If you are a website or a blog owner, chances are you are looking to make money out of it. Whether you are new to this business or have been established in it since a while, there are many ways to monetize a website or a blog. Before we get started on the best ways to monetize your blog, do take note that there is a lot of hard work involved in making a Blogger or WordPress blog, at least in the beginning. But the most important thing to do is to ‘take action’. That being said ; do use the following 9 easy ways to monetize blog traffic seriously as these pointers are taken from experts and bloggers who have made serious amounts of money in this business.
1. Recursive affiliate income
Many entrepreneurs have made millions with the affiliate business programs where one gets to sell other people’s subscription products. So you will need to get people to sign up for these subscriptions and get paid month after month as they continue to pay the bills. Affiliate marketing does very well especially if you select a popular niche. It is also scalable with your blog traffic. However, there is a downside to this; it is a fairly unpredictable way of monetizing a blog or website. You will also need to do some work: review products you have used, create tutorials and how-to blog posts so you can recommend stuff that people genuinely want to buy. You should also have a lot of trust in the products you sell instead of just placing affiliate links up on your site for money.
2. Sell something you created
Apart from the aforementioned affiliate selling, another easy way to monetize your website is to sell your own creations or products. There is a lot more satisfaction in doing this especially if you are a writer or an artist-as you can sell your craft. The aim of every professional blogger should be the same and though this is not easy; it is indeed one of the expert recommended answers to the questions ‘how to monetize a wordpress blog’ or ‘how to monetize blogger’. Selling products or services is also usually scalable and you even get to set things up on auto pilot once you have a smart sales funnel set up. You must also remember following points:
- Keep enhancing the products through add-ons
- Update your products as situation demands
- Innovate the product if similar products arrive in the market
- Grab more market potential by introducing a follow-up of the product
- Know the features of the product so you can highlight it the best like no one else does.
3. Coaching services
One of the easiest ways to monetize blogger without adsense is to offer some kind of coaching or consulting service (web designing or copywriting). You can literally make your first sale in a couple of days doing this. The average transaction size is also a lot larger than any other way to monetize your blog as you get to offer services in the order of $99 per hour! You will also learn a lot this way- just a couple of phone call conversations can give you a fair idea as to what your target audience is looking for-so you can come up with better products and services that you can sell. You must also make sure to find potential clients through guest posting. This will allow you to build an email list. Having a sizeable email list is one of the best ways to monetize a website or a blog. This also enables you to sell your own eBooks or online courses.
4. Adsense
Adsense is one the best and easiest ways to monetize your blog. It is also the least time consuming methods for busy professionals working a day job. AdSense tends to have the best CPM rates and fill rates on the market. Adsense also has come up with iPhone apps which are a lot of fun. Put the ad on different pages and see if that can earn you an extra 100 bucks per month. Track your progress as you go.
5. Sell eBooks
If you can create premium content for a targeted audience, there is a very high chance that they will be willing to buy it. You will make tons of more money than just shoving ads in your blog. Ebooks are authority builders and trust builders, as already suggested above. They are also extremely necessary as branding tools for an income generating blog.
6. Create inspiring in-depth content
In-depth and longer blog posts are relished by audiences as they likely get the answers they are looking for through them. Content should be your long term strategy as it was and still IS King. So apart from eBooks (which you can sell for as little as 99 cents) create long inspiring content that is read and shared over and over.
7. It’s all about the sales funnel
After you have decided on a product or service you wish to affiliate for, then you must focus on creating an effective sales funnel. Many people simply tend to forget this point focusing on other so called best ways to monetize a blog. So instead of posting blindly, tap into new traffic sources and constantly grow your reach. There is no point in getting thousands of visitors daily if they are not interested in your end products. One of the best ways to do this is to create a mailing list targeted around a tight niche. You can develop the list by buying traffic through ad placements on other sites. You can also guest blog for other top sites. Your aim should be to guest blog on at least 5-6 authoritative sites per year for 3-4 years in order to get a constant stream of referrals. For example, you can write a post on ‘easy ways to monetize blog traffic’ or ‘ways to monetize apps’ and then introduce people to affiliate methods and other useful tips in an honest way.
8. Do not start a blog with the intention of earning
You will be in for a huge disappointment if you start a blog just for the sake of earning. This will take you years and years of hard work to monetize it. Instead add your own products and services as stated above. There is always something you can teach others and that others would be interested in learning from you. You must also endeavor to find out what your audience needs-through surveys, emails, inviting comments etc. Plan things well from the beginning-only when you do will you be in a better position to use your blog to supplement your business (and not the other way round as people erroneously tend to think).
9. Banner ads
Many pro bloggers also recommend banner ads as one of the best ways to monetize a blog. There are many websites like BuySellAds which you can use-but do note that it will take a lot of time and efforts to be accepted by BSA. Once things are set up, it is more or less autopilot all the way. You will have a lot of control over things.
Once you have been blogging for more than 6 months, it is very easy to veer off track. Many bloggers tend to lose their initial enthusiasm and steam and simply give up. So we hope the above 9 easy ways to monetize your blog help you get back on track, help you look at things in a refreshing new way and also help you analyze what is and isn’t working for you. This will help you restart things so you can sell stuff and get on your way to build a smart passive income.