If you think about what a blog actually is, you’ll quickly come to realize that it’s a publication. It’s like a newspaper or magazine. It’s something that physically shows on a computer, tablet, or phone screen what was once inside a person’s mind. Newspapers and magazines show this type of information on paper and blogs show it on a display, but really, there’s not much difference between the mediums.
The reason I bring this up is because newspapers and magazines get paid for their creative enterprise. If they do, shouldn’t you get paid as well? If you’re publishing excellent, well researched, well thought out, and well respected content that’s subsequently become popular, I’d say you certainly deserve to get paid. The question is, in what form will that payment come to you?
In today’s post, I’ll introduce the most effective methods for creating a revenue stream from your blog. I’ve been blogging for decades and have done well for myself. I’m not a world-renowned expert by any meaning of the word, but I happen to know what I’m talking about when it comes to making money on the internet. It’s not difficult; it just takes time, focus, and dedication.
How Can I Make Money With My Blog?
That’s the question and the answer is, many ways. There are plenty of options when it comes to monetizing a blog, no matter if it’s just a hobby blog or a professional blog. Below, I’ll give examples of the most popular monetization options available.
Monetize Your Blog With Advertising – CPM, CPC
Two very popular options to make money through advertising today: CPM and CPC. CPM stands for cost per thousand and CPC stands for cost per click.
CPM
This type of advertising is usually reserved for what we call, display ads. These ads are graphical in nature and no matter if the ad is clicked or not, the website posting the ad still gets paid by number of impressions (views).
CPC
This type of advertising can include either graphical or text ads. The website displaying the ads gets paid a certain amount based on how many times the ad is clicked.
You may be asking how you would advertise with either of these types of ads. The answer is to sign up with an advertising network such as Google AdSense. Once you do that, you’ll find all the necessary implementation instructions readily available. Today, this is the most popular option, but if you’d like to learn about others, I recommend you search for “Google AdSense Alternatives.”
Sell Private Advertising
If you operate a large website with high traffic volume and would like to avoid advertising networks, you can always choose to go in a different direction and sell your own ads. For instance, let’s say you’re writing on a blog for a television station, radio station, or a large online publication. If your organization employs a salesforce that sells ads themselves, there’s no reason to share the profit with an ad network. What’s more, as a private seller of advertising, you can determine in what form the advertisement will be as well as how much to charge the client. Oftentimes, smaller clients have no idea how much advertising should cost and pay much more than current market rates.
In cases like these, you’d need to either install your own ad server or use an online option. Back in the early 2000s, I used a piece of software called phpAdsNew. I installed it on my server and served my own ads. Today, phpAdsNew is called OpenX and I believe it’s now hosted on proprietary servers by the company itself. The most popular ad server solutions today are Kevel, DoubleClick for Publishers, OpenX, Broadstreet, DoubleClick Campaign Manager, Revive Adserver, Sizmek, and OIO Publisher. If you’re interested, you may visit any one of these services to review their fees and how they work.
Remember, you can get quite creative when selling ads on your own blog. You can also charge for sponsored posts, links, newsletter mentions, reviews – you name it. If your blog is popular enough, you’ll likely receive regular email solicitations for these types of advertising alternatives.
Join an Affiliate Network
Posting affiliate links on your blog is an excellent option for making money. If you’re not familiar with how affiliate marketing works, simply search Google for “How Does Affiliate Marketing Work.” If your blog is popular and has a good readership, any affiliate links you place in your posts should get good traction.
In order to post affiliate links on your website, you’ll need to either use a network or visit a website that offers an affiliate program itself. An example of the most popular private affiliate program today is Amazon Associates. The most popular affiliate networks today are Shopify Collabs, ShareASale, AWIN, CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, FlexOffers, Avangate Affiliate Network, Rakuten Advertising, Impact, affiliaXe, and GiddyUp. Networks simply handle the technical aspects of affiliate programs so private companies don’t have to. The bonus of using a network as someone who runs a blog is that you have many companies to choose from which offers diversification and interest for your readers.
For each link placed on your blog, you have the potential to earn an income if the link is clicked and an action is made. What action that is is up to the advertiser. Sometimes it’s to sign up for a newsletter and sometimes it’s to purchase a product. Whatever the case, you’ll either earn a flat fee or a commission.
Build Street Cred – Make Money Offline
If you’re writing on a blog and are gaining popularity, you might want to begin selling your services off your blog as well. There are plenty of options for making money offline as well and there’s no reason you should limit the popularity your blog has brought you. For instance, if you’ve made a name for yourself in a certain space because of your blog, you might want to engage in paid speaking events, co-author books on your topic, run professional industry specific camps and retreats, and so forth. Personally, I write and take photographs. In my case, I have the option of teaching others to do the same, either on or off line.
If you have an interest in doing something like this, the trick is to consistently write very high quality content and show yourself to be an authority on your topic. Then, get out there and work with others in your field. Let them know you’re open to various types of engagements. Advertise yourself.
Sell Exclusive Memberships
Have you ever heard of Darren Rouse of ProBlogger and Digital Photography School? This man is the epitome of what we all strive to be. He’s hard working and has incorporated almost every suggestion for making money that I’ve included in this post.
If you visit either of the websites that I linked to above, you’ll find that both include exclusive content that needs to be paid for to be accessed. He offers courses and ebooks and podcasts – and of course, blog posts.
Long ago, Darren realized that his websites had become valued parts of the internet, and as being such, he decided to put some of his premium content behind a paywall. And then he created more content to display on both paid and non-paid sections of his websites. His loyal followers as well as new followers decided that, because his free content was so good, they’d pay for the rest. And history was made. Now Darren is earning an untold amount of money and is, I’m sure, very happy with himself.
If your blog is or is becoming popular, consider creating an exclusive area that members can only access by paying. Or at the very least, that visitors need to sign up as members to access. From there, either charge these members a fee to access your information or devise a business model to eventually monetize that exclusive content.
Market Your Business
I have a friend who is an electrician and a very good writer. He runs a physical electrician business and writes about many of his jobs on his blog. What’s so great about what he’s doing is that he’s never at a loss for great content. It’s down to earth and very realistic. After all, he’s writing about the jobs he actually completes.
My friend is very clever. Not only does he make money while performing his electrical services in the real world, he also makes money through advertising on his blog. And on top of that, because he’s become so popular through his blog posts, he actually gets more physical business. So essentially, he works, and then writes about his work, and in turn, gets more work. Clever!
If you run an offline business, use your blog to write about it. Through time, your traffic will increase and each one of your blog posts will turn into an advertisement for your services. Just be sure to include a blurb at the end of every post – one that includes what services you offer and your contact information.
Sell Digital Products
I’d like to discuss a fairly active slice of the blogging world to make a point in this section. Let’s look at food blogs. Some food blogs are the most popular blogs on the planet and nearly every author of said blogs has created a physical cookbook. Or an online one – a digital one. And they’ve made tons of money doing so.
If you author a popular blog, you might want to look into venturing off into the space of digital products, such as e-books, online courses, online workshops, stock photography, licensable music and video, and if you’re a coder – themes, apps, and plugins for various content management systems.
I hope you enjoyed the suggestions for monetizing your blog that I’ve offered above. If you have any questions or if you have suggestions of your own, please don’t hesitate to use the comment section below. Thanks!
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