Many people blog for fun, but few know how to monetize a blog. The following is a list of steps that many bloggers take to make money blogging.
1- Post 2-3 bogs every day
Usually, only 1% of visitors to your blog will respond to your requests for them to do something, such as buy a product or click an ad. If you want to make money, you need to increase your blog traffic in order for that 1% number to be high enough to make money.
The most basic thing you can do to increase traffic is to post no less than twice a day so that your blog ranks higher in search engines like Yahoo! or Google.
2- Run Google Adsense
You may not be able to find success landing a sponsor or advertiser as soon as you launch your blog, but you can sign up for Google's Adsense program right away. What's Google Adsense? Whenever you search for something using Google, you'll see your results plus ads that run along the top and right hand side of the results. Advertisers paid for those ads. Each time you click on those ads, Google gets paid. This is known as pay-per-click advertising.
If you sign up for Google Adsense, those ads (related to your blog topic) will appear somewhere on your blog. Each time your visitors click an ad, you will get paid.
3- Sell Affiliate Products
Another way to monetize your blog is to sell products as an affiliate. You can find products to sell when you join affiliate programs such as Amazon, Click Bank, and Commission Junction. Also, check the products or services that you like to use and see whether they have an affiliate program. Write a review or personal recommendation of the product or service, and include your affiliate link in your blog post. When visitors click on that link, they will go to the seller's website or another site to make their purchase. You'll receive a commission if a sale is made. Many affiliates offer as much as 50% in sales commissions.
4- Sell Ads
Once your blog grows to at least 500 unique visitors a day, find companies to advertise on your blog. There are websites in business to do just that for bloggers. You can also directly approach local and national advertisers yourself. Find the companies already advertising on blogs and other websites in your related field, and approach them. Their ads can either appear on the sidebars of your blog, or within individual posts.
5- Write Sponsored Reviews
Companies are paying bloggers to mention their products or services in posts. Some require a link to a website. Others ask that you mention the product and provide proof to receive payment. If you choose to monetize your blog in part with sponsored reviews, you have to consider your reader; you don't want to lose your credibility with them. Find tactful ways to let them know that they are reading a sponsored review.
While there are many ways to make money blogging, you do not want to try all of them at once. Test a few ways at a time to see what gives you the best results.
____________________________
Daphne Mallory, Esq. is the co-owner of Mallory Writing Services and has written more than 100 articles helping home based business owners and entrepreneurs start and market their business. You can learn more about her here.
