Not Sure How To Monetize Your Blog?
Making money out of your blog can be a fantastic way of adding to your existing source of income. In fact, since the outbreak of covid-19, earning online has become the go-to way for many people. It is not a bad idea if you are playing with those words in your head already. In this post, we will be taking you through ten sure ways by which you can turn your blog into an essential source of income. But just before we delve into the deeper waters, let’s ask ourselves this question – when should you start making money from your blog?
When Should You Monetize Your Blog
If you are wondering when you should start monetizing your blog, the truth is there is not a direct answer for that. But don’t be disappointed yet with this answer. When to start making money on your blog is dependent mainly on the method of making money you choose.
We will be discussing the various methods that are available for you. Then, you can decide when your blog is ready to be monetized. As you will find out, some blogs can start monetizing right away, while others would have to wait a while. For affiliate marketing, for example, your niche and the traction your article can gather right away can instantly make you money.
But whatever you go for at the end of the day, there is always a constant, an audience. You might choose to grow your audience organically, or you might use other methods. But whatever you do, you need followership for advertisement. The number of audiences you will be needing might vary, but how fast you can get the number matters. So, depending on your blog niche and the method, you could monetize immediately or a year later.
How then can you monetize your blog? I know you can’t wait, so let’s find out below.
How To Monetize Your Blog
Here, we will be looking at 10 different ways to start making money off your blog. So let’s get started:
Paid Membership
The idea of a paid membership is that you have dedicated members willing to pay to access your content. But this does not just happen out of the blue; you have to be strategic about it.
Before you can have a paid membership, you need to be offering what people want and are willing to pay for it. So you need to ask yourself some questions like, what do people search for the most? Are they things they are also willing to pay to access? Which of these things do I have the knowledge or passion for? Once you can establish a niche that you have a passion for, start creating content in that niche to drive traffic.
Now, except you are a known professional in a particular field already, you can not begin a premium membership straight away. You need to be able to show people what you know and how well you know it. Once you feel confident enough about the traffic, you can then go ahead and monetize your content. But make sure you structure your content in ways that keep your member on the lookout. Here are some membership websites you could use for your paid membership:
- https://memberpress.com/
- https://www.memberspace.com/
- https://member.wishlistproducts.com/
- https://digitalaccesspass.com/home/
- https://membershipworks.com/
Whet their appetite and make them feel they will miss out if they don’t pay the following month. Your membership can also be in such a way that you have different levels for a different rate. You then need to add payment gateways through which your members can pay their fees. Some sites have different payment gateways that they have partnered with already. If you have a payment gateway in mind to use, there is also a provision for it. Maybe for you, a paid membership is not your style, don’t stop reading just yet. Let’s look at affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
Suppose you already have a blog that is up and running and drives a significant traffic level every month. In that case, it is time to turn that into a stream of income. You have worked so hard to get your blog to where it is; it only serves you right if your blog starts paying your bank account.
Affiliate marketing provides you with the opportunity to leverage the traffic coming to your site. By this, it simply means that you can use referral links from any affiliate program you belong to. Once your readers follow these links and make purchases on the intended site, you get paid for that. Straightforward.
If you are considering affiliate marketing, here are a few things you need to get you started. Have a specific niche in mind. There is a tendency that your blog already has discussions it revolves around. It would be best if you focused on building affiliates in this area. Check out affiliate network websites or specific websites you will like to work with. Some of the massive eCommerce companies usually have an affiliate section on their websites.
Do well to check as many as possible out. Strategize on the places you will place the referral links. You can write blog posts about things and insert referral links as product recommendations. There are a couple of other options you can explore Now that you have an idea of how to go about affiliate marketing, you can check out these affiliate network platforms to check out opportunities:
Advertisement
There are always businesses in your niche that want their voices amplified. If such enterprises deem you fit enough to boost their voice, you should not be the one standing in your way. Advertising on your website is a reliable way to make excellent income, especially if you are already driving enough traffic.
There are two ways you can use advertising as a source of income from your blog.
- By directly placing banner rolls and posters on your website. You will be the one to determine how much you want to charge businesses that are interested in advertising on your blog.There is no maximum amount. The more traffic your blog drives every month, the better for you. Niche advertisements can sometimes attract the most income.
