Monetizing Your Blog in a Different Way
I've been exploring ways to monetize my blog. The suggestions given in WA aren't bad suggestions, but they aren't for me. I don't want to be an affiliate marketer. I don't want to put ads on my website - at least not in the traditional sense (more on that later). Instead I'm going to go in a different direction. I'm going to go with sponsors for my blog.
Sponsors pay you to review their products and post the reviews on your blog. Since my blog is a chocolate blog I felt that this was the best way to monetize my blog.
The purpose of my blog is to help people find chocolate gifts for special occasions. This means I need a lot of reviews of chocolate products - something I knew from the beginning. But, by having blog sponsors, I don't have to spend my money getting products to review. Instead, the sponsors send me chocolate or chocolate gifts to review, and I post those reviews on my blog. I may or may not get additional money from the review; it depends on the sponsor.
In the beginning of May I was contacted by Chocolate.org, whom I'm also an affiliate for. They saw that I ran a chocolate blog and reached out to me, asking me to review a product of my choice. During that time I was mourning the death of my cat, so I didn't check my email for weeks.
Last week I finally went to check my email. I saw the request. I couldn't believe my eyes. I hadn't reached out to them or anything; they contacted me first. But since it had been three weeks I didn't know if they were still interested in working with me.
Regardless, I decided to try. I went ahead and replied back. I apologized for not responding sooner, and told them I was interested in reviewing a product. I sent them a sample of a review I've done for a chocolate bar (which you can find here: http://buychocolategift.org/mast-brothers-chocolate-review ) and told them if they were still interested to contact me back. (Incidentally that is the first and only chocolate bar review I've ever done.)
This morning I checked my email again. They said the review I sent them was excellent and they were still interested in working with me. I signed up to be an official reviewer, and now I'm waiting for more instructions.
Here's how it works: I get to pick the product I want. They ship it to me for free. I try it and post my review of it on my blog. I just got free chocolate and content for my blog, they just got free exposure.
Nice, right?
I know there's a course about getting sponsors for your blog online. I've decided to go with coaching instead of the course to cut down on the learning curve. I'm hoping I can start it in July or August. In the meantime, I'm just excited that my blog is moving in the direction I want it to. And it's not even 6 months old.
Eventually, I plan to sell ad space on my blog to certain companies. Targeted ad space sells for a lot of money. Some blogs get more than $500 per ad space. I only plan to sell 3 at a time, because my plans for my blog involve a lot more than selling ad space. But it will be some extra money to pull in for my blog.
If you're new to WA, stick with it. It really, actually works. Even though I went in a different direction for monetizing my blog, I'm still happy I found this community. It helped me and continues to help me build my blog up so that I can reach my goals.
Recent Comments
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Congratulations. I have 3 companies that I review and post on their sites now. Makes good money and I have a steady income. All possible by WA and the training I received here for my sites.
Oooh, nice! It's great to hear someone before me had success doing this. Can I come to you for advice?
Hi Kinya, congratulations on your success, I think it's great, and I wish you all the luck. I also have a cat who has only been with me for 6 years now, but she is part of this family, we love her and feel that we would be feeling exactly how you were if we lost her!!! Sorry for your loss
Hi Blu!
Thanks for your kind words. They really are members of your family. Just because they have four legs doesn't mean their lives matter any less. I'm mourning my cat like I would any other member of my family I may have lost.
But this small success with my blog does help me to feel better. After a month of negativity, uncertainty and struggling, it is nice to see something positive happen.
Sounds like an interesting approach. Hope it works for you. By the way, sorry about you best friend (cat). I have one on the way out too. Just don't want to pull the plug just yet. She is nineteen and been a great little friend.
I'm sorry Larry. I know how that is. I still feel the loss of my cat. Love her as much as you can.
First off sorry to hear about your cat. That's a very interesting approach in monetizing your blog. It's good to hear about how things have gone so far and hope things continue to get better and your blog gets to where you want it to be.
Thanks. :) And thanks for your comment. I'll be giving other updates as I continue this journey.
Hey Kinya,
Paid sponsorships tend to better when your blog has been established for a while and you have a good following that you can approve. So with this method, it's probably going to take much longer to see a dime. But people are making money this way. The great thing about an internet business is there are tons of monetization strategies that can be employed. Affiliate marketing is probably the easiest but it's not the only one. You can create your own products, do sponsorships, etc.
So the sky is the limit. I tend to be of the mind site of more monetization strategies means more money. But it all depends on your goals and comfort level.
I know it takes a commitment Eddy and it'll probably be a while. But this is the direction I want to go in.
I'm not a seller. I'm a writer. I like giving my opinion, but selling people things just isn't my forte. I am not, nor will I ever be comfortable with affiliate marketing or putting ads from Google or anywhere else on my website. It's just not my cup of tea.
I'm fully committed to making this work. I'm switching careers away from writing to something more lucrative and less time consuming so that I can focus more on building my blog the way I want it to be. There's no point in having a blog or building a community or business if it's not going to be something you fully enjoy, right?
Hey Kinya,
I'm not seller either. I'm just a regular guy that just helps people avoid the garbage out there by writing about it. And then presenting better options that they may want.
Keep in mind how you got to this site. It wasn't by me selling you. It was from you reading my website and thinking hey this guy is pretty helpful.
See the difference. It's all about your perception and how you handle yourself. That said I totally respect that you don't want to monetize your site as recommended here. That's fine. I just want to make sure you're not against it because you're perceiving it in the wrong way.
But ultimately it is your site and thats the great thing about being the boss. You call the shots.
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Hi Kinya,
Accept my deepest condolence for your loss.
Just now I was reading 15 free and legitimate ways of making money online in 2018 from the internet.
I got curious and searched here at WA for selling Ad space on a blog and found your article. It really feels good reading your success.
A nice thing to cherish.
All the best wishes for you.
Anusuya