10 Highest Paid Bloggers

Last Updated on October 17, 2023

If you ever needed a reason to start blogging, the eye-watering income that some bloggers make might catch your attention.

You might be skeptical and think that only a few get lucky and make such incomes.

You do not though need to make $100,000 a month, as I am sure you would be happy to make $10,000 a month right? And there are many bloggers achieving just that.

Why Blogging Can Be a Great Career Move

If you are not already convinced that blogging can be a great career path change, let me explain a few reasons why you might certainly want to consider taking up blogging.

The benefits of blogging include the opportunity to:

• work from home
• be your own boss
• generate a passive income (make money while you sleep or lay on a beach by selling digital items)
• make scalable income (this means that you can make a digital product one time and sell the same item an infinite number of times)

If you have the time, patience, drive, and confidence, then creating an income online is certainly possible. It will take time and a lot of hard work and you might not make a 6-figure income but you can certainly make enough to quit your job.

Do not also though discount making a 6-figure income as many bloggers reach this goal.

How Do Bloggers Make Money?

I did explain in a previous post every aspect of what blogging is and how to make money but let me quickly summarize again how you CAN make money from blogging.

The key ways to generate an income are as follows:

Affiliate Income

Affiliate income can be the easiest way to get started. You make a small commission for selling other people’s items online. A great example of affiliate marketing is if, for example, you sell Amazon products as an Amazon Affiliate.

Selling Digital Products

Selling Digital Products is a great way to move in the longer term. It is easy these days, for example, to create your own eBooks and sell them through your site.

Just use a service such as eJunkie integrated with PayPal to take payments and deliver the books. You can also create your own online courses just as we have done through the platform teachable.

Google Adsense

Ad networks such as Google Adsense are a good option for those of you just looking to get started and happy just to be able to pay for the web hosting, domain name, and a few extra things.

It is harder to make money through this technique compared to affiliate income and selling digital products tends to be the best way to make an income online though.

I have known a few people to make 6-figure income though through Google Adsense!

The Power Bloggers – Top 21

So, who are these pioneers, these star bloggers who are thriving through blogging? What are their names, how do THEY make their money and how much do they make? Let’s take a look!

1. Neil Patel

How he makes money online

Neil Patel is one of the most successful bloggers online and he makes easily in excess of $2 million annually and is considered to be worth several million.

Why he’s successful

Neil’s path to blogging success has been a long and arduous one and it is comforting perhaps to know that others also have had to work hard and also suffer the painstaking efforts we also have to.

Neil was born in the UK but moved to the U.S. when he was 2 with his family and then he started burning and selling CDs at high school when he was 15 years old.

Since then, Neil has started Crazy Egg and is well-known in blogging circles for giving inside guidance to bloggers on how to start a business and on all matters pertaining to digital marketing.

What we can learn

Do not be afraid of hard work and taking some hits along the way. Neil made a million and then lost it after investing in a web hosting company named ‘Vision’, before then blogging his way to millions again.

2. Brian Dean

How he makes money online

Brian Dean of Backlinko is another 7 -figure blogger, making in excess of $100,000 a month and a millionaire on the back of his blogging exploits.

Why he’s successful

Brian has used a very definite path toward building Backlinko and a massive following through blogging. His technique is to write very few but extremely high content-rich and long blog posts.

Brian calls this the ‘Skyscraper method‘ where you write these lengthy but incredibly informative posts.

His knowledge, and focus on providing free information and guides in order to build trust, has proven to pay dividends.

What we can learn

Brian has proven that quality works better than quantity! By providing great value for your readers and followers, building trust is a great way to work towards then building sales online.

3. Create and Go

How they make money online

Alex and Lauren of CreateandGo make around $120,000 a month (check the top of their site to view their latest income) and they are a U.S.-based couple.

Createandgo makes money from affiliates such as Convertkit, Bluehost, and Teachable courses.

Why they are successful

Whilst one might be wary of people who blog about blogging (ouch, that is what we do here on Promarketingonline.com :)) – you want to learn from those of us who have had success previously.

You want to learn from those who have been there done it, failed, and then done it again.

Blogging with Pinterest as the target search engine has been how Alex and Lauren have built a massive online following.

What we can learn

If you follow Alex and Lauren’s story even more closely, you will discover that they spent literally 4 months or so working 14 or so hour days, whilst they built their courses.

