Making money with your blog is a long-term income strategy, not a get-rich-quick scheme. It may feel frustrating if you’ve been blogging for a while and aren’t making the money you thought you would. Especially in the era of “gurus” who claim to make $100K a month, transparency is essential. Today, I want to talk about ways to make money as a blogger, so you can quickly monetize your blog.
Making money with your blog comes down to a few things:
- Content
- Traffic
- Planning
Content is the foundation of your blog. Don’t skimp on this part. Do your research and make sure everything you publish is top-notch. So many people start a blog thinking it’ll be easy to throw some blog posts up and call it a day, but that’s not how it works. The reason “content is king” is such a famous saying is that it’s 100% true. Without great content, it isn’t easy to monetize your blog.
PRO TIP: Creating a content schedule or setting up an editorial calendar in Airtable or Trello can save you a lot of time – and headaches!
Traffic is essential if you want to monetize your blog. You don’t have to have millions of pageviews by any means, but if you don’t have eyeballs on your content, you can’t have sales, right?
If you’re relying on ads, your traffic will need to be much higher than if you’re building a solid email list and selling products. Either way, it never hurts to get more traffic.
Brainstorm: How can you increase your traffic? Creating more content isn’t always the answer. Log into your Google Analytics and see which posts are in your top 10. Expand on those.
While content and traffic are important, keep in mind that planning also plays a massive role in how successful your blog will be. If you write whatever you feel like for the day without rhyme or reason and then hit publish, your blog will flop. Some bloggers build a brand based on sharing their lives or ranting. Still, the amount of people who genuinely care about how your day went and how you’re doing with your toddler’s potty training journey is usually relatively small.
People want to know what’s in it for them. What can you offer them? How can you help them? The key to getting your readers to come back day after day, week after week, is to educate or entertain. If you can do one or both of those things, you’re already ahead of many!
Ads on a Blog
Making money with ads takes quite a bit of traffic. You can start by charging for ad space manually on a new blog. For example, many new bloggers will charge $20 a month for ad space on their sidebar until they get the traffic for ad networks. This is an easy way to monetize a brand-new blog!
It’s much less work to use an ad network, so that’s what most bloggers do. Ad networks like Ezoic are great because they have a lower traffic threshold. You can get approved with less than 10,000 page views per month.
To get approved for an ad network like Mediavine, you need at least 50,000 sessions per month. That’s not always an easy feat, but it can be done regardless of your niche. AdThrive requires 150,000 sessions.
No matter which ad network you choose, pay attention to how many ads are on your blog. Do you want video or pop-out ads to play? You have complete control over how many ads and what kind of ads are displayed on your blog. Don’t feel like you have to “okay” every ad placement.
After your ad network has placed ads on your blog, look at your blog as a visitor. Are there too many ads? Do they cover your content? Is the video pop-up too obnoxious? Everyone knows how many ads are the “right” amount. It’s essential to play an active role in ad placement because this can make or break your readership.
Affiliate Links on Your Blog
Some bloggers make six figures from affiliate earnings alone, which is impressive! Getting started with affiliate marketing is something you can do as a new blogger. Get at least 10-15 solid blog posts published. While you could do it sooner, many brands only want to work with established bloggers. When they visit your site to see what your blog is about, you’ll want to make sure you put your best foot forward and have excellent content!
To start promoting products as an affiliate, think about products you use regularly and love. Think about products that will help make your readers’ lives easier. I like to choose products from sites like Shareasale, Awin, and Impact Radius. You can also reach out to companies and brands directly to see if they have an affiliate program you can join.
Don’t forget about Amazon! Some niches perform better than others when promoting Amazon products, and they don’t pay as much per product as other affiliates, but it’s a volume game.
Pro tip: Only promote products you truly believe in. It may be tempting to encourage junk products to make a quick buck, but I promise you’ll make more in the long run if you are authentic.
Add Products to Your Blog
Designing and selling your digital products is one of my favorite ways to make passive income through my blog. You can sell ebooks, cheat sheets, a monthly membership, meal plans, or even courses. The possibilities with digital products are endless, and they’re mostly passive once you get them set up.
Create one time, sell thousands of times, rinse and repeat. Check out my other article for digital product ideas for your blog.
The Next Steps for Your Blog
Regardless of the path(s) you decide to monetize your blog, remember it comes down to delivering value for your audience. If you write blog posts that are engaging, easy to read, and helpful, your audience will come back for more every time.
