MONETIZING YOUR BLOG
If you’re going to make money from your blog then you’ll need to think carefully about exactly how you want to monetize it.
There are multiple ways you can do this, and how you monetize will depend on your blog’s niche, how obtrusive you want any advertisements to be, and how much money you want to make. In this section, we are going to outline some ways of monetizing a blog to help you figure out the best way to start making money.
Pay per Click and Pay per Impression Ads
This is probably the most popular kind of monetization used on blogs. The concept is pretty simple. For pay per click ads, you’ll earn money every time someone clicks on the ad placed on your blog. You and the advertiser will agree ahead of time on a cost per click, and you’ll find that products and services that cost more usually correlate to a higher cost per click.
Predictably, pay per impression (sometimes also called cost per mile) advertising pays you depending on the number of impressions (views) your page gets. You’ll usually be paid for every 1,000 impressions.
Both pay per click and pay per impression ads can be banners or text ads. As you can imagine, you’ll generate more money if you have lots of traffic to your blog. Without a fair amount of visitors, you may only be making pennies. It often takes time to build up a blog following though, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not making good money immediately.
Direct Advertising
Direct advertising will look very similar to pay per click and pay per impression ads to your readers, but it works differently for you. Instead of earning money based on views or clicks, you sell advertising space at a set price to advertisers. You and the advertiser will agree on a set price and how long the ad will run for. If your blog has a lot of traffic, you can negotiate for a higher price. You can often sell ads directly to advertisers, but there are also marketplaces (such as BuySellAds) that can connect you to advertisers. These marketplaces will usually take a commission, though, so if you can work it out yourself, that’s generally the better route.
Affiliate Programs
Many products and services offer affiliate programs. If you sign up as an affiliate, you’ll earn a commission for every sale you generate for that business, which can be either a set fee or a percentage of the sales price.
This is an easy and potentially very profitable way to monetize your site. You’re likely to mention products or services in your blog posts, particularly if your blog provides consumer advice. Anytime you mention something that can be sold, you can check to see if the provider offers an affiliate service. Simply adding a link to your post can potentially generate profit for you. Amazon’s Associate’s program, for example, allows you to link to any of the many products on Amazon.
It’s very easy to add in these links, and it’s one of the subtlest forms of advertising you can use on your blog.
Sponsored Reviews
Sponsored reviews are another way you can monetize consumer advice on your blog. Advertises are often looking to promote their products and services by spreading positive reviews. A sponsored review is a review that an advertiser pays you to write. You can still include balanced and accurate information about the product, as long as you end by recommending it. You can limit yourself to doing sponsored reviews for products that you would genuinely recommend to keep your blog honest and maintain trust with your readers. You can reach out to businesses to inquire about writing sponsored reviews.
As your blog gains more traffic, you’re likely to start receiving offers from businesses related to your niche. If you feel comfortable writing these posts, they can be a great way to earn money.
Promote Your Own Products and Services
One of the most potentially lucrative ways of making money from a blog is to use it as a way of promoting your own products and services. Once you have built up a bank of loyal readers and have established a community then you have an established user base to market your related products/services to.
Chapter:
- WHY START A BLOG?
- HOW TO CHOOSE A NICHE FOR YOUR BLOG
- CHOOSING A BLOGGING PLATFORM
- SETTING UP A WORDPRESS BLOG
- HOW TO COME UP WITH IDEAS FOR BLOG CONTENT
- HOW TO WRITE ENGAGING BLOG POSTS
- MONETIZING YOUR BLOG
- FIVE BLOGGING MISTAKES TO AVOID
- GENERATING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG
