Blog monetization sounds like a Herculean task to many bloggers, especially to those who are absolutely new to the blogosphere. Apparently, there are tons of ways to earn money online just by the means of blogging, but most of them are NOT real, feasible, and effective. It is even more unfortunate that the methods, which seem to be real, also do not work for all.
From choosing the best niche with great monetizing potential to developing the perfect plan for channelizing your blogging energy to the right direction, the whole procedure revolves around lots of time and hard work. So, let us help you earn some decent cash online by implementing some proved techniques. Here are 30 best ways to make money by monetizing your blog the correct way:
Google AdSense
May be there are a hundred of ways to generate money by maintaining a blog, but Google AdSense always tops the list. It can be used by any blog irrespective of its niche and size. All you need to do is follow the guidelines religiously and get your account approved. However, your blog must get a large number of traffic every day in order to earn a handsome income from Google AdSense. Also, make sure that the positions of your ads can generate maximum clicks and help you leverage your blog traffic efficiently.
Banner Ads
If your Google AdSense account does not get approved, do not get disheartened and opt for banner ads. Being the second most effective way to make money by blogging, banner ads can turn out to be extremely profitable for you. Show banners featuring buy-sell ad services along with your blog details on your blog or get in touch with big names in your niche for direct advertisements. Blogs with massive traffic can also get opportunities to place banners with other ads on them.
Text Link Ads
Text link ads are also quite popular among bloggers in terms of earning. As the name suggests, this option allows you to place the links of relevant text-based ads at the side column or the footer of the blog page. The best thing about text link ads is that they make blog monetization non-intrusive by causing no disturbance to the readers. For this, choose any specific product or service related to your niche to write on and sign up to either its affiliate advertising scheme or an automated service provider.
In-Text Ads
Though sounds similar with the previous one, an in-text ad is actually pretty different from that. It is a form of contextual advertising in which the adverts are placed inside the content itself of a blog page by targeting specific texts or ‘keywords’ in it. Readers can see a small pop-up by hovering mouse over those double underlined texts and decide on whether to click on them or not. Nonetheless, you need to use in-text ads appropriately; otherwise it can end up annoying your traffic.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
These days, pay-per-click (PPC) or cost per click (CPC) adverts have become the hot favorite of digital marketers as well as bloggers as they are super effective and give prompt results. Once you sign up to an advertising service provider and place the code given to you on your blog, certain text or image-based contextual ads are shown up to your visitors that actually match with the content of your blog. As it generates money for every click made on the ad, invest in PPC advertising only if your blog has lots of traffic. Also, place your ads on highly visible spaces on your blog for optimal click-through rate (CTR).
Cost Per Mille (CPM) Advertising
Just like pay-per-click advertising, there is another well-known blog monetization method called cost per mille (CPM) or cost per thousand (CPT) advertising. These adverts work almost similarly like PPC ones, however here the income depends on per 1000 impressions or ‘page views’ rather than per click. Make sure that you get a huge number of traffic every day with great page view per visitor ratio. The positions and sizes of your ads also matter a lot for generating good income.
Affiliate Marketing
When it comes to earning good amount of cash online, affiliate marketing is always the right pick. Bloggers can sign up to affiliate programs of their choices and get commissions based on the sales that resulted from their recommendations. It usually ranges from 10% to 20% and can even go up depending on the products. As an affiliate marketer, you can make money from you blog even when you are asleep at night. You just need to know how to sell others’ products or services, pertinent to your niche, on your own blog the right way and have some patience to be successful.
Advertising Widgets
Though the concept of advertising widget is comparatively newer than the methods mentioned earlier, it has already earned lots of popularity. These widgets are basically a smart combination of pay-per-click ads, text link ads, and affiliate programs, which are designed wisely not only to ensure a hassle-free placement on blogs but also to make it pretty easy to use for bloggers in terms of monetization.
Advertising Space
You can sell space on your blog for displaying different forms of banner adverts from advertisers, thereby making a good amount of money. The advertising space method is known to be a rewarding procedure as there is no middleman involved. You yourself can seal the deal upon a mutual agreement, according to which you get a specified fee for displaying the advert on your blog for a definite span of time. If your blog has a large number of daily visitors, it will easily attract advertisers. On the other hand, you have to invest sufficient amount of time for the management of the whole procedure.