- You can monetize your blog through advertisement by listing your blog as an affiliate partner in the Google advertising network.To do this, you will need to create a Google Adsense account. Just be sure you meet the requirements before proceeding. Google will start placing display advertising on your website, and you will get paid for it.
Create Online Courses
If one thing has become popular since COVID-19 became a global issue, it is online courses. When lockdown became the order of the day in 2020, millions of people worldwide turned their attention to online classes to keep their minds and souls together. Different courses emerged, and existing online learning platforms saw a significantly higher than usual increase in their offerings. Even till now, the trend does not look like it will change. This trend will most likely continue.
So if you are thinking what I am thinking, waste no time further. Do not hesitate to create online courses
if you have in-depth knowledge of specific emerging and popular fields that people are willing to pay for. Are you good with cryptocurrency? Then you should tap into this rush and build a course out of your knowledge. The truth is that there are a lot of things people are yet to understand about cryptocurrency. If Digital Marketing is what you are good at, then do not hesitate. Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Product Design are just some fields that have recently seen increased online learning. As long as your knowledge is in demand, you are on course to making some lucrative sum.
Sell Products
eCommerce has become a lucrative industry over the past decade. If you are not sure, ask Jeff Bezos or Jack Ma. Selling products online has become such a big business model that it is relatively easy to get started.
Just turn your blog into what you want it to be – a product selling platform. You can easily integrate WooCommerce, Etsy, Shopify, and many other platforms into your blog, and you can start selling products in no time. However, not all of these integrations are free. You might be required to make payments before using most of these platforms. It will be worth it after all.
Once you have gotten your integration right and meet all requirements of your chosen platform, you can display products on your website. It can be about anything. Dropshipping has further made selling products on your website easy. You are not even required to have merchandise on the ground physically.
You can create designs and list products on platforms like Redbubble, Printify, Printful, Zazzle, Society6, CafePress, and the likes. You can move your designs to your website. Once an order comes in, your chosen platform handles every part of the purchase – from taking the orders to printing the product, packaging, shipping, and eventually delivering to your customer. It does not even stop there. You can even brand the product with your customized business logo.
You take your cool cash and smile to the bank, all made possible because of your website/blog.
Provide Coaching Services
If you do not have the strength to go through the hassle of creating an online course, I just found another way to monetize your knowledge. Yes, you know what it is already. It is online coaching.
Another fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic is that coaching people online has moved from a passive income source to a significant income source for many people. Suppose you want to venture into online coaching. In that case, you can combine a couple of things to make the perfect coaching ecosystem. Look at it this way. You can add a handful of features to your live coaching blog to spice up the interest of those under your tutelage. Yeah, it would help if you kept things spicy. Your competitors will give you no second chance.
Here is how it goes:
Do You. That is the first rule of online coaching classes. There must be something exceptional that you are offering. It can be an online Yoga class, a fitness regime, or just about anything. It does not matter what your coaching is about; what matters most is how your sessions are structured.
Spice things up; keep it entertaining. People love to have fun (even under intense pressure), making them feel that you are their best plug. The moment you make that connection, you are already on a rollercoaster.
Be creative. By this, you do not necessarily have to be the one that creates the next James Bond (That will not be a bad idea, though). It simply means that you need to be creative with your space. Okay, let us reason together. What if you combine blogging with your online coaching classes. Yes, you are a fitness masterclass that people pay to get into your classes. That should not stop you from giving your readers weekly tips on how to keep fit. You are into Yoga. Write blog posts about Yoga mats. Keep your fanbase entertained, then go a step further by compiling your blog posts into readable ebooks, sellable ebooks.
Subscription Plans. You might be a very generous person, but remember that you need to make money too. That is all we have been talking about so far in this blog post. So, feel free to make money out of your online coaching. You can do that by attaching a fixed price as a subscription for anyone interested in your services. You should devise a formula that works best for you. It can be a monthly thing, quarterly, bi-annual, or annual subscription. The choice is yours. As long as you are good and fun at what you do, be rest assured that people will gladly pay your asking price.
