Blogging can be an amazing experience. It can also be the most draining, tiring, frustrating, and demoralizing thing you will do as an online entrepreneur. The main reason for this is that it takes a really long time to see results from your efforts.
I have worked with countless bloggers who all complain about one major thing: making money. First we need to address the elephant in the room: Blogging is not a business model.
Let me repeat that: Blogging is NOT a business model. Blogging alone only serves to attract a specific audience to your blog based on your topic. You need to put a business model behind it in order to monetize that content.
There are a few ways to accomplish this:
1. Put ads on your site.
This is the easiest, yet least useful and most damaging approach. It pays you a small amount when people leave your site. Or you could sell banner ads, but you are compromising your blog readers attention by enticing them to leave your site.
That is counterproductive to your goals. You want MORE people on YOUR site, not leaving.
2. Link to Affiliate Products
Affiliate products are usually information products , but can be physicial products. This can be much more lucrative, but again it sends people away from your site.
3. Create a digital product (ebook or video course)
A digital product of your own can be a huge step forward in keeping your readers consuming your content. An ebook is a great place to start or even a paid webinar. Webinars are great because you can repurpose the content after the event.
The major obstacle to this model is that you need to keep producing ebooks or find new customers in order to continue to grow your revenue.
4. Create a Membership Site
The best way I have found to keep people engaged with your content while building your blog audience at the same time is through membership sites. A membership site is where you post exlusive content for your blog readers behind a password protected area. The content can consist of detailed tutorials, webinar replays, video courses, audio downloads, and articles.
In the past this was difficult, but with some of the new tools this can be very simple. For example, www.IfSimply.com provides a free way to create a membership site in minutes. You can then link directly to your membership area from your blog using an image, link, or add it to your navigation bar.
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