How to Monetize your Blog

If you are like me, you have probably worked hard to get your blog or website online. Now, you are wondering what you need to do in order to begin enjoying the fruits of your labor. Perhaps, you didn’t really have money making as a goal when you started working on your site.You just wanted to annoy your friends and relatives, along with the world’s poor organic traffic, by broadcasting some of your thoughts, and have only just discovered that you can actually make money through blogging. In any case, here are some of the things that you can do to monetize your blog;

• Google AdSense
• Affiliate Marketing
• Sell your own products
• eBook sales
• Sell your knowledge
• Offer consultancy services
• Sponsored posts and paid reviews
• Banner ads
• Writer for other blogs

Yes, you can make money through blogging

In any case, there is money to be made through blogging. Check on Google and you will come across success stories such as that of Harsh Agrawal, whose monthly earnings average $15 000. Yes, you have got that right! Indeed, on some good months, the figure even rises to over $20000.

There are many feel good stories that have been written by people who have been able to retire and live comfortably off their blogging income. That is the dream of almost every blogger out there, save for ones who are only interested in making daily musings on this and that.

I suppose that when I start making thousands of dollars through this blog, I will feel compelled to publish my earnings.

However, you probably won’t make a living through your blog

However, the truth of the matter is that for every successful blogging story; the ones who are making six figure salaries; those who get us all drooling by publishing their checks and their income reports online; for every one of these success stories, there are probably a hundred thousand others who are making absolutely nothing.

That really deflated you didn’t it? I will confess that that was my intention all along. While there are a few who have become millionaires by starting their own blogs, these are far and in between. However, the point is that it can be done.

You need to work hard to earn anything from blogging

The truth of the matter is that it takes hard work and a few other ingredients for you to be able to make it in any online money making venture. 

And the sad thing is that, most of the time, hard work is simply not enough. There are probably thousands of people, who have worked as hard, if not harder, than the ones who have made it, but who are making no more than a few dollars each and every year from their ventures.

Best Blog Monetization Techniques

Now, back to the subject of this article; there are a number of things that you can do to monetize your website during the course of the year 2018;

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is one of the ways through which you can monetize your blog in the year 2018. I have previously written an article in which I stated that Google AdSense remains the best ad placement service in the world. That is despite the fact that there are numerous AdSense alternatives out there, some of which are actually very good. So, what is Google AdSense and how does it work?

What is Google AdSense?

As already mentioned, Google AdSense is an Advertisement Placement Service that you can use to have ads shown on your website or blog. It allows you to monetize your blog or website through the placement of targeted ads.

How does Google AdSense Work?

One of the greatest things about AdSense is its simplicity. You, as the owner of a blog on which ads are being displayed, get paid when people click on the shown advertisements.

Although the money that you get per click is low, there is much that you can do to increase your earnings.

How you can earn more

Estimates indicate that you need an astounding 100 000 page views each day in order to make $100 per day through the AdSense program. That is based on an average CTR (the ration of the number of people who see the ad and those who ever bother to click on it), of 1% and a CPC of $0.25.

While those figures may seem impossible, your goal, in this regard, should be to attract as many people as possible to your site. And how are you going to do this?

The only way that you are going to attain the kind of traffic that you need in order to get those kinds of numbers is by either giving people what they are looking for, or convincing them that what you have to offer is what they have been looking for all along.

The good news is that Google AdSense is not the only way through which you can monetize your blog or website. Should you fail to join the AdSense program, or should you be kicked out for one reason or the other, you can take advantages of the alternatives that we have already mentioned above. One of these is Chitika, which is often referred to as the best AdSense alternative that can be found out there.

Affiliate Marketing

If the Google AdSense figures have deflated your money making balloon, then the good news is that there are other ways through which you can make monetize your blog in the year 2018. Of these,  Affiliate Marketing offers some of the most rewarding returns. So, what is Affiliate Marketing?

About Affiliate Marketing

I explain in detail what Affiliate Marketing is in this article. Needless to say here that it works in the same that people who work for a commission do; you get paid based on the number of people whom you can convince to buy a product or service. Obviously, getting more people on board translate into more earnings on your behalf.

Need to learn more about how to get started with affiliate marketing? Then check out the article in the provided link to learn more.

How does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate Marketing is simple enough to understand; you get visitors to your site to, as already mentioned, buy a product or service. The company that makes the product or offers the service pays you an agreed upon percentage of the total.

