In this short article, we’ll outline 5 blog ideas that make money, and so much more. We’ll tackle the paradigm shift that you need to be a successful blogger.
The idea with this one is to keep it short, sweet, and mildly satirical; only sharing our best strategies and ideas. But remember as you read this –no dollar you ever held in your hand was clean.
If you think these high demand blog topics are any good or this article has any value, we invite you to read the rest of our blogging guides when you’re done with this one.
What Type of Blogs Make the Most Money?
One of the most common questions we get from readers who are interested in learning to blog is “what kind of blog should I make?”.
They may not say it forthright, but what they really want to know is –-where does dinner hang?
We rarely learn things in one conversation. Paradigm shifts are usually required to make job replacement money or be good at anything, and with that in mind I recommend you read the following guides when you’re done here:
+ How Do Bloggers Make Money?
+ What Should I Blog About?
Don’t forget to read them later.
Those two guides will cover what’s missing in this one. As I mentioned earlier, I’d like to keep this one short, for brevity.
But to answer the question; the blogs that make the most money typically discuss topics that involve big ticket items that come with a high cost, or an ongoing, recurring cost.
For example; things people buy on a subscription, have a consistent “pay as you go” fee structure, or have a large cost barrier to entry.
They cater to yuppies.
Blog niches that make money are typically anything related to financial services, services that cater to middle and upper class individuals, luxury services, one-of-a-kind private medical procedures, and expensive purchases.
All of which typically require some forgone research, and that’s where you insert yourself. When people are researching their purchase, provide valuable information that puts you front and center as the last step before they make that purchase.
Convince them to buy.
When they click your link and buy immediately thereafter, you get a commission. That is, if we’re talking about affiliate marketing –the easiest way to make money with a blog.
I’ll summarize these points in greater detail below, and flesh out what type of blogs make the most money.
Paradigm Shift
Before I summarize, let’s double down on that paradigm shift I mentioned earlier.
Don’t skip this part. It’s really the ‘meat and potatoes’.
If you come from humble means, as in, you don’t have much of a disposable income, it may be harder to envision what type of blogs make the most money –because you’ve never purchased from them yourself. You have different priorities than the average upper-middle class person.
And that’s okay. That’s not the point.
Imagine a person of means.
How do they live?
They’re likely busy, or busibodies, they work hard, or buy their way out of it, they’ve invested in their skills through formal education or online courses in almost all cases, they ‘deserve the best’, and they usually take care of their health and their appearance.
And because they expect the best or close to it, they’re often willing to pay for it. Maybe pay a few bucks extra today to save hundreds or thousands later.
They’re the kind of people who pay an annual fee on a credit card in order to lower their fees overall, in the long run. They’re smart.
When it comes to their health, they may like bespoke food items, or be vegan. And because they’re busy, they may prefer an automatic subscription to have things delivered to their home so they don’t have to go out and get it.
All this premier pampering comes with a cost they accept. And rightly so, life is short. But it’s also a factor you can grapple onto.
Perhaps they buy the finest “no animal cruelty” cosmetics, skin creams from France, travel often for whatever reason, take regular vacations, and prefer eco resorts because “doing the right thing” makes them feel good inside. Maybe they have fake dreadlocks and a trust fund.
Maybe they spend their nights at protests with the grunts, and days behind a keycard in some nice apartment.
Catch my drift? Any blog ideas to make money starting to percolate?
Choosing an audience you actually like is optional.
1. Recurring Services
There’s an abundance of recurring services that people rely on to live their daily lives, and many of them have affiliate programs for bloggers like yourself.
In many cases, your ideal customer’s taste may overlap your own. They need a VPN service like you do —PureVPN is one popular service we promote and make a recurring commission on, because it’s a subscription-based service.
It’s also one of the highest-paying VPN affiliate programs.
And then there’s financial services, which explains the dearth of credit card travel points “expert” sites out there. Moderately wealthy people still enjoy a good deal on their goods and services.
But there’s also timeshares, travel insurance, international WiFi hotspots, and even vitamin delivery subscriptions.
We make good money promoting SafetyWing travel insurance, as one example. But we’ve also done well with services you can promote on your blog via Awin (Affiliate Window). I highly recommend promoting these affiliate programs.
2. Big Ticket Services (and Selling Leads)
There are numerous big ticket services that could be fodder for blog ideas that make money. Ever rent a 100 foot luxury yacht for a weekend? Probably not, but there’s an affiliate program for that.
Companies won’t just offer a commission to you as a blogger once a sale is made, some will simply pay you for the lead. They prefer to close the deal themselves, over the phone. Old school, how I personally prefer it because interacting directly with another human doesn’t make me bashful.
A lot of luxury services that operate this way are regional, and you know your region better than I do –so I won’t get into specific companies on this front. But consider capturing leads and selling them to businesses –that’s so hot right now.
LASIK eye surgery, botox injections, face lifts, tummy tucks, weight loss, hormone therapy, cosmetic dental surgery, same-sex romantic getaways, exotic sports cars and yachts, you name it.
