up
With advertisements on a book blog, you might make enough money to fund a few giveaways or pay for your web hosting. But don’t expect to be able to turn this into a real living.
It’s hard enough to be a successful blogger and make money. Period. But to make money book blogging is a whole other ball game. I think our niche is at a disadvantage because we already get ARCs for free, and because our target audience is quite small (thus reducing page views).
Yeah, book bloggers don’t earn much money because it isn’t as popular like hair tutorials and fashion things. And people who do book tours and design put in heaps of effort so their income is totally worth it.
Fabuloust post, Ashley! <33
Yeah it’s a bummer that books aren’t more popular. 🙁 It makes me sad!
Me, too! 🙁
I’m probably one of the book bloggers who makes quite a bit for my pretty small amount of viewers. I have one sponsored video native ad on my sidebar which pays $50 a month. I have a contract for one year but plan to continue. Then I have two Litbreak ads. Combined, I make about $1 a day plus or minus depending on impressions. The reason why I like Litbreaker, is they pay by impressions instead of clicks which is better for me personally. I get about 150 on the less popular days and up to 600 on the good ones. But I’m not sure if impressions and pageviews are the same thing… Also, I really don’t make anything from affiliate links. I think I’ve made $2 ever with my Amazon and nothing at all with Book Depository. We’re here to support authors which is why we don’t ask them to pay for guest posts and features and such. But all in all, I make $70-$100 a month from my blog. It’s not a lot but it’s pretty nice. Like you said about the design websites and tour websites, I’ve found some pretty good opportunities through blogging that I wouldn’t have otherwise. With the really popular book blogs, lots of people use BlogAds which can offer quite a bit more a month right? This was an awesome discussion Ashley! I don’t think I’ve ever revealed so much, haha.
Yes I think you are one of the few! I think a fairly big part of it is that you chose to put a video ad on your blog. Those pay out more because they’re more interactive and noticeable. But that being said, I think less people would be inclined to put those on their blog because they are more obtrusive.
I guess that’s true but then again, the video ad pretty much acts like a normal one. It just sits in my sidebar and you can choose to play but you don’t have to. I’m just lucky because I was contacted by the advertiser instead having to go through a bunch of work. Honestly, I wouldn’t know how to get an opportunity like that if the advertiser hadn’t reached out to me first. :S
Fewer people. Not less.
Fewer people. Not less. Put the one below in the wrong place.
That’s exactly what I am doing. I want to start a book touring and a web design business and I figure my book blogging will help me a little, though I didn’t start blogging for that reason. I idolize Giselle so much for Xpresso Book Tours and you for your web design.
Now, I actually make a good little chunk from amazon because of my free kindle post. When people get those free books, sometimes they go back within that same month and buy books or something big like a kindle. I can make between $5 to $25 a month from Amazon affiliates. I use that money for either giveaways or books I buy to review on my blog.
I know what you mean. I didn’t start my blog to make money but seeing inspirations like that really gets me motivated. Good luck on your ventures!
Wow, that’s a lot you make with Amazon! I didn’t even realise that it was possible to do that. I mean I knew you could, I guess I just never thought of that.
What you said about affiliate links totally makes sense! You’re lucky that you’re able to earn a noticeable amount from Amazon. I earn so little that I often think about not putting up affiliate links at all because that would save me about 5 seconds of time LOL.
I feel that way about my affiliation with Barnes and Noble and Book Depository. I have never even made enough from them to get a payment yet. It’s almost not worth it.
Great post, Ashley! Discouraging, maybe, but I love how you’ve done so much of research on the subject and taken the time to provide the real picture 🙂
And I think most of us are book bloggers because of the love we have for books, and doing what we love makes up for not getting much out of it monetarily. Other than, of course the awesome perks of being a book blogger which nothing can compare to! (ARCs, anyone?) xD
Yeah I definitely read and blog because it’s something I love! But it would be amazing to turn that into a career if it were possible. *sigh* 😛
Lol you seem to have succeeded quite wonderfully! 😉
I am an amz associate, but I really am not earning any money with it. Therefore, I wanted to stop being an associate, but I can’t find anywhere to delete my associate account. Isn’t that pretty strange?
