Have you been trying to come up with simple ways to make money blogging? Perhaps when you built your blog or website, you simply wanted to get your voice heard or highlight your expertise in your field or market? That is great, but now that you are seeing some traffic, why not start making some money?
Successful bloggers understand that blogging is a business and long term plan for how to make money blogging.
If you think that you just need to right a bunch of blog posts and put ads on your site, you may be surprised to learn that the majority of bloggers making money from their blogs have multiple income streams including:
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Online Courses
Many blog and website owners have reported that their followers and readers actually ask them if they have any products or resources for sale. The market is definitely out there. People want to take action once they have hit your virtual destination.
So choose a few of the following 21 ways to make money blogging and you will be own your way to making money online.
1) Email Marketing
You have endlessly heard that “the money is in the list” so you had better be building an email list. You are? Great! When was the last time you contacted your list?
It is very inexpensive and easy to set up email autoresponders that send automatically to new subscribers who sign up and give you their email address. But don’t go crazy selling here. Only every third or fourth email should be an attempt to monetize your website by selling something, with every other email simply offering extreme value.
2) Become an Affiliate with Amazon
Amazon is the king when it comes to online retail, but also into getting people to actually make a purchase. Truly, one of the easiest affiliate programs to profit from is Amazon. Head over to the official Amazon site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and apply to become an affiliate. You then simply add links on your website through text, banners and photos back to items for sale on Amazon.
The commission levels are low to start, but this is one of the easiest ways of monetizing your blog if you can get a lot of blog traffic and you write product focused content.
Some examples of content written by successful Amazon affiliates include:
- Product review posts
- DIY posts
- Home decor posts
- Seasonal decorating posts
3) Sell Someone Else’s Products
Whether you run a virtual or land-based service or company, why not sell someone else’s products on your site? With an SEO optimized website, you generate blog traffic through search engine queries related to your blog content.
If you do not have a related product to sell, chances are someone else does. When you include an affiliate link in your blog post, you can earn a commission if you reader buys through your link.
Team up with a local or web merchant (like Amazon), or become an affiliate at Commission Junction. CJ is just one of several online companies that pays you an affiliate commission every time you sell a product from one of its sponsors.
4) Sell Your Own Digital Product
Instead of someone else’s products, why not sell your own? There are plenty of Internet marketing forums where you can hire someone to create a simple PDF or video series. Take that finished virtual product and sell it on your site.
PayPal, the world’s largest online payment processor, provides free links and “Buy Now” buttons that you can associate with your product. This way, you do not need to personally process credit cards or pay some company to do so.
5) Sell Your Own Physical Product
There are many companies online which will offer to handle order fulfillment when you take an order on your website for a physical product. And if you do not own a physical product to sell, simply check the web for “drop ship companies”. All you do is advertise a product, and once you make the sale, these companies handle shipping and customer service for you. You profit from the physical product sale, with no hassles.
6) Partner Up with Google AdSense
If simple is what you are after, this is it. By partnering up with Google, you can place their advertisements on your site and earn a monthly income. When you are on a website and see some text or banner advertisements, those might be Google AdSense links. Whenever someone simply clicks on one of those links on your site, you can make anywhere from a few pennies to a few dollars. Very easy to get started.
Once you reach a higher level of traffic, you can apply to other ad networks, like Mediavine, AdThrive or Monumetric.
7) Sell Banner Ads
There are companies like BuySellAds and AdvertiseSpace that will help you make money in this regard. Selling banner ads on your site can generate a dependable month-to-month income. The key is in wrapping up an advertiser for 6 months or a year, rather than simply selling a banner on your site for one month.
Here is how you do that. Suppose you want $50 a month for a banner on your website. Offer a discounted price of $399 for the entire year. This is a 33% savings for the advertiser. The 2 companies I just mentioned above? They will help you get the word out that you are selling banner space on your website, so you do not even have to do any selling.
