7 Powerful Strategies to Monetize A Blog

After weeks of deliberation, you’ve finally come to a decision: it’s time to monetize your blogs.

Now, the big question is, how? How can you convert your blogs into a money-making instrument? Wonder no more, as we are here to guide you every step of the way.

Before we dive into these powerful blog monetization strategies, however, let’s talk about facts first. Making money from a blog can be a daunting task, especially if you’re just starting out.

On the other hand, if your blog gets more than 10,000 new visitors monthly, you definitely have nothing to worry about in terms of revenue.

Whether you’re a marketer, a travel content creator, or just someone who want to start a business, having a passion for writing, you’re already well aware of how incredibly effective blogging is at engaging and influencing others.

If you’ve already set up a website and published some of your works, it’s fair to say that you deserve to get paid for your efforts.

ConvertKit, an online platform for the blogging industry, found that professional bloggers earned an average profit of $134,064 in 2016, whereas amateur bloggers only made $9,497.

This is devastating news for anyone who plans to trade their 9-to-5 jobs for a life where they get to be their own boss.

Not all hope is lost, though. You can always start small, like all the successful bloggers and entrepreneurs we have now. Trust us, you will get there, too.

Always remember that it takes time to build an income from blogging. True success doesn’t happen overnight, except in feel-good Hollywood films, of course.

As long as you have a solid marketing plan, the writing skills, and a persevering spirit, you can be a top-earning blogger in time.

Proven Ways You Can Earn Money by Blogging

There are dozens of ways to monetize a blog. However, in this article, we’ll only focus on the main strategies that will guarantee you a lucrative sum from all the hard work you’ve put forth.

That said, here are seven powerful strategies to monetize a blog and make money online:

1. Become an affiliate marketer

First on the list is perhaps the easiest blog monetization method to get you started: affiliate marketing.

According to Pat Flynn, one of the most influential affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing is “the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products.”

An affiliate marketer is pretty much the online counterpart of a salesperson.

You promote and sell a company’s product in your blog, earning a commission if people actually end up buying it.

Let’s say you earn a $5 commission for every sale you make, and you get 250 people to purchase that item in just a span of one week.

Thanks to your marketing and sales pitch, you just earned $1250 in a week! If passive income’s what you’re looking for, it seems like you’ve hit jackpot!

As a newbie in the blogging industry, you don’t have your own products or services to sell yet, which is why you’ll need to find merchants or companies to work with. The next step is to develop content that will attract potential customers to your affiliates.

Be sure that the products you’re promoting are within your specific niche. If you’re running a fitness blog, for instance, you’ll do exceptionally well in selling affiliate health, body building equipment, or weight loss supplements.

Here’s a quick overview of affiliate marketing:

1. You decide on which products to promote.
2. You sign up to be a part of their affiliate marketing program where they give you a unique link and some banners to use.
3. You post the link and/or banners in your blog.
4. Your readers are redirected to the merchant’s website when they click on the link provided.
5. You receive the agreed commission when your readers make a purchase.

See how simple it works? Bear in mind that you’ll only need three things in affiliate marketing: a niche, an affiliate product, and an audience.

Write about topics related to your niche and once you have a humble following, that’s when you can look for products from affiliate networks such as ShareASale, Rakuten Marketing,Amazon Associates, and a whole lot more.

Lastly, always aim to provide value to your readers, instead of just pitching products. Mind you, the best affiliate marketers don’t really come across as affiliate marketers.

Ryan Robinson, a full-time blogger and content marketing consultant, is a good example.

Every month, he makes tens of thousands of dollars by simply creating valuable content for his readers, particularly inspiring blogs and how-to guides, while pitching the products he likes at the same time.

2. Create and sell online courses

A great way to profit from blogging is by making and selling digital online courses.

These courses, which focus on a particular topic, have a higher perceived value than blog posts alone.

Why’s that? It’s because your audience can tell how much time and effort you spent on it. It gives them the notion that it offers them some kind of value.

Online courses work best in terms of technical skills such as digital marketing, graphic design, or web development, although they can also perform well in areas like accounting, stocks, and finances.

Before building your course, take a moment to reflect on what you excel at, and whether you’re really enthusiastic about it.

Many bloggers have this assumption that you need to be an expert to teach a course, and we can tell you, that’s definitely a huge misconception.

Take Ramit Sethi of IWT, for example. Even though he’s no certified financial planner, he still manages to make six-digits from his courses.

His secret? He simply helps people deal with their problems.

Like Mr. Sethi, you don’t need to have a certification in order to sell a course material. If you have a talent in editing videos or coming up with unique DIY concepts, go ahead and share that gift for a price!

You just have to be more knowledgeable than your audience and be able to present information that offer value for what they paid for, and you’re all set.

Then again, you can create a course on just about any topic that many people are struggling with. It can be as simple as “how to start your first blog” or “how to use WordPress as a beginner.”

