When it comes to how to make money off a blog, the first thing that comes to mind is usually advertising. Yes, running ads on your blog is sure one of the ways to monetize a blog. But aside from this aim, there are a couple of other ways you can make money with your blog. This article teaches you how to make money with a blog aside running normal ads. So, if you are interested in knowing how to monetize your blog, read along till the very end.
How To Make Money From A Blog
If you have a blog, you can convert it to a source of passive income for you. Here, we will share top proven ways with which you can start making money with a blog. First, you need to understand that blogging is not a get rich quick scheme but with persistence and consistency, you would start to see the reward.
- Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing is quite popular these days. It is about recommending services or products to your readers with an affiliate link created for you by your affiliate program. Each time someone purchases after clicking on your link, you get a referral commission. If you properly understand its workings, affiliate marketing is one of the surest ways you can make money off your blog. There are quite several affiliate programs for almost every industry niche. So, you just have to find out what products or services you can vouch for and that your readers might be interested in and then sign up for an affiliate program in that niche. Walmart, Amazons, are popular stores that offer an affiliate program for a variety of products. Affiliate marketing is something you should consider if you are looking for how to monetize a lifestyle blog. Check out some of the beginner’s guide in affiliate marketing to help you get started.
- Google AdSense. This service is an easy way to make money from your blog. All you need to do is to display ads on your blog by adding a script from Google to your site. Each time a user clicks on the ad, you get paid, also known as cost per click (CPC ads). Google AdSense is a good way to start earning passive income especially when you are just starting your blog. Check out some of the beginner’s guide on how to make money from your blog with Google AdSense.
- Using the advertising on plugin WordPress to sell ads directly. If you have a WordPress blog and you are specifically interested in how to monetize a WordPress blog, this information would sure come in handy. Google AdSense is quite easy to set up but the amount you can earn is very limited. Also, the CPC earning varies with each Ad. Along with Google AdSense, you can directly sell ad space on your blog. Here, you can charge a flat rate for the Ad space instead of using the CPC and CPM model. Though, this model requires more work compared to when you use Google AdSense, the earning is more. Also, it might only work if you have a large audience already. Learn more on how to sell ads directly on your WordPress blog by checking out a variety of beginners’ guides.
- Selling sponsored blog posts. With ad network incorporated into your site, you lose total control over the contents that can be displayed on your site. Also, some readers do not like the sight of ads and the majority of them are using ad blockers which would affect your earnings. So just in case you are wondering if you can monetize your blog without displaying Ads to your audience, here is how to monetize a blog without ads. You can monetize your blog just by selling sponsored posts. A company will pay you to talk about their products and promote it to your audience. First, you need to be able to prove to companies that you have a large sphere of influence for them to consider you. It is usually advisable you have a one- page document showing the details of your social media followers, traffic statistics, audience demographics, and any other relevant information.
- Earn by writing reviews. Another way you can monetize a blog is by getting paid to write reviews. It is also similar to selling sponsored posts, you make money by writing reviews for companies’ products on your site. This method is quite different from affiliate marketing. You get to try out a company’s product for free and then get paid for writing reviews. You also want to prepare a document like that of the sponsored post to get companies interested in your blog.
- Creating a paid membership content. If your blog has been around for a while and people are very interested in your blog content, then you can have your audience pay to access certain areas or contents of your blog. This information is particularly helpful for people that are interested in knowing how to monetize a blogger blog. If your content is very helpful, your readers would be willing to pay to access more of it. It is a very lucrative way to make money from blogging although it would require a huge time investment because you have to continuously create premium contents for your premium members.
- Selling your products. This avenue is another way in which you can make money from your blog. If you are interested in how to monetize a food blog, this strategy is one of the effective strategies you can use. You can sell your products which could be either physical products or digital products. You can add an online store to your existing WordPress blog by using WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin.
How To Start A Blog And Make Money
Now that you know how to blog and make money with it, we would now discuss how you can start a blog peradventure you don’t have one before.
If you want to start a blog, you should consider using WordPress to create your blog. WordPress is easy to use and it has a lot of plugins that provide additional functionality. WordPress also comes preinstalled with a wide variety of themes that you can use in creating your blog.
You would also have to choose a domain name related to what your blog is all about so search engines can easily find you. Also, you will have to choose a hosting platform for your blog. You can check out the beginner’s guide to help you get started in creating your WordPress blog.
You can consider freelance blog writing if you don’t have a blog and you are not even planning to have one. Here, you earn money by doing what you love. You simply write blog content for a variety of blogs.
As a freelance blog writer, you can choose when and where you want to work. If you have a passion for writing and you know how to articulate yourself on paper, then why not consider making extra money from it?
To start earning from freelance blogging, work on developing your online presence so people can be aware of what you do and find you easily. Also, build your portfolio. This portfolio is where you keep all your works so your potential clients can see what you have done before and be confident to give you the job.
When Should I Consider Monetizing My Blog?
This question is one of the popular questions almost every blogger asks. Although, not every blogger out there is trying to make money off their blogs. Some just prefer to do blogging for fun and that is perfectly ok. Likewise, it is also perfectly ok to earn passive income by doing what you love to do.
However, even if the main aim of creating a blog is to make money off it, it shouldn’t be the first thing you get started with right after you created your blog. Some things have to be in place before you should consider monetizing your blog. Also, there are things you should avoid in the process of monetizing your blog.
As a newbie blogger, you might want to focus on building your blog and growing your audience before you consider monetizing your blog. Build your blog by creating as much valuable content as possible. While building your blog, you should also be growing your audience. You can do it with an email list generated from a push notification on your blog.
You also want to work on generating traffic to your site from reliable sources and also use appropriate SEO keywords for your blog content to generate organic search engine traffic.
There is no specific time as to when you should start monetizing your blog but to prevent frustration and discouragement, you need to be sure if it is the right time to start monetizing your blog. To find out if it is the right time or not, ask yourself these questions:
- How much traffic is my blog currently generating?
- How many subscribers do my blog have?
- Are my subscribers loyal and consistent?
- Which of the strategies do I want to use to monetize my blog?
- Do I fully understand my audience’s needs?
- Will my subscribers pay to access more of the kind of content I have on my blog?
How long it would take before it is advisable to start monetizing your blog depends on the monetization strategy you want to use. If you’re using Google AdSense, you might want to wait till you have at least 100 visitors. If you want to promote affiliate products, then you might as well start right away but if you want to sell your products, you should wait till you have a minimum of 1000 subscribers in your email list.
Now that you have known how to monetize a blog, you should also know how not to monetize a blog. In the bid to monetize your blog, do not alienate your audience or readers. Always remember that your blog visitors are not visiting your blog for the products or brands you promote but for the value you provide. If you have a large list of subscribers and huge traffic generated by your blog, know that it is because of what you have to offer. Don’t slack on your initial offerings as you start monetizing your blog. Continue offering high equality content to your subscribers. A good balance is 80-20. Try as much as possible to maintain only a 20% sponsored post or affiliate link on your web content.