8) Make Money from Your Website by Adding a “Hire Me” Page
Whatever your area of expertise, and whether you are selling a product or service, do not forget to “ask for the sale”! A Hire Me or Work with Me page is a simple way to let people know exactly what you are selling, and what prices you are selling it for.
9) Sell Video Ad Space
Banner ads can produce a nice monthly or annual income. But think about your last experience to a website that had banner ads and any type of video. The video captured your attention much better than the banner ads, didn’t it? That is why you should sell video advertising space on your site, starting today.
A merchant can inexpensively record a quick video hyping their product or service. All you do is post their video to your site. And you decide on a monthly or annual fee to keep their video up and running.
(Bonus Tip: some business owners will tell you they do not have a video to advertise their company. Record a simple video for them, and charge anywhere from $50 – $250 for that video. Now you’re getting paid to create the video, and to advertise it.)
10) Use Your Website to Generate Leads
If you have traffic of any kind, you can capture e-mail addresses and other contact information and then sell those valuable leads. Companies like Peerfly and Neverblue will pay you for each and every lead you generate from your website. You handle no customer service, and your web visitors do not even need to buy anything. This is a great “hands-off” way to monetize your website
11) Sell “Clickable” Text Ads
This is one of the least used and simplest website monetization processes you will ever discover. You probably know how to make a clickable text link. If you do not, hire someone from Elance or an Internet marketing forum to do it for you. It literally takes less than a minute once you know what you are doing to make text on your website or blog clickable.
And while many businesses will not want to invest the extra money required for purchasing a banner or video ad on your site, you can sell text links at a lower cost. For example, you may want to advertise 5 clickable text links per month for $50. Sell 5 or 10 of these inexpensive packages and you have a nice little recurring income.
12) Create a Membership Program
This step is applicable even if you don’t get that much traffic. Everyone wants to be a member of an exclusive group. A lot of people believe that free information, resources, and even products have little value.
So why not alert your readers and followers that you have built a special membership group that caters only to those businessmen and women serious about building their online presence? Or if you sell an off-line product or service, gear this membership program towards your expertise in that market.
The key here is to keep the monthly fee low, and the quality high. Offering a $5, $7 or $9 price tag for monthly content and services not available on your website will attract plenty of sign ups month in and month out. (Bonus Tip: talented web designers and software specialists over at Odesk can create a simple membership site for you at a very low cost.)
13) Sell Coaching
No matter how you perceive yourself, others see you as an expert in some area. Everyone has fans that respect and admire them. Absolutely everyone. No matter what field you are in, no matter whether your business is online or off, you can use your website to sell your expertise. Think about the things that you do right now which provide you income, make you happy, and that you look forward to doing.
Other human beings are just like you are. They want to make money, they want to be happy, and they want to have some hobby or activity that gives them joy. Offer coaching in some area that you are passionate about, and you will be absolutely amazed at the amount of money people will pay you to simply share your knowledge.
14) Sell Your Website
The ultimate monetization for any web property or blog is to actually transfer ownership to someone else. A lot of website owners start off building a presence in a particular niche, only to find out they really are not that interested anymore. Why not sell that site?
On a site like Flippa, for as little as $15 per month, you can advertise your website to millions of potential buyers.
But you do not have to pay a single penny to successfully sell your online business.
If you have a Halloween oriented site, contact other Halloween site owners. Offer to sell your site for X number of dollars, or simply ask for an offer.
There are also websites like the Warrior Forum, which have millions of Internet marketing members. That is a great place to sell your website, and aside from the extra capital that sale generates, you have one less web property taking up your valuable time.
15) Sell Consulting Services
You can use the valuable free information you have posted to your blog or website to attract traffic. You then sell consulting services that help other online business owners do the same thing. Consultancy fees can run from the very affordable to the very expensive, depending on the type of consulting services and value you are offering.
