So You want to make money blogging, right? Of course, you do. We all do – Everyone wants to make good money while adding value to our communities.
So you start a blog but then what? How do you make money? How do you even get to the point where you can make an income?
Making an income blogging – whether it’s a business or a hobby blog –is very possible. It’s not, However, a get rich quick thing, but if you play your cards right, you could make enough money to support you, your entire family and lot more. Read on to learn how to Monetize your Blog in many different ways.
This Post may contain affiliate links.
MONETIZE WITH CPM OR CPC ADS\
Placing ads on your blog is one way to make a bit of money. It’s the most common way but you need a good amount of traffic to earn anything substantial.
But still, You have to start somewhere and it does bring in a trickle of money usually pretty quickly and it’s fun to watch! There are 2 very popular types of ads:
CPM Ads: or COST PER 1,000 IMPRESSIONS, otherwise known as ads that give you a certain sum of money based on the number of individuals that view your ads. And
CPC Ads (Cost per click) otherwise referred to as PPC (Pay per click) are generally banners that people place in their sidebars or content. Each time these ads are clicked by readers, the owners are paid for that click.
Google Ad-sense is the most popular network for placing ads of these sorts, But it’s not the best..Publishers don’t typically make much with this company.
With Google Ad-sense you don’t need to be in direct contact with the advertisers; all you need to do is place the banner on your website and Google picks ads that are of importance to your content, and these ads are clicked on by your viewers.
There are millions of these programs available if you observe that Ad-sense doesn’t work well for you, such as Media.net, Info-links, and Chitika.. These are all great for beginners.
There are tons of bigger companies as well once you get more pages views. You will make much more at that point.
Ad Thrive is the Mack daddy of all Ad Networks if you really want to make money with Ads. You have to have at least 100,000 page views per month before they will accept you though but when they do your ad income will go from hundreds to thousands.
SELL PRIVATE ADS OR DO SPONSORED POSTS.
When it comes to Making money with ads, working with advertising networks is not your only alternative. If you have enough traffic advertisers will come to you directly and ask you to place their ads on your website. You can contact them yourself also. The huge difference from the aforementioned option is that there are no middlemen, which simply means you can set your personal ad rates.
Private ads can come in the form of links, buttons, or banners. You can even make cash just by writing sponsored posts where you give a review or write about an advertiser’s service or product. Writing an underwritten series or post is another option, which is where you can just write about any topic you have, but the advertisers pay for the “Brought to you by”; mentioned in the content.
The ways you make your income selling ads will vary. You might for instance charge a one-time fee for a particular link in a post, or You might charge your partners every month; If you are hosting banner ads.
Pro Tip:
To maximize your income, you can choose to also sell sponsorship space in your podcasts, videos, and newsletters.
Affiliate Income
Another awesome way of monetizing your blog is through affiliate marketing. This is how it works:
An advertiser has products he wants to sell. He agrees to give you commission from the sale if the buyer(s) are coming from your website.
He gives you a specific link that tracks your affiliate code. He then knows when exactly a buyer makes use of your link to make a purchase.
You include the affiliate link on your website. You can do this through banner ads or directly in the content. You earn a percentage of what the reader purchases if he or she clicks on your link and buys any product recommended by you.
You can make use of affiliate marketing through ads networks such as Amazon Associates or you can simply create private partnerships with businesses and advertisers with an affiliate program.
There are also companies like Share~A~Sale and Click Bank. They are great for beginners.
I do recommend you take a good online course in Affiliate Marketing if you really want to make money this way. It can be very lucrative but you need to be educated on the laws and techniques of Marketing products through a blog. I took Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. It’s by Michelle over at Making Sense of Cents and she makes $100,000+ a month and a huge portion of that is affiliate sales. She is the absolute go-to expert in this field and the course is worth every cent. They have a two-month payment plan too and it’s very reasonably priced compared to other blogging courses. You can check it out here if you’re interested.
Here are some great blogging posts:
- Different Ways Bloggers Make Money | Blogging Series Part 3
- Why you should Start A Blog and Quit your Job. The Blogging Blue Print that Really Works!
- Make Money At Every Stage Of Blogging, How To make income From the Start
- Start A Blog Today | The Complete Tutorial with Screen Shots Of Every Step From Start To Finish
- The Key To Having A Successful Blog | Blogging Series Part 1
- How To Make Your Blog Sticky So You Get The Most Page Views
- Drive Traffic To Your Blog | How To Create Interest Through Social Media And Google | Blogging Series Part 4
- Blogging And Email Marketing | What You Need To Know | Blogging Series Part 5
SELL DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Eventually, you will want to create your own products. Just about every blogger does and it’s your real path to financial freedom. I know it may sound like a daunting task at first but I promise, once you start blogging and you really get going, Ideas will just fall into your lap.
Don’t worry about it at first, just create epic content. But after the first year when you have built up your email list somewhat, you can begin considering your choices.
Some of the different products you could sell are~
Courses
eBooks
Apps, themes, or plugins
Online workshops
Just make sure that your products are great and that you do tons of research. Make a great, quality product that solves your reader’s problems and you will do great. Pay attention and really focus on your reader’s needs.
USE YOUR BLOG AS A CONTENT MARKETING TOOL FOR YOUR PHYSICAL BUSINESS
If you have some sort of physical location and you sell physical products it’s great to have a blog as well. The web is a powerful marketing tool that every business needs to be a part of. You can create fans and useful content that will bring customers to your business time and time again. All great businesses have a blog and online Marketing strategy.
This can double or triple the amount of income you make with physical products.
SELL MEMBERSHIPS
Another money making option is selling memberships to exclusive areas of your site. A career blog may charge $20 monthly for instance; for individuals to have access to their work board. A startup blog might give memberships for sale to their forums where individuals can get information that would not normally be found elsewhere.
I have to say that I am not a fan of this money making technique. Monthly subscriptions sites have their onset of issues and I am not interested in dealing with that, and forgive me for saying so if you have a membership site but I think they’re a bit tacky :/
But anyway, The main factor here is that your exclusive membership needs to be relatively valuable and something that cannot be found in other places on the web, obviously.
USE IT TO BUILD CREDIBILITY
People may approach you because of your authority; to co-author, a book(s) on debt management or you could even charge to speak at a conference or to even run an employee finance training camp. The possibilities are really endless.
