23 Jan Beginner’s Guide on How to Make Money with Your Blog

When starting a blog you may not have had profit in mind. Therefore, you might not know that blogs are a great way to make money so we have put together a list of the best ways to do so. However, these aren’t going to be methods for quick money. Blogs and their profits have to be built and worked upon over time.

CPC or CPM Ads

Love them or hate them ads are one of the most used methods to make money through your blog.

• CPC Ads are Cost Per Click adverts, sometimes known as pay per click. These ads usually take the form of banners that you place within your content, at the top of the page or in your side bar. They are pretty self-explanatory, every time one of your readers clicks on the ad you are paid a fee for that click.
• CPM Ads are cost per one thousand impressions, this system is paid based upon how many people viewed the ad, these have a lot of different formats including video.

One of the simplest ways to set yourself up with adverts is to use Google AdSense. By using this you don’t need to worry about contacting any of the advertisers, you just place the advert on your site. Google does all of the hard work for you by choosing the relevant adverts and making sure the content is appropriate. If you go with a lesser known service you risk more work for yourself and potentially harmful adverts. Google AdSense is by no means the only option out there, but it pays to do your research before choosing the service.

Cut the Middleman

While it is easier to use a service such as Google AdSense, they do take a significant cut of your earnings which limits the profit you can make. It is possible to sell your ad placements yourself but it will take more time, work and research on your part to do so. You can use the same CPC or CPM models, but you have cut out the middleman so any profit you make is yours to keep. By using a plugin like BuySellAds, WordPress can provide you with a simple process to insert the ads on your site with widgets and shortcodes.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is how you can make money by recommending a product or service to your readers with tracking links. If a purchase is made through your link you will receive a commission from that purchase. Using affiliate links to products that are associated with your blog is a great way to get your readers more involved and earn some money while you do it. There are many products you can promote so you’re bound to find something that fits well with your site. One of the easiest places to start is with a big site such as Amazon or sites that are specifically designed for affiliate marketing like ShareASale.

If you have created your blog using WordPress you can use a plugin such as ThirstyAffiliates to manage the links on your page.

Sponsored Blog Posts

Another option is to monetize your blog through sponsorship. Depending on what your blog is about you can contact different brands to see if they would be interested in sponsoring your blog posts, which can be done for individual posts or for all of them. For example if you are a beauty blogger you could be sponsored by a specific brand of makeup or skin care. A good place to get started is to create a one-page sales pitch which will let potential sponsors know all about your page, what they will gain from sponsoring your posts, your audience and any other data that will get them interested. On a similar thread you can also do paid reviews for products. This usually goes hand in hand with either an advertisement or an affiliate link which will help to sell the product. You will be paid for the review as well as receive a commission from any sales the link produces.

Build an Exclusive Community

Promoting your blog is important to increase the profits you make from any of the above methods, but it also helps you to create a community around your blog. Social media is a key tool to help build an engaged community. Try hosting members only events, giveaways and sponsored content. This will draw in a larger audience to your blog as well as rewards your existing community. Not to mention they will be more likely to engage with your affiliate links and/or adverts as they are spending time on your site.

More Content = More Profit

The more time, energy and effort you put into your blog the more readers you are going to attract. The more readers you have visiting your blog the more profit you are going to make from your various money-making tools. Research what is going to work best for your audience to make sure that you are still keeping them happy while you are making money.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Phan is a content writer and proofreader at Gum Essays and Lucky Assignments with years of experience. Chris has a degree in Marketing and enjoys writing about business strategies, entrepreneurship and startup companies.