A few years ago, blogging was just a hobby. But now, bloggers make serious bank off of their hobby. There are blogs for everything: fashion, beauty, design, food, parenting, money, home improvement - there are even blogs about how to improve your blog.

Why are blogs so popular? Well, The word "blog" is defined as "awebsitecontainingawriter'sorgroupof writers'ownexperiences,observations,opinions, etc." This is what people know blogs to be: personal experience and opinion. Many bloggers are open about their personal life and reveal their identities, which makes their audience more willing to trust them. But now, many bloggers are taking advantage of this idea to make a profit, and blogging is more popular now than ever.

Blogs aren't always just run by average people, though. Companies like HGTV, The Home Depot, Urban Outfitters and even Target have started enacting this type of service on their websites because people enjoy the blog format so much.

The rise of blogging is probably thanks to the rise of Pinterest. Blogs and Pinterest go hand-in-hand. Anyone who uses Pinterest can note that the majority of posts they see on their feed are from bloggers. Some people depend on bloggers for things like product reviews, advice on various topics and even to find job openings. Although there is nothing wrong with following a blogger, there are some things you need to be aware of.

If you hate seeing clearly sponsored content on your social media feeds, be aware that blogging is pretty much the same thing, but it's more subtle. Bloggers make money (and quite a bit of it) from affiliates and ads. They have promoted posts and sponsored content in the same way as any other type of social media user, like Instagramers or YouTubers.

Blogging is a much more effective way to display sponsored content. It's basically giving a long and descriptive review. On social media, your followers have a shorter attention span. They don't want to read a three paragraph description or your opinion of a product that's much longer than "love it!" But, blog readers are prepared to dedicate a longer amount of time to reading your entire review, which can be as long as you want it to be.

Many times, bloggers will clearly state that the product they are reviewing or referencing is an affiliate, but sometimes they will not. This is when it gets sneaky. Some bloggers link to so many different products in their posts that you would never know which companies were actually paying them to promote their products.

It is very rare that you will see a blogger give a very negative review about a sponsored product. They may give their pros and cons, but will overall praise the product.

At times, it seems like posts can seem like a straight up advertisement for a product, and this is because they technically are. Remember that almost any link you'll click on in a blog post is a sponsor. The only way that this is different than any other form of advertisement is that it's average people being paid to promote the products instead of the big companies.

But blog posts and affiliates aren't the only way bloggers are making money. Many of these bloggers are also writing and selling ebooks and classes online. Blogger Amanda Hocking starting writing ebooks in 2011 and published them online. She sold over a million e-copies and ended up signing an at least $2 million four-book deal with St. Martin's Press. She also made the New York Times best-sellers list.

Some of the more popular bloggers will post their income report each month. In these posts, they publicly post how much money they made from their blog and from what areas. Here is an example of an income report from a money blogger who made over $70,000 in a month. Some bloggers are earning over $25,000 just from one source.

This blogger, Pat Flynn, has made over $1 million from his blog since he started it. How did he do it? His "About" page describes him as a guy who many people would find pretty relatable: a father in his 30s who was hit hard by the 2008 recession. He also blogged about something that many people are interested in: passive income.

But, of course, his success didn't happen overnight. He's been working on making his blog as powerful as it is since 2008. Aside from his blog, he also has one book and an ebook, multiple podcasts and plenty of affiliates. His biggest affiliate is his website host, BlueHost. In May 2016, BlueHost paid him over $50,000 just for him to say that their hosting service was his service of choice.

So, you can see that there are some things you'll have to watch out for when reading blog posts, like affiliates and subtly blatant advertising. If you find what these people are doing to be clever, then try starting your own blog; you could probably make a lot of money if you do it right.