We all know how it feels to be passionate about something. You find yourself writing blog posts on the subject and eagerly anticipating feedback from others in order to improve your skills. It’s a great feeling!
But how come you still haven’t earned a dime? Now is the time to change that. In this post, we will show you how to monetize a blog in six proven ways.
Excited? Let’s get started then!
The article was written by affiliate marketing expert Jairene Cruz-Eusebio.
Option #1: Sign up to Display Advertising Platforms
This is by far the most popular strategy to monetize your blog. Display advertising is simply banner ads that you can place on any part of your site in order to earn money from the ad impressions.
Banner ads can be placed in various locations on your website, such as header, footer, sidebar, within the content, and at the end of the article.
This is how it works: when a visitor visits one of your web pages, they’ll see an advertisement that’s been paid for by an advertiser. You don’t need to contact a business directly in order for their ads to appear on your website, all you need to do is sign up with an advertising network.
Advertising platforms with whom we recommend starting with are Google Adsense, Infolinks, or Adversal.
How to monetize your blog with Google Adsense
Google Adsense has always been the prime choice, especially since millions of advertisers use their platform. As such, you can expect a 100% fill rate, which means an ad will always show up, no matter the topic of your post, no matter the demographic of the user.
Of course, being the biggest and most popular, the platform can be very strict. There are specific topics they don’t allow, such as weapons, anything for mature persons in nature, and anything illegal.
Google Adsense requires your blog to be at least three months old, with a significant amount of content. At least 30 original articles will do.
Since their requirements change, as a matter of course, you’d have to double-check the program policies first. Once your account gets approved and then suspended for not following their policies, getting it back is plain impossible.
If you ever get rejected in Adsense, you can always check similar platforms such as Adversal and Infolinks.
Some alternatives for Google Adsense
The world of advertising networks is not limited to Google AdSense. They have competitors that can be considered as an alternative.
Let’s look at an unusual advertising format — pop ads or popunders. A popunder is a separate page that appears underneath a blog post page. Pop-ups have the advantage of not taking up page space and not distracting the user from your content.
You can also sign-up with pop advertising networks that pay publishing websites based on the number of pops they show users. Payment is on a thousand views basis, so the more eyes you have on your website, the higher you get paid.
One example of a good-paying advertising network for pops is RichAds. They accept websites, no matter how big or small, and whatever the content (except illegal content).
Option #2: Become an Affiliate
If display advertising is not for you, there is always the option to become an affiliate.
But what exactly is an affiliate? An affiliate is somebody who promotes a specific product, service, or company through their blog while being compensated.
Ways to Earn from Affiliate Marketing
The compensation can come in many forms, some of which include:
- Revenue Share — you earn a percentage of purchases;
- Pay per Click — you are paid depending on how much traffic is driven to the website/product/service you are promoting;
- Pay per Lead — you are paid a fixed price every time someone signs up to a newsletter, subscribes to a free service, or something similar;
- Pay per Action — you are paid a fixed price every time the user you send performs a specific action the advertiser desires, such as download an app, install a browser extension, books an appointment, confirms their number, and more.
Affiliate marketing is a totally different beast, though. To succeed, you must not just be passionate about the product you are promoting. You must also know how to promote it and write content around it that will entice people and get them excited enough so they’ll want to buy the company’s products or sign up for their service.
Where to find affiliate programs?
You also have a wide variety of networks where you can register as an affiliate, which is great because being exclusive with only one doesn’t make sense when there are dozens of other platforms you could join at the same time.
If you want to focus on pay-per-lead or pay-per-action offers, there are a couple of ways to do so:
1. Monetize your blog directly with companies
You can work directly with brands by signing up with their affiliate or partner program. To find companies that have their own affiliate programs, all you need to do is do a Google search of “affiliate programs” then include the niche keyword. For example, if you have a fishing blog, you can search for “affiliate programs for fishing”.
For affiliate platforms that focus on purchases, here are some options: iHearb, Walmart, or Amazon Affiliate Program. The last one is the most popular of all. Many publishers have created websites focusing solely on promoting specific Amazon products.
2. Monetize your blog with Affiliate Networks
If a company doesn’t have its own affiliate program and would rather assign the task to a third party, you need to look for affiliate networks. Affiliate networks are companies that specialize in the management of the partner programs of various companies.
An affiliate network can have multiple companies of the same niche within their platform. They can also have multiple product or service categories under their wing.
As a beginner, you should apply at beginner-friendly networks with low minimum payout requirements, such as Mobidea, Maxbounty, Golden Goose, and Traffic Company.
The list of the best Affiliate networks is here
Option #3: Collect Push Notification Subscribers
If you haven’t guessed by now, the digital era that we are currently living in has altered how marketers do business. Push notifications have changed how audiences consume content and how companies advertise.
Push notifications are text-based messages sent to an individual’s mobile device outside of an app or browser, which are less intrusive than pop-ups and more noticeable than email messages.
