Top 9 Highest Paid Bloggers (Most Successful Bloggers of 2023)

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Top 9 Highest Paid Bloggers (Most Successful Bloggers of 2023)

Top highest paid and successful bloggers

Starting a blog isn’t difficult. But making money from it? That’s the challenge. To give you some inspiration and ideas, I thought I’d write a post about the most successful, highest-paid bloggers.

Not only that, I’m going to break it down and unlock the secrets of how these highly successful blogs make money.

Ready to get started? Let’s boogie.

Monetizing a blog FAQ

Can you really make money blogging?

Many people think blogging is dead, and the best days of monetizing blogs are long gone. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The reality is that blogging is still a viable way to make money online. What has changed, however, is how blogs make money.

Nowadays, it’s less about being an online influencer and more about helping people achieve transformations. The top bloggers on this list made it by helping people become a better version of themselves.

Which type of blogs make the most money?

From fashion and beauty to business and entrepreneurship, there are a ton of blog niches that have the potential for bloggers to make money.

The best blog topics that are easiest to monetize are ones that transform people’s lives. For example, losing weight, eating healthier, fitness, and anything that helps people save and make money.

How do the highest paid bloggers make money?

From advertising to sponsorships and affiliate partnerships, there are many different ways for bloggers and influencers to join the list of the top-earning blogs. But, primarily, blogs make money in these 4 ways.

Advertising

Bloggers can make big bucks from advertising on their sites or social media platforms. This can typically come in the form of display ads and sidebar banners, often placed through the help of an ad partner such as Google Adsense, Adthrive, or Mediavine. The more page views a blogger gets, the more they can typically make off advertisements on their platforms.

Sponsored posts

Sponsored posts are another way for bloggers to make a killing, and happen when companies pay bloggers to write about a specific product or service.

This is often the way top influencers on platforms like YouTube or Instagram become high-earners. Brands can pay for YouTube videos, Instagram posts, and sponsored blog posts.

Affiliate marketing

Have you ever been scrolling through a blogger’s Instagram stories and come across a prompt to “swipe up?” This is one form of an affiliate partnership in which a blogger can earn a percentage of revenue for every product purchased through a swipe-up link.

This also holds true for bloggers that feature product links directly on their site. Another form of affiliate marketing is when bloggers offer their readers or followers a discount code for products and services.

They’ll earn an income from a percentage of any sales made using their specific code or affiliate link.

Selling their own products and services

One of the best income streams for bloggers is by selling their own products or services to their readers and followers. Here are several examples of what bloggers can sell directly to their audience.

  • Fitness bloggers can offer customized meal plans
  • Beauty bloggers can launch their own makeup or skincare branded products
  • Mom bloggers can offer printables for homeschooling their kids
  • Marketing bloggers can create and sell online courses

How Do Six Figures makes money

Do Six Figures primarily makes money in two ways: affiliate marketing and digital products.

Affiliate marketing

Most of my blog posts have affiliate links. Here are the affiliate products I recommend the most:

  • I promote HostGator as my preferred host for starting a blog.
  • For designing your blog, I promote Astra Pro and Elementor.
  • I encourage new bloggers to start an email list using ConvertKit.
  • To design images for your blog and for social media, I recommend Canva.
  • As far as writing content, I use and recommend Grammarly.

Digital products

I also monetize via digital products, for example:

Highest-paid bloggers

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner – Making Sense of Cents

About this blogger

After paying off $40,000 in student loans from her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner built her personal finance blogging empire.

She claims learning to manage her finances and track her expenses changed her life. Michelle regularly shares tools with her more than 300,000 monthly readers so that they can learn to do the same.

Making Sense of Cents provides valuable resources to readers, including budgeting tools, money-saving tips, advice on starting successful side hustles, and earning extra income. Plus, she has an active Facebook group for her readers.

Michelle also launched a successful online course on affiliate marketing, teaching others the ins and outs of building a six-figure blog.

How much do they earn?

