Whether you recently created a blog thanks to our article on the subject or already have a blog for many years. If you haven’t gotten any returns from it, you may wonder how to monetize a blog. In this article, we’ll dive into ways to get a return on all your efforts to build a successful blog.
There are three main ways to make money with your blog. You can sell a product, make your content gated, or promote other brands and products. In this article on how to monetize a blog, we’ll go through ways for beginners to monetize their blogs, long-term strategies, and how to drive more traffic to your blog.
How to monetize a blog like a pro
If your blog has been around for a long time or you’ve made a full-time commitment to your blog, you may want to apply these solutions to maximize your long-term return on investment.
1. Leverage gated content: Create paid memberships for your blog
If you’ve been blogging for a long time, it’s likely that you’re an expert in your field. Leverage your expertise to monetize your blog. Restrict access to the most essential articles to paid members. Keep the beginning of the articles accessible to all to lure people in and make the answers they respond to available only to paid members.
Create a balance between free and paid articles to ensure you’re not losing any readers.
You can also use subscription plans to ensure you have stable revenue from your blog on a monthly basis. But, in order to do so, you need to ensure you’re continuously posting valuable content.
2. Create your own Podcast
You can reuse the written content you have to create your podcast seamlessly. Reach a new audience that can come to your blog later on. You can also benefit from the increasing popularity of podcasts. Add sponsorships for companies to your podcast to earn money from them.
3. Offer your expertise to your audience
If people come to your website repeatedly, they recognize you as the voice of authority in your field. Leverage that power and offer your services as a consultant or coach.
There are so many ways to leverage your expertise based on your industry. Offer tours or personalized itineraries if you’re a travel blogger. Offer marketing advice or consulting if you’re a marketing expert.
4. Make money by selling products
Your content has shaped your audience. Readers come to your blog to read a specific topic, so you take advantage of having a highly targeted audience just as many influencers do. Sell products related to your industry and use your expertise to find the products that resonate the most with your audience.
Create a small online store and add the products you want to sell. Use your blog to promote them and highlight their value.
How to monetize a blog for beginners
It can be hard to monetize a blog when you’re a beginner. But there are plenty of ways that work, so there’s no need to feel discouraged about it. We recommend testing different alternatives until you find the one that works for you. Remember to be patient, as your blog’s value will be felt in the long term and not instantly.
1. Leverage affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn money if you find that there are many products that connect to your blog’s theme or topic. It’s easy to understand. When you are an affiliate, you talk about and promote products for a brand. You earn a commission every time someone buys the product through you. So both the brand and you win when people buy the brand’s products.
Since you’ll only earn money when people buy products through you, the most essential part to succeed is to find brands and products related to your blog. The more your audience is interested in the products you’re promoting, the more you’ll earn. It’s also essential to keep the products related to your audience. Otherwise, your readers might perceive your content promoting brands and products as spam.
Finding relevant brands can be time-consuming, but you can start out with Amazon Associates. All you’ll need to do is to add links to Amazon products in your blog, and every time someone buys a product through your link, you earn money.
2. Publish sponsored posts
Companies will pay you to write a sponsored post for a brand promoting their services or products. It’s a way for companies to reach a wider audience and for you to earn some money.
Some companies will contact you to write sponsored posts for them, but you should also do some research and find some companies to reach out to. Choose exactly who you’re promoting.
The money you’ll earn should be negotiated early on, and it’s the perfect way for you to earn a flat fee instead of commission-based earnings. You want to find companies you can really endorse and that provide added value for your blog, not just money.
Here are some tips to successfully earn money when using sponsored posts:
- Always prioritize your blog. Promote products you believe in and that align with your blog’s identity, not just products or brands that pay well.
- Be genuine with your readers. Tell them when a post is sponsored.
- Create a convincing pitch for when you reach out to companies. Include data about your blog, explain how your audience relates to the company, and how you will present services and products to get more customers.
- Find brands you can collaborate with in the long term. This will create a reliable source of revenue for you. It is advantageous for brands. Pitch it as a continued endorsement to show you authentically care about the brand and product.
3. Find a brand to sponsor you
As mentioned in the above point, collaborating long-term with a brand is advantageous for both parties. If you know a brand you really want to endorse, you can ask them to sponsor you. Find a deal that works for both of you and come to clear terms so that you know what expectations need to be met.
Promote that brand on your blog on the homepage, in articles, or in banners. You can post on social media and other places. Put them forward and thank them for their continued support.
4. Use online ads to monetize your blog
This is one of the easiest ways to earn money with your blog. All you need to do is set up places on your website where display advertisements like banner ads appear to your readers. It’s an easy way to earn money based on your blog’s traffic continuously.
You can use different online advertising network platforms like Google AdSense to serve ads on your blog. Most of these platforms let you specify which industry and topics can serve ads on your blog. This ensures that the ads displayed are related to your audience. You will earn money either when your ads are seen or clicked.
Target the ads well so they are relevant to your readers and are not just considered spam. You should also test out the different bidding offers to find the one most profitable for you.
