I’ve worked in blogging and online marketing for years, and it’s never ceased to amaze me how many veteran bloggers are great writers but are not great at business. It seems like almost every time I read a blog, I find a few things that they could do better and make more money. Sometimes, I see basic mistakes like blogs not being optimized for search engines, or ads that are irrelevant to the blog’s audience. That’s why I’m sharing my 10 top ways to make money with your blog.
1. AdSense – Pay per click banner ads
This is a free program that you join through Google. Once approved you will have the ability to place a small bit of HTML code on your blogs. This code generates small ads that are relevant to your blog’s content. Every time a visitor clicks on one of these ads, you are paid a certain amount per click.
2. Newsletters
It is new yet very useful technique to keep your reader updated and having one more opportunity to earn money from your online business. In your e-newsletter the chances of selling the space available on it can earn you good money with less effort.
Usually, you just need to make a newsletter, put some very useful content on it and let your potential client know about its quality. The ad you will get from this technique will be dependent on the number of readers or recipients of it, so make sure you have the good number of readers to present before your client.
3. Become a Brand Ambassador
If you love a brand and want to have their brand ambassador, you can package sponsorship opportunities, like incorporating ads or links into your posts, reaching out to your community on behalf of a brand. Doing a special campaign on twitter using branded has tags. The possibilities are endless !.
4. Affiliate programs
We all like to make sure we’re buying the best products money can buy – your readers are no different to this and are more likely to make a purchase if you’ve found them the best product for them. Choose products and companies with good reputations and quality sales pages. There is nothing worse than giving a glowing review of a product only to send your reader to a page that looks cheap and nasty.
5. Videos
Maybe your ad space is fine enough, but you can brand a video like you would a sponsored post, serious great content that would be useful for your viewers as well as the brand.
6. Digital Downloads
You can see this type of money making method in use on websites that sell ebooks or other digital download products like: WordPress themes, premium design resources, textures, etc. This works great because its a more passive way to earn income from your blog. Once you set the link up for people to pay & download, you never have to touch it again and it can make you money over & over again. To streamline the process of digital downloads, I’d recommend checking out e-junkie. With millions of users and the ability to sell your products for as little as $ 5.00 per month, e-junkie is the perfect solution to have someone pay (to your PayPal account) and instantly download your files.
7. RSS Feeds
If you have a blog, you would also be having a feed for sure. You can Place PPC ads in your feeds like that from AdSense or can also sell flat rate advertising. If you have burned your feed through Feedburner, you can easily add your AdSense ads in it.
8. Sell your Services
Depending on the type of blog you run, you can offer consulting services. Setting this up is as easy as adding a new post category called “Consulting.” This option is not limited to just marketers and entreprenuers, however. If you are a web designer, you would offer design services, which would fall under the same category.
Your consulting page should include a contact form, email and phone number, along with your past work experience and what services you are offering.
9. Job Announcements
All the popular blogs are trying to leakage job boards to make some extra income, Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger … you name it.
Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.
The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $ 10 up to $ 100 for each.
10. Sell Design Templates
Provide blog templates for platforms that you have experience with to develop a niche market for your web design services. There are dozens of blog platforms online, with Blogger, WordPress, Typead and Live Journal being some of the most popular blogging tools. More traffic will come to your website if you can offer blog templates that are compatible with a variety of blogging platforms. However, you will still be able to develop a large following by specializing in one specific blogging platform. Providing a wide variety of layouts will make it easier to get repeat customers when selling blog templates on your website.
In conclusion, this brings to an end my 10 rules of making money blogging. Now I know I have stepped on some toes, I know I have challenged the views of many; I know I stirred the waters of conventional wisdom. So I am going to level the playing field here. If you feel I have opposed your views or principles; then feel free to shoot me through your comments. I am prepared to take your bullets and also respond with mine, so let’s begin. Good Luck Everyone!
Source by M. Yaron
