For most bloggers, developing a loyal reader base is their number one priority. When this reader base is obtained – typically through engaging posts, frequent updates and a presence on social media – then it’s common for bloggers to ask this question: How can I monetize my blog? With a good reputation and solid reader base, it is possible for you to have monetization for your blog. Bloggers’ incomes can vary from pennies to a legitimate full-time income, but the monetization tools below can help every blogger achieve the latter category:
WP125 – Ad networks and sponsored posts are ways to monetize a blog, but many bloggers opt to deal with advertisers themselves, foregoing the middle men that are ad networks. Having a clear ‘Advertising’ page on your blog with some rates and a contact e-mail is the best way to do this. For easy placement of these ads for bloggers, the WordPress plugin WP125 is especially useful, allowing consummate management of 125×125 ads, with features such as click tracking and setting ads for a specific timeframe.
WordPress Calls to Action – Especially useful for blogs that sell products through their posts, this plugin keeps inbound marketing practices in mind via a variety of placement options, from pop-ups to sleek sidebar widgets. Calls-to-action can be very effective when employed on social media and blogs. The WordPress Calls to Action plugin helps immensely with the latter.
NRelate – Content networks like NRelate, Outbrain and Taboola work by providing links to relevant content at the bottom of a blog’s post. Visitors clicking on these links will provide revenue to the bloggers, who are usually paid via PayPal. These networks vary in relevancy, effectiveness and payouts, so bloggers should be prepared to try several to see which one works best.
Adzerk – Used by large sites like Reddit and Newsmax, Adzerk provides an excellent ad serving platform that balances speed and power. Adzerk performs 30% faster than OpenX and 9% faster than ad serving leader Doubleclick, all while carrying similar content.
Optimizely – It’s very important to test the effectiveness of ads, both in terms of creativity and location. Optimizely makes that easier, with a very accessible interface that tracks conversions, sign-ups, visitor engagement and more.
Mynaweb – An alternative to Optimizely, Mynaweb stresses fluid quickness by utilizing “multi-armed bandit algorithms” to run optimized pages and ads with extreme quickness. It also filters out ineffective, poorly-performing variants.
Crazy Egg – It’s prudent to price ad locations based on the popularity of them. This can be found effectively via heat maps, which Crazy Egg specializes in. Finding out detailed user information, including where they click the most and least on your site, is a breeze with Crazy Egg, whose lean interface is opposite the bulkiness of used heavy equipment.
Mouse Flow – An alternative to Crazy Egg, Mouse Flow has the extremely cool feature of allowing blog owners to watch site users in real-time. Live recordings of user behavior and instant heat maps provide perhaps the most immediate visitor behavioral analysis of any service.
WP Bounce – This tool is great for getting the most out of search traffic. For visitors that only view one page on your site, WP Bounce can pop up a message upon them hitting the ‘Back’ button to return to the search results. Particularly useful for blogs with high bounce rates, the plugin can showcase specific products on Amazon, using your referral link in the process.
SolveMedia – If you implement CAPTCHA on your site, it’s likely in the comments section to prevent spam. Monetize CAPTCHA by using tools like SolveMedia, which prompts users to type in brand phrases instead of random letters and numbers, making it easier for them while providing bloggers with additional revenue.
With these various available tools, bloggers can advance and monetize that which they already devote time and energy to: their blogs.
