In this article we want to share with you the basic and fairly simple ways to monetize your blog.
You can use proven tools to turn your blog audience and reader traffic into a revenue stream. After you have chosen a niche that interests readers, worked out the design of your blog, filled it with interesting information and nurtured an active and loyal audience around your brand, it’s time to move on to monetization.
You can use different services to activate your audience. For example, the SetQuest audience engagement platform allows bloggers to post a discount code for readers or open access to additional content.
You can combine different methods of monetization, but in this case, you need to remember to make a compromise every time so as not to shock users with too many ads and to prevent a drop in the quality of content, and then a decrease in user traffic.
5 Tricks to Monetize your Blog
1. Referral links:
This is a good way to make passive income: money will always come as long as users click on the links, but it requires a large active audience from the blogger. For example, Amazon’s Affiliate Link Program can earn up to 10% of the sales of featured products. In this case, the author posts links to products and services of other companies on his blog and receives a percentage of the profit from each sale made after clicking on the link. In some cases, you can earn even if the blog reader simply follows the link and does not buy the product – the conditions depend on each specific site.
In order not to scare off the audience, it is important to share with subscribers only high-quality products that correspond to the topic and philosophy of the blog. For example, artist and blogger Katie Jobling on her blog shares affiliate links with creative-friendly merchandise for sale on Amazon.
2. Premium content:
Bloggers often write about things that they are very good at, so readers can perceive them as experts in narrow niches. Gradually, quality paid content can be published along with free content – for example, designers can offer readers color palettes, and fitness bloggers can offer individual meal plans.
On Patreon, musicians, illustrators, photographers and reviewers can, for an additional fee, discuss the latest blog post with anyone, or submit it before everyone else sees it. Subsequently, the premium content can be compiled into a selection of illustrations, photographs or an e-book – all of which can become a source of constant profit. For example, Ph.D. and scientist Rhonda Patrick invites his patrons to participate in choosing a topic for the next editions of human health and sends them ready-made editions of the blog in advance.
3. Mentoring and counseling:
Since readers often see bloggers as experts with deep knowledge of a particular topic, they may be happy to receive one-on-one advice from them at an hourly rate. This is the method used by Brandon Diley, mentor, life coach and author of Still Breathin ‘.
Each time you can earn more and more, as the skill of the author and his level of expertise will grow, after which the reputation will strengthen and traffic will increase. The most difficult thing here is to find your first clients and conduct your first consultations. You can ask subscribers to leave feedback. To do this, you can find yourself a mentor or study what other consultants are doing in the same area. Since the number of hours per day and, accordingly, the number of possible consultations is limited, you can delegate this work to others, but then the blog will turn into a consulting business. An alternative to consultations can be individual meetings with subscribers – for example, illustrator Olesya Poplavskaya conducts master classes over coffee in an informal setting.
4. Courses and workshop:
Another passive income method that is similar to premium content and consulting at the same time. You can create courses and workshops for subscribers, teaching them a specific skill, for example, telling them how to set up SEO promotion or how to write a business plan. This can be an interactive guide, a stand-alone online course, or a series of courses.
You can invite a partner for co-branding or use a platform like Skillshare, Teachable, or Amlab.me. For example, Laurie Wong, lifestyle blogger and creator of the New Yorker Meets London blog, teaches people the basics of digital marketing. Theresa Christine, author of the Tremendous Times travel blog, explains how fun it is to write about travel, while model and fashion blogger Niklas Kingo explains how to write a book for the Amazon Kindle and turn it into a regular income.
5. Advertising and sponsorship:
This method always works, because advertisers are constantly looking for new advertising sites. The main advantage of this method is that you can use the same banner template and change advertisers. This is a more profitable way than affiliate links, but the ads must match the specifics of the blog.
Another way to partner with advertisers is to post «sponsored» blog posts where affiliates pay an author to review their product. The main difficulty here is that the ads should be consistent with the philosophy of the particular blog and work well with non-ad content. If it goes against the values of a particular site or is too intrusive, readers will probably leave the project.
Do your thing with love – or don’t do it at all! That’s the main principle of big and famous companies – ICOholder, GOOGLE and others. What you do is solve people’s problems, make their life easier. Don’t force blogging for the sake of money or in the hopes of earning money soon. Make your blog useful to people, share information, and then your efforts will pay off with interest.
We are sure that all your efforts are not in vain and any of your creativity will find its audience. Everything you need for this is already inside of you. We convent our fervent hopes for complete success and great inspiration in your favorite business. Hope this article was useful and interesting for you!
The capabilities to monetize your is endless! This blog just scratched the surface. Keep learning, exploring new methods, and most importantly, have fun! Building a successful blog takes time, but the rewards can be truly fulfilling.