16) Give Away Something Valuable for Free
Yes, you can make money by giving away something for free. Giving away services or products is an outstanding way to benefit from the Law of Reciprocity. That law states that inherently hardwired into human behavior is the rubber band or boomerang effect. Most human beings feel subconsciously obligated to return the favor when you give them something.
And when you make your gift extremely valuable, you create such good feelings with your prospect that you also enhance your image as a leader in your marketplace or niche.
Do not know what to give away? Create an in-depth report solving a major problem in your niche. Be sure to include links to your products and services in this report. Attach a dollar figure to this report to create a sense of value, and then begin giving it away. (Bonus Tip: this also gives you a valuable digital product you can sell for the rest of your life.)
17) Integrate a Podcast into Your Website
Podcasts are incredibly effective ways of generating traffic back to your website. But you can also integrate your podcast episodes on your site. This allows your followers to listen to your podcast episodes without leaving your site. That increases the amount of time each visitor spends on your site or blog, which increases your relevancy and ranking in search engines, which translates to more revenue. A podcast also effectively demonstrates you as a market expert, leading to more traffic and more sales.
18) Create a Poll or Survey
Survey Monkey is a piece of free software that lets you ask the people who show up on your blog or website exactly what they want. What better way to monetize your website then to ask your followers exactly what they want you to sell them?! The software is simple to use, even for beginners. And there are dozens of other free survey companies that you can use as well.
Hate the thought of adding software to your site? Head over to Fiverr.com and have someone handle the job for you for $5. The rest is easy. Just ask your readers what they want. One smart way to ensure that you can monetize this process is to ask the following question: “How much would you pay for a …?” You end that sentence with a product or service you provide, and you have guaranteed sales.
19) Ask For Donations… Seriously
I know what you are thinking. You do not want to become a virtual panhandler. But if you are in your few first months or year of blogging, you may want to focus 100% on providing incredible content and value before you start selling your own digital products. But how do you pay the bills? You should be compensated for your hard work, time and effort. If you have an account with PayPal, you can easily add text links and “Donate Now” buttons to your website.
Better yet, use Ko-fi or Patreon.
What is Ko-fi?
Ko-fi is a service that allows creators like you to receive money from fans of your content. Create your page and button and share it anywhere on the web. Anyone who clicks your link can support you with a ‘coffee’ (a small payment that is roughly equal to the price of a coffee).
How does Ko-fi work?
Ko-fi is free to use. All you need is a PayPal account to receive payments.
Here is a little tip that will get you more donations than simply asking for money. Say something like, “If this post helped you, why not buy me a cup of coffee?” Create your Ko-fi link and inform your readers that running your site takes time and money, and you appreciate any help they can give you. You can also create an Amazon wish list of the items that you would like to purchase, so your followers can gift them for you. Or create a Patreon account.
What is Patreon?
Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easy for artists and creators to get paid.
How does Patreon work?
When you use Patreon, fans of your work become paying patrons in exchange for exclusive benefits you offer. Membership is a relationship between you and your most engaged fans — the ones that choose to go a level deeper than just following you on social media.
20) Make Money from Sponsored Posts
This helps in two ways. Not only do you start making money from your website by selling sponsored posts, but this also keeps you from having to come up with an idea for new content. Contact site and blog owners in your niche or market, and tell them you will publish an original post they create, along with a link back to their site, on your site. Come up with a monthly fee and an annual discount, and you are making money.
21) Get Paid to Review Products
You can always monetize your site by offering paid product reviews. You charge a set fee to honestly and objectively review a product or service. Record a video of you actually using the product you are reviewing, upload it to your site, and benefit from the side bonus that video traffic delivers.
Wrapping Up
A Google search for the term “how to make money blogging” returns over 100 million results! The 21 ideas above are some of the most popular when it comes to making money with your website or blog.
If you employ all of the strategies and tips above, you will certainly make money blogging. Blogging can be a lot of work, but you really only need to choose one or two of the proven blog monetization methods covered here (and implement them effectively) to start earning with your blog or website5
