How to make money selling guest posts on your blog

If your blog has readers and a few years of history, companies will pay to appear on it. You can make money selling guest posts as a steady side income, but only if you treat it as a publishing business with rules, not as a link shop. This guide walks through the whole setup: what you are actually selling, how to price it, where orders come from and the mistakes that quietly destroy a site’s value.

Published: 2026-09-10 · Satelo

What buyers are really paying for

A sponsored article is not just a link. A serious buyer wants three things from your site:

• An audience. People who read your posts and might click through or remember the brand.
• Context and trust. A mention on a site that has been around for a while and writes about a related topic.
• A referral path. A link that real readers can follow. Under Google’s spam policies, paid links should carry rel="sponsored" (or nofollow), so the value is in visitors and visibility, not in passing ranking signals.

Keep this in mind, because it decides what you can charge. A blog with 3,000 genuine monthly readers in a clear niche is a better product than a site with a high third-party "authority" number and no one reading it.

Check whether your blog is ready to sell

Before you open for orders, be honest about where your site stands. A quick checklist:

• You publish your own content regularly and have done so for at least several months.
• You can show traffic from a source buyers trust: Google Search Console, an analytics tool, or a verified counter.
• Your site loads reasonably fast on mobile and has no obvious technical issues.
• Your niche is clear. "Everything blogs" are harder to sell than a focused site about, say, home coffee or B2B accounting.

You can run your domain through the free Satelo Quality Score check. It combines Tranco rank, domain age, Common Crawl presence and PageSpeed into a 0–100 score from open data, so you see roughly what a careful buyer will see. A brand-new site scores 0, which is honest: it means build first, sell later.

Set your house rules before the first order

Write these down and publish a short version on an "Advertise" or "Write for us" page. It saves hours of back-and-forth.

The volume rule matters most. When sponsored posts outnumber your own, readers notice, search engines notice, and your price drops. Google’s site reputation abuse policy (introduced in 2024) specifically targets third-party pages published mainly to exploit a host site’s ranking signals, so a blog that turns into a dumping ground for unrelated paid content is taking a real risk.

Price it like a product, not a favour

New sellers almost always underprice. Base your price on things you can prove:

1. Monthly visitors from your analytics.
2. Niche value. Finance, software and legal topics are worth more per reader than hobby topics.
3. Who writes. Publishing a buyer’s ready text costs less than writing it yourself in your voice.
4. Extras. Social shares, newsletter mention, fast turnaround.

Our post on how to price sponsored posts goes through a full pricing model with examples. A short version: start with a reference price, publish it, and raise it every time your traffic grows meaningfully.

Where the orders come from

1. Your own "Advertise" page

Many buyers search for "write for us" plus a topic. A clear page with your rules, audience numbers and a contact form brings inbound requests at no cost.

2. Marketplaces

Marketplaces bring buyers you would never reach yourself, but fees vary a lot. Some take a cut from the publisher and add a markup for the buyer. On the Satelo marketplace you set your own price and keep all of it; the 10% fee is paid by the buyer, and there is no subscription. Compare options on our marketplace comparison page.

3. Direct outreach to brands you already mention

If you regularly recommend certain tools or shops, they are natural sponsors. Send a short note with your audience numbers and a link to your rules.

A simple workflow that scales

1. Request comes in. Check the buyer’s site: is it real, legal and relevant?
2. Agree on topic, links, price and deadline in writing.
3. Receive or write the draft. Edit for accuracy, tone and formatting.
4. Add a sponsored label at the top and rel="sponsored" to paid links.
5. Publish, send the live URL, get paid.
6. Log it: date, buyer, price, links. You will need this for taxes and for keeping your monthly limit.

If you run WordPress, read our guide to accepting sponsored posts on WordPress for roles, review queues and plugin settings.

What to refuse

• Gambling, adult content, miracle health claims and "get rich quick" schemes.
• Requests to drop the sponsored label or remove rel="sponsored".
• Exact-match keyword anchors like "best cheap car insurance".
• Articles that have nothing to do with your topic.
• Recycled or AI-spun text that you would be embarrassed to show your regular readers.

Every refusal protects the asset that earns you money: the trust of your readers.

Disclosure and taxes

Paid content must be identifiable as advertising. In the US the FTC expects clear disclosure of material connections; in the UK the CAP Code requires ads to be obviously identifiable; in the EU, paid editorial without disclosure is listed as an unfair commercial practice. See sponsored content disclosure rules for wording that works. Income from sponsored posts is normally taxable, so keep records from day one.

Realistic expectations when you make money selling guest posts

It helps to know what the first months usually look like, so you don’t give up or lower your standards too early.

• Months 1–3: a handful of inquiries, many of them from link sellers who want exact-match anchors or no label. Most should be declined. One or two genuine orders is a good start.
• Months 3–6: returning buyers appear if your process was smooth. Repeat clients are the core of a stable income because they already know your rules.
• After that: income grows mainly with your own traffic. The blog that keeps publishing good content is the one whose price keeps rising.

Two habits make a big difference. First, answer inquiries quickly with a ready reply that includes your rules and prices; buyers often contact several sites at once and go with whoever answers clearly. Second, keep a small "media kit": one page with your audience numbers, top articles, readership by country and examples of past sponsored posts. It makes you look like a publisher rather than a link vendor, and it justifies a higher price.

Finally, remember who pays the bills in the long run: your readers. If sponsored content ever starts to feel like the main purpose of the site, slow down. A smaller number of well-chosen articles at a higher price is almost always the better business.

Next steps

• Check your site’s starting point with the free Quality Score check.
• Write your house rules and an "Advertise" page.
• Read the guide on selling guest posts without hurting your blog.
• When ready, connect your site to Satelo to receive partner articles and marketplace orders.

FAQ

How much can I earn selling guest posts?

It depends on your verified traffic, niche and how many articles you accept. Small niche blogs often earn enough to cover hosting and tools; larger sites earn much more. Grow traffic first and the price follows.

Will selling guest posts get my site penalised?

Not if you label paid content, use rel=sponsored on paid links, keep topics relevant and keep sponsored posts a small share of what you publish. Selling links meant to pass ranking signals is against Google’s spam policies.

Do I have to write the articles myself?

No. Most buyers supply the text. You keep the right to edit or reject it, and you can charge extra if you write the article in your own voice.

How many sponsored posts per month is safe?

There is no official number. A practical rule is to keep paid articles a small minority of your new posts so the site still looks and works like your own publication.

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