I have many people asking me how to monetize their blog websites. First of all, I want to assure you that there are many ways to monetize your blog site. Though blogging is a slow way to make money online, it is one of the most powerful ways in the long run if you do it right. In this post, I want to share with you 5 practical ways you can implement right away to monetize your blog website.
1. Monetize your blog website with Google Adsense
Google Adsense probably is the easiest way for you to monetize your blog website. When you have enough content on your blog site, apply for Google Adsense program. Once it is approved, you can embed Google Adsense codes into your website. Google automatically places ads that match to your content on your website. So it is very important to have at least 10-15 articles before you apply for Google Adsense account. Otherwise your request will most likely be rejected due to insufficient content. When someone clicks on Google ads on your website, you make money. You don’t care whether the person buys the product or not. It is a great start for you to monetize your blog website.
Besides Google Adsense program, you can also use other advertisement programs such as Chitika.com to diversify your advertisement income sources.
2. Monetize your blog website with affiliate programs
If you don’t have your own products or services to sell, don’t worry. There are plenty of affiliate programs in different niches for you to recommend on your blog site.
For example, you can promote information products from Clickbank.com. The commission for ClickBank products are usually 50% or above. Some products have membership programs which re-bill their members on a monthly basis. They may award you with recurring commissions so that you get paid every month as long as your referral remains a member of the program.
Amazon.com has all sorts of physical products for you to promote. Because of the overhead and fulfillment costs associated with physical products, the commission is generally lower. You get around 4-15% commission depending on the amount of items you sell each month. If you promote some big ticket items, the commission can be pretty handsome.
3. Monetize your blog website by selling your own products
If you have your own products or services, you definitely want to use your blog website to market these offers. You can place banners of different sizes in your header, side bar and even between the content. However, remember to be very selective because you don’t want to over-crowd your blog site with all kinds of ads. It is your content that attracts visitors to your website not the ads.
Another great ways to promote your products and services is to write product reviews, “how-to” articles or FAQ about what you offer.
4. Monetize your blog website by selling eBooks
Do you know that you can monetize your blog site by selling eBook? This is probably the most overlooked one to monetize your website. If you are good at writing, you can easily create an e-book and sell it on your blog site.
Ideally, your e-book will connect with the content on your blog and expand on it in some way. People won’t want to pay money for content you’ve previously given away. You can easily promote your e-book through your blog posts by saying something like “ If you want to know more about this [topic], get my latest e-book . . .”
Even if you are not good at writing, you can still create your own e-book by hiring someone to write it for you.
Another great way is to get master resell rights e-books in your niche and sell them on your website. With master resell rights, you can sell the e-book to anyone and keep 100% of the profit.
5. Monetize your blog website by selling ad space to other marketers in your niche.
When you have a healthy daily traffic, you can sell banner ads and text ads to individual advertisers in your niche. They usually look for websites with Alexa ranking within 100,000, preferably lower than 50,000 to place ads. The fee is often pre-paid to you on a monthly basis. The advertiser takes care of writing ad copy and creating banners. As your website becomes more popular, it can be very lucrative.
The above 5 ways are good enough to get you started to monetize your blog website. To make a significant income from your blog site, you need to focus on creating fresh engaging content, build your email list and drive traffic to your website. I hope you enjoy reading. Get a copy of my “10 Powerful Ways to Build Your Online Cash machine” 2014 edition by joining my mailing list.
