How to Monetize Your Blog

Hi, friend. Sorry for going incognito the past few weeks. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday in the mix, I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest (Throughout my various business ventures, I’ve done over $52,000 is sales since we last spoke. Yay!)

Hope you had a wonderful holiday. Let’s get started…

Today’s post came about from several comments I’ve seen from new members regarding choosing a niche and, more specifically, how to monetize it.

For example, a lot of people — myself included — immediately jump on the Amazon train with the idea that they can just include affiliate links to books they mention and/or review.

Naturally, this is a relatively quick and easy way to go. The challenge is that Amazon book commissions are basically pennies on the dollar, and with the typical book only ranging from about $2.99 to approximately $24.99, you can see that you have to sell a TON of books to make any kind of decent income. Not an easy way to make a living.

So, I thought I would throw out just a quick list of various ways to monetize a site. It is not all-inclusive, of course, as there are loads of different ways, and won’t go into too many details as the specific how-to for monetization will be covered in Kyle’s training.

Instead, consider this more of a quick brainstorming checklist to help jump start the old thought process and get you thinking outside the box.

How to Monetize Your Blog

• Affiliate Marketing (Duh!) lol
• E-Commerce
• E-Services
• Premium Content
• Advertising
• Influencer Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

Naturally this is generally our go-to method, as it is the one Wealthy Affiliate is best known for. Indeed, it’s even in our name. :-)

Affiliate marketing can best be described as making money from recommending things. You write an article or review of a product or service, and the owner of that product or services pays you for every person that clicks on the link and buys something.

E-Commerce

Although essentially the same thing as Affiliate Marketing, I separate e-commerce into its own category. Think of them as two sides of the same coin. Affiliate Marketing is someone else’s product, whereas e-commerce is you marketing your own products, usually through something like an online store.

Common products might be physical such as books you’ve written, courses you teach, your own line of t-shirts, etc. Or, perhaps, you have the knowledge to create and see your own apps or software.

E-Services

The same as e-commerce, just with services rather than products. You conduct an ongoing service for a monthly fee. Perhaps you could offer to run someone’s marketing campaign, management consulting, bookkeeping and accounting, etc.

Premium Content Membership

One of my favorite ways to generate income is through the premium content model. Here you actually are looking for paid subscribers.

For example, I have a particular YouTuber that I follow that has an account with the website Patreon. As a subscriber of his, I throw him a few dollars a month, and in return I get access to amazing, one-of-a-kind premium content that he puts out that no one else gets to see.

The key to gaining and keeping a premium subscriber is making such content worth many times more than the subscription fee. For instance, if you are publishing regular content worth, say, $100 each month, but you are only asking for $20, your audience is much more likely to stick around.

Advertising (aka Pay-Per-Click)

You create content. You publish ads on your site, typically through a network like Google Adsense. You get paid every time someone comes to your page and sees the ad. Advertising often doesn’t pay much, but if you have a lot of traffic you can make some decent money.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a tad different from affiliate or ad marketing in that you are actually paid up front, regardless of how the ad or link performs.

For example, think about social influencers like the Kardashians or Michael Jackson back in the day. Michael held up a Pepsi and Kim mentions her Gucci bags in a tweet, not because they necessarily believe in those products, but rather because Pepsi and Gucci are paying them boatloads of cash to be seen with their products.

Companies are smart, and they known people will buy more of their products when his or her favorite celebrity or social media personality is “using” that product. (Note: I put “using” in quotes because it is well known that Michael Jackson didn’t even drink Pepsi or any other soft drink. It didn’t matter, though… Pepsi stock went through the roof when he was featured in the commercial.)

There is a catch with this model. You need to be — ummmm — a social influencer. lol

In other words, this model may not be for you until such time as you have a solid social media presence with thousands or even millions of followers. That said, while it does take time, there’s nothing stopping you from being the next Tim Ferriss. :-)

Conclusion

As I mentioned, this in certainly not an exhaustive list by any stretch. But it should get you started thinking.

If you have any other models that you would like to share that have worked well for you, feel free to post a comment below.

Take care.

AJ