Whether or not you started your blog for profit or just as a side hobby, many bloggers eventually want to learn how to monetize their blog. Your blog is a unique online space that draws a unique audience. In this post, I'll go over ways to make money with your blog.
Even if you're starting with a relatively low amount of blog traffic, you can make money with your blog. You don't have to wait until you have thousands of daily visitors. However, increasing your traffic will increase the amount of money you can make. Let's talk about ways you can make money with your blog, and I'll explain which methods may be better for low traffic vs. high traffic.
1. Google Ads
One of the most widely used ad networks on the web is Google Adsense. It's readily available for use with blogs and websites of any size. Whether you're still in the beginning stages of growing your blog or you've managed to increase your traffic significantly, you can use google ads to begin earning profit from your blog.
It's up to you how many ads you place on your pages. Some people choose to place ads only in their header, footer, or sidebar, while others choose to place several ads throughout the content of their page. Currently, in-content ads tend to increase earnings the most. Thankfully, Google Adsense has made it very easy to automatically place relevant ads where they will earn the most money for your site. Check out this beginner's guide to using Adsense.
2. Amazon Associates
Another relatively easy way to earn money is through Amazon Associates. Amazon lets publishers sign up to earn a percentage of purchases made from their links and ads. Once you're signed up, it's easy to create a text or image-based ad for any product on Amazon.com and link to it through an ad or a text link.
I've had the most successful earnings by using in-text links to send my web traffic to relevant products (including ingredients in my recipe posts). Just know that when you use this particular tactic, you should always have a disclaimer in the header of your blog posts that notifies readers that some links may be ads or sponsorship. Also, your website disclaimer should mention this as well. Here are some tips and ideas on how to create advertisement disclaimers for your blog.
3. Affiliate Programs
The next step that I recommend in monetizing your blog includes joining affiliate programs. Affiliate programs allow you to earn a commission on products that users buy after clicking on your link.
If you write about a specific topic or niche, I suggest you first seek out affiliate programs for products and online stores within that niche. For example, if you write recipe posts, you can affiliate with an online grocery marketplace. You can also look through the website of your favorite products and online stores and see if they have an affiliate program.
A great place to begin searching for possible affiliate networks is Commission Junction. This website allows you to search and quickly join hundreds of relevant affiliate programs.
4. Paid Posts and Sponsored Posts
Paid posts are any posts that you get paid to post on your blog. Companies buy blog placements for several reasons. One of the main reasons is to build organic backlinks.
Sponsored posts are similar to paid posts. However, I would like to distinguish between the two. Sponsored posts are typically more about a company promoting a specific product or service to your readers. While paid posts generally are more about getting a link placement, sponsored posts generally require that you work more closely with the company. The company may ask you to review a product with images and video, directly recommend a product, etc.
Overall, paid posts and sponsored posts are a great way to monetize your blog. However, it would be best if you were cautious in selling links and sponsorships. Too low-quality links and sponsorships could decrease the value of your blog. Make sure that these posts go along with a lot of great organic content on your blog.
You might also like: Self Employment Tax Deductions for Bloggers
5. Link Placements
Link placements are similar to paid posts. With link placements, you are typically getting paid to place a link on an already established article. Some companies or blogs pay for link placements on articles that are highly relevant to their product or service.
If you have a blog post that does very well in SEO rankings, you may consider selling a link placement within this post. You may even be approached about this opportunity via email. Just make sure that the link is not obvious spam or irrelevant to your article. A bad link placement could hurt your rankings.
6. Private Ad Networks
Google ads is not the only ad network that you can use to monetize your blog. Private ad networks are another great option for making money off of ads that run on the side or in the middle of your content.
There are a lot of private ad networks out there. Some of them cater to certain niches and some of them are more general. Here's a great list of private ad networks that publishers can join.
Some private ad networks have strict rules for joining, such as google ranking and web traffic. This means that they can offer their ad buyers a better guarantee that their ad money is going toward reputable websites. However, some private ad networks are laxer and more open to new bloggers.
7. Native Ad Placements
Finally, many bloggers get paid for placing ads directly on their blog, without the use of an ad network. Typically, this would be an agreement between you and a certain company and would involve negotiating specific ad spaces in specific areas of your blog.
Native ad placements are the most specific. For example, if you have a blog about dog care, you could sell native ad placements to a pet care company or dog training service.
Bloggers have a better chance of selling native ad placements if their blog is more specific and ranks very well for specific keywords.
–
As you can see, there are many ways to make money with your blog. Not every money-making method will work for every blogger. You will need to experiment and see what works best for you and what is most profitable.
Just remember that the most important thing to the success of your blog is the information contained in your content. You should always be trying to serve your website visitors first and foremost. This is what will determine the long-term success of your blog, and the income will come along with that naturally.