Michelle’s blog, Making Sense of Sense, earns her more than $100,000 per month. She has been very transparent with her earnings, regularly posting income updates, and disclosed profits of over $1.5 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

John Lee Dumas – Entrepreneurs on Fire

About this blogger

John Lee Dumas created his platform to help aspiring entrepreneurs reach financial and lifestyle freedom.

EOF has been featured in some of the top business outlets globally, including U.S. News & World Report, Success, Inc., Forbes, and Harvard Business Review. In addition, through his years of hard work, he’s grown his blog and podcast into millions of followers. As a result, he earns a comfortable multi-million dollar income.

The success of Entrepreneurs on Fire is largely due to a wildly successful podcast. There, he’s interviewed some of the top entrepreneurs in the world—this list including Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, and Tim Ferriss.

John has also created and marketed a number of valuable educational resources for his followers, including journals, digital courses, and a podcast masterclass.

How much do they earn?

John Lee Dumas’ Entrepreneurs on Fire blog and podcasting empire earn him more than $195,000 per month. With annual revenue in excess of 7 figures, John is one of the highest-paid bloggers around.

Pat Flynn – Smart Passive Income

About this blogger

Pat Flynn made a name for himself in the blogging industry early on, paving the way for entrepreneurs-to-be to grow their incomes.

A blogger since 2008, Pat began his journey of creating content after being laid off from his full-time architectural job. He was one of the first to share his blogging income reports, a likely catalyst for a trend that many high-earning bloggers still do today.

Smart Passive Income has evolved into a trusted resource and private community for online entrepreneurs at all levels. Pat connects with his audience through his blog, courses, books, podcast, and workshops.

His successful platforms help readers/listeners learn how to make money with affiliate marketing, email marketing, book publishing, and podcasting.

How much do they earn?

Thanks to Smart Passive Income and its related income streams, Pat Flynn is reportedly earning more than $200,000 per month.

Yaro Starak – Yaro.blog (Formerly Entrepreneurs Journey)

About this blogger

Another early influence in the entrepreneurial blogging space, Yaro Starak, started Entrepreneurs Journey in 2005.

Yaro has established himself as a thought leader in the space, having been featured in outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, HuffPost, and ProBlogger.

Yaro provides tools and shares resources on the following topics:

  • How to start a business selling in-demand or educational services
  • Buying and selling websites as a side hustle
  • How to scale and automate businesses.

Aside from his blog, Yaro also has a solar energy startup and offers blog coaching.

How much do they earn?

It is reported that Yaro’s blogging empire brings in more than $40,000 per month. He also states that his blog coaching business alone has generated more than $2 million in sales.

Chiara Ferragni – The Blonde Salad

About this blogger

Chiara Ferragni is one of the first fashion bloggers to find major success, paving the way for today’s market of countless fashion influencers and Instagram personalities.

The Italian fashion blogger started her site in 2009 and has since leveraged the success of The Blonde Salad into multiple fashion partnerships and a major fashion line of her own.

At its height, The Blonde Salad had a whopping half a million readers per month. Even though Chiara’s business has evolved far beyond the pages of her website, she still updates her blog with new fashion content regularly.

Forbes has nominated her as the most powerful fashion influencer in the world. Recently, she was also featured as one of Forbes’ 30 people under 30 who shaped the art and style category.

Across her social media channels, Chiara now has more than 22 million followers. She also has a flourishing influencer talent agency, an Amazon documentary, and a successful luxury fashion line. Clearly, Chiara has mastered the business of blogging and successfully leveraged her popularity into a full-blown media and fashion conglomerate.

How much do they earn?

It’s been reported that The Blonde Salad was generating at least $2 million in revenue in 2016. That figure is likely much higher today. Chiara reportedly also earns in excess of $60,000 per Instagram post.

Heather and Pete Reese – It’s a Lovely Life

About this blogger

Heather and Pete Reese are a great example of a family finding success blogging about their lives and travel experiences and leveraging this into a huge income-generator.

What started as a blog about family vacations has expanded into a go-to resource that allows them to share their tips and experiences to help others find success in the travel blogging space.

What enabled the Reese family to successfully monetize their blog was finding the perfect mix of family and travel content paired with educational tools and resources for other aspiring lifestyle bloggers.

