When running a website or a blog, the end goal is usually to make some money. After all, without the monetary aspect, the marketing and maintenance of your site can quickly turn it into a money pit. Once you have your website up and running, it is a good idea to come up with a money-making strategy. There are a few different methods of monetizing your blog, depending on the direction that you wish to take and the niche in which you are writing.
Paid Advertisements
Google AdSense makes it incredibly easy to place advertisements on your site. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of these ads, you get paid. Keep in mind that these advertisements rely on targeted content and high traffic volume. Therefore, this method makes more money if your website is based around a popular subject that will attract a great deal of traffic. If your blog is devoted towards a smaller niche community, do not expect to make much money through this method.
Private Advertisements
This method is similar to paid advertisements, as you will host third party ads on your blog. The difference is that private advertisements call for you to contact the business directly and negotiate a price. For example, if you come across a website that sells custom crafted insoles for orthopedic footwear and your website content is relevant to this product, you can offer to advertise it on your site for a cost. Remember that big name advertisers will not consider you unless you have a proven track record of driving traffic to your blog.
Syndication
Since the end goal is to attract as many people to your content as possible, it makes sense to get your blog published in as many places as possible. Rather than leaving your blog on your own website, you can publish it on a blog platform like WordPress or Tumblr and have it re-blogged. This ensures that the content is distributed to a wider audience, which can help drive money to your site through advertising revenue.
Selling Physical Products
Those who gain access to or invent a product can sell it through a blog. This is one of the first methods of making money online, since it involves shipping a physical product to another individual and collecting the payment. For some, however, the logistics can become cost prohibitive, especially when dealing with shipping costs, insurance and overseas shipping.
Drop Shipping Networks
When a blogger does not have access to a physical product, it is possible to run a drop shipping store through a blog. In this scenario, you will handle the advertising and a third party handles all of the storage and shipping costs. You will then receive a percentage of each sale that you generate through your blog. You will still have to handle the actual monetary transaction, but the rest is up to the drop shipping company.
Affiliate Marketing
Some organizations allow you to sell their products through your blog and they will pay you a commission for each sale that you make. This is different from drop shipping because you do not handle the actual transaction and are more in charge of driving traffic to the organization’s website. The more referrals you make through your website, the more money you stand to make.
Create a Members Area
Many popular websites have a member’s only area in which they offer premium content for a price. Once again, this is only an option if you have a devoted readership that is willing to pay for additional content. If you are just starting out, it will be difficult to find people who are willing to pay for your content but as you develop your blog, it becomes more likely.
Build a Marketplace
This is one of the more difficult methods of monetization to build, but it is also the most lucrative. Marketplaces like eBay and Match.com are examples of high traffic websites that charge users a small fee to perform an action. On eBay, users pay to list an item for sale, while dating sites charge users to interact with others. The key is finding an untapped marketplace and then advertising it to the point where buyers and sellers visit daily. It might sound impossible to turn a small blog into something this large, but it has happened before.
Offer Services
People from all over the world are looking for help with various things and you can use your blog to advertise your services. If you are a writer, you can offer content creation or data entry services through your blog. When someone is interested in your expertise, you can be contacted through your blog. While your blog might not directly make money through this method, you can think of it as an advertising expense if it leads to jobs.
Sell Digital Material
A relatively new method of online sales is the sale of digital media. Writing an eBook and then selling it through your blog is an excellent example, although it is sometimes possible to sell other people’s digital material as well. One look at the Amazon website will show you exactly how much digital material is available online.
Great post and very informative Courtney! I have had the most success through adsense, private and affiliate ads. My best advice is to get traffic to where it benefits advertisers and then go after advertising like you said.
Thanks Adam! That’s a great strategy! 🙂
The problem I have with monetizing my blog or website (right now what I do is small so I do not eve consider it) is that too many place I go to feel more like a billboard than anything. In fact sometimes it’s hard to find the “content” you went there to see for all the ads.
This blog does not look like that but then again, I have to ask ( I don’t have to I want to) is do you make enough money off this blog to cover the cost?
Hey there. I hear you on that, but yes I do make enough to cover costs.