15 Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Making Money & Easy Ways To Fix Them

You started your blog with the intention of making it into a lucrative side hustle or a full-time business. Now you’re wondering why your blog isn’t making money.

The reality is, that many new bloggers will not make money blogging in the first year. As a new blogger, you may actually suffer a loss if you are self-hosting your blog. While this may seem discouraging, it’s actually the reality of starting an online business.

Here’s the good news: there are fixes. As a blogger since 2010, I’ve made some of these monetization errors and fixed them over the years. It also doesn’t matter if you’re a new blogger or have been blogging for a few years.

In this post, we’ll look at the top errors that many bloggers make money-wise that keep them from success. I’ll take you through some of my other monetization mistakes, and how I fixed them. So that you don’t make them as well!

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.

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Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Making Money

We’re going to get you from crying “Why is my blog not making money?” to “I can’t keep up – I’ve got so many ways to make money with this blog!”.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why your blog isn’t making money, so you can fix them faster.

1. It May Be Too Soon To Start Monetizing

One of the key reasons why your blog may not be making money, is that it’s too soon. If you’re a beginner blogger, you may be at the building your blog foundation stage — you should be focused on content creation and traffic growth strategies.

To generate enough traffic to your website, you need content that answers key questions your readers have.

Jumping to monetization too soon creates poor results income-wise.

How To Fix It

If you’ve got 12 blog posts and 200 monthly pageviews, give your blog some time before chasing monetization. Focus your first year on blog content creation and traffic growth.

Consider creating a solid blog content plan first for your first year.

2. You’re Using A Website Platform That Has Limitations

Not all blog platforms are great for monetization and scaling up. A WordPress website is still by far the best option for monetization and growth in the long-term.

While there are many platforms out there that offer ease of use to start your blog and run it, they do have limitations.

Yes, sites like Squarespace and Wix offer opportunities to sell products and services. However, they aren’t very flexible and limited in options. You’re stuck using whatever they offer. Scalability is hard to do.

Sometimes you need a special plugin to be able to sell specific types of content. Perhaps you need to add an integration with another platform. Or you need to greatly scale up your site.

Yet your current platform has limitations that are keeping you from putting in place what you need to monetize your site.

How To Fix It

The best way to do this is with WordPress.org – or in other words, a self-hosted WordPress site. It’s the most powerful content management system for websites, giving you control over how your site functions.

For this, you will need to purchase a hosting package from a hosting provider. Here are three that I recommend:

• NameHero – This is the one that I use for this website. Great service from the start, including excellent up-time and speed. You don’t find your website down because of errors on the hosting provider’s side.
• Lyrical Host – Great for bloggers who aren’t technically-savvy. Top-quality service and up-time, with fast servers. This is a great hosting provider for new bloggers.
• Big Scoots – If you have the budget to invest in a level-up, go for BigScoots. They’ve been in the business for 20+ years and offer fantastic service, fast servers and tools that will help you build a successful blog.

Whichever one you choose, you’ll be on the path to creating a site that can be easily modified and scaled up to work with your monetization strategies.

| READ: How To Choose The Right Hosting Provider For Your New Blog

3. You’re Missing Key Legal Pages

Another reason you may not be making any money is that you don’t have a key legal page that’s necessary for any blog or website.

Having legal pages on your website is a trust and credibility builder

If you’re getting turned down for affiliate programs and potential brand partnerships it may be because you don’t have key legal pages, particularly a proper Disclaimer.

And trust me, you want that Disclaimer because you don’t want to be potentially fined by the FTC or sued by a reader for something they misunderstood on your site.

Here are the key legal pages you need on your website if you’re making money:

• Disclaimer
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions

Do things right, and professionally!

Having proper legal pages, that are well-written and cover all key bases, also instills confidence in potential customers about you! The perception you’re creating is that you’re a professional blogger.

You don’t want to know how many times I’ve been asked by new bloggers as to whether a product or service is legitimate, because the site looked unprofessional, particularly the legal parts.

How To Fix It

You can easily fix this problem by ensuring your Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions and your Disclaimer are proper legal docs.

Not something you created from a free template, or “borrowed” from somebody else. For example, you can’t copy my legal pages. Anything on my site is copyright, so you don’t want to “copy and paste” from my legal pages.

Purchase your own legal page templates. I recommend the legal bundle – all three key templates – from a respected lawyer turned blogger, who’s created fully customizable templates that work internationally.

