Prior to exploring various ways of monetization, it’s important to consider certain aspects that you should take into account while utilizing them.
- While diversifying your blogging income is important, you don’t need to capitalize on all the different ways.
- Try focusing on one monetization method at a time.
- Never scrape off a monetization method until you’ve given it enough time.
1. Advertising
The most widely-used way of making money through blogs is advertising. Many bloggers begin by utilizing ad networks, with Google AdSense being the most commonly-used option, to earn revenue.
How do bloggers make money through advertising?
CPM (cost per mille) is a payment model commonly used by advertising platforms where a fee is charged for every thousand impressions. The amount charged is determined by a range of factors such as the advertiser, type of ad, and the user’s location.
Impressions from regions such as the U.S. and U.K. generate greater advertising revenue than impressions from Asia.
Google AdSense, Media.net, and PropellerAds are among the widely used advertisement platforms.
Drawbacks
- Most ad platforms give you limited control over the type of advertisements you want to show your readers.
- Advertisements also hurt the user experience of the reader. This can be minimized by placing the ads in the right places and reducing the number of ads per page.
- When compared to other monetization methods like affiliate marketing, income from advertising per visitor is the smallest.
Featured website – Search Engine Journal
Due to its focus on marketing and SEO news, Search Engine Journal, a well-known blog in the SEO industry, utilizes advertisements as a revenue stream, which is extremely fitting.
2. Affiliate marketing
Bloggers can benefit from affiliate marketing, which is the most efficient way of earning money. In contrast to earning a few dollars per thousand impressions from advertising, affiliate programs offer up to 90% commission based on the total sales from referrals made from your link.
From Amazon to GoDaddy, many companies have affiliate programs. And joining most of them is fairly simple.
How does affiliate marketing work?
Upon joining an affiliate program, you’ll receive a distinct referral link. This link enables you to receive credit for any sales that occur within a designated time frame, which typically spans one to two months.
An affiliate revenue is the percentage of the overall sales that organizations pay through your link. Typically, this fixed percentage may rise after discussing with the company or after accomplishing a specific goal.
As an instance, when you operate a gardening blog, you have the option to promote gardening equipment through the distribution of Amazon affiliate links.
Best practices to follow
Although the process of joining an affiliate program and advertising a particular product is relatively straightforward, there are some additional best practices to keep in mind.
- Before joining any affiliate program, be sure to read the guidelines to understand things such as commission, minimum payout threshold, and more.
- You should track your affiliate links using WordPress plugins like Pretty Links or other similar tools.
- You should ensure all affiliate links have nofollow or sponsored attributes. This is an SEO best practice.
- For authentic and detailed product reviews, try to use the product yourself if possible. Most software affiliate programs are open to providing free access to the tools for a limited time. You can also survey your readers to gain insights.
Amazon Affiliate Program, ShareASale, and ClickBank are some of the well-known affiliate platforms.
3. Sponsorships
In case you’ve been running a blog for an extended period, odds are you’ve already obtained requests for sponsorships. These might manifest as sponsored articles, newsletter sponsorships, advertisement banners, and the like.
Monetizing through sponsorships can be a lucrative opportunity for bloggers, although landing a sponsor may prove challenging, particularly for those who are new to the game.
To get sponsors consistently, you need to build a strong brand and have good traffic and engagement numbers to show.
How do sponsorships work?
Bloggers typically receive a single payment in exchange for sharing a sponsored article or featuring a newsletter placement (as depicted in the given illustration).
The cost frequently depends on the extent of the blog/newsletter’s audience. In the case of sponsorship for newsletters, sponsors consider factors such as relevance, and statistics such as the number of active email subscribers, average rate of opening emails, and clicking rate.
If you have a newsletter, it is advisable to explore the option of making money from it by offering email sponsorships.
Best practices to follow
- Be sure to disclose when an article is sponsored
- Share your honest feedback when writing a sponsored post/review because it’s not worth losing the trust of your followers
4. Selling digital products
Generating blogging income can be greatly enhanced by selling digital products, especially after establishing a firm brand. In addition to its scalability, there’s no need to be concerned about the hurdles involved in shipping physical goods.
One of the advantages of selling digital products is the ability to create them once and continue to sell them indefinitely (with only small adjustments).
Bloggers commonly sell these sought-after digital products:
- Ebooks
- Online and cohort-based courses
- Printables
Ebooks
To begin testing digital products, consider starting with an ebook as it is simpler to write and publish compared to creating a course.
Multiple ebooks have been launched in the past by Harsh Agarwal, the creator of the well-known blog ShoutMeLoud, including “The Handbook to Affiliate Marketing.”
Harsh has been earning a steady monthly income from the ebook he released a couple of years ago. Subsequently, he only needed to dedicate a few hours each year to update the content.
Gumroad and Payhip are among the top choices for individuals looking to sell their ebooks.
