I have had my blog officially for about nine months. My goal at the beginning was to have my voice heard by readers who appreciated my stories of juggling work, kids, family, home, while remaining fabulous and true to self. Now that I have been given a podium in which to speak, I began seeking ways to monetize my blog and make money supplementing my income.
At Blogging While Brown, popular blogger Scott Hanselman said it best, “If you are looking to get rich while blogging, think again.” Of course it would be nice to make money while doing something you love—I do not expect to get rich BUT I do expect to offset the costs of blogging (i.e. hosting costs, domain, etc.) as well as generate income to attend various blogging and social media conferences to help me expand my brand.
Here are five ways that you can make money on your blog:
Advertising:
Banner ads, text ads, and the like, are great ways to make money on your blog. Many ad networks such as Adsense, Ad Groups, and Advertising.com offer compensation based on page impressions (each time your blog is loaded) and clicks (actual clicks on the ads). It costs no money to start-up and based on your traffic, you can make a substantial amount.
Affiliate programs:
Affiliate programs are a great way to make money on your blog and align yourself with corporate entities that can give your blog a good look business wise. Many affiliate programs like Google Affiliates and Linkshare allow you to choose the advertisers you would like on your blog and pay you a percentage when a visitor buys something off of their site which was linked from your site. It’s not a whole lot, but if you urge your visitors to click your ads and make purchases, you may see a few dollars come your way.
Sponsorships:
Offering sponsorships is a great way to monetize your blog. I have a page on my site dedicated to businesses which I have approved of, that displays their logo. These businesses either have paid me for sponsorship space or have donated products/and or services to me during one of my events.
Paid Blog Posts:
I do not like to do paid blog posts often, but if a company that approaches me that I like, I will write on based on real experience and real content. A paid blog post works like this: a company will ask you to write about their product (either indirectly or directly) and you write about it and post it on your blog, usually with links that lead back to their site. It’s quick and painless, but I would warn not to do too many of these or your visitors may revolt. Also, be responsible when writing paid blog posts and always disclose that it is a paid post (or the FTC may visit you!) Here is an example of a paid blog post that I wrote recently.
Selling Your Background:
This is usually for large bloggers who have quite a following. I am not there yet, although I have been asked recently about my rates for this. Simply put, a company “leases” your background on your blog which serves as a big advertisement for their product and/or service. These buys are usually done for record releases or brand new products that are hitting the market. Stay tuned. You may just see one on TCC one day!
The above mentioned five ways you can make money on your blog are the easiest and most popular ways people have monetized their sites. I am often asked how I monetize mine, and these are the ways in which I do so. If you have any other tips on monetizing your blog, feel free to chime in within the comment section!
Happy blogging!
This is right on time. I was recently asked to do a "review" for a website. I'm still a bit hesitant but now know that this is a normal part of being a blogger. I also agree that you shouldn't do too many of them. Thanks!
It is a website that you like and think your readers would like, I think it is perfectly fine to do a fee post. It's when you get paid for reviewing something that you do not like and aren't honest that I think it gets to speak poorly on the blogger. Good luck!
Great tips Dannigyrl!!! I know being rich is virtually impossible but I do want to get it to a point where I don't have to worry about working again.
Don't sell yourself short! There are some bloggers out there making a gang of money. Nicole Bitchie, Angel Laws from Concrete Loop, and Natasha from TheYBF.com all make pretty good money w/ their blogs and are in a nice tax bracket. It can be done. But yes, I am like you. If I could live my life soley on my blog and projects and not working full-time at a job, I would be extremely happy. Thanks for reading!
I definitely know it can be done and that is my goal, but I'm not counting on it. I notice that all of the ones you named all have one thing in common, they all report on the same stuff. My site is about sports. To my knowledge, I don't anyone doing as well as they are in the sports field. That's why I'm not counting on it, but I will bust my butt to get to the top. Those who are above me, I'm coming after you!!!
Great article and tips. I would like to make money blogging one day, but blogging and holding down a full time job (with two kids) has proven to be very difficult. Again, this is great feedback.
It is very difficult. Until my hours were cut at my job, I was also working full time and raising two kids. I would often blog several posts during the weekend, and release them throughout the week in order to keep it consistent. Just find a method that works for you! Good luck!
Love the "sponsor page" idea…I'm gonna do this. Right now I mention them in my post and link to them on YouTube. Gonna add one on my blog. Gracias 🙂