Every day people ask me how they can make money with their blog, so today I wanted to go thru my top ways to make money.
First thing you should know is if you want to make money with your blog long term , then you will need more then one way to monetize your blog..You know the old saying mom used to say "don't put all your eggs in one basket" lol who knew moms advise would come in handy with my blog and making money
Understand that "blogging" alone will not make you money, but using some or all of the ways I share below will help.
My list includes some fast to start ways and some long term with a little effort ways to make money. So regardless of your efforts, you can make money with your blog.
Also the list I have below will help you whether you have a lot of traffic or not so much traffic.
Ex: Google Adsense will make you more money if you have a lot of traffic.
But selling an ebook with a high converting rate will make you money even with a small targeted amount of traffic.
Your goal should be to drive HUGE amount of traffic, because then even a small converting percentage will still make you a good amount of money.
Top 10 Ways To Make Money With Your Blog
1. Google Adsense
This is the easiest way to start making money with your blog, and it is very simple to set up. But the two biggest issues I have with Adsense is,
It takes a lot of traffic to make some decent money with adsense.
If your selling your own product or affiliate products then you want to see what is being sold in your adsense ads, chances are it will be in dirrect competition with your product.
I go into more detail on why this is bad here Stop Stealing Your Own Sales
What I have used instead that I am happy with is Chitika Ads
Cool thing about Chitika ads is they look similar to Adsense but they ONLY show up for traffic that comes from search engines.
So your regular readers never see the ads, great Adsense alternative.
2. Direct Banner Advertising
Ok I have a love hate relationship with selling advertising on my blog. I do it and I make money doing it but at the same time selling ad space is not the best long term way to monetize your blog. I much rather you sell your own product and use the ad space to promote your own products, this way you will make more money and won't have to worry about always attracting advertisers.
Banner advertising also takes needs a big following on your blog to attract the big advertisers and make decent money.
Another issue with selling ads is it can be a pain to track all your advertisers and when they need to repay or end an ad. Unless you use something like OIO Publisher that will control all your ad selling tasks automatically, they even find you advertisers in their marketplace.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to make money. Affiliate marketing works like this... someone has a product and they let you sell the product for a commission and the best part, is they all ready have marketing material and websites for the product that you can use, also they do all the follow up and or customer service needed.
This is the best and fastest way to make money with your blog, and you don't need a big following to start making money. Long as your product is targeted to your blog readers and you can get a decent conversion, you will be in the money.
I talked about this on Breaking Into Top Internet Marketers With No List
Best places to go to find high quality affiliate products is ClickBank or Commission Junction
4. Sponsored Reviews
Getting paid to write a sponsored review on a product or website is another great way to make money with your blog. Some people have issue with this because a review should come from honest use of the product or service, others who have no issue with this do very well.
I have written a sponsored review and see no problem as long as you have at least reviewed the service or product and feel it is something you would review any way, and that you state that it is a Sponsored Review so your readers know this up front.
Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe are two places you can get set up to do sponsored review posts.
I recommend you offer this as a service on your blog and collect all the commission.
5. Selling an eBook
Selling ebooks on your blog has been around for ever and there is good reason...It Works! ?
I Launched My First eBook a few months ago, and have been very happy with the results.
I suggest that you first build some success and have proof of that success before you set out to write and sell an eBook. Selling an eBook that is solid and helpful will make it much easier for you to sell to those visitors again in the future.
6. Selling WordPress Themes
This is something I am working on releasing soon. Once you have a nice theme or brand you can them build a WP theme around it and offer it up for a small price.
There are 3 BIG benefits to selling a WP theme...
You make money
It is a great way to build backlinks to your blog. Since each theme sold will have a link back tou your blog as a reference
This is also nice way to get some free advertising and traffic.
Nice 1-2-3 Punch...right?
7. Offering Consulting Services
Once you see some results with your blog then you can start to offer consult services to help people get the same results you have gotten.
Again I have to emphasize that you need to FIRST have some success and proof in the service you are selling.
This is a great way to offer support to your readers and also make money.
I offer my services offline, since most offline business don't have a blog or social media presence, so taking it offline has big potential for you..
8. Build Your Email List
We all know how powerful email marketing is and will continue to be. Once you connect and build that relationship with your list, it is the best way to make money onlne...Period!
Building a list takes time and patience, but great way to help the process go faster is to put that sign up box right in your readers eye balls over and over.
Make it the first thing they see and the last thing they see... Guys think of it as a hot girl, you know what we see when she walks towards us, and you know what we see when she walks past, right? Lol Ladies this works for you to ha ha.
Now that you have visitor's seeing the list form, you have to be offering something so good they have to opt in. Keep your offer very targeted to your blog, and make it great... this will be your first impression to new opt ins, and this will make or break your ability to sell to them in the future.
9. Merchandise
This is a simple way to make some money with your blog, you won't get rich, but any money is nice.
Selling t-shirts with your blogs logo can work and if you use a site like Zazzle.com they make it very easy to design sell and even set up your own store front... very cool.
10. Donations
Yes asking for a donation does work, again this won't make you a huge amount of money, but even if you made enough to cover gas each week it would be helpful.
If your readers enjoy your content and learn something from it, then they will be more motivated to donate.
I have used https://tipit.to on this blog and on my other sites before and have made enough for my DD Ice Coffee addiction each week...lol
So set it up and place your "Donate" button on your blog and see what happens.
Ok so that's my small but loooooong list of ways you can make money with your blog.
Like I said earlier, there are many ways to make money, just try not to focus on just one way.
Your goal is to get to the point where the only things your sell or promote on your blog are all yours. So that way you can make 100% of the commission.
Have any different ways to make money? Let me know in comments.