Are you planning to start a blog but have no idea how to monetize it? Many people come to us and ask about ways to monetize their blogs, but creating a blog these days is easy, but earning from it is a different story.
You might consider blogging now and worrying about making money from it later. Sure, you can do that. But why put it off for later when you can do it now? Isn’t it better to start a blog with a clear plan for monetizing it? After all, you want a blog because you intend to profit from it.
Even with some easy ways to monetize a blog, can you make a living by blogging?
The answer is Yes. Earning money from a blog is dead-simple math, though you need a clear monetization strategy. So, before you launch a blog, ensure you have a clear marketing plan to generate income from it. Then you can groom your blog into a money-making one.
We will share ways to monetize a blog and earn money from your blog. You can choose the ones you are the most comfortable with and implement them to make money blogging.
Fundamentals of How to Monetize a Blog?
There are several ways to monetize a blog and make money blogging:
- Affiliate marketing: You can promote products or services on your blog and earn a commission for every sale made through your unique affiliate link.
- Advertising: You can display ads on your blog and earn money each time someone clicks on an ad or views an impression.
- Sponsored content: You can publish sponsored posts on your blog where you are paid by a brand or company to promote their product or service.
- Digital products: You can create and sell digital products such as eBooks, courses, or printables related to your niche.
- Membership or subscription-based content: You can create exclusive content only paid members and subscribers can access.
- Consulting or coaching: If you are an expert in your field, you can offer to consult or coaching services to your readers.
- Events or webinars: You can host events or webinars related to your niche and charge a fee for attendees.
- Donations: You can add a donation button or set up a Patreon account for your readers who want to support your blog financially.
Unfortunately, not every blogger can make millions through their website. The income potential of your blog depends on two factors:
- Your niche: Do people spend large sums of money on products in your industry? The software industry, for example, can be lucrative since many companies pay recurring commissions. Bloggers can earn small amounts each month after the customer makes the purchase.
- Your monetization strategies: Some blog monetization methods are off the table for new bloggers who want to stick to their core values, like not being paid to post content about which they disagree. It can impact earning potential in the short term.
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1: Use Blogging to Build Your Credibility
Blogging to build credibility can lead to many money-making opportunities. For instance, let us say you start a blog in the finance industry. People start reading your content, and your blog becomes very popular. You are now a recognized figure in the finance industry.
Once you have that authority, people might approach you to co-author a book on debt management, or you could charge to speak at conferences or to run employee financial training days.
It certainly isn’t a direct form of making money blogging, but it has worked for many well-known bloggers and can work for you, too. If you’re looking for a natural revenue stream, popular blogs have sold for 4-6 figures by selling their branding and content.
The biggest thing to remember is that making money blogging is impossible by putting your site up and letting it sit there. The “if you build it, they will come” mentality doesn’t work here, so be sure you’re willing to put in the time. Most bloggers don’t see a spike in income for several months, sometimes years, after starting their blog. Before you dive too deep into blogging, remember these little bits of advice:
Create Quality Content:
Your blog will not make any money if people don’t read it because your readers will make you money, whether clicking on your ads or buying your products. Always put your readers first.
Don’t Spend Time Only on Your Blog:
Developing a successful blog has a lot to do with building relationships. That can include relationships with sponsors, affiliate partners, or simply other bloggers who will direct traffic to your blog. Be sure you spend some of your time on forums and other blogs or whatever works for you to build these relationships and your blog.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment:
Not all of these tips and income techniques will work for you. Don’t be afraid to tweak your methods to see what works best for you and your readers.
Making money blogging can take a lot of persistence, but it can pay off in the long run if you start from scratch. Remember that you don’t have to use all these money-making strategies simultaneously. Consider what other people in your industry are doing, and start from there.
2: Show Advertisements
Advertisements are the best way to monetize a blog for beginners.
Here’s how it works: You have a blog with people coming to it consistently. You can then start monetizing them by showing advertisements. You will earn every time a user views or clicks an ad on your website.
Ways to Monetize a Blog
To show advertisements, first, you should apply to an ad network like Adsense, and if approved, they will give you an HTML code that you have to place on your website. That’s it. You can start earning money now.
The best part is that It is an easy and passive income because MORE TRAFFIC = MORE MONEY.
To start monetizing your blog through AdSense, do the following:
1: Create a Google Adsense account.
