Blogging isn't only about getting your thoughts online, it's also about making money. The best-paid bloggers take home millions of dollars each year. If you want a chance of making the big bucks, you have to monetize your blog. Here's how you can do it.
Run CPM and PPC ads on your blog
Advertising makes the business world go round and you can use it as a money-spinner for your very own blog too. Many of your blogging peers are putting ads on their blogs and they’re picking one (or both) of two options – CPM and PPC.
- CPM (Cost Per Mille): These are known as cost per thousand impressions, because mille means thousand in Latin. You are paid a set amount based on the number of people who view your ad. The math works like this: If you charge $5 per CPM then you are paid $5 for every thousand impressions – easy money.
- PPC: (Pay Per Click): Banners added to your sidebar, or blog posts, these ads are a popular way for bloggers to monetize. You make money each time someone clicks on your ad.
Google AdSense is the program of choice for most bloggers. You’ll find in-depth instructions on how to use it to monetize your blog on the homepage. If that doesn’t sound like your bag, there are plenty of other options. Some of the best are:
- Amazon Associates.
- Chitika
- Infolinks
- PopAds.
- RevContent
Make your blog into an affiliate marketing machine
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way for you to monetize your blogging skills. It requires good writing, the ability to research, and a great work ethic. And that’s not even the best thing about it. Successful affiliate marketers get ongoing income from articles posted years ago. Here’s how.
- You find a niche topic, one that interests people and has high-value products. For example, office desks: these are bought for business and personal use and are sold across the globe by a wide range of reputable sellers.
- Once you have your niche, you write reviews of your chosen product. You include links to websites that sell the products and which have an affiliate program.
- So how does this make you money? It’s simple. You earn a commission each time someone clicks your link and then buys the product. The better the review, the more money you will make. (Better means high quality — don’t just give everything 5 stars and hope for the best — take the time to weigh up the pros and cons).
Many brands will have their own affiliate program, but Amazon is the first place you should start. Watch the video below to find out more about affiliate marketing in general:
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How far you take it is up to you, because it’s very scalable. You can use affiliate marketing to supplement your income or even provide it entirely if you do it well enough. Some ultimately build empires based solely on affiliate marketing. If you want to really start acting as a trustworthy expert, consider implementing live chat: that way, whenever a visitor is unsure about whether they want to buy something, you can have a chance to convince them.
Turn your blog into an ecommerce business
Ecommerce is a booming industry. Across the globe, trillions of dollars are spent online every year on all sorts of products (you can even make money selling poetry). Re-angling your website to ecommerce turns it into a cash cow that provides milk all year round. Dropshipping means that you might not even have to physically stock, pick, pack, or ship any products. Automating elements of your ecommerce business is easy once you’re all set up.
Giving your blog an ecommerce tinge is easy. If you’ve used WordPress to create your blog, you can simply add the WooCommerce plugin. It gives you the ability to sell thousands of products and is built using the skills of thousands of developers. Some of the great things about WooCommerce include:
- Over 400 official extensions.
- Rest API.
- The ability to customize your store.
I’ve used it myself and can tell you for nothing that it’s a breeze to use. If you’ve not used WordPress, you have a decision to make: who should you use to create your ecommerce store?
There is a wide range of ecommerce platforms suited to blogs that are turning into a business. Most you have to pay for, but the hosting is included, and the investment is worth it: the many benefits of a dedicated service include exceptional support, uptime, and analytics, to name but a few. Regardless, you should always test things out for yourself and make an informed decision instead of simply going with whatever’s recommended to you.
Sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are an easy way to make money from the content you publish on your blog. They are a form of advertising, with brands or businesses paying for their name to feature on your blog. How? By being mentioned in a post they provide, or having their name included in a post you write.
This kind of monetization works best for bloggers who have invested time and money into making their blog into a legitimate resource and brand in its own right. That’s the sort of place where businesses want to be featured.
The amount of money you can charge for a sponsored post depends on the strength of your blog. There are many ways you can measure this, but two of the quickest are:
- DA: This is your blog's Domain Authority. It predicts how well a page will perform in search engines. It’s simple to find the DA for your blog. All you need to do is install the MozBar and it will tell you the DA for your blog.
- Number of visitors: You’ve guessed it, this is how many people are visiting your blog. It’s really easy to find the figures. Simply go into the reporting section of your blog CMS, or whichever analytics software you use.
It’s up to you exactly how much you charge for your sponsored posts. However, to get an idea of your minimum fee, this blogger advises that you should never charge less than $200. That’s not a bad little earner for your blog. Check out the video underneath for more on how to make money from sponsored posts:
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Gone are the days when your blog was an electronic diary. Bloggers today make serious money and they do it in a variety of ways. These four simple examples of how to turn your blog into a business are only a few of the options you have.
Rodney Laws is an ecommerce expert with over a decade of experience in building online businesses. He’s worked with the biggest platforms in the world, making him the perfect person to offer advice on which platforms to build your website with. Check out his reviews on EcommercePlatforms.io and you’ll find practical tips that you can use to build the best online store for your business. Connect with him on Twitter @EcomPlatformsio.
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