Creating and Monetizing a Blog

Create And Monetize A Blog

Creating your own blog can be a very effective way of topping up your monthly income. Or, for those lucky few who have blogs that really take off, it can become your main paycheck. But what are the key ways to make money from a blog?

19. Google AdSense

Signing up with Google AdSense will enable you to make money from advertising on your blog. Google AdSense will place relevant ads around your site, and if your site visitors click on these ads, you will earn a fee. Although each click only amounts to small change, if your blog has high levels of traffic and lots of page views this will quickly amount to a reasonable sum.

20. Banner Adverts

Creating space for banner ads on your website is another way to generate a revenue from adverts. However, for this type of advertising, you will need to contact businesses directly and ask them if they would like to advertise on your website. The upside is that you can charge a set amount, or even a recurring monthly fee, to business to promote their services on your site. Using a WordPress plugin like AdSanity is an effective way to manage this type of advertising.

21. Paid Guest Posts

If you have a well known and popular website then you can charge other bloggers to guest post on your blog. Paid articles will not only make you money, they will also save you time creating your own blog posts, and provide interesting and varied content for your audience.

22. Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts work much in the same way as paid guest posts, but they are posted by big businesses instead of individual bloggers. Therefore, the scope for fees is much higher, as businesses have larger marketing budgets than humble bloggers. Having sponsored posts by large companies will also help promote your site as reputable and as a leader in its field.

23. Paid Reviews

Again, if your blog has a large reader base, then businesses may be interested in paying you to review their services or products. Not only will you get a free trial using whatever these businesses are selling, but you will also get a fee for writing them a review and posting it to your site. Paid reviews (and other paid and sponsored content) can be big money, so advertise this service on your contact page to generate business.

24. Other Paid Content

Some businesses may be interested in adding other types of paid content to your website. This could include videos, podcasts, or any other material that would work with your site and help a business market itself. Always make sure that paid content isn’t too promotional. It needs to add value to your audience first and foremost, and not just present as an advert.

25. Paid Featured Post

If you decide to go down the paid guest post and review road, then you should include the extra option of showcasing articles as featured posts. This allows businesses to pay extra to keep their paid article at the top of your blog page, as a featured article on your homepage, or as a ‘must read’ in your widget areas.

26. Affiliate Marketing with Amazon

One of the most successful ways of monetizing your blog is through affiliate marketing with Amazon. This involves adding links from your site to products on Amazon and then promoting those products in your blog’s content. If one of your visitors clicks through to Amazon and makes a purchase then you will receive a percentage of the sale.

To get started with Amazon affiliate marketing you will need to sign up with Amazon Affiliates. Then subtly market products on your site that are relevant to your niche and will be of interest to your audience. Make sure you only endorse high-quality products. If your visitors make a purchase on your recommendation but are not impressed with the item, you could quickly lose followers.

Tools & Resources:
The best affiliate marketing course bar none – Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing

27. Affiliate Marketing Using Other Providers

Although affiliate marketing is extremely easy to set up with Amazon, plenty of other businesses and websites also offer this service. Find products or services specific to your site’s niche and then check out their contact page, or contact them directly, to see if they offer affiliate marketing programs.

Although having to contact each business directly can be time-consuming, often independent vendors can have much better affiliate fees than Amazon and generate you a larger profit. There is also an extremely useful WordPress plugin, ThirstyAffiliates, that will also help you manage and organize your affiliate links.

28. Run Webinars

Running and charging for webinars can be a great way to build a following in your niche, demonstrate that you are an expert in your field, and make a profit. Hosting a webinar can be hard work. They need to first be promoted, provide original and valuable information, and include interactive elements so your audience can ask questions and engage with your topic. However, once you have built up a large blog following, each webinar can be extremely profitable.

Webinars On Air is a powerful webinar tool that will enable you to create professional webinars for your viewers. Harnessing the power of Google Hangouts, this all in one solution will take care of all the technical aspects of hosting a webinar, including payments. Also have a look at our guide to the best webinar software, both free and paid options.

29. Offer Paid Courses

Creating and selling courses on your blog can be a successful way to make money online. The course itself should be relevant to your blog, and based on a topic that will benefit your audience. Although it may take time to create the course in the first instance, once completed, you can then repeatedly make money from the course each time you sell it.

• LearnDash is a WordPress plugin that will enable you to create professional and interesting online courses. Break courses into separate scheduled lessons, design quizzes, and even award certificates.
• Teachable is another easy way to offer online courses without having to own a website. You can also recruit affiliates to help you promote your courses.

30. Charge to View Content

If your blog holds useful or sought after information, you should consider charging visitors to view this specific content. WPMU DEV has a Pay Per View plugin that gives you the ability to charge visitors a one-off fee or subscription to access particular pages, posts or media.

31. Turn Your Blog into a Membership Site

Once your blog starts receiving high volumes of traffic then it may be feasible to turn it into a full-blown membership site. A membership site usually keeps all content hidden from the general public, insisting that people sign up to access the website’s posts and pages.

MemberPress is a feature-rich plugin that will enable you to turn your WordPress blog into a fully functional membership site. Depending on how you want to run your membership site, you could have a mixture of free and premium membership plans. Premium plans could include no adverts, free downloads, access to extra content, membership forums, and much more. However, it is important to remember that if people are going to pay to view your content then it must be high quality. Otherwise, your members won’t renew their subscriptions when the time comes.

32. Write and Sell an eBook

Writing an eBook and selling it on your blog can be a great money maker. Your eBook should be directly relevant to your blog’s content so you can sell your book to your existing audience. Creating a recipe eBook for a food blog or an eBook full of training plans to complement your fitness site are just a couple of examples that have the potential to sell.

The promotion of a product like an eBook on your website is as important as the content of the eBook itself. Use a conversion tool like SumoMe to advertise your eBook on-site through pop-ups or on a hello bar, and create specific optimized landing pages to help increase sales.

33. Host Podcasts

Creating podcasts can be an effective way to grow your following and reach a new audience, especially if you post them on iTunes. However, with iTunes offering hundreds of thousands of podcasts for free, charging your audience to listen to them isn’t really feasible. So how can you make money through podcasting?

Getting businesses to advertise on your podcast, either at the beginning or end or both is a great way to create a revenue through podcasts. Most businesses won’t be keen to advertise on your podcast until you can prove a large number of listeners. Therefore, it is unlikely you will be able to start out from the get-go with sponsors. But once you accumulate regular listeners or a high number of downloads from iTunes, you can start to sell advertising space on your podcasts.

34. Create a Video Series to Sell

Creating a video series and selling it as a digital download on your blog, much like an eBook, can be another great seller. A video course, teaching viewers a specific skill or how to achieve a particular activity, may well resonate with your audience. If you are going to go down this route then your videos need to be as professional as possible so you should consider investing in some video and lighting equipment, as well as editing software.

35. Sell Advertising on Your Videos

You may decide to create free videos as extra content for your blog, and not sell them at all. If this is the case then you can still make money from these videos by selling advertising space on them (in the same way as discussed for monetizing podcasts). Once you have high volumes of traffic visiting your blog, and watching your videos, you can charge businesses to advertise at the beginning of your videos. Use website’s like Izea to help you connect with companies willing to pay to advertise on your blog.

36. Display a Services Page

If you offer freelance services or have a physical services business, then creating a blog is a must. On your blog, you can write about the services you offer and how they will benefit your clients. Importantly you can add a ‘Services’ page, outlining the services you provide, what they include, and any other important information potential clients may need. This is an effective way to promote your services, generate leads, and increase your revenue.