Online and cohort-based courses
The popularity of online learning has skyrocketed, and the pandemic has contributed to its expansion. Individuals are eager to gain knowledge from renowned creators who have achieved success in a particular field.
Online courses are a major source of income for many successful bloggers, ranking in their top three revenue streams. One instance of this is Ryan, who advertises his course “Built to Blog” on RyRob.com.
5. Direct Display Ad Buys
You may receive requests from certain brands or companies to place a banner display advertisement on your website in order to advertise their products. Alternatively, you could contact companies that are relevant to your readership and blog category. Emphasize the fact that the ad will be visible on every page of your blog and obtain the highest possible exposure.
You can usually earn from $200 to $2,500 per month per display, depending on the niche of your blog. The 728×90 banner ad is the most lucrative as it grabs the most attention when placed in your blog header. However, avoid overwhelming your blog with too many ads; usually, you can only sell a limited number of direct display ad buys at once.
But if you really want you can push this and put smaller ads in your blog sidebar (have you seen those tiny little square ads on websites?) – some bloggers make a ton of money on 100 pixel / 100-pixel ads that are really targeted. There was recently an app that wanted to be on the Millennial Money homepage for a month, but I don’t put ads on my homepage.
In the end, I was offered $15,000 for a placement lasting one month, and I found it too good to turn down. As a result, I created a temporary area on my homepage designated solely for their ad. It is wise to negotiate and hold out until the other party presents an offer before requesting an additional $100-$200. Unnecessarily leaving money on the table is not recommended.
6. Social Media Promotion
I was completely astonished when a company offered to compensate me for tweeting, which felt unbelievable that I could earn $500 after chatting on Twitter for only half an hour. It was an incredible experience. Since then, I have been earning anywhere from $500 to $3,000 for executing basic social media promotions for other individuals’ content. As an influencer or specialist in your field, you can potentially make money by endorsing products or services on social media. Your earning potential increases alongside your number of followers.
Having a significant social media following can be particularly advantageous when it comes to paid advertising. As an illustration, a few bloggers I am familiar with who possess an extensive Instagram audience, primarily in fashion and travel, generate a minimum of $5,000 monthly from product promotion. Despite having a blog, they earn more through their social media presence as they expand their blogging platform.
7. Paid Social Media Content Promotion
Numerous successful bloggers generate income utilizing this method. By promoting monetized content through Facebook or Google ads, coupled with niche writing and affiliate partnerships, you too can achieve great results. This technique is a frequently utilized and successful strategy for blog monetization.
To explain the process, you can purchase Facebook traffic and pay 3 cents up to $2 per click. Afterwards, a particular percentage of that traffic will eventually register or make a purchase using your affiliate links.
It is necessary to manage the amount spent on ad clicks in order to generate affiliate revenue. This involves conducting Facebook and/or Google ad tests to find a successful combination, such as making $5 in affiliate revenue for every $1 spent on ads. Once a successful combination is found, scaling the process becomes easy. Some bloggers spend over $20,000 on ad traffic to their site, generating profit of over $30,000. Others earn over $1 million per month through buying and monetizing paid traffic. Though I am not proficient in this type of monetization, I am exploring and expanding my knowledge and skills through Millennial Money.
8. Online Courses
Even though launching a course immediately after starting your blog may be challenging, creating a course can be an excellent method of earning revenue from your blog. Nowadays, it is easier than ever to monetize your knowledge and generate income by teaching others. You have the option of hosting your course on your personal WordPress blog using tools like WordPress LMS or on a different platform like Teachable.
The Millennial Money course, which I debuted in 2017, proved to be a huge triumph. However, the high demand for support from students compelled me to take it down a mere month after the launch. Despite the difficulties, the course was extremely lucrative.
A number of my blogger acquaintances have introduced courses that have generated six-figure incomes, and some have even earned seven figures solely through their blog’s course launches. It would be beneficial to research the market and competition if you plan on launching a course, since I’ve observed that many bloggers have struggled with courses they’ve invested significant effort into building.
Carefully consider what sets your course apart and why someone would choose to purchase it from you instead of someone else if you intend to create a course that someone else is already offering. Do you believe your target audience is interested? It is frequently beneficial to wait until you have spent time writing on your blog and have a better understanding of your audience and their purchasing habits before launching a course.
9. Consulting with Companies
I have been hired by various companies, both large and small, as a consultant in recent years. My tasks have included giving feedback on a mobile app and a new financial website, working with their design and marketing teams on location, and speaking with their financial advisors regarding Millennials.
If you want to get consulting gigs the best way to do it is actually through LinkedIn – probably 80% of my consulting opportunities have come through LinkedIn messages, not my actual blog platform. But in 100% of the cases, the companies are only asking me to consult with them because of my background and the Millennial Money blog. A simple way to set yourself up for consulting opportunities is to connect with other bloggers and people who work at companies in your niche on LinkedIn.