I also never thought about actually earning a living by blogging – I think part of what I think is fun about it would not be fun if I ‘had’ to do it 🙂
Great post, as always, Ashley.
Yeah that’s true (about it not being fun if you ‘had’ to do it). I think the important part would be to still be choosey (if you could be). Like don’t review every book (even those that sound bad) just because you were being paid to do so. Select the books that you’re actually interested in. Then I think I would still enjoy it because it would be similar to how I work with ARCs now. I think I would hate blogging if I requested tons and tons of ARCs that I wasn’t interested in. But right now I’m pretty selective about the ones I request, so I still enjoy reading them, even though they are kind of an obligation.
I don’t make any money and I’m not affiliated with a company. I don’t even know where to get started and you now what, getting ARC’s/review copies/eARC’s is enough for me. I never started my blog with the idea of making money (never thought it was possible either), so it’s fine this way 🙂
Yeah I didn’t start my blog with any sort of aim to make money either. I have to admit, it would be cool though! I love blogging in general and being able to make money from doing something I love (versus a crappy 9-5 job) would be amazing!
Same here, Mel! I’m not affiliated to anything either. And I know what you mean about getting ARCs/review copies/eARCs; the sense of accomplishment and pride I get when I see a request/I got approved is payment enough (okay, maybe it’s odd to feel that way, but I kind of do).
But sometimes I wish I could use my talents for some good, like Ashley, Giselle, and the others are doing. That would be so cool! 😀
I wouldn’t say ‘no’ if I could earn some money from blogging, haha, but it’s already rewarding enough 😀
I don’t advertise in my blog and although I’m an Amazon associate, I make no money from it. I blog about books because I love it, it was never my intention to make a living out of it. That being said, it would be nice to at least make some money to buy more books, and sponsor and mail more giveaways.
How many of you are tired of the question: You do this for free?
Ugh yes! I ran into that the other day. Someone kept asking me “What’s in it for you?” and i just said “I love books”, but he kept waiting for me to go on, as if that wasn’t a good enough reason.
I don’t make any money off my blog but I never expected to. I really don’t want random ads on my site because it’s my personal space to blog about whatever, whenever and however for the price of 2 x hot chocolates a month.
I get cynical when I see book blogs smothered in ads – are their reviews legit or is it just another way of making money?
Yeah, I think it’s definitely difficult to make any money book blogging for the reasons you mentioned. Sometimes, the book blogging community feels crowded and like there’s SO MANY of us, but really, when you put it into perspective, there’s not that many people interested in books. Not a whole lot of people are readers. I think I have a skewed sample in my personal life because pretty much all my friends from college are readers(writing major), and then book bloggers and such, I forget that’s not the general population.
I never set out to make money from blogging, but I did have Amazon affiliate links for awhile. I think in two months I made like $1.70, so I just stopped linking for now. I’m fine if my blog doesn’t generate income, but I wish I could use affiliate links or something to at least offset the cost of hosting/paying for my domain name. That would be nice.
HAHA I never knew it was that difficult! :O I’m still a kid, and have no intention of making money out of my blog, at least not yet– and if I do, I think you’re one to draw inspiration from! (although I have to work on my design skills a whole lot more XD) This was such an interesting and informative post, Ashley!
Yes I have one AdSense on my blog and I still haven’t made 1$ from clicks on it. 😀 As for Amazon Affiliates program I participate but also nothing worth bragging about – maybe this month I will finally have enough funds to make a money transfer and fund a giveaway with it.
I have a small blog so maybe bigger and more popular websites earn more but I am not really bothered by me not earning money.