We’re sure you want your online course to be useful, engaging, and one-of-a-kind, which brings us to share you these tips:

3. Run ads

Another powerful strategy to monetize your blog and generate a huge chunk of cash from it is by setting up pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements.

However, there’s a catch –you need to have massive amounts of traffic, and we’re talking 10,000 or more visitors per day. Unless you’ve hit the 10k mark, don’t expect to receive your fortune anytime soon.

While it may sound discouraging for bloggers who are just starting out, there are some things you can do, one of which is negotiating terms directly with advertisers by using display ads instead of PPC ads.

Sure, these ads may get a bad press in the bloggerhood (yep, we just made that word up), but they’re actually the fastest way to start monetizing a website.

Many bloggers start with display ads until they can figure out more profitable tactics, while others wait till they have enough traffic to run PPC ads. For some first-timers, those first few dollars are what keep them motivated to continue.

With advertisements, you won’t be stressing yourself over selling products anymore, but you do need a lot of traffic. The more traffic you generate, the more revenue you make.

If you’re looking for inspiration, let’s take a look at the case of Car Expert’s Alborz Fallah, who started making money online by placing ads from Google AdSense, after a friend suggested it.

Thanks to these ads, the now-multimillionaire entrepreneur went from earning nothing on his blog to getting a $200 pay check per day, and yes, he was still working a full-time job.

Mr. Fallah went on to work with car manufacturers that paid him as much as $30,000 for sponsorship deals. Imagine where’d he be now had it not been for his friend introducing AdSense!

The AdSense business model is ideal for anyone who’s eager to make a passive income with minimum effort. It’s a straightforward form of revenue generation based on contextual marketing.

By giving Google the permission to display ads on your blog, website, or YouTube channel, you’ll get paid whenever visitors click on any of those ads.

Ads don’t have to be permanent. You can just run them until such time that you’re finally able to find a better way to monetize your blog.

For all we know, you could be the next Alborz Fallah!

4. Sell eBooks

If you’ve always aspired to be an author but some unforeseeable events took you to another direction, well, it’s never too late to turn that dream into a reality. Develop an eBook, publish it online for the world to read, and you’ll fatten your wallet in no time!

The first thing to consider is the content of your website.

You’ve got to make sure that your eBook is aligned with it. If your audience is comprised of fitness junkies, you wouldn’t want to promote a book on accounting now, would you?

Let’s be honest, writing a book can be quite tricky. Ideally, it should offer content that’s either not on your blog yet, which means that it should stand out.

On the other end, you can repurpose your blog content by compiling it into book form.

That way, you’ll make it more convenient for your readers to gain access to your posts, like what Darren Rowse of ProBlogger did.

His eBook, “31 Days to Build a Better Blog,” is a collection of blog posts helping people work their way towards success in the blogging industry.

Here are some of the most basic tips to get you started on your eBook:

• Decide on a topic

Besides choosing a topic that you’re passionate about, see to it that it matches the needs of your audience, and keep it as original as possible. The best eBooks have one thing in common: they all share true-to-life experiences.

This is because a personal story is engaging, displays authority, and builds empathy with the reader.

If you’re not so sure about what your audience responds to, you can assess your blog posts and social media updates to see which of them are getting the most likes, shares, or comments.

• Have a captivating title

A killer title might just be what you need to entice your audience to buy your book.

Joanna Penn, the lady behind The Creative Penn, talks about a successful post she wrote called “Career Change” that could have generated lesser sales had she decided to stick to the original title, “How to Enjoy Your Job.” Not long after switching the title, she saw her sales suddenly taking off.

• Incorporate visuals

There’s more to images and graphics than just beautifying your eBook. You can also use them to provide your readers a better understanding of the material you’re covering.

Don’t forget to check the license on each image you’re using.

• Don’t overdo it

You don’t have to write your whole eBook in one sitting. Focus on one chapter at a time, set deadlines, and take breaks if you need to. Even the most prominent authors would hit the pause button.

The easiest way to promote your eBook is by talking about it on your blog. You can also build a sales funnel, which is an automated multi-step sales machine that can help you sell your product on autopilot.

5. Offer coaching services

If motivating and uplifting others make you happy, you can double that happiness by turning it into a source of income – become an online coach!

Everyone faces challenges in life, and yes, that includes your readers. By being their life, personal, or business coach, you can earn a hefty income. Making people feel better and earn money at the same time? Yes, please!

Coaching services are now in demand, mainly because of the dramatic results it brings to clients. The illustration below shows you a few other reasons.

To sell your coaching services through your blog, you’ll need to create useful content on topics that matter to your target audience.

For instance, if you’re catering to entrepreneurs and business owners, you can cover subjects such as:

• Building a start-up
• Dealing with stubborn customers
• Overcoming the challenges of maintaining a business
• Growing your business
• Leadership training
• Building the right team
• Managing your employees

6. Secure sponsorships

Similar to running ads, you’ll need a solid online presence and lots of traffic if you plan to make money from including sponsored posts and reviews on your blog.