Paid Directory Listing
Unlike selling some space on your existing blog pages for displaying adverts, you can go for paid listing and increase your returns. In this process, you have to allot a separate page on your blog only for listing a number of related links. These are basically links to all those companies and their services, which match with your niche and you can charge a good amount from them monthly by assuring a definite number of views.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is another tried and tested way to make the most of your blogging effort indirectly. A large and strong list of subscribers is very helpful in driving tons of traffic back to your blog for making all other methods adopted by you productive. Hence, if you do not focus on the development of a robust email list from the initial phase of your blogging, you will end up losing a big chunk of money on the table. Just keep growing your list and leave no stone unturned to promote your blog through your weekly newsletter.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Ads
Maybe a number of bloggers are yet to understand the importance of having an RSS feed, the fact is that it can actually add significantly to your online money making effort. Placing ads on the RSS feed of your blog is quite effective and the task has become even easier now as lots of RSS feed generators themselves are coming up with this service. While PPC or CPM are common options for RSS feed advertising, you can also implement banner ads or sponsored messages directly on the feed in order to monetize your blog.
Product Reviews
Product reviews can be considered as the finer and more obvious version of affiliate marketing in aspect of blog monetization. You simply choose products that are appropriate for your niche and would be of great interest to your target audience, review those thoroughly, and publish the write-ups on your blog. It becomes even more profitable when your chosen product comes with a good affiliate program. However, you must already have a vast and loyal readership to make this method work.
Selling Blog Services
Your blog is a wonderful platform to showcase your skills and those very skills can help you monetize the platform too. From writing to designing, there is absolutely no dearth of opportunities if you have the passion for selling your skills. No matter if you have just started your blogging journey; this method will totally work for you as there is no need of huge traffic. The only thing that you should pay attention to is quality exposure. When you become able to reach the right clients, who are interested in availing your blog services, you can generate a good amount of money every month.
Selling Custom Themes/Templates
With more and more websites being up every day, the demand for fresh templates and custom themes is increasing endlessly. If you possess that special skill of creating personalized themes and/or templates, you can also turn it into your business and make money through your blog. Make high quality and customizable themes and templates that can be used for professional purposes. Needless to say, the amount of money that you will earn by selling these can vary widely.
Selling Own Products
Not only your blog services or themes, but you can also sell your own products through your blog and earn cash. These could be anything and everything that you can develop yourself including brochures, information booklets, plug-ins, and so on. Simply launch the product on your blog for a global exposure and maximize your revenue.
Audio Advertising
Audio advertising can be of two types: pay per play (PPP) and podcast ads. PPP is a very intrusive process where an audio advert (usually 20-30 seconds long) is played whenever a visitor visits your blog. These ads cannot be skipped by the audience and the payment depends on per play or visit. Even though it results in 100% conversion for unique visitors, your visitors may get turned off right away and you may end up losing them forever. Conversely, a podcast ad is more of a weekly blog update in the form of a brief radio show (along with commercial breaks) and hence, is less intrusive.
Pop-Ups
Pop-ups might be pretty infamous for their annoying nature, but you can actually monetize your blog by using them the right way. Ensure that you do not go overboard with them by limiting their number of appearance. The best practice is to have a single pop-up only for the first-time visitors of the blog that would never ever appear again. Moreover, think out of the box for your pop-up content. Promote the blog itself through them instead of selling products.
E-Book Writing
Here is another highly profitable way to get an income from your blog. These days, writing e-books has become a common idea as commercial eReaders have become in much demand. Furthermore, there is no restriction about the niche or topic. Just pick one as per your preference as well as expertise and come up with a top-notch e-book that can add value to your target audience. Selling it on your blog directly will give you maximum revenue.
Hardback Book Writing
While e-book is a proven way to monetize your blog, you can get the most out of your author identity by publishing your books in hardback or paperback format. Publish your book and sell it on your blog directly. All you need to do is send out a hardcopy of the book to the specific address once someone places an order. Nevertheless, the method will be more effective if you have great passion for writing and a strong following.