Find Sponsors
Let us look at how sponsorship is defined; it is the money given, usually by a company, to support a person, an activity, or an organization. If your online blog/vlog is already making waves, then it just might be easy getting sponsors for your programs. Just look at American Idols, The Voice, and other popular TV programs to get inspiration.
Finding sponsors is definitely about the money, but it goes far more than having business names displayed behind you or mentioning them frequently on your shows. It is a mutual benefit proposition. You get to create brand awareness for businesses. And that is not even all. Your show will also serve as a potential lead magnet that drives sales and increases income for these businesses.
Now you just got a few tips about the things to pitch when you find yourself standing in front of potential sponsors. Feel free to tap the knowledge and build on it. So, it is all about give-and-take. You make money based on your available audience while your sponsors gain potential clients. It is a win-win thing. You both shake hands and part ways smiling.
Freelance Blogger
Just as there are movie stars and superstar athletes, there are superstar bloggers too. Maybe you are one. Perhaps you are one in the making. Freelance blogging provides you with an excellent opportunity to make some good money. The only criteria, however, is that you get good at what you do.
If you already have a blog of your own, you have a place to tell the world and your potential clients what you are exactly capable of doing. You already know what I am talking about here. Your freelance blogging journey will only get sweeter if you have a platform where you display some of your finest works and creativity. You can use this as sample work when you decide to take on a freelance blogging gig.
Now that you have your blog up and running fine and you have already gained a handful of loyal followers in the process. It is time to go fishing for freelance blogging opportunities for sure. But hang on a little bit; you are yet to make all the good noise. Your social media accounts can be a handy tool for this. Get on your Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or whatever medium you use. Add to your bio that you are a freelance writer, freelance blogger, or whatever name sounds fine by you.
Like all writers just starting in the freelance space, you will need to work hard to get potential clients to pick you over the rest. So be prepared to push your limits. Here are a few platforms to get you started:
- https://www.freelancewriting.com/jobs/
- https://www.bloggingpro.com/jobs/
- https://problogger.com/jobs/
It does not work like magic over there, though. You will need to pitch your offerings to potential clients by reaching out through a well-composed email. Typically, the things you need to include in the body of your mail should be:
- A brief introduction about yourself stating your writing niche and specialization
- If you ever had a guest post or contributed content elsewhere, you should mention those.
- Follow this through with your sample writings, or you can provide the links to your works.
- Then you proceed to what is in it for them by choosing you, give them an offer they cannot resist
- Go a step further by adding the link to your website (the icing on the cake).
- Give room for discussion, and hope for the best.
Do not worry; jobs might not come in thick and fast initially, but once they start coming, you will be on your way to being the James Bond of blogging with a lot of money in the bag.
Accept Donations
We will keep this simple and straight to the point. Suppose your blog already centers on one humanitarian course or the other; accepting donations to promote what you stand for is not a bad idea. Suppose you write about a sustainable environment, social responsibility, humanitarian intervention, helping the needy, and things in this line. It would be best to consider setting up a donation page on your blog where your readers can willingly make donations and contribute to your continued existence. It is about doing what you love and getting support from people who share the same vision.
Expand Into Other Media
The fact that you run a blog does not mean you cannot promote your brand using other media. Yes, you run a blog…let’s say on fashion. You can certainly take it a step further. Create a YouTube channel and start making videos about fashion. Talk about wigs today, do outfits tomorrow, and shoes on the next. You should tell your loyal fanbase on your blog about your new YouTube channel. If you do it well enough, money will follow naturally.
Okay, now you have a blog and a YouTube channel. Move into podcasting. Talk about the latest fashion trends and what your subscribers should look out for. Advert deals will follow.
Your social media should also not stay idle. Create groups, post, and post, and post about what you do. There is the possibility that your work will get noticed once you have a sizable amount of followers. Advert deals are never far away. It would help if you keyed into this, as there is a lot of money to be made through it.
Let’s Conclude
So far, we have been trying to say that your blog can make money for you in many ways. Yes, you might be doing what you do because you love doing it; still, that does not stop you from making money from it. There is nothing better than doing what you love and getting paid for it. I bet you have enough information, so let’s get the blog and the money rolling.
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