Even though I’ve blogged for businesses since 2012, I struggled with learning how to monetize a blog for years.
I wrote about whatever I wanted to. And had a great time. I also spent a lot of time making YouTube videos to accompany my blog. Being on camera is fun for me and I enjoy editing videos. I secretly wanted to become a YouTube sensation…
But it just never happened that way.
I love sharing this fact about my experience: I made $47 in 7 years with my blog. ($0.55 per month.)
And when I look at the time I spent recording, editing, writing, promoting…The return is laughable for sure.
So I started taking a lot of courses. I found some things that worked and didn’t work.
I tweaked. Perfected. Practiced.
I am really good at systematizing what I learn to figure out the most efficient way to do things.
And to be clear, there are many ways to monetize blogs! These are just ways I found that worked best for me.
So here are my top suggestions on how to monetize a blog. (Go here for even more tips to monetize your blog!)
10 Ways To Monetize A Blog
1. Ads
Ads are fairly simple to get turned on, so they are great for new bloggers to monetize a blog. Google Ads does not have a traffic requirement, so you can get them turned on almost immediately after having some original content posted on your site.
One of my clients made $1.08 on her first day after getting ads turned on for her blog. This may seem insignificant, but some bloggers don’t see a dime for years.
Once you build your traffic up you can qualify for higher paying ad providers like MediaVine.
2. Affiliates
There are a ton of affiliates out there that will accept new bloggers. The pay out may be small in the beginning, but they are easy to work with.
The trick to having success with affiliates relies on a couple of key factors. First off you only want to promote products that you love and would personally recommend. This will make your recommendation more meaningful, and it will come across in your writing.
You also want something that is as relevant to your niche as possible. If you try to sell therapy to your tech blog or shoes to your mechanic blog, you might not have a ton of success.
Just like with ads, when you have some established traffic you will be able to quality for increasingly better affiliates.
3. Products
Once again, the trick to having success with a product is considering your niche and what they want or need.
Creating your own product to sell can monetize a blog and create passive income. The great thing about digital products is that you don’t need a warehouse full of things to sell. You don’t have to spend up front cash investing in inventory or product creation. There are free design apps like Canva where you can create high quality work without an expensive investment.
Ideas of products you can sell on your blog include:
- eBooks
- Recipes
- Patterns
- Templates
- Artwork
- Photography
- Worksheets, workbooks and printables
- Software
- Audio products
- Music
The list is endless, but this can help you start brainstorming. What are you good at, what do you enjoy creating and what does your niche want?
4. Courses
Courses are a scaleable way to monetize a blog. What I mean by scaleable is that there is no limit to how many you can sell at a time.
What does your audience come to you to learn? Do you know more about a specific topic than the average person?
You do not have to be an expert to teach people something.
Figure out what you have specialized knowledge about and create a course to guide other people. Start by figuring out what you want to teach and then start creating content. Consider adding daily worksheets or audio to increase the value of the course.
Then use a platform to help you create your course like Teachable.
5. Coaching
Coaching is one step above creating a course. It is not scaleable because you only have a limited amount of time you can give to people. What’s great about non-scaleable products is that you can charge a premium fee for a higher end product.
Being a coach is great for new bloggers because you can get 1:1 feedback in real time. You can adjust your program as you go and tailor it to your client’s needs. This will also teach you what your clients want and need much faster and more reliably than a survey.
Get over the fear that you are not qualified to coach someone. You don’t have to be an expert (but if you are, that’s great too!) You just have to be one step ahead of someone else to be able to teach them.
6. Services
You can monetize your blog by selling services that are related to your niche. Coaching is an example of a service that you can offer to your audience.
Other examples of possible services include:
- Virtual assistant
- Legal professionals
- Real estate professionals
- Web designer
- Graphic designer
- Copywriting/ Ghostwriting
- Editing
- Translators
These are just a few examples of services that people offer depending on their niche. But get creative. The options are endless.
7. List Rental
List rental becomes an option when you get a significant amount of subscribers on your list. This is not a good option for super new bloggers.
The idea is to allow another service provider, blogger or whoever to market to your list with their product. They pay you a fee to rent your list to market to. It doesn’t cost you any investment and does not take any of your time.
But be careful about who you rent your list to. Make sure it is something that your readers will appreciate and something you can stand behind.
8. Joint Venture
Working with another blogger a great way to split the work and time it takes it takes to create something to sell.
I am currently partnering with a blogger in a similar niche to my own to create a course together. She is really great at some things, like creating content quickly. And I have a ton of experience in other areas that she is still new to. So it is a great symbiotic partnership, and it takes a lot of the pressure off of being the sole creator of something.
Start networking with like minded people. You should be joining Facebook groups in your niche and support groups for bloggers like yourself. This will help you build relationships that you might benefit from in the future.
9. Monetize a Blog by Selling It
A great way to monetize a blog? Sell it! Build a website with lots of high quality content, get some traffic going and then sell the existing blog to someone else who wants to monetize it further for their own business.
Every great blog starts off with a solid domain. If you want to monetize a blog by selling it, start with scanning GoDaddy for a sturdy domain name that you think would fit easily into a popular niche. Then start building content for the blog, generate some traffic and put a price tag on it.
10. Sell Sponsored Blog Posts
A sponsored blog post is a post that you are paid to publish on your blog.
It may be written by you or the advertisers. If the content is provided for you I highly recommend tweaking the voice for your audience. Make sure it is relevant and valuable for your niche.
With affiliates and sponsored posts, I also recommend being up front with your audience even if it is not legally required. This will keep your trust with them. Say something like, “This is an affiliate I am being paid to promote, but I would never stand behind something that I did not personally recommend or see as helpful.”
It Doesn’t Have To Take Years To Monetize A Blog
Most of these suggestions are things that you can execute fairly quickly. You could get most of these going in a few months if you put your head down and hammer out the content for it.
But making money from your blog is something that is within your reach. It is not something that has to be a far off dream. You can start monetizing a blog now. Get online and apply for Google Adsense right away, and then go through my list and figure out what you want to do
Is designing stuff fun for you? Create some worksheets and upload sellable pdfs to your site.
Do you have specialized knowledge that could help your niche change their lives? Start creating content for a course, or figure out how you can coach others to success.
You can start to monetize your blog today. If you want to talk about how to make money on your blog, I’d love to have a 15 minute strategy session with you.
Hiring a Blogger Coach to Help you Monetize a Blog
I believe that everyone is able to achieve their blogging goals if they are willing to invest the time and effort into achieving them. However, some people find themselves stuck in different stages of blogging.
If you’re not sure how you want to monetize your own blog, I highly recommend hiring a good blogger coach.
A good blogging coach can help you identify the low hanging fruit for monetizing your blog, AND what monetization methods suit your strengths, skills and interest the best.
If you’d like some help growing your business, let’s chat: AlisonReeves.Co/strategy-call