Let’s, as an example, assume that you have joined an affiliate program that is run by “Company R,” which specializes in the sale of red herrings.

Your task, as a blogger, would then be to convince visitors to your site, in whatever way you possible, to follow the trail that you provide through a unique link that you get from Company R, to Company R’s website, where they will buy the said red herrings.

This path is usually littered with special offers and other niceties, which serves as an incentive to those may be oscillating between clicking on a link and moving on to other blogs and websites. Again, the trick lies in getting as many people as possible to your site, which increases the chance that are few of them will follow the trail to the red herring.

Affiliate Networks

Most of the major companies that are out there have joined affiliate networks, which enables them to reach out to more affiliates. The network acts, in this regard, as the middle ground, on which merchants meet with publishers. It makes life simple for publishers, who do not have to sign up for and join numerous programs. All that they need to do is join an Affiliate Network, such as Commission Junction, and they will find a wide range of merchants whose products they can market through their sites.

Sell Your Own Products

Let’s face it, not many of us will be able to generate the kinds of traffic that are needed to make some of the monetization methods that are mentioned here work. It is just as well that there are other ways through which you can monetize your blog or website. Otherwise I would have told you to give up already. Affiliate Marketing  gives you the opportunity to make money by selling other people’s products and services, but, what if you could keep it all.

Well, of course you can. All that you need to do is sell your own products and services through your blog, and if there is value in whatever it is that you are peddling, you stand a good chance of making more than you would ever hope to make while selling other people’s products.

There is no end to the kind of things that you can sell through your blog;from trinkets to the knowledge that you have acquired during years of blogging.

eBook Sales

EBooks are, as I have discovered, another favorite monetization option for bloggers across the globe. That, if you think about it, is only logical.

Take this blog as an example. I worked so hard on it that it will only be reasonable for me to, at some point in the future, go the extra mile by consolidating the articles into one, two or even 3 eBooks that I can sell to my visitors for, perhaps, a dollar each.

There are some inspiring stories out there concerning eBook sales. Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger, as an example, reports that he made $72 000 in a few weeks following the launch of his eBook.

Sell Your Knowledge (Coaching)

You will discover, as you work on your blog on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, that you will soon become an expert on your niche. Many bloggers have found that they can capitalize on this knowledge to monetize their blogs in the following ways;

• By offering Paid Courses
• By holding Paid Online Lectures

Offer Consultancy Services

A related monetization option involves the offering of consultancy services on your area of expertise through your blog. As already mentioned, you are likely to become an expert in your area, after years of blogging. You can, therefore, offer consultancy services to others as part of the monetization process.

Sponsored Posts and Paid Reviews

Sponsored posts and paid reviews are other ways through which you can monetize your blog or website.  However, like some of the other methods of making money online that are mentioned here, you do need to have have enough of the right kinds of traffic. When that happens, companies will approach you and offer to pay your for the production of sponsored posts on your site.

In a way, this is not too different from Affiliate Marketing, because you are selling someone else’s product. However, in this case, you are paid up front, whether or not people sign up for the offer services. Under paid reviews, you are given a product by a company, or asked to try out a service. You are then asked to write a review of this product.

You are not obliged to write a positive review, although it has to be said that the fact that you are being paid might force you to, at a subconscious level, be less than honest.

Banner Ads

Apart from Google AdSense, banner ads are another way through which you can monetize your blog, by having advertisements displayed on your blog. Again, this will only work if you are getting a respectable amount of traffic. The good thing about banner ads is that you can make more from them, since you eliminate the middlemen (affiliate networks) by negotiating directly with the advertisers.

Write for other blogs

Finally, you will discover, once things start going your way, that demand for your services will increase exponentially.

Other bloggers and websites will, all of a sudden, come knocking on your door, asking you to produce content on their behalf. This is another great way through which you can monetize your blog.

The good thing about this is that the name that you have build for yourself will now enable you to charge whatever it is that you feel you are worth.

Create a Blog with InterServer

This article assumes that you already have a blog. If you were looking for general ways through which you can make money online, then creating your own site is a good place to start. It takes time and hard work, but it can be done. In any case, I recommend that those of my readers who do not already have the requisite technical knowhow create their blogs using 1&1. 1&1 is one of the best web hosting companies that you will be able to find out there. The great thing about this company is that for only $0.99 per month, you can create a world class site of your own.