Once you’ve got your blog in place and have added plenty of good-quality, search-engine-optimized content, you may be wondering when the money will start rolling in.
If only it were that easy!
The thing about making money on your blog is that blogging is the vehicle for your actual business, not the business itself.
Let’s say you own a donut shop.
You have the physical location, you decorate it all cute, you install a cash register and take out ads in the local paper.
You even stand outside the door, handing out samples of donuts and business cards to people who walk by. That’s all well and good, but until you start providing value to your market, you’re not really in business.
The same is true for your blog. Until you provide a product or service that people can pay money for, you’re not in business.
Not every method may be right for you, right now – and that’s okay.
Add additional methods until you’re well on your way to making money from your very own online business – your blog.
Method #1: Sell Your Physical Products
Possibly the oldest business model of all time is also the most familiar: Selling your physical products.
It’s a concept we’re all familiar with. I have something you want, so I sell it to you.
When selling online, however, there are a few questions to answer:
1. What am I going to sell? 2. How am I going to accept payment? 3. How will I let people know about my products? 4. How will I handle fulfillment and customer service?
Let’s look at each of those questions in turn.
1. What am I going to sell? Choose a product that is of interest to the majority of your readers.
2. How am I going to accept payment? The easiest is PayPal, which will allow your customers to pay using their credit card, debit card, or PayPal balance.
Go to www.paypal.com and click on “Business” for more information.
PayPal can help you create “buy now” buttons for your site, issue invoices, and more, and it is easily integrated into your blog.
3. How will I let people know about my products? Marketing your wares is an essential part of your business plan. If no one knows about them, no one can buy them.
The key is to know beforehand how you’re going to tell people about your products.
4. How will I handle fulfillment and customer service?
You can outsource customer service to a virtual assistant, or to a company that specializes in customer service.
Method #2: Become an Affiliate
Affiliate marketing is a great complement to any other business model.
You recommend products and services to your readers, and every time one of them purchases through your referral link (a piece of code inserted in your blog), you receive a commission.
When promoting products through affiliate programs, there are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Only promote products you believe in.
You want them to believe that you have their best interests in mind – and that means only recommending products you know and trust.
2. Give value. To have a viable business, you must offer value.
3. Promote the products. You can’t just throw up a bunch of links or even review posts and expect to see massive traffic and sales.
Method #3: Promote Online Auctions
One of the very first ways for “ordinary” people to make money online was through eBay.
Adding auctions to your blog is a great way to make some extra cash, and eBay makes it easy with a plethora of simple tools.
The first thing you have to do is to join the eBay affiliate program (go to www.ebaypartnernetwork.com for more info).
Method #4: Sell Information Products
information products are digital, audio, and video-based products, typically delivered electronically via download.
Here are some of the most common information products:
• Consolidate blog posts on a certain topic into an eBook. • Record a webinar or teleclass. • Record an interview with an expert.
• Record screencasts.
When selling your information products online, you have a variety of delivery options, including: • Clickbank.com • E-Junkie.com • Directly through Paypal or another payment processor
Method #5: Join an Advertising Network
The majority of online ads are text-based or include photos rather than home-drawn neon images.
While placing Adsense ads on your blog can bring you a few dollars, or even a few hundred dollars, a month, many people prefer to sell their blog real estate directly to advertisers.
Method #7: Provide Paid Sponsorships
Many bloggers offer product and service reviews as part of their regular content.
Sounds good, eh? Well, there are some guidelines to follow:
1. Disclose everything. If you’ve been paid to review a product, mention a site, or otherwise plug or promote a company, tell your readers! The trust you create with them is hard to replace and easy to damage.
Many bloggers place disclosures in each sponsored post; others create a site-wide disclaimer. in either case, be transparent. (For more information on disclosure statements, go to disclosurepolicy.org/) 2. Have standards. Bloggers of integrity will not promote or give a good review of sub-standard products. if you cannot be honest in your assessment or review, it is not worth the money. 3. Don’t overdo it. Balance paid content with unpaid content. Also, make sure the sponsorship opportunities you accept are in line with your market. 4. Be of service. Even in a paid post, you can provide value to your readers.
Method #8: Offer Coaching
As a blogger, you are in a position of authority. People come to your site to read about what you have to offer – whether it’s fly fishing, vegan cooking, making money online, or paper crafting.
Method #9: Restrict Access to Premium Content
We’ve gotten used to thinking that everything online is free. But businesses are learning that while “free” is a great way to drive traffic, it’s not so good for making money.
What can you ask people to pay for? • Videos • Deeper, more sophisticated content • Replays of interviews or Q&A calls • Step-by-step tutorials • Access to training materials such as worksheets, planning guides, spreadsheets, etc. • Audios
There are several WordPress plug-ins to allow you to restrict access to certain areas of your WordPress blog – or you can keep things very simple and just password-protect specific posts or areas.
Method #10: Sell Technology
Many of the technological advances in the blogging world have come about as a result of a blogger needing a way to do something more quickly, more easily, or more completely on their blog.
The number of ways to make money through your blog is limited only by your imagination.
July 14th, 2022 | 
Author: 
Posted in WordPress