I went into book blogging business so I can find more people who have similar taste in books and I wanted to share my opinions on a website where I know my reviews will not disappear… So I got from blogging everything I expected. 🙂
Nope this is not a money maker..LOL You can make some money from affiliate sales, and ads. I do, but it isn’t substantial (doesn’t cover costs & I still need my job) and goes right back into the blog for giveaways. For ads it depends on whether or not you bill your own or work through company. Page views set the price. The average is 1.00 per page view. So a blog averaging 30,000 page views a month could demand 30.00 for an ad. Great post 🙂
I’m not looking to make a lot of money, but I did hope to earn a little to at least help with the cost of my blog. Unfortunately, I can’t be an Amazon Affiliate because of my blog name. I do use affiliate links for TBD though, and I’ve made an amazing $0.23 since February. Too bad you can’t cash out until $40. 😛
But I absolutely agree on your points about why no one really uses affiliate links. I’m one of those bloggers who probably won’t read a review until after I’ve already read it myself. Although that’s really only true for books I already have an ARC of or are super excited to read. I’ll read reviews of books I hadn’t heard of, and if I like the sound of it, I add the book to my wishlist. I don’t buy it immediately.
Seems like book bloggers are an odd bunch when it comes to money making. 😛
I haven’t made more than $2 from Amazon affliate links in 2.5 years! I have gotten a few dollars from Smashwords affliate links since they pay higher, but still not enough to cash out. I think book blogging is more about sharing a love than making money. Plus, we sometimes get free books, which is at least something!
So what I’m hearing (reading) is that while we can’t make a living off our book blogs, we might be able to make enough in advertising so that we can pay for hosting and our giveaways to at least break even on this fun hobby and not be shelling out money all the time?
Possibly, yes. You might be able to scrape together $30 per month or so if you have enough page views to attract advertisers’ interests.
I think the problem is that some advertisers won’t even look at you if you have less than 30,000 page views per month, and a lot of book bloggers don’t get that. So you might have to go to authors directly who want to advertise, or hope that you can attract advertisers some way other than just page views (great content, readers who comment a lot, etc.).
Super interesting post! I know I can’t make money off my book blog (for many of the reasons you cite here), but I hope that it will drive traffic/customers/readers/whatever to other endeavors I might pursue. As a consumer, I’m more liable to trust someone I don’t know (like if I was going to buy a book tour) if they have a web presence versus a random website where I can’t find anything else about them. I’d hope other people are like me in that regard 😀
It is sad that book blogs are less popular than other sorts of blogs, but I unfortunately see it all the time: People don’t read. I work in a library, and I say it on a daily basis, that people don’t read. Multiple times a day actually, lol.
But I think book blogs can lead to money in other ways. If you’ve been blogging for a while, and want to work in a related industry, your blog can show that you’re actually passionate about what you want to work in, and that you have been for a while. And book blogging can possibly lead to thinking about what else you could do online (freelancing, etc) to add income.
I’ve had a post in my head for a while, about why I continue to blog. I’ve come close to quitting a few times, for various reasons, but in the end it comes down to I’d miss it if I quit. Not because I get anything out of it. Although I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to make money, somehow.
Very true post, Ashley! I have thought from time to time that it would be nice to make a few bucks here and there to support my addiction, er, interest in reading. Haha. But ultimately I do this because I love it, and for the reasons you pointed out it really isn’t THAT feasible to make money off blogging.
Pretty interesting analysis here. You point out during your commentary that you think people just don’t read enough for book blogs to be popular. What do you think can be done to spread a sort of resurgence for the love of reading?
Great post! I don’t have any ads nor have I ever done a sponsored post so I don’t get any money through those. However I do earn a reasonable amount through affiliate links. Now its still nothing compared to what other types of blogs get but I am more than happy with my $50 or so a month. As I live in the UK I get it as amazon gift cards so I can only use it for books but it does come in handy for furthering my blogs through giveaways or saving me money on books that I can then use for other things.
Great write up indeed. Through my years in blogging, I believe that the key to make money online is all about understanding and learning. Make money through blogging is not a 1-day thing. Instead, it takes months and years to learn and of course, forecasting plays a huge role too. Great write and definitely deserve a share on social media. Stumbled and have a great day ahead!
Such a great topic! I’m loving how you worded everything in such a simple form. And it’s soo true. There’s no way people will trust paid reviews and our pageviews is not enough for anyone to buy an ad on book blogs. Sad but true. The only way I make money is through designs like regular freelance clients!
I love it that you don’t sugar coat this post. Yes, you can get money from your blog, but the amount is another story. I think one of the things that cause book bloggers to have very few page views is because we cannot and will never never compete with Goodreads. If one type a book review and search it with Google, Goodreads and Amazon always in the first page of search result, leaving us bloggers with very view visitors.
