Why do we blog? Do we blog for the money? Maybe some of us do. Or, do we blog for the love of writing and hope that it pays the web hosting bill?
There are probably many of us who are in between those two points.
Regardless of where we are on the spectrum, it is nice to make a few bucks, right?
So, how do we do that without spending all of our time on making money and none of the time on the creativity of the writing, let alone, the technical aspects of maintaining a blog?
Monetization Options
First, let's look at some of the ways that we could make money from our blog. Some of these are very obvious methods and utilized throughout the internet. You do not need to limit yourself to these methods, but it is a place to start if you are a newbie.
Website Advertising
One of the first methods that comes to mind, when considering monetization is advertising. Even within the topic of advertising, there are different types of advertising.
One is contextual advertising. That is when the ads that appear are relevant to the content that you are reading. An example of this type of advertising is infolinks.com.
In the case of infolinks, they use a special algorithm that figures out what the intent is for the reader. This is based on a scan of the content in the article. Then, based on that algorithm, “smart ads” appear in the text (or display ads).
Have you ever seen an ad for something appear in the sidebar of a web site after you have searched for that very same item on amazon.com? That is an example of contextual advertising. Of course, the algorithms that are used are proprietary, but fortunately, you can make money without having to understand all of the technical stuff.
In addition to the contextual advertising, there is also Google's Adsense product and there are other sites where you can broker advertising, like buysellads.com.
Here is a great article about AdSense, here on Basic Blog Tips: AdSense for Feeds Dies, AdSense for Search Rocks! by Ms. Ileane.
Another area of advertising is through YouTube videos. There is a wealth of information, presented by Ms. Ileane herself, on how to use YouTube videos in your blogging, branding, and marketing endeavors. But, they can also become a key portion of your income. You can create dynamic and engaging videos and embed them on your site, having the built-in advertising source built-in with your video. This works well with podcasts and accompanying slideshow presentation via video, or a Google hangout, or an animation video. The sky is the limit on what you can do. (Can you tell I am into videos?!)
YouTube Advertising Formats: The Essential Guide by Ms. Ileane.
So, those options for advertising include:
- Use an advertising system like Adsense, Infolinks, etc.
- Advertise through your embedded YouTube videos.
- Selling ad space on your own site, to other advertisers (i.e. buysellads.com).
Speaking and Training
Now that you are an expert, you can monetize your expertise. Come on, you *know* you are an expert in something, right?! One way to make money is to become a speaker. I once interviewed a talented gentleman named Patrick Schwerdtfeger (just remember “bookpatrick.com” — it is easier). He was inspirational on how to get started as a speaker, making $5,000 for sharing what you know and also having exotic trips paid for by the conference. He has a wonderful way of sharing his story that inspires those of us who want to do the same thing (travel and make big bucks).
For those of us who want to stay home (or need to stay home or don't like traveling), there is the option of sharing our talents by training others. You could coach them one-on-one or in groups. Coaching requires one-on-one time, which can be a lot of time! However, another option is to put your training into a self-paced program. This helps you to be available for specialized questions or shorter coaching sessions while containing the bulk of your content in the training program. This helps you to address the pain spots that your students may have, specific to their situation, but also keeping the price lower (compared to one-on-one coaching).
A great platform for that is Udemy.com. In fact, Ms. Ileane has a course on Udemy. Check it out and start building your engagement on YouTube while also seeing how Ms. Ileane monetizes using Udemy! Skillfeed is another site Ms. Ileane is using!
Considerations and Objectives
This sounds like it is a lot of work, but it is a matter of knowing your audience and identifying what type of monetization works best for:
- your audience.
- your web site.
- YOU.
So, if your audience is mostly small business owners and bloggers, you may not want to sell advertising to a combine manufacturer. (If you don't know what a combine is, click here.) Of course, that works well if you are blogging about farming or farming equipment. That might be a match made in heaven if that is the case.
When it comes to your site, consider the design of your site. In the case of Basic Blog Tips, Ms. Ileane has a nice clean layout. It is a sort of magazine style, and it is quite pleasant to look at, really. If Ms. Ileane were to fill it with ads in every nook and cranny, it might tend to look a little cluttered. However, this “cluttered look” may work for a more newspaper type design of a web site, where every spot seems to be taken up with something.
Along with the look and feel of your web site, there is the purpose (or objective) of your web site. If you are all about your role as a speaker, you may want to have less in the area of ads and really focus on your sales funnel pointing to the sale of your book and the contact for you to be the speaker at the next conference. In that way, for those visitors to your site who do not run conferences or events, you can lead them to purchase your book or sign up for your Udemy course. In that particular case, you may be focusing more on your services and aiming *not* to distract them with the web site or YouTube advertising.
A combination approach may be just what is perfect for your blog or web site.
When deciding on your monetizing strategy, don't forget about YOU. It may look wonderful to consider making YouTube your primary source of monetization, especially after looking at what Ms. Ileane does! But, if you detest video and are having a nervous break-down over the thought of doing it, well, maybe it isn't for you. In all cases, though, there is an option to outsource, so you don't necessarily have to rule out one method of monetization just because you don't want to do it (i.e. video production). If you are made of money, you can hire all of it out, but then, you are not likely reading this article if you already have that surplus of money, eh?