In order to sell leads –build a website and incorporate “ping tree software” and capture your lead contact information to forward it to the business of your choice. A ping tree software is totally hands off, you just send your client business the bill.
The lead-selling strategy a lot like affiliate marketing, and in spite of the vast competition in these niches, it’s still relatively untapped. Especially if you live in a smallish town or city.
3. Their Loves
When I say “their loves”, I mean that popular blog ideas to make money revolve around those little dogs that fit in purses. Or cats. Or their backyard furniture. Or being the most ethical vegan in all the land. Or the latest $5,000 dollar outfit Julia Roberts was seen in. (Again, Awin is a good place to find affiliate programs for fashion).
Random anecdote: I did a brief stint as a loan officer selling refinancing on mortgages in California. Yeah, sorry about that whole mortgage crash financial bailout situation that followed. It was a job, once upon a time.
But the key things that we were told to suggest to our clients to get them on board were home renovation, kitchen renovation, and a new car. The big three.
Expensive cars are a solid answer to “what type of blogs make the most money”, especially an exotic car rental service or car accessory. But zooming out, you could also promote other things that serve what people love, people who can afford to buy pet food at $9 a tin are key demographics to serve for blog profits.
For the latter, all you need is the Amazon Associates affiliate program.
There’s plenty of high demand blog topics in the pet space, or sailing, or surfing, or fashion (“outfit of the day” #ootd) outdoor gas fireplaces, sailboat water desalination, meat smokers, gym equipment, you name it.
I’m spitballing here, but I’m sure you get the idea.
Above all, we all love ourselves. Self preservation is everything. Capitalize on it. When we’re broke, this or that might be considered a scam we can Google our way out of. But to many, it’s a life saver or a convenience.
Flex those morals because the next one is downright wicked.
4. Health Problems and Absolute Terror
So far I’ve touched on cosmetic surgery and vitamin subscriptions, but there’s also regular health insurance, which is a subscription, which we make a healthy monthly commission on ourselves, again, with SafetyWing.
On a lighter note, you could promote kombucha starter kits.
Drug counseling is another big industry. Promote that fancy drug rehab clinic next to the bay. It’s usually Aunt Karen doing the online research, the one with the fat pocket book, not the addict themselves. Aunt Karen has the decision making power, and she enjoys a well-crafted blog post.
Anything that helps people mitigate death, leverage it.
Spice up your blog feed with posts about global warming and houses falling into the sea (which might explain a lot of what we see online these days), sell some home insurance. Focus on pain points and offer a solution.
Tell people why they need to take your vaccine, even if the death right is below .09%.
The best blog topics to make money are the ones you find on your own, and companies will make it easy for you.
Fire insurance in California or rural Australia, CBD oil to fight cancer in Colorado, expensive micro purse puppy food in Los Angeles, and self help summits in Berlin. When you know a demographic and a locale, the sky’s the limit.
5. Vanity
At this point even I am beginning to see a trend. I should have just written an article about how the seven deadly sins are at the core of blog ideas to make money.
When you’ve got a little bit of money to burn, all the time, consistently, sustainably –don’t we all cater to them, in some way, somehow? If you become a successful blogger, won’t you?
If you had a monthly alimony check from your millionaire ex spouse, while being single today, afraid of dying alone?
Busy modern men have faces, sell them skin cream subscriptions like Tiege and Hanley. With the divorce rate what it is, women in their 40’s and above have the most disposable income out of any other demographic.
I’m not suggesting you promote websites like Ashley Madison or anything, I don’t want you to go full evil, or evil at all –but catering to our mutual human need of full fat milk from time to time isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Test the spirits, as they say.
And on the other hand of the coin, or maybe the same side for some –religion is a hell of a blog niche that makes money. Some of the most successful country singers, bloggers, podcasters, authors, YouTubers, and artists cater to this niche with profitability that will make your pupils dilate.
As a Christian myself, somewhere deep down, I know I’ve met some people in my life that I could chalk the religion niche up to vanity, too. When you ring that bell, things like “Buy Me a Coffee” are profitable all on their own, without even trying. Religious people for the sake of religion will throw their shekels at anything that absolves them.
Why not have that thing be your blog?
I won’t shed any tears over a few readers leading some pharisees down the river while getting rich in the process.
Oi, that got dark.
In Summary
Blog ideas that make money aren’t hard to find, if you know the human condition. If anything, once you do understand –you’re spoiled for choice.
Choose wisely. Get in the head of the reader you choose. You’re writing the content, after all.
If you place your keywords properly, and get enough links back to your blog from other sources (whole other topic), you should see your profits and traffic grow relatively sustainably.
I have yet to name many affiliate programs I’d join if I were you –I think I mentioned a few. But here’s the spread, just a few to get you started:
Get paid to blog from high paying affiliate programs like like SafetyWing, FlexOffers, TargetClick, PureVPN, AWin, and Shareasale, start a print-on-demand store with Printful —and build a framework that can be repeated until you reach your peak earning potential.
That’s it. Confess your sins in the comments below, or let me know if I inspired you somehow. If you want to meet me and other successful bloggers, join the community.
Read Next: Learn How to Create and Sell Online Courses