Very insightful post!
It’s a little saddening, but I don’t really care much. As you said, you need to be pretty successful to earn a little money out of book blogging.
Like in the case of Icey, the reason why I don’t like her blog is that she doesn’t really post much reviews or discussions, mostly promotional posts. And that’s what some of the popular blogs do at some point or another: feature a lot of promos. I don’t want that.
It’s definitely tempting to shift away from book blogging when you see the offers for sponsored posts that bloggers in other categories get, or bloggers on other platforms (YouTube, etc.). But that would mean starting from square one again, and you’d have to be pretty determined to want that.
Yeah it seems like fashion and/or lifestyle bloggers can get a ton of sponsored posts.
And it’s always a bit amazing when you see a tech blogger get free tech. Like free iPhones or cameras or really expensive tech equipment like that! (That puts free books to shame lol.)
Book blogging cannot compare to other profitable/lucrative types of blogging (ie fashion blogging). The audience is a lot smaller and the types of ways that they make money just aren’t applicable to book blogging.
Book blogging, however, can lead to other things, such as getting a publishing-related job or going to an event as a panelist. I think those things can balance out the fact that you probably won’t be making a lot of money from book blogging, a little.
Nice article. Discouraging, but honest – that is the nature of the beast though. I was wondering if anyone knew what book blogging websites were the top earners?
The Book Smugglers is probably one of the biggest. They report 110,000 page views per month.
I totally agree. Unfortunatley, freelancing is something that many bloggers do not consider as a method for monetization.It can be more profitable than ppc monetization.
I just found this post, after another blogged linked to it, and it’s a great reality check for book bloggers! I did decide to upgrade from blogger to wp, and spend some money on my blog, because I would like to use it in part as a an advertising platform for an ebook I’m (very slowly) writing. So I think this would fall under the heading of using a blog to direct attention to a freelance business 🙂 But, that’s something that will happen down the road. Right now I’m blogging just as a hobby.
I’ve also looked into blogher, and there’s some money making options through them (both advertising and then writing for their site), but I haven’t started the process yet.
Does anyone know anyone who has an editing freelance business, like in addition to their blog? Can anyone give me any advice on starting that? See my post below.
Well, it’s true that we can’t get any money from book blogging (in exception of some bloggers). I can’t come up with any way when I was wondering how to earn money since I’m not that good of a designer and I’m too busy to run book tours… But what makes me love this community even more is how we are NOT here for the money… we are driven by our passion for reading and desire to share out thoughts with fellow bookworks and I guess that’s what makes it awesome. 🙂 Excellent topic, Ashley!
You’re right, it’s great how many book bloggers just do this because they love it rather than for money! And that makes the reviews and posts all the more genuine. 🙂
You can definitely make some money by providing a design service. But there’s also the YouTube partnership program. I make about $20-$30CAD monthly? It’s not much, but at least it’s something. I haven’t even made enough money from The Book Depository Affiliate program..I think it’s capped at $20, and I’ve made $10 LOL I’m going to write about my earnings one day soon.
That’s the thing about the book blogging community..We don’t need to earn money to be happy because we have our books. I find it completely different from other communities because we really care about our books and we’re passionate enough to keep doing it. Do what you love!
Good to read, I’ve just started a book blog! Anyway, I didn’t start it for the money, but more as a way to talk about the awesome (and less awesome) books I read. 🙂
Thank you for the hard work you poured into this research. A good one indeed and a little disappointing to book bloggers but I like how you tip us on using our blog to its fullest (even if it doesn’t earn you money). I recently just started a book blog too in hope to share the joy of reading and the different world you can see in the writing. It is so sad to know people do not really read these days. I hope us, book bloggers will still continue despite less pageviews and less money earned. It is the inspiration and magic that we have to keep from extinction.
Indeed a great post about making money online.
Nowadays people are getting very much creative and wants to make some extra money from home.
The topic ” Make money from home ” is very much interesting and people get very much excited when they get to know about it. But people should understand, this isn’t that much easy as they are thinking.
According to me, Making money through Blogging and affiliate marketing is the best ways among all others explained here.