In addition to their many posts about family life and family vacations, their blog includes tips and courses on educational topics, including how to start a blog, monetize your blog, and tips for travel blogging.

How much do they earn?

The Reese family is one of the highest-paid bloggers on this list. They reportedly earn more than $170,000 per month thanks to their highly-followed travel blogging tips, online courses, and sponsored content.

Jennifer and Trevor Debth – Show Me the Yummy

About this blogger

What started as a food blog in late 2014 has evolved into a highly successful recipe and food photography brand thanks to the talent and hustle of founders Jennifer and Trevor Debth.

Show Me the Yummy features artfully photographed recipes, and the blog’s incredibly popular social media channels generate high engagement thanks to their eye-catching photos and videos.

The Debths leveraged their success in the food blogging industry to launch food photography and videography workshops. They also offer mentorship for aspiring food bloggers and photographers. Additionally, they launched a site called The Blog Village as a resource with tools and training to create, grow, and monetize a successful blog.

How much do they earn?

According to earnings reports published directly on Show Me the Yummy, the site went from earning $28 in its first month to more than $46,000 per month just two years later. However, the most recent data reported on the site was from 2016, so it’s likely much higher than that, especially including the abundant offering of workshops and mentorship programming they now offer.

Lauren McManus and Alex Nerney – Create and Go

About this blogger

The duo behind Create and Go launched the site as a response to multiple people asking how they became successful bloggers. After realizing there was a spot in the market for a resource to teach bloggers how to grow their audience and revenues, Lauren and Alex skyrocketed in popularity and revenue. In just two years, they went from the launch of their site to earning a six-figure per month income.

Create and Go provides tools, resources, blogger bootcamps, digital courses, ebooks, and more, covering topics from starting a blog to making six figures through blogging.

Since the site’s launch, more than 10,000 people have taken their educational courses, and they’ve even garnered a feature in Forbes.

How much do they earn?

Lauren and Alex prove they belong on this list of the highest-paid bloggers by publishing monthly income reports right on their site. To date, the team at Create and Go earn more than $103,000 in monthly revenue.

Tim Sykes – TimothySykes.com

About this blogger

Tim Sykes often lands on the highest-paid bloggers list for good reason. His estimated blog earnings are in excess of 7 figures.

A penny stock trader-turned-millionaire blogger, Tim has leveraged his success in the financial world and the blogging world to establish himself as an authority and successfully market his secrets to consumers interested in learning from him.

In addition to blog posts, Tim has an app for iPhone and Android users and a video library with more than 7,000 video resources. His success has led to him being featured in national news outlets including The New York Times, Forbes, Inc., Bloomberg, ABC News, CNN, and FOX News.

How much do they earn?

Tim is reportedly earning more than $1 million in monthly revenue thanks to his large following and well-marketed content and resources.

Wrapping it up

So, what did you learn from the top highest-paid bloggers?

For one, they all started from zero. They also put in years of work of growing their blogs. The other big takeaway is that these successful and popular bloggers used their blog as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

I hope this list of the highest-paid bloggers has inspired you to launch a blog of your own. Go to my how to start a blog article for a detailed walkthrough on getting started on your own six-figure journey.

Until next time,
Edwin, DoSixFigures.com

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  About > me

Edwin is the professional blogger and side hustle expert behind Do Six Figures. With 20+ years of experience building profitable websites and making money online under his belt, Edwin is now obsessed with helping people find their perfect side hustle and make serious money online.

4 thoughts on “Top 9 Highest Paid Bloggers (Most Successful Bloggers of 2023)”

  1. Hi Edwin,

    Amazing post! Every blogger will be inspired by this post. I constantly follow the top bloggers you shared on your list. I liked how you added how the bloggers work and the methods they use, it will inspire all the upcoming bloggers and give them a sense of direction as well. Thanks for curating such an amazing article, it really was an informational piece of content. I will definitely be sharing this within my network.

  2. This is such an interesting read! As a new blogger, knowing that there are people out there who’ve put in the time and effort and are experiencing great success in blogging, is so motivating for me!

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