Ways to Market and Monetize Your Blog

WAYS TO MARKET AND MONETIZE YOUR BLOG

One of the main attractions of a blog is the fact that you’re able to make money off of it.  However, as a beginner, few people know where to turn to begin making money from their blog.  Additionally, money making methods tend to vary based on whether you’re a business offer a product or service, or whether you’re an individual seeking to make your blog your business. 

For Businesses:

For businesses seeking to make money off their blog, the best way to do so is to create special deals and offers, and advertize the products and/or services they offer.  For blogs like these, it is important not to have too many external links and advertisements since the focus should be on your product.  Below are some ideas on how to make money from a business blog:


Offer Daily Deals

Companies like LivingSocial and Groupon are making a killing off offering daily specials that offer consumers the opportunity to save on items and services that they want, so long as they act fast on them.  Don’t just leave this to them!  

Create a spot on your blog where new and regular viewers can go to pick up on an ever-rotating list of daily deals.  As your blog grows in popularity, you’ll see product and service sales pick up. 


Allow Viewer Comments

Allowing comments on a blog is essential!  Blog comments allow viewers to share their experience and opinions.  The more positive feedback you’re able to obtain, the more clout you’ll have with the general public.  This is especially important when dealing with the products you sell or services you offer.  

Add a section for viewer comments on your daily deals to further entice new viewers to purchase your product and service.  Go a step further and encourage feedback on your company and its products and/or services when introducing a product, service, or daily deal. 


Post to Your Blog Regularly

Keeping your information current is key to keeping a good blog.  You should try to post daily, but a business blog should at least issue 3-5 posts a week.  Not only does this keep your information current, it keeps you relevant and optimizes your ability to show up in blog directories and search engine listings.  

If you never have anything new posted, it looks like you’re an old or outdated page, and thus you become irrelevant.  Irrelevant means no traffic to your blog, and thus no money.  Remember that one of the biggest costs to having a blog is taking the time to maintain it.

For Individuals:

There are a number of ways for individuals to cash in on their blogs, and these differ from how a business might do it, because individuals have the opportunity to seek third party assistance to do it.  

Of course, third party participating isn’t the only way that a private blogger can make money, and in fact, there are a number of other imperatives to money making with a blog.  We’ll briefly discuss some here. 


Third Party Advertising

There are a number of advertising companies, such as Google Adsense, that offer the opportunity to place an ad on your blog and pay the blogger per ad click.  The money offered per clock isn’t a large sum, so driving ample traffic to the site for chance clicks on the ad is imperative. 

It is important to note that some advertising companies only offer random ads for your site, while others offer the option of you specifying the ad type you’re willing to show.  

This option is best as you can cater ads to your content and audience, thus increasing the likelihood that your ads will receive clicks, and you’ll make money.


Affiliate Marketing

If you don’t know anything about affiliate marketing, this is a definite area to hit when researching for a new blog.  In short, affiliate marketing is when you sell someone else’s product on your blog.  

Various companies offer affiliate programs, which pay you a percentage based on the amount of product you sell through your website.  This means you can set up a store on your blog selling their product (with checkout through them), or you can choose to integrate product pitches into blog posts, linking to the product so readers can purchase it.  

One popular internet company that offers an affiliate program is Amazon.  However, big companies aren’t the only ones offering affiliate marketing options, so be sure to do your research and find companies that sell products that work best for your niche. 


Sell Ad Space 

Using other company’s ads isn’t the only way you can make money from ads on your blog.  Instead, try selling space on your blog to companies that relate to your content.  Selling ad space does require that you have decent traffic to the site however, so when proposing this to a business owner, be sure to bring your traffic numbers to the table. 


Sell Sponsored Post Space

This is another idea for a blog that has great viewership and is looking to start cashing in on it, or expanding on the amount of money it is making.  Selling sponsored post space entails selling a slot in your blog for another person to post there.  

This works great for other bloggers looking to drive traffic to their own blog since your blog is already trusted and has great viewership.  It is also great for businesses looking for something more than a simple ad.  This space can be used for a review of their product or service.