The good news is, once you have a decent audience coming in regularly, your website will bring you a significant amount of cash.

Your sponsor will write about their latest product, which you will then add to your blog. All of your readers are exposed to the product, sparking their interest, and eventually leading some of them to buy it. Regardless of whether they become customers or not, you’ll definitely get your big share of dough.

Finding willing sponsors can be achieved through the following:

• Set up a “Sponsor” page on your website. Probably the easiest way to get sponsored blog posts is by placing a page on your site letting everyone know that you’re open for sponsors.
• Offer a media kit. For some companies, a Sponsor page isn’t enough to seal the deal. They will need a professional media kit before they decide to collaborate with a blogger. Media kits usually contain your name, contact info, name of your website and URL, monthly page views, social stats, and your audience. If your website has a resume, this should be it.
• Check out your competition to see who’s sponsoring them. Your competitor can also be your ally, though they don’t have to know that. Go over to their website and see who’s on their blog. There’s a huge chance that these sponsors might love to have their posts on your site, too.
• Let Google do the work for you. If you have no potential sponsors in mind, you can count on Google AdSense to help you out. Place some of their ads on your website and give Google a few days or weeks to get used to your content. After Google determines which ads are appropriate for your content, try reaching out to the sponsors to ask if they might be interested to buy banners or text link campaigns on your site.

7. Sell digital products

Whether it’s resume templates, stock photos, phone wallpapers, mobile apps, or even audio tracks, selling digital products through your blog is one of the best ways to scale and earn passive income.

Don’t let your skills go to waste, whatever they may be. If you have an outstanding skill set, think of how you can package your services and sell them online.

For instance, if you’ve worked as a layout designer for several years, there’s a good chance that other designers would be more than willing to buy your templates. If coding seems to be one of your specialties, you can make software or WordPress plugins and sell them to your audience.

When selling a digital product, make sure that it’s something you know very well about, something you’re awfully good at, and something that your readers can really benefit from.

If you’re more focused on the amount of money you can earn, you better shift that focus to a more important matter: providing solutions for your audience.

FAQs About Monetizing Your Blog

Below are 3 of the most commonly asked questions people have about making money blogging.

What’s the no. 1 blogging platform for earning money?

Not surprisingly, WordPress.com is a crowd favorite among rookie bloggers, particularly because it’s free and super easy to use. The bad news is, there’s absolutely no way they can monetize their blog or website from it.

If you’re among the hundreds of thousands who are hoping to make a fat income from blogging with the free WordPress version as your platform, then you’re gonna have to use a different one, or let’s just say, upgrade to WordPress.org.

This paid version gives you the freedom to take advantage of the platform’s incredible features that are guaranteed to make you money with your blog.

Since WordPress.org lets you to take full control of your website, you can monetize your blog in any way you prefer.

The best part is? You have access to 1000+ SEO plugins and themes that allow you to customize your blog in various ways! For as low as $2.75 a month, you can earn up to $1,000 on the same month!

How much money do bloggers make every month?

It depends, actually. Most beginners make $1,000 or less, others earn $10,000, and believe it or not, there are full-time bloggers who are able to make $100,000, and yes, in just a span of 30 (or 31) days!

As per Glassdoor, however, the average salary for bloggers in the US now is $38,334.

What you need to understand is that the amount you earn greatly depends on two things: how much traffic you’re getting and how big your email list is.

If you keep on creating valuable content, your revenue and traffic will keep on growing. Wanna reach that goal of earning six figures in a month? Don’t stop blogging!

What are the most popular niches for blogging?

If you’re asking this question to top blogging gurus, expect to hear different answers. Some will tell you to write about anything that ignites your passion, others might suggest you go for a topic of your specialty, and then there are those who’ll pick the latest trends.

And our advice? Choose a niche that not only has great money making potential, but one that you’re super passionate and knowledgeable about.

The more popular the blog niche is, the more profitable it is. Food blogs are the perfect example, just because everyone (well, almost!) has goggled a recipe at some point in their lives.

Personal finance blogs are another, because hey, many people are looking for ways to save, earn more cash with side hustles, and live life frugally.

Other niches that are receiving constant attention include lifestyle blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, and health blogs.

Final Thoughts

Starting a blog is easy-easy, and it’s the monetization part that most bloggers struggle with. Unless you can find the strategy that works best for you, blogging alone won’t generate you any revenue.

The reality is that you might wait at least 6 to 12 months until you can see any viable income in your bank account.

We know it can get a little discouraging, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep on trying. It takes patience, patience, and patience!

All in all, learning how to make money from blogging is mainly about trying things out, improving, and testing. Once you finally have your aha moment, that’s when you know, you’re at the right path. Believe us, blogging is something you’d want to do for the rest of your life.

Good luck!