With the rise of Internet blogging over the last couple of years, a new type of potential career path has emerged as well. Certain successful bloggers have seen great success launching their blogs and have been able to earn a more than livable salary in some cases.
If blogging is your passion, learning five effective ways to monetize your blog, whether your goal is to quit the 9-to-5 or just earn some extra cash, can help you realize your dreams. Let’s dive right in:
1. Affiliate Marketing
For those unfamiliar, affiliate marketing is when you recommend some type of product or service to your audience. The catch is that you link out to that product or service using a special link provided by the company you are partnering with.
Should a person decide they wish to purchase that service or product and they do so using your link to reach the site, you will receive some sort of kickback. Even sites that have specific niches, such as those that offer an anxiety test or food reviews, can take part in affiliate marketing. This could be a certain amount of cash, a portion of the sale, or some other type of reward.
2. Google AdSense
While Google AdSense won’t get you rich anytime soon, adding this to your blog and allowing passive advertisements on the top or sides of your blogs can add up in the long run. This service, and others similar, operate on a cost-per-click model where you receive a kickback every time a website visitor clicks on an ad.
In most cases, Google AdSense is best for those who have a high-traffic blog already or are gaining a large amount of traction.
3. Write Paid Reviews for Products in Your Field
Similar to affiliate marketing, you can choose to write paid product reviews for companies that offer products or services in your field. Sometimes, companies will send you these products for no cost at all which is the reward, whereas others will pay you for purchases made using your review or referral code.
Start by approaching companies in your niche and reach out to see if they offer sponsored product reviews. For larger blogs, companies will likely be willing to pay a larger incentive.
4. Create a Membership Option
Another common strategy used by bloggers to earn an income is to add a membership feature to their blog. That is to say, they continue posting free content on their blog for non-paying users but begin to add content behind a paywall that can be accessed for a weekly, monthly, or yearly fee.
It’s best to start your blog without a membership option, but once you begin to gain traction on your site and develop a loyal following of readers, adding a membership option can be a profitable strategy. An added benefit is that it will allow you to connect more with your dedicated readers.
5. Focus Strongly on SEO to Drive More Traffic
Finally, focusing on SEO is an important way of learning how to make your blog profitable. “Search Engine Optimization” is the practice of structuring your blog and written content in a way that is appealing to search engine algorithms. Doing so will allow your blog to potentially rank higher on search engines such as Google.
Additionally, learning proper SEO can help you drive more traffic to your site over time which will naturally increase the likelihood that you will be able to earn a profit.
At the end of the day, blogging isn’t the easiest career path to pursue, though anybody with something to say can attempt to succeed on this path. Use some of the above tips to turn your blogging profitable if you’re looking to make some cash from your thoughts and writing.