4. You’re Not Speaking To The Right Audience

Another key reason why your blog isn’t making money is that you don’t know your audience!

• Who is your key reader?
• What are their demographics?
• What are their pain points?
• How can you help solve that problem?
• Where do they find inspiration/answers?

If you don’t have a defined audience, how can you sell to them? Selling means understanding your customers.

It goes deeper beyond this into considerations such as do they have the budget to afford your big-ticket coaching package. Or a course that costs more than $100?

If your blog is speaking to many different audiences, it will be difficult to retain them when you start blogging about topics they aren’t interested in. That’s a lost potential customer.

This is why defining your blog niche is so important, right from the start.

When you know who your audience is, you know what kind of content they’re seeking, their problems, and how you can help them.

How To Fix It

Take a moment to look at your branding and your About Me page. Take the time to reassess what the goal of your blog is, who is your audience and how you are helping them.

You may need to pare down all of the content categories to suit your key audience.

Start by updating your About Me page. Use this handy workbook to fine-tune your audience.

PRO TIP: Don’t rely solely on your blog content to attract your audience to you. Marketing is HUGE in selling and this means you need to look at a variety of sources of “leads”. You blog is only one tool that ultimately will lead your potential customer to make a purchase.

| RELATED: Why It’s Important To Build Your Personal Brand For Your Blog’s Longterm Success

5. Your Niche Is Too Broad

One of the most common problems with blogs is that your niche is too broad.

This can affect how you monetize your site.

There are types of blogs that make money, while others don’t… and it all comes down to understanding who your audience is and their pain points.

If you find readers aren’t sticking around to check out your other blog posts (evidenced by a high bounce rate in your Google Analytics), you’re most likely not connecting with them very well.

How To Fix It

“Niching down” helps you attract readers who have a key problem that you can solve.

Because your niche should be one you are passionate about and very knowledgeable about. You become the expert!

Share your knowledge, and very good tips and advice in your content. Once you’ve achieved the status of a credible niche expert that your readers trust, your chances of converting affiliate links are much greater.

Inquiries for coaching services and purchase of courses and templates improve as you fine-tune what kind of solution you are offering to a specific problem.

Would you trust somebody who has a course on baking tips, and a course on parenting? Probably not.

This is why it’s so important to niche down.

Read about the top lifestyle blog niches and their sub-niches (which you should choose from for your blog niche!).

If you want to do this – learn how to start a lifestyle blog the right way.

| RELATED: Nobody Is Reading My Blog – Key Ways To Fix It

6. Your Niche Has A Tiny Audience

If your niche has a very small audience, it can be difficult to make money with your blog for a few reasons:

• You will need to work hard to build awareness for your blog to capture as much of the audience as you can.
• Your audience may have barriers to purchasing products or affillate links, narrowing down your pool of potential customers.

How To Fix It

There are a few ways to fix this problem:

• You may have to expand your niche to expand your potential customer base.
• Promotion is going to be a number one priority to build awareness and interest in your content what you’re offering.
• Focus on building your credibility as an expert that goes beyond your blog

7. Your Content Is Weak

Weak blog content could be one of the reasons why your blog isn’t making money.

Readers are finding you mostly through blog content when they search for answers to a problem. However, if they discover shallow tips that don’t thoroughly answer questions your reader has, they see your post as clickbait.

Other quality issues include:

• Pinterest pins that lead to thin blog posts that promote a products. These are viewed as clickbait.
• Poorly-written blog content. Your grammar is awful and you’ve got spelling mistakes.
• Your brand tone of voice is turning readers off
• The blog post looks like it was written using AI. There’s no personality or real-life examples that boost credibility.

Personal branding and your blog’s brand tone of voice are important and come through with your blog posts!

In short, one of the reasons why your blog may not be making money is that your content sucks.

Yup, I said it. Your content may suck.

How To Fix It

The good news is that you can update your old blog posts to make them AWESOME.

• Do your research: write accurate information and tips that get results
• Add additional links to relevant resources that help make your content robust in value
• Update your older blog posts to be relevant and up-to-date
• Make it flow easily: the introduction sets the problem and context; the body solves the problem, and the ending summaries the information, and offers additional tips and info that can help your reader
• Keep ads at a minimum!
• Use real-life examples if you can. This can be photos, anecdotes or screenshots. Even video works!