You will need to put in the hours and effort early on if you want to make it big as a blogger, but once you reach a certain peak, you can free up all the time you need for personal pursuits.

4. Twins Mommy

How she makes money online

Elna Cain is the owner of Twins Mommy and, as the name suggests, she is a mum to twins and manages to combine this with making a good living online.

She started off as an online writer and then started to teach what she learned through Elaincain.com on her main site Twinsmommy.com

Why she’s successful

What Elain does is very clever in that she has really dug out a deep niche for herself by focusing very heavily on networking with other mums, particularly through her Pinterest account.

Elain’s real strength is her personality and her networking skills. Elain is helpful and responsive.

What we can learn

To do well online, understanding the power of networking can be invaluable.

Truly understanding your own niche and building contacts and networks within that niche is a powerful tool to take your business forward, as Elain has done.

5. Melyssa Griffin

How she makes money online

Melyssa Griffin is one of the most successful and first super-bloggers online.

She started out over 10 years ago and she has achieved a significant following by teaching blogging. Melyssa is in the $ 100,000-a-month bracket!

Why she’s successful

Melyssa used to be a teacher and thus has great experience and expertise in presenting and this comes across in her videos and live classes.

What we can learn

Something that Neil Patel also touched on, that we can also learn from Melyssa, is that getting experience in business and industry is invaluable before running your own online business and trying to make money from blogging.

Melyssa gained several years of teaching experience that clearly has honed her presentation skills online.

Likewise, Patel spent several years working in start-up companies, gaining valuable experience that ultimately helped shape his own business online.

6. Pat Flynn

How he makes money online

Pat Flynn earns over $200,000 a month (yes you read that right!) and is the founder of Smartpassiveincome.com. His income comes from his own courses and also from affiliates such as Convertkit (a tool that many bloggers use as a recurring affiliate income).

Why he’s successful

Pat Flynn, like Melyssa, is one of the earliest super-bloggers and Pat provides his own courses and also earns a significant portion of his money through affiliate income.

Teaching what he knows about affiliate income has proved very successful for Pat.

What we can learn

Like Pat, you can start off without your own products or services to sell.

You can start off by focusing on selling other people’s products for a small commission and build your business from there. Affiliate income can be a great way to finance your business from nothing.

7. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

How she makes money online

Michelle’s site Making Sense of Cents provides her with an income of over $100,000 per month. Bluehost has been one of her biggest income sources over the years as an affiliate.

Her niche is making money and money management, although she has also become well-known for her experiences of working on the road in an RV and her posts on van life.

Why she’s successful

Michelle is a blogger through and through and has tended to focus on building a good brand based on her travels and own money management.

What we can learn

If you can come across in your blogging as a person that others can relate to and get them to buy into your own journey, you can build a strong readership just like Michelle has.

8. Allison Lindstrom

How she makes money online

Alison Lindstrom is not one of the best-paid bloggers but I have added her because I like what she does and she is a great example of what you can be.

Michelle makes $10,000 plus a month and that is still a very decent income for most of us!

You may become a super-blogger of the future but many of us will find our way instead onto the ‘comfortable blogger’ income level.

Why she’s successful

Allison has a good personality and likable character that comes across on screen and she keeps her lessons simple and easy to understand.

What we can learn

Using Yoube has been important for Allison’s growth. Using video is an extremely powerful way to build followers and a brand.

People can relate to you much more if they can see you and put a face to the name. It makes branding much easier.

9. Brian Clark

How he makes money online

Brian runs Copyblogger.com, a site that he has been running for over 12 years now and that has developed into one of the blogging sites online for learning about online writing.

Brian now makes over $2 million a month (yes, 2 million).

Why he’s successful

Brian picked a niche (writing) and started earlier and he has built a great fan base through high-quality content on his own site, applying what he preaches.

10. Michael Arrington

How he makes money online

Michael is the founder of TechCrunch.com and, as Brian Clark, he was one of the early bloggers to get a foothold. Michael now makes almost £2 million a month from his “technology, startups, venture capital funding ” site.

Why he’s successful

Great content and early starter.

What we can learn

Make sure to find your niche and become an expert in one area.

You can develop the expertise as you blog and as you learn and build a business around your growth.