How to monetize a blog: 11 ways to make money with your website

After talking about how to start a blog, now let’s move on to the next step: How to monetize a blog.

If your goal is to start a blog to make money online, it is therefore important to know HOW.

In the past it was very expensive to start a website, and it was also very difficult to monetize. This was due to the inflexibility of email marketing and the scarcity of tools such as PayPal.

To date, creating a website requires minimal expenses and monetizing a blog has become a lot easier. Of course, the earnings depend on the activity of the blog itself.

But what figures are we talking about?

Based on a Report made by ConverKit on the state of blogs, we know that in 2017, amateur bloggers earned an average of $ 9,497. Instead, professional bloggers have earned more than $ 138,064 in one year.

In order to make blogging the main activity and a real career, therefore, it is necessary to become a professional blogger. To become a blogging pro you will need a good marketing plan, which includes:

• Contents
• Profitable niche
• Monetization strategy

Once the marketing plan is created, when do you start monetizing?

When to start earning

There is no magic formula or goal beyond which money will enter your pocket, but there are several conditions necessary for your blog to earn.

First, two conditions that can help you are:

• Regular traffic: it will not be necessary to have tens of thousands of visitors, but just reach a constant number of visitors per month to understand that you are moving in the right direction
• Grow your e-mail marketing list: even here you don’t need exorbitant numbers, but it is important to know how to use this important medium

But that is not all. Monetizing a blog is a question of numbers and there are many paths to take.

For example, if your earning goal is $ 5,000, the possibilities are as follows:

• Offer a $ 5,000 consultation to your client
• Selling a $ 500 course to 10 people
• Sell products of $ 50 to 100 people

In order to implement the right strategy it is necessary to analyze the position of your blog or the one you want to cover in the future.

In this article we will talk about the ways to monetize a blog, both if you are an expert blogger and if you are a beginner.

How to monetize a blog: the 11 ways to earn

To be able to monetize a blog, each blogger has used a strategy suited to their business. Therefore it is important to understand which method best suits your style and what you intend to propose on your site.

The 11 ways to monetize a blog are:

1. Niche freelance blogger
2. Selling Ebooks to the Public
3. Offer and sell online courses
4. Coaching and consultancy activities
5. Paid membership plans
6. Monetize through advertising and banners
7. Become an affiliate marketer
8. Sponsored posts and reviews
9. Selling physical or digital products
10. Accepting donations on the blog
11. Podcast

But let’s go in order. Not all of these methods seem understandable, but don’t be discouraged. We want to offer you a step-by-step guide to help you make money on your blog.

Let’s begin…

Monetize a Blog: Niche Freelance Blogger

It is one of the simplest ways to make money online. To become a freelance writer for the most famous and visited blogs in your niche, you can start from your personal blog.

By opening a blog on a certain topic, you will surely have become an expert in the sector. Why not use your skills to make them available to large websites?

Many companies are constantly looking for people who create content to improve the marketing activity of their website.

According to the Glassdor survey, a Freelance Writer earns an average of just under $ 50,000 a year. Obviously, this figure depends on the Writer’s experience.

Here is a diagram of how much a niche writer earns on average.

It is not easy for a novice writer to determine how much to ask for each article. In the beginning, the rate to be requested will not be very high, but you can increase it as you get more experience.

One piece of advice we want to give you though, is to not sell out by asking for less than $ 5 per article. Too low a fee can raise doubts about the quality of your work and your preparation.

Furthermore, it is preferable to request the compensation per project, and not on the basis of the necessary hours which are difficult to establish in advance.

WriteWorldwide offers an outline of how much a Writer can earn for each project during the first year of activity regardless of experience and niche.

Your task will be to create engaging content to increase the number of customers of the company you write for.

The secret is to promote your service through the blog, even though guest posts on other blogs.

Find the Blog to Write For

The trick is to do a simple Google search based on the keyword. Typically, those companies that are already investing heavily in content marketing will appear in the first results.

Once you find a blog that might need new writers, all you need to do is promote your writing service.

Monetize a blog: Selling Ebooks to the public

It is one of the most used methods by bloggers for the simplicity with which it is possible to create an Ebook. The costs are not excessive, and the price at which it is sold is usually very low.

In addition to being a way to monetize a blog, selling an Ebook is also useful to check if the public is really interested in the contents of the site. It will not be necessary to have a lot of traffic on the site, but you have to find the right way to propose it.

This medium has been going strong lately, especially when sold the right way.

