5 Ways to Monetize Your Blog
Your blog offers more than just a communication platform. If you want to generate passive or active income, you can monetize your blog and create content that lends itself to generating revenue. If you’re not sure where to start, consider these five monetization strategies.
1. Write Sponsored Posts
Businesses often pay bloggers to write unbiased reviews or to recommend their products or services. A sponsored post might talk about how the blogger uses a product or could provide an objective assessment of a service’s quality.
To abide by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules, bloggers should always disclose sponsored content. If you write a review of a product that a manufacturer or retailer sponsored, let your readers know in the content that you were paid for your words.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliates are partners in your blogging business that provide you with links to their content. You insert those links into your blog’s content, and if readers click on those links and make purchases, you receive a commission. The trick to affiliate marketing is to promote products you believe in so they flow seamlessly with your blog content and readers who make purchases will be happy with you as someone who provides great content and products.
You can join an existing affiliate program to capitalize on its momentum. Make sure your affiliates align with your blog’s content; for example, if you write about fashion, an electronics retailer probably won’t experience much cross-over with your audience.
3. Freemium Content
The freemium monetizing model allows you to continue posting free blog content for your readers. However, you create additional (premium) content for which users must pay a membership fee. You might provide them with ebooks and white papers, for example, or even non-text resources, such as videos and infographics.
4. Direct Ads and Network Ads
Although this strategy is on the decline, many bloggers still publish direct advertisements. These appear in posts and on sidebars and footers. When readers click on the links, you receive a certain amount of money (pay-per-click or PPC).
You can sell ads directly or join an advertising network. With the latter option, a third party sells the advertising space on your blog. You’ll earn less money per client, but you won’t have to deal with the expense and time required to sell ad space and manage sponsors.
5. Products and Services
If you have a valuable service to provide to your community, consider charging them for it. You might start a consulting gig or offer your services as a public speaker. Your blog becomes a platform that establishes your authority and credibility in your industry.
Some bloggers also make their own products. They might sell their wares on sites like Amazon and Etsy, but they promote those products on their blogs to reach a larger audience.
Are you currently receiving payment from you blog efforts? Sign up for Payoneer, today and you can receive payments quickly, easily, and securely from anywhere in the world.