- You are here:
- Home »
- Blog »
- Online Business »
- Ways to Monetize Your Blog and Make Money Online
Ways to Monetize Your Blog and Make Money Online
It is almost every blogger’s dream to make money from their blogging activities. There’re many ways to monetize your blog and make money online. However, before digging into those ways of monetizing your blog and making money online from it, you must first build a blog and scale it to the point of it having a sizeable readership base, that’s big enough to attract brands or to provide you with huge sale conversions from the sale of your own products or services.
Video Channel
Video is predicted to become among the most effective ways to monetize your blog and make money online. You can create a video channel where you can be discussing subjects relevant to your target audience. Once your audience reaches a sizeable number, you can then approach brands that sell products resonating with your readership and discuss advertising options with them.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is that content which a brand or company pays you a certain fee to have it featured in your blog with a mention of their brand products or services. Your blog should have a sizeable subscription base that resonates with the sponsored content.
Online Courses
Online courses are currently the rave right now. If you have a skill that you know people would be willing to pay for, you should think of monetizing it by launching an online course. Alternatively, you would also promote other people’s courses on your blog and earn a commission on each successful referral.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is a monetization strategy where a company pays you a commission for all the clicks your blog generates, regardless of whether the prospects make a purchase or not. Google AdSense is usually the PPC solution used as one of the many ways to monetize your blog and make money online.
Your profitability will be determined by the amount of traffic your blog receives. The provider gives you a code which you place on your blog. The provider then uses this code to send you relevant adverts that appear on your blog remotely.
It’s good to note the click-through rate (CTR) is usually determined by the placement of your code as certain parts of your blog are more valuable than others; spaces at the beginning and end of articles are more visible to readers and web visitors. The cost-per-click (CPC) is also determined by the nature of the ad, real estate ads attract more revenue as opposed to clicks on toys.
Cost Per Mile Advertising (CPM)
A monetization strategy where you’re paid according to the number of impressions or page views an advert receives. It is calculated in ranges of 1,000 impressions. Therefore, a blog that receives at least 300,000 page views on a monthly basis and displays a $1 CPM ad, will generate $300 on that particular month.
Text Link Ads
This is the form of monetization where you place text-based ads within your content. For example, if you’re writing about a pharmaceutical drug that treats a certain disease, you would mention it by writing its name.
You would then insert a hyperlink to that name so that when a reader clicks on it, it takes them directly to an online pharmacy selling the drug and purchase it if interested. You will obviously be required to have registered with an affiliate network that offers products that would be of interest to your readership base.
Advertising Widgets
Widgets are stand-alone applications that are embedded in websites. They’re fun, engaging and can display a mixture of PPC, text links ads that contain affiliate links, making it possible for you to earn commissions from each referral that results in a successful sale of an item.
Advertising Space
Setting aside a section of your blog for banner advertisements is among the oldest ways of how to monetize your blog and make money online. This monetization strategy allows you to cut off the middleman and go straight to the advertiser. Therefore, making you earn greater revenue margin. Your blog obviously needs to be registering huge web traffic for brands to take notice of its potential.
RSS Adverts
RSS is a technology standard that allows people to receive updates automatically in the form of web-based content they had subscribed. RSS feed generators can offer blog owners this feature at a fee allowing them to send adverts to their blogs.
Audio Advertising
Pay per Play (PPP) audio adverts play audio clip adverts each time a visitor visits your website. The ads usually last only a few seconds and visitors to your website won’t be able to stop the advert from playing. These audio ads can also be embedded into podcasts which you can either display on your blog or send to subscribers on your mailing list.
Pop-ups/Light-boxes
The downside of this advertising method is that many people hate pop-ups and many of them have installed pop-up blockers on their browsers. However, if executed in the right way, they can be a great way of sending your message to people.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which you earn a commission if someone purchases an item as a result of your referral or marketing effort.
For example; if you operate a blog around the dog niche, you would research for affiliate programs containing products related to dogs. You would then create content revolving around those dog products and mention the brand as a provider, and if anyone clicks on the link to the brand’s e-commerce website and purchases anything, you earn a commission.
Affiliate marketing stands as among the best strategies and ways of how to monetize your blog and make money online.
Product Reviews
You can write detailed reviews of products within your business niche and publish them on your blog. It is recommended that you write reviews on products you have used so as to sound authentic. Obviously, it will be an added bonus if you wrote positive reviews of products you’re already an existing affiliate partner.
Physical Products
You can source for merchandise that resonates with your blog readership and sell the item to them. You would then earn a commission from the sale of those physical products. Platforms such as Wix, Shopify, and Woocommerce have made it extremely easy and cost-effective to set up an e-commerce store within a couple of hours.
Membership Sites
You can create a section on your blog that provides access premium content to members registered to your subscription plan. This membership section would allow members to consume your content in various digital forms such as text, audio, video, etc.
Freelance Services
Internet technologies are now able to facilitate the offering of a wide range of services to people and businesses from the comfort of our homes. You would set up a services section on your blog with a drop-down menu outlining the different freelance services you offer. Some of the freelance services you would offer are; consulting and training, writing, design, transcription, and many others.
Donations
You would set up a donate button that supports different payment methods. You then go ahead and request website visitors to donate for the maintenance of your blog. It is even better if you’re involved in a community cause and registered as a non-profit organization, making any donations received tax deductible.
Wrapping Up
Earning money online is great, but earning money from blogging activities of which you’re passionate about is an extremely fulfilling experience. There’re many ways to monetize your blog and make money online. However, the most important element is the development and scaling up of a blog to a size that is able to attract the attention of brands.
We at Niche Site Creations make the process of monetizing your blog by offering you a competitive package of ready-made niche websites. Our prices are budget-friendly and we definitely have something for everyone.
About the Author Robert Muita
Robert is an ICT Consultant and technical writer. He brings onboard a wealth of experience to our Niche Site Creations team with his broad knowledge of Affiliate marketing and Monetization strategies. He is an avid contributor to tech forums, loves adventure and is still stuck in the 90s era of R&B music scene.