175,000 new blogs are created every day. 90% quit in 6 months.
Starting a blog is easy, but making it a success isn’t.
This is because not all blogs are monetizable. Read more about money-making blogging niches.
Once you have a blogging topic with the potential to make money, there are different ways you can monetize it.
Let’s divide them into direct and indirect ways:
Direct ways to monetize a blog
Direct ways to monetize your blog include all the ways you can make money ON your blog (not BECAUSE of your blog).
The most profitable direct ways to monetize your blog include:
1. Create online courses
The e-learning space is blowing up right now as more people are wanting to level-up their skills or learn something new.
There’s a lot of upfront work in terms of planning, content creation, and marketing. And you need a marketing funnel plan that you can implement once you launch your course.
What makes online course space so profitable is that it can generate revenue for years to come and they reduce your reliance on unpredictable traffic sources like Google.
2. Sell other people’s products: affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing tactic where you sell other people’s products in return for a commission on every sale.
It is probably the most popular way to monetize a blog.
There are generally 2 ways to go about this:
Option 1: Social influencer
Social influencers need to build a highly engaged audience as social media would be a key traffic driver for you.
This approach works especially well with YouTube, podcasts, and Instagram.
Option 2: Authority site
Here, the person behind the brand is less important as you’ll mostly rely on driving traffic from search engines like Google.
So people who want to get into affiliate niche by building authority websites need to understand SEO and how to find undiscovered keywords with huge traffic potential.
It’s best to start with a handful of products and expand outwards creating more reviews and product-centric list posts as you go.
3. Sell digital products
Digital products are another option and they can sometimes be easier than selling courses. Particularly in the case of bundles of templates.
And there are various types of digital products you could sell:
* Ebooks
* Templates
* Planners
* Checklists
Whether you use a solution like WooCommerce or Shopify, make sure it’s safe and secure before launching it:
* When processing payments, ensure your payment gateway gives you intuitive common transaction response codes so you don’t suffer from chargebacks;
* Protect it and your whole blog with TLS encryption;
* Make the customer journey easy with a simple checkout system.
The great thing about selling digital products is that you can also sell them on other marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon Kindle etc.
4. Offer sponsorships
These include banner ads, sponsored posts and reviews and brand partnerships that run over a longer period of time.
You can reach out to companies you want to work yourself, and vica versa.
The rates you can ask for compensation will depend on factors such as your blog’s popularity and target audience.
Indirect ways to monetize a blog
Indirect ways to monetize a blog is when you make money BECAUSE of your blog.
This is the money you make outside of your blog.
Let’s look at indirect ways to monetize a blog in more detail:
1. Consulting/coaching
If you have valuable skills and the ability to teach them to others, you can offer 1-on-1 consulting/coaching sessions to the public.
As an established blogger, think of it as freelancing 2.0.
Compared to other freelancers, you can command much higher prices and would generally serve more as an advisor or mentor.
So, you wouldn’t be the one handling implementation of anything generally, unlike with freelancing.
2. Public speaking
Identify the key topics you want to speak about based on your expertise as a blogger.
Select subjects that resonate with your audience and align with your niche.
This will help you establish yourself as a thought leader in those areas.
Reach out to event organizers, podcast hosts, or other bloggers who host events and express your interest in speaking. Your existing reputation and relationships can open doors to speaking engagements and referrals.
Create a speaker profile and get a speaking agent who will help to get you bigger gigs.
Read more about how I have 5 income streams as a result of blogging.
3. Write for a magazine or a newspaper
Many successful bloggers write for magazines or newspapers as its easier to get opportunities when you are already successful.
If you want to pitch your services to a media outlet, you need to develop a strong writing portfolio: gather your best blog posts, articles, and other written content to create a portfolio that showcases your writing skills and expertise.
Select pieces that demonstrate your ability to engage readers, convey information effectively, and present unique perspectives.
Ensure your writing reflects the tone and style appropriate for newspaper columns.
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