2: After you get approved by Google AdSense, you will get an email.
3: Create an ad unit in your account.
4: Copy the ad code and paste it on the pages of your site
It shows users advertisements of companies similar to your blog's topic. For example, if your blog is about fashion, your readers will see ads for style services, fashion shows, clothing brands, etc.
Then users click on the advertising link, and you get some income. You can place Google AdSense ads regardless of the traffic to the site. The more popular the blog and the more traffic it attracts, the higher your income.
The following elements impact the money you'll receive from these advertisements: your blog topic, traffic, region, and country of users who visit the blog.
3: Promote Affiliate Products
Affiliate Marketing has been one of the best and most popular ways to monetize a blog for years.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing method to earn a commission by promoting or selling any product or service which you don’t own.
Ways to Monetize a Blog
Simply put, you can recommend other companies' products in your blog and earn massive commissions while helping your readers. Sounds good?
You don’t have to make your product or service. All you have to do is write content that solves a problem and recommend affiliate products.
For example, If you are running a health blog, you can quickly sell products that help your readers to stay healthy.
Shareasale is a popular affiliate marketing program with two decades of experience in sales and advertising. The company is reputable and well-reviewed, and affiliate sign-up is free. Affiliates have access to more than 22,800+ merchants across multiple markets and niche industries, making it easy to find the right fit for your website.
ShareASale Affiliate Program
Whatever industry or niche your blog is, you can find related affiliate programs, join them, recommend the product or service, and earn massive commissions.
4: Making Money from Interviews
One of the best ways to make money promoting products with interviews is to prepare the interview to go out as the company launches the product. Why? Since no one has purchased if the company has recently introduced the product, your chances of getting sales rise.
Also, anyone interested in the product will look for more information on Google and social media, and if your post is coming up, they will come to your site and hopefully buy from you.
We recommend you interview over the phone, but we usually use Skype, record the call, and get it transcribed. After that, you can upload the call as an MP3 or Podcast to your website. Along with the transcription for anyone who would instead read than listen.
The transcription also gives you lots of valuable search engine content. When conducting interviews, you can also review the interviewee’s products and ask them questions about them, and then, at the end of the interview, you can add, if you wish. In this, if you want to segment, you will add your mini-review of the product and why visitors should buy it. It's simple, and we are 100% sure it will work for you while it is a legit way to monetize a blog.
Typically your interview will only touch generally on the strategies the interviewee uses, but if done correctly, your listener or reader will be left wanting more. It is when you promote the Interviewee’s product so your followers can learn more. Depending on the interviewee and the product, you can easily walk away with dozens of sales and continuous future sales depending on how often future readers find the interview.
5: Accept Brand Sponsorships
Brand Sponsorships are for established bloggers with consistently high traffic coming to their blogs. Suppose you have a travel blog where you share your trips and stuff.
Then travel-related companies like Airbnb might contact you to write about their product on your blog. In return, you will earn money, and Airbnb will probably get exposure to new customers and a few sales.
Also, you can pitch the companies too and convince them to sponsor your blog. It works both ways.
6: Organize a Web Conference or Virtual Summit
Web conferences or virtual summits are like a conference people can attend virtually. To attract a large audience, these kinds of web conferences are frequently free. How can you earn from this, then? Virtual summits are only accessible for a short period. That’s where the money will come from through paid lifetime access to the virtual conference.
So, please ensure your web conference's content is so valuable that people are willing to pay to access it whenever they want.
7: Create and Sell Courses
The E-learning industry is expected to rise to $418 billion or more in the following years. So It’s the perfect time to create and sell your digital course online.
Creating and selling courses have become very easy these days. You can launch your online course in a single week.
Follow this step-by-step process to get started:
- Brainstorm – Find out what you’re good at and what you can do better than most people.
- Feedback – Collect questions and pain points from people by sending a short survey.
- Host – Find your course's home, like your website, udemy, or others.
- Create – Start creating your online course.
- Launch – Launch your course.
That’s it, and you can now start promoting and selling your course and earn money.
Use your blog traffic to spread awareness about your course, and we bet they will be the most excited to buy
8: Ask for Donations
Let's say you run a blog and don't want to sell or advertise anything. But you want to receive financial support as gratitude from your readers. Then the easiest way to make money on a blog from scratch is to collect donations.
