Creating a blog is hard work, and it’s even harder when you want to do something like monetizing it. Many people like you share the dream of being able to work from home, and earn money from posting on your blog about all the things that you love. Studies have been done, and it has been proven that only a small percentage of bloggers are actually able to make enough to support themselves in their blog revenue alone. However, it’s not impossible.
Abby Lawson, creator of DIY, and decorating blog justagirlandherblog.com earned over $1000 in March, of 2014. Fast forward two years later, and Abby was pulling in more than $40,000 a month. Ask Abby today, and she will tell you that she never imagined her small blog would grow to such extremes.
Whether you want to take Abby’s approach, or take advice from top bloggers all over the world who make high revenue off of their content, you can earn money. Successful blog owners seem to practice a handful of core activities that have helped them gain their blogging success, and you can find a few of them here.
Market with Affiliates
A large percentage of a blogger‘s income comes directly from affiliate marketing, which can be used in a variety of ways. The strategy is incredibly simple for something that has such a high chance of return, especially for blogs that have a steady flow of traffic. For the most part, bloggers suggest products, or services offered by other companies. They will suggest it by including a text link in their blog post, or by adding a banner and/or ad to their blog. Codes, and formats have been created in order to track the action happening on the affiliate link, and it’s tracked by three methods.
- Pay-Per-Click: The blogger earns a pre-determined commission based on each individual click on the affiliate link and/or ad.
- Pay-per-Sale: The blogger earns a pre-determined commission that is generally a percentage of the revenue earned by the sale of the product. You can commonly see this in forms of “discount codes” provided to you by influencers. The 10% discount code that you’re entering in, sends that 10% to the blogger.
- Pay-per-Lead: The blogger earns a pre-determined commission on each contact that is established.
You can find plenty of programs for affiliate marketing, however doing your research to figure out which program best suits your blog, and your users is key. As a new blog, the Amazon Partner Program is an incredibly popular choice while you are just getting your toes wet. Keep in mind that the commissions can be smaller than other affiliate marketing programs, depending on your product category.
E-Books
Behind affiliate marketing, one of the best sources for revenue earnings is e-books. Once you have created an e-book, you can generally sell it via a plugin that is available on most blogging platforms, such as WordPress.
You may already have an established blog, and high traffic from devoted, and loyal readers. Gathering up all of your highest ranking posts, and bundling them together in an e-book can be an extremely lucrative step for you. However, understand that creating an e-book is a large project, and one that should be taken seriously. You can also create an e-book on subjects that you’re already familiar with. For example, if you’re already making a profit on your blog, consider writing an e-book to teach others how to earn a profit, and sell it on your blog. E-books are published with ease using platforms such as Amazon Kindle. Follow these tips when considering creating an electronic book.
- Ensure your content is high quality, and free of grammatical errors.
- Create content that is valuable to users.
- Do topic research to make sure that that the subject you’re considering doesn’t have vast amounts of competition.
- Consider the fact that niche themes are usually better than general.
- Use marketing to promote your e-book, and create posts on your blog that match the theme of your electronic book to draw more attention, and potentially boost your sales.
Take Courses Online
Online courses are offered by many bloggers who have successfully made a solid living from blogging, and they can teach you various tips, and tricks that can help you to monetize your blog. Preparing for courses is complex, and generally only successful when the teacher has already built up a reputation.
American blogger Elna Cain offers approximately 50 lessons for an average $70 each month, and the courses target freelance writers. However, popular blogger Neil Patel offers an advanced marketing program through online learning. The program consists of an impressive 45 modules, and costs $997 annually.
When looking into online courses for blogging, ensure that the course addresses both needs, and problems of the user. Determine if the course instructor provides consistent e-mail contact during the course, and to those who have expressed interest. Also, ask questions about the content of the course. Knowing exactly what you’ll be spending your money on can make a world of a difference.
Advertise, Advertise
Advertising is also going to be one of the most common, and profitable sources of income for a blogger. Selling empty space on your blog to companies within your niche can be quite lucrative for both the blogger, and the company. There are many businesses out there who will pay to have their logo, product, or banner on your blog, and like the pay-per-click, you can also earn a pre-determined amount based on the amount of traffic that the advertising spot gets.
Once your blog meets certain pre-requisites, you can use online tools, and advertising marketplaces like AdScale. AdScale is built to help with bringing together publishers, and advertisers. You can also integrate pay-per-click into the blog by using methods such as Google AdSense. You simply install the ads, and earn each time someone visits the advertisement.
Ensure that you aren’t stuffing your blog with advertising, and that you are choosing ads that directly relate to your blog. Make sure that you are placing them carefully where they will get the most traffic, and paying attention to the size of the ad.
Collaborate, and Gain Sponsorship
You sometimes hear a lot of talk stating that collaborations, and sponsorships are influencer marketing hype, but this isn’t always the case.
You can create a genuine collaboration with a partner company that works in one of two ways. As the blogger, you may be asked to write an article based on a product, or service that the company offers, or allow the company to post a guest article on the same topic.
Regardless of how you choose to do your sponsorships, you should always be very candid with your readers, and let them know which posts are sponsored. Sponsored reviews, product links, interviews, and even newsletter recommendations are all forms of collaborative ventures, and sponsorship. Use some of these tips when delving into the world of sponsored content.
- Only recommend products that you’re happy to endorse, that fit with the theme of your blog, and don’t only be swayed by money. Keeping your opinion honest, despite being paid for it, helps you, and your blog in the long run.
- Identify all of your sponsored posts clearly. Failing to do so can tarnish your reputation, and credibility. Not to mention, it’s directly against the law.
- Maintain both sponsored, and regular content.
Conclusion
By doing your research, you will find that the marketing, and income potential for blogs are endless. These five suggestions that you’ve been presented with aren’t the only options available to you, they’re just some of the most commonly used ones.
Before you look into monetizing your blog, it’s important that you build up a nice following by posting high-quality content, and doing so on a regular basis. The suggestions that have been listed here are proven to work, but it’s not going to matter if you don’t have readers who can see it.
Concentrate on building numbers before turning over to focus on a cash return. You’re more likely to succeed with good content, and the ability to prove that you can post it on a consistent basis. How you earn your money from your blog is going to depend highly on your traffic, your subject matter, and your talent. Understanding your key demographic, and your niche focus is going to help you when promoting your blog. A fashion or beauty blog is going to take different strategies than that of a travel, or sight-seeing blog.