5. Ask your reader to donate money
It’s always complicated to ask people for money, but if you frame your demand correctly, there’s a chance your readers will respond positively. Explain that you want to keep your blog’s quality the highest possible, that you don’t want to rely on advertising, and that it’s time-consuming to keep the blog running.
If you generate delightful content and have many fans, they’re going to donate money to support you. Be extra thankful and let donors know you are grateful for their donations.
For donations to work, your content should be freely accessible and relatively ad and sponsorship-free.
6. Use your blog as a portfolio
You can use your blog to showcase your work and become a significant influencer in your industry. If people like your content, they are more likely to hire you to write guest articles. It could even lead to you finding full-time employment as a blogger.
Find companies looking for writers and apply. If your content interests the company, they will reach out to you.
For companies already selling a product or service
If you’re already selling a service or product and you’re not seeing the added value your blog provides, then that’s something else entirely. You should first analyze your data and the traffic coming to your website from your blog. If you have a physical store instead of a website, you can try interacting with customers to get their feedback.
Once you know what results your blog is bringing in, you should use those results to set goals and objectives. You can then take action to give yourself the best chance to achieve your targets. If your blog is not generating enough traffic for your website for example. You should analyze your blog and see if there are enough entry points to your website. Is your blog not generating enough traffic itself or are your articles relevant to your website, and are you reaching the right audience?
How to increase your traffic so you can earn even more money
Once you start making some money from your blog, you’ll want to increase your traffic to make even more money. We’ve gathered some tips to increase your traffic and earn more.
Find your target audience
Your blog has to have a clear target and focus on its strengths. The more focused and niche you are, the more your blog will be interesting for that audience. You want to be an authoritative voice that people trust and listen to. So highlight your expertise.
Publish high-quality articles
Focus on quality over quantity. While it’s great to have a lot of posts, they are useless if the information in them is not relevant and valuable for readers. When your content speaks to your audience and provides real solutions to their problems, readers are more likely to return to your blog. Research your topics well and add as much practical information as possible to create a blog that becomes the one-stop destination.
Create added value
Think of added value as the hook that will turn casual readers into regular readers. If you provide that extra information that thrills your readers, you’re more likely to become a recognized expert in your field.
When your content is the best, people are more likely to share it and use it as a source of reference. This will create backlinks. The more quality backlinks you get, the more search engines will put your articles forward as the reference.
Engage with your readers
Another great way to retain your readers is to create a community and engagement with your readers. If you exchange with them and find ways to actively get them to participate, they will become your loyal followers because an emotional attachment will form. Use social media, forums, and newsletters to keep your readers up-to-date and engaged. It’s a principal part of monetizing your blog, as loyal readers will spend money for you.
Become the authoritative voice
We’ve mentioned this already. But it’s such an integral part of your success. The more you become that authoritative voice, the more people will come to you with their questions or to learn new information. It will make your content the source of truth everyone goes to.
Use digital marketing concepts to become the main
To get more readers and establish yourself as the voice of authority, you want to do everything possible to increase the traffic to your website. Use digital marketing concepts and strategies to grow your traffic.
1. Search engine optimization is key
SEO connects to your whole content and blog. Use the right keywords that are searched but not too competitive. You can consider buying services from an SEO expert to improve your results. They are professionals with tons of experience, so they will know how to improve your SEO.
2. Harness the power of social media to reach more people
Social media can be such a powerful tool when used correctly. Find out how your audience uses social media and if there are any ways to leverage that to reach more people. Promote your articles on social media and ask people to share your posts.
3. Use email marketing to keep readers engaged
Your reader wants to know what you are up to. So keep them up to speed and let them know when you post new articles so they can read them as soon as possible. You can tie this into your monetization technique as you can monetize your list by adding sponsored posts or products to your newsletter.
When is the best time for you to monetize your blog?
It can be hard to decide when you want to monetize your blog. Maybe you want to do so right away, but is that the best approach? Consider a few key factors:
What are your goals?
The most essential question. You should set your goals every quarter and focus on those specific goals. They will give you direction and something to aim for so you can take the necessary actions to achieve them. Consider your present situation and what is the most beneficial element to your blog’s growth.
How does your content compare to other content in the industry?
If you publish high-quality content that people return to often, it may be time to monetize your blog. If you still have trouble attracting returning readers to your blog, maybe you should focus on crafting higher-quality content.
How big is your readership? And how engaged are they with your brand?
If you have a large audience of readers who engage a lot with your content. You’re most likely ready to monetize. But if you’re still looking to get more readers and get them to engage more with you. Focus on growing your audience. It will increase your earnings in the future as well.
Conclusion
We hope the above information answered all your questions and was insightful. It can be hard to monetize your blog when there are many things to consider. Maybe you still need to grow your blog first, or maybe maintaining your reader’s attention is taking most of your time already.
If you need help to grow your blog, you can consider using freelance services on ComeUp to get more work done. You’ll be able to access professional freelancers with tons of experience in their fields so they can help you achieve the best result.