Consider taking some of your best in-depth blog posts and converting them into cornerstone blog posts: long (over 2,500 words) guides and in-depth posts that wow your reader and truly help them. Show your awesomeness!

| Related:

How To Write Great Blog Posts That Help And Engage Your Readers

How To End A Blog Post To Generate Engagement Or A Conversion

How To Write Affiliate Product Reviews That Convert With Clicks And Sales

8. You’re Relying Solely On Ads: Diversify Your Income Streams

If all you are doing is ad placements, your blog isn’t making money strategically. It’s limited to one income stream.

One of the biggest reasons why bloggers fail to make money with their blogs is relying solely on Google Adsense, Mediavine, etc.

Unless you have over 75,000 pageviews a month, you won’t get the more lucrative opportunity with Mediavine.

Your monthly income with Google Adsense with 10,000 pageviews a month is going to be anywhere between $5 and $10 in most cases.

How To Fix It

Diversify your income streams!

If you’re unsure about selling your services such as coaching just yet, consider other passive sources of income:

• Create and sell Canva templates
• Sell printables
• Sell stock photos and videos
• Consider print-on-demand options for physical products

You may want to invest in using a platform such as Podia, which gives you opportunities to create and sell online courses, digital content, webinars, group memberships and coaching services.

Read my review of my experience with Podia and my Confident Blogger Academy & Resource Collection.

| READ MORE: Top Three Ways To Monetize Your New Blog And Start Making Some Serious Money

How To Create And Sell Digital Products With A New Blog

9. You Aren’t Converting With Your Affiliate Links

Another reason why you aren’t making money with your blog is that your affiliate links are “floating” in content. The links aren’t giving the reader the benefit – the solution to the problem they may have.

As a result, the reader isn’t clicking to find out more about the product, and potentially purchase it.

How To Fix It

Here are two examples of how to make affiliate links convert into clicks:

• A great platform for creating courses is Podia.

OR

• My top recommendation for selling courses is Podia because it is a one-stop digital selling platform that’s easy to use and set up. You can also sell digital products, membership communities, coaching, services and webinars.

Which of these two gives you more context and a REASON to click?

The second one, of course! There’s the benefit – you can do more than just sell courses. Not to mention, I’m giving it my ”stamp of approval” by saying it’s ”my top recommendation”.

If I’m coming across as credible with my blog and my content, the reader is more likely to take my advice. The ”if she uses it, maybe I should too” thoughts go through their head.

Now, if I really wanted to boost my chances of somebody signing up for Podia, I’d add something like this under the section where I talk about using it as a useful design tool. This link:

| Related: Why Podia Is A Game-changing Top Digital Selling Platform – My Review

This link will take the reader to my full-length review of Podia. The best type of content with affiliate links is an in-depth product review with the pros and cons included.

But when you aren’t doing a full review, work in as much info as you can that’s helpful in attracting a click!

10. Missing Out On Existing Sources Of Semi-Passive Income

Let’s say you have Canva, and you’ve got a kick-ass blog that’s getting traffic. You have a decent list of over 250+ newsletter subscribers.

But you’re sticking to ads and affiliate links.

Did you know that you’re missing out on some extra sources of semi-passive income?

I’ve already covered it briefly above, but this bears a reminder because this is a low-hanging fruit type of monetization opportunity.

How To Fix It

Two words: printables and templates.

With Canva you can create templates and sell them. You can create a multitude of printables and sell those too!

Workbooks, worksheets, planners, etc. The list is long!

First, you need to know the problem you can solve with a template or a printable. Secondly, create it. And finally, sell it!

You can use an inexpensive platform such as SendOwl to easily sell digital files and templates.

Check out this awesome guide to starting selling digital content on SendOwl from my blogger and VA friend, Karen Meder Whitfield. She really does a great job walking you step-by-step on how to set up everything and start selling on Sendowl – easy peasy!

How do you may it into a semi-passive income stream?

Promote your digital products regularly with your email newsletter. Make them part of your email welcome series for free lead magnets.

11. You’re Not Selling A Solution To A Problem

You may be selling, but you’re not selling what the reader wants to see! Another reason why your blog isn’t making money is that your sales pages don’t have the right kind of copy.

You aren’t speaking to the reader’s needs – i.e. “I need to solve my XYZ problem and feel XYZ after.”

This goes back to my earlier point about affiliate links: benefits are what sell. What will the outcome be for the reader purchasing your product/service?

How To Fix It

You may need to go back to your sales page and change the flow and the copy. Always start with the problematic context and the desired outcome. “But what if….” is a good way to lead to that desired outcome.

Sales pages should always start with:

• A headline that offers the results – e.g. “How To FINALLY Learn To Dance Like A Pro … In One Afternoon”
• The problem
• The solution

You should include social proof (testimonials), features, and about yourself on your sales page.

Calls-to-action to purchase should include one at the top, one in the middle and the final one at the end.

12. You’re Not Selling Your Services Because Of…

The last reason why your blog isn’t making money is that you’re not willing to sell your services.

Whatever your reason – fear, lack of time, or being unsure of your skills – it’s a missed opportunity. If you’ve been blogging for a while and people are asking you for your advice or help, why haven’t you started?

How To Fix It

If you’ve got a full-time job and don’t think you can spare much time to coach or offer consultations, consider reducing it to only a few slots a month at an hour each.

If you’re blogging full-time, you really have no excuses! It may be you’re dealing with a bit of imposter syndrome. You can overcome it!

The truth is that you probably know more about your niche subject than your reader. It’s time to start sharing that knowledge with others!

Finally, you may think there’s so much to do to start a coaching business or consulting business. Once you get started and set up, it all runs smoothly, especially since there are so many great online coaching and business tools for you to tap into!

13. Leverage Your Email Newsletter For Sales

For new bloggers, creating an email subscriber list is one of the hardest things to do. It can take a long time to build one! This is why I didn’t include it in my main list of reasons why your blog isn’t making money.

However, using your email newsletter is one of the best ways to monetize your site. How do you do this?

How To Fix It

Balance sharing personal insights and blog post updates with selling. Leverage your email newsletter to share your recommendations for affiliate products and services. Promote your digital products or services.

Learn how to grow your email subscriber list by sharing fantastic lead magnets your readers will appreciate and willingly subscribe to get them.

| READ MORE: The Top Lead Magnet Ideas For Lifestyle Blogs – Get Inspired!

14. You’ve Got Broken Links

One of the last reasons why your blog isn’t making money is that you’ve got broken links.

There’s nothing worse than somebody clicking a link and finding it leads to nowhere.

It’s extremely easy to find yourself with broken links – from making changes to a permalink to making some change and all of a sudden, it’s the wrong page or a 404 page popping up.

How To Fix It

Check your internal links! Use a tool such as the Broken Link checker plugin (free).

TIP: Activate it and let it run once a month to check for broken links (this is good for SEO too!). When you’re done, deactivate and delete it. It’s a speed hog but it does the job.

15. You’re Failing To Understand The Customer Journey

Not everybody buys products and services you promote in your blog content. One of the reasons why your blog isn’t making money is that you’re expecting one mention to generate a sale.

It can take a while for a potential customer to make up their mind to purchase from you.

How To Fix It

Determine what your customer journey is.

• Where do they discover you?
• What content do they land on your website?
• What is their next step? Do they sign up to a newsletter for a free offer?
• What happens when they get the free offer? How do you nurture them toward a sale?
• If they haven’t purchased, how else can you capture their interest?
• How can you nurture this audience via weekly newsletters?
• How can you promote your products/services again?

Validate this with conversations with trusted followers/customers. See if this makes sense to them.

Your blog doesn’t make money when it pushes a sale without showing potential customers that your products/services/affiliate links are the right ones for them.

So There You Have It… Why Your Blog Doesn’t Make Money & How To Fix It

Ready to improve your blog and your strategies so that you can start making money?

Remember, here are the key things you may need to fix to start making money with your blog:

• Take time to grow your content and audience
• Go self-hosted with WordPress for the most flexibility
• Have legal pages on your site
• Understand your audience
• Niche down
• Expand your niche/target audience
• Improve your content
• Diversify your streams of income: don’t just rely on ads
• Improve how you use affiliate links
• Tap into low-hanging, passive income opportunities by selling digital products
• Change how you sell: a solution over features
• Start selling your services: coaching, consulting, freelance work
• Use your email newsletter to sell
• Check for broken links

My final tip when your blog isn’t making money is to take inspiration from other bloggers. What are the most successful bloggers and solopreneurs doing differently that perhaps you should try?

Maybe you need to invest in blogging tools to help you make more money.

Take a step back and come up with strategies, implement them and test them to see if they work! If they don’t, adjust and try again.

Trust me, you will eventually meet your monetization goals!

A final note – if blogging starts to become a chore, consider these nine other online side-hustles that can make you money.

| READ MORE: The Real Truth About Making Money With A Blog In 2024

QUESTION: How are you making money with your blog right now?

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