Guide / Tutorial Writing
Being a powerhouse of information, the internet offers tons of how-to articles that teach people about doing a particular task in detail. Comprehensive guides and tutorials are such extremely useful types of content with very high search volume. Therefore, if you share your knowledge on your niche through a thorough tutorial or a comprehensive guide, you will fetch a huge number of traffic, thereby boosting your earning from your blog indirectly.
Online Teaching Courses
If you are confident about delivering superior content, offer online teaching courses through your blog and make a decent income. Based on your niche, you can create amazing videos, podcasts, etc. in order to set up a one or two-week long course and charge a one-time joining fee or membership fee for it. But make it certain that the content generated by you is first-rate and worth the premium prices.
Live Workshops
Arranging live workshops, which allow bloggers to get in direct touch with their target audience, is another good way to earn money. Interact with your readers face-to-face, get their feedback about your blog, and answer all their queries by charging a flat amount of money from them as a ticket fee. There are even many other ways to get much more out of a live workshop. If you have your own products or services (as we mentioned earlier) to offer, promote those at the end of the workshop and give your earning an indirect push. Inviting guest speakers to live workshops is another great idea and it also opens an amazing door of opportunity for you can collect as much as 50% of the total amount made by them through their own product promotion.
Webinar Hosting
If arranging a live workshop sounds difficult, opt for a webinar. As the name reveals, it is a seminar or live workshop conducted online and you can earn from people, who are interested in attending it, by charging for their virtual seats. Hosting a webinar is also quite effective for your global audience, who are unable to attend your live workshops due to their locations. You prepare presentations based on your expertise, perform it over the web through your blog, and make the entire process as interactive as possible. Each and every viewer is allowed to get their doubts solved at the end of the session.
Consultancy Services
When you are truly a pro with vast knowledge in your niche, a good reputation in your field, and a huge number of followers, offering consultancy services can turn out to be one of the greatest ways for you to monetize your blog. Free up your schedule for one-on-one consulting either online or over phone and allocate an hour or so for every person. Also, you must put your best efforts and provide unmatched personalized services in order to charge a fine amount per hour. Well, it is definitely not for amateur bloggers, but they can give it a try later as their blogs grow over time.
Polls And Surveys
There are companies which pay bloggers for displaying relevant polls and surveys on their blogs. It needs you to sign up to their websites, select the most suitable one from the list of available polls and/or surveys, and place that on your blog. When someone takes part in it during the visit to your blog, you get paid for the privilege. Simple and easy!
Sponsored Events
If starting a weekly podcast or organizing a live workshop excites you as a blogger, you can try finding sponsors for these and generate even more income by promoting them at the beginning as well as the end of the events. If your blog get lots of traffic every day, it will attract lucrative sponsorship deals easily as thus advertisers can get greater exposure. In contrast, you will become open to more choices for monetizing different aspects of your blog.
Premium Membership
Blogs with really good content can earn a lot more than others by offering premium memberships to their readers. So, if you are really good at your niche, it is time to include a premium area in your blog. Use high-quality and useful content free of cost to attract more and more visitors to you blog and then, give them access to premium content as well as additional benefits upon the payment of a fixed membership fee only.
Private Forums
You can also create your own private forum into your blog and operate it just like the premium membership area. This would be a space for your readers where they can interact with like-minded people from around the world, collaborate with each other, and access fresh individual content that is completely unavailable in the web world. Charge a monthly or annual fee for the forum membership and ensure that the community caters exceptionally to the target audience.
Donation
Finally, add a ‘donate’ button to your blog and ask your readers to help you with any small amount as per their wish. You can get it easily from PayPal and set it up on your blog yourself in a hassle-free manner. If you have genuinely been helping your readers by offering useful information, it will work for you.
So, these were some of the most effective ways to help you make some money online while working on your blog. Remember, you cannot try all methods together as that will take you to nowhere. Rather, figure out the most appropriate ones for your blog and focus on them only. Happy monetizing!
