As you may know getting people to read your blog and building a loyal following is half the equation in building a blogging business. The next question you’re probably asking yourself is “how to make money with a blog” when you get to a point where you already have a decent traffic.
In this article we’ll tackle the top 10 strategies most successful bloggers monetize their blogs to hopefully give you an idea on how to make money with a blog. The list is arranged from the most profitable to the least.
Premium Site Membership
If you have premium knowledge to share, this is by far the most profitable way, most successful bloggers make money with their blogs. Sharing a lot of quality content to your target audience for free builds your traffic but offering a higher level of knowledge to people who are willing to pay for it will bring in monthly profits through a members’ only area that are only accessible by paying members. You can charge a one time membership fee or charge a monthly fee depending on the extent of your course or training program.
Digital Product Creation and Sale
A lot of internet marketers find success in creating product after product that are of interest to their followers. Digital products can range from Infoproducts (like ebooks) or software that can range from online games, computing, or online or mobile apps. Having your own product means you get more money as you own the product but a lot of online marketers find that they can sell better by joint venturing with other affiliate marketers to help them sell their products to people that could be beyond their reach if they’re marketing their products on their own. Get Digital marketing training to make yourself aware as how you really can earn money online.
Affiliate Programs
Recommending quality products that are related to your niche helps your audience satisfy felt needs or problems. You can earn from as little as 2% to as much as 50% in commissions by recommending products to your audience. The great thing about affiliate products is that you don’t have to have your own products or carry an inventory but you get paid each time you refer people to your merchant. Depending on your niche, you may offer both physical or digital products that you think will help you audience resolve their problems, improve their lives or satisfy their wants. Just be sure not to offer products that you yourself aren’t willing to buy as it only takes one product to ding your reputation as an online publisher.
Coaching /Consulting
Similar to a membership website but you will work with your clients “live” either in person or via phone. With coaching, it’s usually done in groups but consulting may need you to work one on one per client. Some people prefer this monetization model but most would rather build a membership website to automate the process and reach more audience with their training. Those who are coaching one on one tend to charge more as you end up giving more of your time exclusively to the person.
Sale of Services
Selling your services is the fastest way you can make money with your blog as you’re offering your audience a solid deal where you’re seen actually working for your money. This of course isn’t attractive to most online marketers as it is not passive in nature as each work you do represents active income but this is an option you definitely should take a look at at the early days of your blog as it can turn into a good source of income while you get the passive part established.
Giving Speeches
If you’re an established authority in your niche, people would pay a premium to hear you speak. With this, you need not make money with your blog, all you need is to be seen as an expert in your niche. A lot of money is made by the experts or those who are seen as experts in their respective niches simply by giving speeches. This is a little difficult to break into if you’re just getting started of course, but the possibility is there if you’re eying this direction.
Ad Sales
There are two ways you can make money with advertisements on your blog. You can either sell ads directly from your blog and transact with your advertisers yourself or join established ad networks. You will get a lesser cut when you’re with an ad network though but you get to fill your adspace faster and keep them filled up on an ongoing basis. You will need a decent sized traffic to attract advertisers.
Pay Per Click Advertising
This advertising scheme is more commonly used in new blogs and websites as it’s easier to implement and is actually easier to get started. Adsense and Infolinks are the most commonly used entities and they’re newbie friendly. All you need to do is integrate their scripts on your website pages. You get paid each time someone clicks on your ads. Please note that clicking on your own ad displays will get you banned.
Get Paid Posts
Online advertisers recognize the importance of blog posts from respected bloggers about their brand, website, or company. Once you have a decent enough traffic on your blog, you can start accepting paid to post gigs which can range from $50 to $500 per post depending on the popularity, reputation, and traffic of your blog. It’s similar to writing regular articles, you just get paid for them. The great thing about this gig is that you need not say nice things in order to get paid, just be honest and write your opinions about the product or brand you’re writing about.
Blog Flipping
This doesn’t work with every blog but some people find success by buying and selling. Blogs and website are virtual real estates and they can be sold for profits, specially if they’re ranking on the searches and making money. Some investors buy already established blogs and sites, prep them up for better performance and sell them for profit.
Build And Sell
For people who are best at starting things but are lousy when it comes to keeping at what they’ve started, this can be a profitable business model as there are people who are out to buy already established websites at huge sums of money. On average, websites sell 10 times their annual profits. Of course not everyone buys this idea but there are people who find this profit model more attractive than having to maintain blogs and websites long term.