But to earn through blogging and affiliate marketing, You must need to work hard with lots of dedication.
You must have to follow these important steps.
1. You have to choose a profitable niche from which you can earn by promoting affiliate products.
2. Build a blog on that niche and provide helpful content to others.
3. Promote your content among potential readers
4. Drive traffic to your site and make money through it.
These are the basic steps you need to take to earn through blogging.
BTW Thanks for sharing such a wonderful post with us. 😀
I’m a little late to the party, but this is a great post. Highly informative and I agree with it. I started book blogging over a year ago. Admittedly, when I first began, I did research on how much money book reviewers could make and saw many dollar signs. After I gained more experience, I realized that being paid for my reviews may negatively impact my perceived integrity. I’d like to find some way to make money off of my blog, that way I can eventually upgrade to a paid version (and not be losing money) of my website. Thank you for your insight on book blogging, it’s much appreciated!
This is sad but true. I use the money I earn from my book blog to buy the books that I want so I don’t keep wasting money from the other site that I own. But the main reason I have a book blog is because I LOVE books and I really enjoy writing reviews about them.
Thanks for the great post, it answers a lot of questions I’ve been asking myself recently. As for the professor’s remark, (“Why read when you can just watch the movie? All books have movies these days.”) good luck watching the movie adaptions of, let’s say, Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, William Gaddis’ The Recognitions, and Carlos Fuentes’ Terra Nostra.
You probably won’t recognise my name, but I’ve tweeted you a couple times 🙂 anyway, I just wanted to ask, what is a logo? I’ve never heard of that before. I seem to be having some issues with my domain name registering, but once its sorted, (fingers crossed it will be.) I’ll be moving on to personalising my blog. how do you pick a theme? There seems to be thousands of them! As someone who doesn’t have a clue or anyone to ask, I feel like i need to be walkeeen at this for 2 days and I’ve still not got my blog! Please help!d through by baby steps! I’ve already been derailed twice, please help! haha
Hi Ash! Thank you so much for this informative blog post. I’m planning to start my own blog about books and now I got an idea of making it a business somehow. But now, I really need to be creative in doing that. I’m from the Philippines and book blogs are often overlook. This is really challenging for me. But I really appreciate this post.
Great post – I need to work on my own ideas to make some money. I blog about picture books and love it but would love to make some income…time to get thinking!
I googled ‘make money from blog review’ or similar and this came up. Quite useful. Frankly, I never expected to make much and was more interested in how to become an amazon associate – though I didn’t know that’s what it was called. I have oodles of old reviews to post up and it might make a few bob. As you say, the main reason for a blog is to promote your freelance business. Thanks for the info!
This was an amazing post. I casually cried inside though. I’ve been wanting to start selling bookish products but it’s so hard being a student and being able to run these kinds of things as well as study. And my ads just get nothing. It’s kind of sad…and hurts when you see some of these other bloggers earning so much money. And us book people are just stuck.
Guess I’ll just have to keep working at building my following and opening an etsy shop one day
Why didn’t I see this months ago?! I like blogging but I recently got kicked from Amazon’s affiliate program for no clicks and it was really depressing. I am interested in designing book covers though so maybe this will help with that once I get there…
I recently started receiving ARC’s and book blogging, and I’m really glad I read this. Not that I thought I was going to be able to quit my day job any time soon, but it’s good to know and makes me think about how I want to develop my blog for the future. It is sad that not a lot of people read and we are in a small niche, but it’s a great community.
I love your honesty. I write on motivational subjects on my blog and I was thinking of going deeper into book blogging but i think I’ll just do both.
Books aren’t really as popular as it should be. I have really few friends who are book lovers like myself.
Anyways, great post.
Thanks for your insights. I’m currently trying to boost the income I’m making through blogging and facing a steep learning curve.
Hey! I loved this post, it was very honest and researched. 🙂 I’m really curious about the book touring business, does anyone have any info or know where I can find info to start something like that up? Thank you so much!
What about promotion of books? And the use of other social media for it along with your book blog. Secondly, what if you are not an expert in coming up with designs and book covers.
This is really great article..thank you for sharing your research ???