Blogging is great for business. It is the ideal way to add content to your website, boost SEO results, and show that you’re an expert in something. But what if you could actually make money directly from the blog itself, separate from your business (while still doing all the positive things a business can do)? It’s entirely possible if you learn the right way to monetize your blog – read on for some useful tips.
Advertising
You can monetize your blog by hosting advertisements that are of interest to your readers. In contrast to Pay-Per-Impression ads, which pay only when a user clicks on a given ad, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads pay you every time someone views an ad on your blog.
Think about who you’re writing for to make sure the ads are relevant to them and how many people visit your blog to see whether it’s a viable business proposition before deciding whether or not to put them up.
If you do find you need more website visitors for this to be something that will bring in an income, it’s worth speaking to SEO experts to get some help. Check out searchicalseo.com.au/canberra/ for more information.
Affiliate Links
Affiliate marketing is a simple term for promoting other people’s products in exchange for a commission when your suggestion leads to a sale. Affiliate links make all of this possible and keep track of what is going on. This is what makes it possible to keep track of your recommendation and then link it to a specific sale later on.
Most commissions are between five and 75 percent of the price listed on the item. For physical goods, the number is closer to five percent. For digital items, it might be possible to get up to one hundred percent commission.
From the buyer’s point of view, the most important thing is that they still pay the sticker price, so they don’t have to pay for your commission. Plus, you need to let them know that you’ll be earning if they buy something.
Publish An eBook
Make an eBook out of a selection of your best blog entries. This won’t actually take you much time since everything is already written, and it’s a question of formatting the posts into one book. Plus, it doesn’t have to be very long. You can have as few as 10,000 words in an eBook. That could be anywhere from five to ten of your typical blog pieces, plus an introductory and concluding portion. Without even realizing it, your blog may already include all the material you need for an eBook.
You can either go the self-publishing route or use a service like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing to get your eBook out there. You choose the prices and can make changes to your work as you see fit, and the royalty payout is decent, considering the volume of potential customers.
Offer Premium Content
With a dedicated fan base, you can charge for premium content like in-depth guides, expanded versions of older posts, hybrids of older and newer content, or even just exclusive video articles and vlogs. Adding a membership section to your blog allows you to charge readers on a recurring basis for access to exclusive content, which not only helps you generate passive income but also strengthens your relationship with your readership.
Also, since they’ll be invested in the blog’s subject matter, your members will be more inclined to pass along the links it contains, which in turn will drive more people to the blog and potentially raise your membership numbers.