In Summary
Now you have some ideas for *how* to monetize, and you have some things to think about to help you decide what or how to implement those options. While you are percolating on that, here are some other related articles and books:
- How You Should Be Making Money from Your Niche Blog by Anil Agarwal.
- ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
by Darren Rowse.
- Authority Affiliate Marketing: 12 Steps to Long-Term Profits with a Single Niche
by Steve Scott
- Understanding How to Monetize Website Traffic by Mitz.
So, what is your next move for monetizing your blogging endeavors? Please do share it with us! (And, when you are rich and famous, come back to Basic Blog Tips and share your story with us little guys 😉 )
Hi Deborah!
Most of the money my websites make come from promoting relevant products to my email list. Previously this was entirely affiliate products but this year I’m looking to create more of my own and begin promoting those. I’d say product creation is actually one of my biggest focuses this year so I’m excited for that.
I’d imagine one or two of these will be courses. I have looked into Udemy but from what I’ve heard, they’re constantly lowering the amount they pay to creators so I may seek an alternative. I’ll have to look into it further when that time comes and assess my options.
Thanks Deborah!
Hi James.
Thank you for your feedback. That is great to hear, that you are making money from your own products, through email marketing.
I have heard so many people comment are the challenges they face with their own product selling and it is great to hear your success story.
Thank you for sharing that with us, as another viable option for the web site (i.e. promoting your Udemy courses).
Looks like you have hit the mark again advertizing is one great way to let you be free to write the articles you like
Hi Walt. Yeah, we like that writing freedom 🙂 Thank you.
Blog writing is an important part of SEO to generating traffic.
Good point, Sandy. Thank you.
I have a good experience with infolinks, as adsense approval is not that too easy. Could you suggest me some other alternatives too for earning money?
Hi Karanraj. Thank you for your feedback on infolinks. James brought up a good point, above, with promoting your own content. If you have expertise in a particular area, you could put together a Udemy course, even with PowerPoint slideshows converted to videos. Have you checked that out yet?
A big question I have is not so much the “how” but the “when”? Build up a large audience first and then launch the money funnels a la FB, YouTube, Pinterest, and bloggers like Derek Halpurn and Brian Dean, or monetize from day 1?
Good question(s), AJ. I think the challenge that I have found, personally, is that when I try to figure out the “when,” I have the possibility of not starting. Maybe, instead of aiming for say, a “huge” audience, try a goal for a smaller audience, then launch your funnel and grow your audience. That way, you are starting down that path.
Hi Deborah, Great post. I know that blog content is the king of our blogs but by adding some photos and keywords in blog posts we can easily make our blog content more effective. Keep sharing such amazing posts with us… 🙂
Hi Abhisheck. Thank you for the compliment. Yes, images definitely help with the content and make it visually appealing 😉 And, keywords do help with being found on the internet with that SEO optimization.
Good article Deborah.
I use adsense on some of my web sites and get a fair amount of clicks on these ads, but my experience is, if you have a website/blog which focus on one particular category or niche it will certainly pay off to sign up with a good affiliate program (in your website niche of course…) that pays you for signups or sales.
🙂
Thanks, Morten, for the feedback. That makes sense. It seems like covering all of the bases is a good general philosophy, but not to expect that any one area will pay all the bills. Good idea with your niche focus (affiliate marketing).
Infolinks is great for text link advertisement . its also have differential ad units to monetize our contents . thanks
Thanks, Neha, for your feedback.
You just wanna LOVE what you do Deborah to make monetizing a breeze. Web advertising is a nice stream – sweet tips BTW 😉 – and also, offering coaching, freelance writing or any service which vibes with you and your brand.
Keep on inspiring!
Ryan
Hello Ryan. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, we love to do what we love, eh?
I prefer adsense and direct ads to monetize my blogs….infolinks does not work well and looks messy..
Thanks for the honest feedback, Vishal. I’m sure that not all solutions work for all people. I appreciate your feedback.
From my experience, to monetize blog for any online money program, our website at least must able to have maintain traffic at 1000uv per daily. Adsense, affiliate, email marketing or else, traffic is the main reason to make money online.. 🙂
Good feedback, Moham, and great way to give a metric to it, a point of measurement. Thanks for that feedback.
For me AdSense has been the best and after that the infolinks. I have watched many advertising companies appearing and disappearing. And I also cant understand this CPM stuff. With a lot of competition out there now, its really hard for bloggers to depend on just advertisement earnings. We have to keep up with search engines and we have to create quality content and then after that, there is social sharing and maintenance that can not be ignored. Lots of work, and worry for publishers. This does not help everybody that – no.1. understand users no.2. understand content no.3. choose advertising network. For small publishers there are two options. 1. Cost per click and 2. cost per impressions – and if someone is lucky, he won’t be needing cost per impressions. Just the cost per click may seem to work but for small publishers. And the Panda, Penguine and Hummingbird have eaten a lot of publishers community.
Thanks for making me “percolating on” this topic! 😉
Problogger’s Secret for Blogging Your Way to Six Figure Income is a great book for serious bloogers. It is a must have for bloggers. Good tips you have there. I think I love contextual advertising, I will give it a try. Thanks.
Hi Deborah!
Thanks for your sharing. I learn a lot from this article. I am just starting my career in monetizing money from blog. I have start using infolinks in my site.
I hope you will have an article about how to have a traffic in a month. 🙂
Cheers,
Drew