Since companies use push notifications to promote their offers and products, advertising networks are now collecting push notification subscriptions to widen their reach. That’s where you come in.
You can encourage your blog visitors to allow you to send push notifications to their devices. Once they click on “Accept” or “Allow,” they are automatically subscribed. Ad networks will either pay you for every subscription or for every click on a push notification ad they send.
Several ad networks are looking for publishing websites right now, one of which is RichAds.
The advantages of working with RichAds Push include:
- No ads on your website or blog — This means your audience will not be irritated with the number of banners on your website. Push ads will not be distracting and will not interrupt your content.
- No moderation process — There won’t be a need for you to wait long to have your account approved.
- Personal Account Manager — Since you are a beginner, you may have a thousand and one questions about how to add the code to your website, how to optimize your website to get more subscribers, how to get paid, and more. The good news is that RichAds will not leave you in the dark; instead, they will assign a personal account manager who will hold your hand until you can manage your account on your own.
Read more about how to monetize your website with push notification subscriptions here
Option #4: Accept Sponsored Blog Posts or Paid Reviews
Out of all the ways to monetize a blog, accepting sponsored blog posts does not take up a lot of your time. It’s simple really! All you need to do is write great content, work on getting traffic on your website, and then create a page on how people or companies can contact you to post a sponsored blog post.
A sponsored blog post is a popular way to make money online blogging. A company pays you to write about its products or services on your blog. They may even write the post themselves, so all you have to do is publish it.
Several companies and agencies reach out to niche websites to have their content posted. Aside from their brand reaching your audience when they advertise on your blog, sponsored posts that link back to the company’s website can help with their SEO as well (especially if you have a good domain authority ranking).
The clincher with this earning model is that you first need to be found, or you need to find advertisers for blog. You can be searchable online, but it can be hard for brands to find you if your blogs don’t show up on the first or second page of search results. How then can you reach potential advertisers?
The key here is to join paid blogging networks such as Valued Voice and the Sway Network. Your earnings would then depend on your niche market, how much you charge for a post, and how often you receive requests from businesses.
Option #5: Sell Digital Products
Another popular option to earn money from blog is to offer digital products. Digital products are items that you can sell without needing to ship anything physically.
Types of Digital Products You Can Sell
Digital products are something you can create on your own, and many bloggers have seen success with these. There are different types of digital products you can sell, such as:
- e-Book
This is the most common digital product; however, since a lot of people are doing this, you need to set yourself apart from the rest to succeed.
To do this, you must first choose your niche topic. Next, you must establish yourself as a writer with authority in the subject matter.
You can start with converting your best-performing blog post into an e-book and then expounding more on the subject. Your popular post can be like a preview of the contents of your digital book.
- Printable products
Are you good at designing? If you are, then you can craft printable cards, cake toppers, and similar products. Can you craft your own learning materials? Distance learning is a thing right now, so if you can create this, then you can have these learning tools available in printable versions.
- Rich media
These are materials that you have created and have the license to sell to others for private and commercial use. These could be music tracks, video clips, images, clip arts, and more.
Option #6: Accept Donations
You can make money from your blog by accepting donations; people will give you money if they like what you write about. If people enjoy your blog and you have helped them in some way, they might give some money, if only they knew how.
There are a couple of ways to accept donations, and these are by:
1. Paypal Donation Button
PayPal is an easy way to accept donations from your blog readers because it is already a well-known online payment option. The service has more than 377 million registered users. Non-users can simply use their credit or debit card to send donations your way.
Creating a Paypal donation button is pretty simple, too. All you need to do is to create a Paypal account, verify it, and then head over to the donation button creation page.
From here, you can customize how your button looks, get the code, and then paste this code on your website.
2. Donate plugin
The other effective means for accepting donations is by creating a donation button on WordPress, allowing users to choose how much they want to donate and how often the funds should be withdrawn automatically from their account (daily, weekly, monthly).
There are several WP plugins that can be used for this, including GiveWP and Charitable.
Monetize Your Blog Now!
It’s never too late to start earning from your blogging efforts. With these six ways on how to make money blogging, you are sure to find something that suits your needs and skills.
No one is born with a how-to book on how to be an expert in the world of blogging; each blogger has their own story about how they got started and what they did differently than others out there.
Can I monetize my blog quickly? Well, it depends. Some succeed quickly; others took their time. If you have consistent traffic to your blog and want to start earning now, your best bet is with RichAds, as signing up with them is quick and easy.
Please, remember that you can monetize your blog using pops and push subscriptions from RichAds.
RichAds is a unique advertising platform for monetizing your websites with push notifications subscriptions. They do not take up site space and can be easily combined with banner ads and other monetization methods.
Even at the very beginning of cooperation, our tests show an increase in the income of the site owner by up to 30% compared to other push providers.
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