Some tips that might help you:

• Offer your service for free before proposing your Ebook
• Ask your blog visitors questions and interact with them
• Direct the purchase of the Ebook after offering your service for free

If you don’t have the time to write an Ebook or the right skills, rely on a Ghost Writer who can do it for you.

Monetize a blog: Offer and sell online courses

Even if you’re not an expert, offering an online course is a great way to make money blogging.

To find the right topic, you will only have to identify a common problem to which you want to give your personal solution.

Some methods to identify the issue to focus on:

• Propose a user survey
• Read the blog comments
• Understand what you are good at

Monetize a blog: Coaching and consulting activities

Many successful bloggers are targeting the public as Coaches and Consultants to help improve the performance and strategies of amateur bloggers.

You don’t actually need to be a professional blogger to offer support. In fact, it is enough to exploit one’s skills and put them at the service of people.

In this case, it will not be essential to have high traffic, but it will be sufficient to offer advice to a few people. Once the product has been tested, a word of mouth will start that will increase your business.

Monetize a Blog: Paid Membership Plans

To monetize a blog, a method that is gaining ground is that of the Subscription Economy. An example is that of Netflix.

These are membership sites, with monthly or annual subscriptions, to receive exclusive benefits, such as:

• Special contents
• Exclusive articles
• Webinar
• Meetings

In this case, the number of users should not be high, as the traffic of the gain is regular. It is also possible to create a subscription site on the WordPress platform.

Monetize through advertising and banners

Advertising isn’t highly regarded, and some see it as a bad monetization strategy for low earnings.

Despite this, there is a reason why this method is so common. In fact, this way it is very quick to start making money with the blog, even if the earnings are not high.

The success of Adsense, therefore, lies in placing banners in a strategic way that can generate a lot of traffic. On WordPress, you can download a free plugin to optimize the positioning of banners, Ad Inserter.

For this mode, the fundamental factor is that of traffic, so it is essential to grow the blog and improve content marketing.

But beware of ad blockers that could damage your earnings.

Monetize a blog: Become an affiliate marketer

This is one of the most common and efficient methods of the moment. Affiliate marketing makes up 15% of the digital media industry’s revenue.

What is it about?

It involves promoting other companies’ products in exchange for a proportionate reward based on the sales you have contributed to.

To implement this method you will need 3 things:

• A market niche to target
• The product to promote
• An audience to whom to propose the product

In the last period, it is very common to create affiliations with banking or body wellness products.

Sponsored posts and reviews

Once you have some blog traffic you can earn through sponsored posts and reviews.

The company pays a contribution for each review or post in which the product is mentioned on the blog and gives its opinion.

In this way, the company will achieve greater visibility and credibility in order to increase product sales.

This is the typical activity of the influencer and is growing rapidly. Businesses are increasingly relying on web advertising.

Selling physical or digital products

Many bloggers have moved from simple blogging to selling products through e-commerce.

Once you have built trust in your audience and make yourself known, you can propose your own product starting from these people.

Furthermore, if you have computer skills in addition to blogging, you can use them to also sell digital products such as Photoshop presets or other photography post-production software.

Monetize a blog: Accepting donations on the blog

This alternative is very efficient if you are a non-profit organization. Among the WordPress plugins that allow you to accept donations are:

• Give
• Charitable
• Paypal Donations

While this method is great for nonprofits, it is possible to monetize a blog even if they are not for profit.

In this case, it is necessary to have a large user traffic and have an audience particularly dedicated to the subject of the blog.

Monetize a blog: Podcast

Podcast success has been exploding in recent years, reaching over 700,000 active Podcasts in just one month.

In addition, through this tool you can increase the traffic of your blog and also be an excellent source of income. This is possible through sponsorships with companies within the Podcast.

Some multimedia hosts for Podcast publishing are:

• E Transistor
• Blubrry
• Libsyn
• Buzzsprout

There are also plugins made available by WordPress to help you host your podcasts. To create it you need to have:

• Microphone
• Headphones
• Audio editing software
• Podcast hosting
• Skype or Zoom account

Conclusion

In conclusion, to be able to monetize a blog it is essential to develop a monetization strategy that adapts to the style of your blog.

Furthermore, for most of the methods it is not necessary to have a large user traffic, but it is necessary to have continuous and participatory feedback.

It is therefore important to understand what the earning goal is and what are the numbers needed to implement the strategy developed.

If you want to start making money with your blog, keep following us to find out are the steps to have a successful blog!