Most importantly, you need to motivate your readers to transfer money to you. To do this, create high-quality content, and give your readers something valuable, exciting, and unique.
Here are a couple of famous donation services that will make the donation process easier for your users:
At first, estimating how much you can make from a blog will be difficult. But the most crucial thing is to combine and use monetization methods correctly. For this, it is essential to understand who your audience is and how you will help them with your blog.
9: Provide Consulting Services
Consulting or coaching is one of the easiest ways to monetize a blog.
Today, people face many challenges in life, and as a coach, you can guide them to overcome the challenges they are facing in the area where you hold excellent knowledge and expertise.
Note: Know what you’re doing. If you are not experienced in the area you provide coaching services in, then chances are you will give bad or wrong advice to people, which might lead to a disaster.
Ways to Monetize a Blog
If you know your stuff, leverage your blog to position yourself as an expert in that area and spread awareness about your consulting business.
Blog about the problems your typical clients face and show them how you can help. If possible, share the testimonials of your happy clients upfront.
10: Sell Products (Digital or Physical)
People love buying products. Take Amazon, for example, or take Alibaba, which sold $38+ Billion worth of products in a single day. There are two types of products: Physical and Digital. You can sell physically or digitally, or maybe try a hybrid model and sell both per your niche.
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Here are a few ways you can monetize a blog and make money blogging by selling products:
- Dropshipping – Open a dropshipping store.
- Open your e-commerce store.
- Create and sell E-books.
- Private webinars for motivated people.
- Other helpful products.
Sell Physical Products:
Instead of earning from endorsing other businesses’ products on your blog, why not sell your own? Many bloggers have now transformed their blogs into e-commerce websites selling their products. You can follow in their footsteps and monetize your blog this way.
It would be best to decide which things to offer depending on your audience's interests and areas of expertise. Since they are your loyal audience, they can be your first buying customer. You can get reviews from them about the product you’re selling. Positive reviews help attract more customers to trust you and buy your physical products.
Sell Digital Products:
Physical products aren’t the only ones you can offer on your blog. There are several digital products from which you might earn profit. If you know what your audience needs, you can create digital products to offer them. Whether it’s an app, software, or downloadable printable templates, they will be willing to buy it if it answers their needs. You’ll find selling digital products one of the best ways to generate income from your blog.
11: Sell Membership Plans
Membership or subscription plans are less popular among bloggers, yet they are the best. Companies like Netflix use this business model to earn monthly money from their customers.
A membership website is a barrier part of a website, where only the people with an active subscription can access exclusive content and enjoy other benefits.
The best part of this option is recurring Money. People will have to pay either monthly or annually to receive exclusive benefits.
You need to create something that continuously provides value to your subscribers. If not, they will unsubscribe. So, research well before starting a membership plan.
Can You Blog About Lifestyle and Make Money from Blogging?
It is another growing form of blogging where many people talk about their day-to-day life and create a community around it. You may have seen many of them on YouTube as a Video blogger, and you can do the same on the blog or even on YouTube.
Some of the popular topics for this kind of blogging are:
- Lifestyle
- Fashion
- Travel
- Motivation
- Entertainment
The key here is to keep it entertaining, add value and create a community around your brand. Depending on your style and consistency, you could mint a lot of money with this strategy.
Many beginners also ask, should I focus on Blogging or Video Blogging?
Well, it’s a good idea to have a mix of both. Producing video content like recording, editing, and publishing is time and money intensive, whereas creating text content takes lesser time. A blend of both techniques will help you grow faster and start significant earnings sooner.
Gone are the days when we bloggers only depended on AdSense to make money from blogging. Now we have many more ad networks and monetization methods available, which we can increase the income potential from a blog to a great extent.
If you have been using these traditional methods of making money from your blog, it’s time to revise your blogging business plan. Make some new tweaks, change the design, and optimize the marketing aspects of your blog.
Final Words on Ways to Monetize a Blog to Make Money Blogging
If you want to make money from blogging, understand the crucial truth that blogging and sharing stories alone isn’t enough. You must recommend products or services to help your audience and make a living from your blog.
Most bloggers struggle to earn money from blogging efforts because they neglect the importance of selling. Blogging is all about selling stories, products or services, etc.
Everything in this world revolves around sales. You will continue to suffer if you cannot sell.
Nice article