A pleasant thing about creating a blog is that you can make money from it. Blogging for money for beginners can be scary to start but doable given grit and consistency are applied. By incorporating at least one of the following ways to monetize a blog, you can earn on a regular basis.
Affiliate marketing
The blogosphere is renowned for blog affiliate programs where you add affiliate links in the body of your piece. By 2022, affiliate marketing is predicted to reach $2.8 billion in the US alone according to Statista.
With affiliate marketing, you’re able to earn a commission based on the terms and conditions of an affiliate program you choose (either per traffic gained or purchase made). Famous online eCommerce sites like Amazon, Topshop, and Apple run affiliate programs and engage bloggers to write blog posts about the products these merchants offer.
The ‘secret sauce’ here is an individual affiliate link which you get from the company whose product or service you’re promoting. When a reader clicks this link, a file, commonly known as a cookie, gets stored on the reader’s device. This file helps the company understand that this lead was referred through your publication. Mind that each company has a different cookie life policy, so you need to read each company’s affiliate program carefully.
Based on the niche you intend to write for and are knowledgeable about, you can promote services, physical products, or information products. To promote either one of these, you could write product reviews, comparisons, or tutorials. Additionally, you could write articles, case studies, create step-by-step guides, or plans. Before engaging with a merchant, remember to check the cookie lifespan, payout schedule, support availability, and whether they can provide deep linking (link to the product or service on offer).
If you don’t want to search for individual companies yourself, you could turn to an affiliate network. Affiliate network platforms are like mediators between publishers (affiliates) and companies (advertisers). With affiliate network platforms, you get to compare commissions across different programs, get paid, and track how affiliate links are performing. Some top 10 affiliate networks for bloggers include but are not limited to Impact, Shareasale, Rakuten LinkShare, and CJ Affiliates. You can sign up for the Affiliate Window network to promote brands and services across the globe.
Banner ads and more
Banner spaces on your blog can be taken by brands to promote their products and services. You can place those banner ads pretty much anywhere. Most commonly, you can embed banners on top of your blog pages, at the bottom of the page, or in the right hand bottom corner. With banner ads, you can earn money either through the cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand (CPT) model. CPC lets you receive a commission for readers who click the ad whereas CPT means you get a payment for a thousand interactions the ad initiates. For starters, you can create an account with Google AdSense.
AdSense lets content writers earn money by matching ads to their copy. The ads are provided by advertisers who bid to show their banners on your blog. In other words, AdSense is a mediator between you and advertisers where you provide the venue for the ads to appear. Since AdSense utilizes an ad auction, the highest paying ads will be selected and will get displayed on your site.
Keep your options open though as there are other Google AdSense alternatives that can let you earn. Such ad serving networks include but are not limited to Media.net, Adversal, Adcash, Infolinks, and Carbon Ads. These and many more services are tuned to offer different types of ads. Feel free to partner with those platforms whose ads correspond to the look and feel of your site as well as your target audience.
Sponsored content
You can earn money by writing sponsored articles or so-called advertorials. This model is especially beneficial if you have a vast audience other brands would be interested in reaching. For instance, if your blog caters to sportswear and Nike issues a new line of tennis shoes, the brand can ask you to write a paid-for article about their new line.
Sponsored social media publications
Having built a considerable number of followers on social media platforms, you can become an avenue for brands to advertise their products and services. You can charge brands for sponsored posts. This monetization model is useful after you’ve created a targeted niche readership. The bigger the number of your followers is, the higher the odds are that you’ll be approached by brands.
Newsletter space
If you have a newsletter you send to your readers on a weekly or monthly basis, you can sell advertising space or a mention in it. For this model to work, you have to offer brands a satisfying number of subscribers.
Consulting and coaching services
You can create blog posts on topics you specialize in and offer consultation sessions over the phone, email, or video chat. Your blog should have a special sign-up form or a book-a-call button which you can place on the page or a particular post. Organizations, companies, or teams can address you for further guidance.
Similar to consulting, coaching is usually more of one-on-one service. Think in advance of the service format you can provide your leads with. You can offer hourly sessions, service packages, or unlimited email advice packages.
Donations
Your blog may collect donations from the readership if you’re a non-profit organization. People can show their appreciation for your content by donating money. In tech terms, it means you’ll need to add a plugin with the functionality which will allow you to collect donations. Or you can write custom code if your blog was coded from scratch.
It can be challenging to add a donation service to your blog if it’s created with the help of a CMS or platform. Your CMS or platform will probably offer no support for that functionality unless it’s included in your service package.
How to start a blog and make money
If you’re faced with the question of how to start a blog and get paid, we recommend you use one of the ways above. Your passion for blogging can become a source of your income and managed hosting from HostPro can improve the user interaction, because there’s nothing worse than a failed transaction or banner that won’t get displayed due to bad page load speed.