Learning how to monetize a blog separates bloggers who can make six or even seven figures annually vs. those who struggle to make money online.
Anyone can quickly get started with blogging with Wix or WordPress. But unfortunately, most people who start a blog are unaware of how to monetize a blog.
This step-by-step guide will discuss six ways to monetize a blog successfully. Each section has multiple actionable ways to make money online.
One of the monetization strategies I mention can make well over $25,000 per month. So without further ado, let’s get started.
Visitors to an ecommerce site will have the intent to convert into a customer. On the other hand, having a non-focused ecommerce site, new bloggers often struggle how to make money online.
Luckily you have several options outside of ecommerce to potentially make huge profits.
Setup Webinars
One of the most popular and profitable ways to make money from a blog is to host an event using webinar software.
How profitable can webinars be? Lewis Howes started a successful webinar business and made $6,300 in one hour.
I recommend using Demio as your webinar hosting provider. Demio is affordable and has a ton of features.
Why are webinars profitable?
Webinars are engaging, interactive, personable, and rooted in the principle of being incredibly informative about a specific topic.
The more value you offer, the more interested your audience becomes, thus increasing the propensity to purchase at a higher price point.
When it comes to hosting a webinar, you have three options to explore, depending on your specific business model.
Paid webinars
Pros & cons of paid webinars
You can charge an upfront cost for a webinar event to your attendees.
The Pro
Reduces the count of non-serious attendees and creates upfront profitability.
The con
Reduce audience count and chances to convert those on the fence about your service/product.
Free webinars
Pros & cons of free webinars
Free webinars increase your audience attendance rate to pitch your services/product at the end of your webinar.
Regardless of how many attendees you capture to attend your webinar event, you can profit if you position your service/product prices accordingly.
The Pro
Increases audience count to increase the potential to convert attendees to paying customers.
The Con
Increases audience count that will increase the abandonment rate when an offer is presented.
You also have the third option of using evergreen webinars. I highly recommend this approach.
Evergreen webinars
What is an evergreen webinar?
An evergreen webinar is a pre-recorded webinar video that can be viewed on different days and times.
Evergreen webinars provide convenience to attendees and automation to hosts.
Most people are under the impression a webinar has to be live, but it doesn’t. Here is an example of an evergreen webinar from Neil Patel.
I recommend setting up an evergreen webinar with a free to attend option.
Evergreen free webinars convert incredibly well due to the flexibility to capture all visitors at all times.
By capturing emails to participate in a webinar, you can later convert webinar attendees through an automated email provider.
If you are interested in hosting a webinar read my guide on the best webinar platforms.
Become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing is the top choice for most bloggers earning passive income.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission-based payout from companies by promoting links, banners, and other forms of promotional methods on your blog/website.
Affiliate marketing is not just for bloggers. Powerful business empires were built with affiliate marketing.
Amazon significantly accelerated business growth in the early years by offering an affiliate program back in 1996.
3 pillars to start affiliate marketing
- A niche/topic
- An affiliate product/service to promote
- An audience to promote to
I recommend conducting keyword research as the first step when selecting a topic.
The keywords you pick should target a specific niche. As a rule of thumb, the higher the search volume, the more competition, and more profit potential.
How to participate in an affiliate program
1.) Sign up with an affiliate network
You can navigate to the footer of several company websites, where you will see the affiliate program mentioned.
In most cases, the site should state “Become an affiliate” or “affiliate” If you don’t see the affiliate program mentioned, it might be labeled as the following.
- Referral program
- Partnerships
- Refer a friend
- Partner program
- Partner with us
Growth hack tip#1:
If you have a hard time finding the affiliate program on a site, type in the following within Google: site: url name + “affiliate program”
Sometimes when you click on an affiliate program, it will link to an affiliate network representing the company.
What happens once I sign up for an affiliate program?
Promotional banners of various sizes are usually provided along with a standardized unique tracking link to attribute sales to your marketing efforts.
How will I receive payments from affiliate networks?
Companies will pay you every two weeks to thirty days via a bank wire or Paypal. Some affiliate networks can also send you payment through checks.
2.) Create a direct affiliate partnership deal
Creating a direct affiliate partnership will be contingent on the level of traffic you have in most cases.
Direct affiliate partnerships are more suited for established sites/blogs with a historical track record of producing sales for organizations.
The simplest way to set up a direct affiliate partnership deal is to use UTM parameters.
You can use the UTM builder by Google to set up your links. Another option is to go with a company specializing in affiliate tracking.
Affiliate tracking platforms provide much more granularity when running affiliate marketing campaigns vs UTM tracking.
I recommend using voluum.com as a tracking partner for more granular reporting metrics.
Growth hack tip#2:
If you consider promoting affiliate offers, you will have to include a rel=sponsored link attribute on your affiliate links. Also, you will need to add an affiliate disclosure.
What is a Rel sponsored link?
rel=”sponsored” Marks links that are advertisements (commonly called paid links) as sponsored.
Source: Google.com
Here is an excellent guide on how to add the rel= sponsored link in WordPress.
What is an affiliate disclosure?
An affiliate disclosure informs visitors that you are being compensated by a company or individual you’re linking to. Affiliate disclosures are treated as a disclaimer.
Create an Ecommerce store
To add an ecommerce presence to your blog, you have the option of adding a link to your ecommerce store in your top navigation.
On the inverse, you can also add a blog to your ecommerce store in the top navigation.
Read my guide on setting up a Shopify store if you are interested in establishing a ecommerce site.
Shopify is regarded as one of the best options when starting an ecommerce store to sell your products.
In terms of physical items that you can sell, the possibilities are endless. One of the most powerful features of Shopify is POD.
What does POD stand for?
Print on demand (POD) is selling products that are produced once they are ordered.
Through the use of Printful that integrates with Shopify, you have the option of creating a store that can provide products as soon as they are ordered from your store.
Printful offers fulfillment, custom branding, and the best shipping rates, both domestic and internationally, so you can focus on selling.
Most people think of selling physical products in ecommerce, but this is not always the case.
3 Ways to sell products online without Inventory
1.) Sell E-books
Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 3.7%, resulting in a projected market volume of $19 million by 2025.
E-books are not going to slow down, and they are immediately accessible with the click of a button. You will also not need to worry about shipping.
No matter what topic you cover on your site, you can offer your audience guidance by providing a paid downloadable e-book on your topic.
2.) Sell online courses
Similar to e-books, you can sell online courses in exchange for payment. The difference between e-books vs. learning courses is the format in which you present information.
Paid courses usually take into account offering video walkthroughs, audio files, and assignments. I recommend using thinkific.com for a robust online course platform.
This monetization method is one of my personal favorites. The profit potential is immense if you are in the right niche.
Similar to producing webinars, you can create a video or multiple videos one time and sell information to your audience.
Think about it this way. College costs thousands of dollars, right? Why did you attend college? Chances are you wanted to become educated in a specific field.
Offering online courses with your specific expertise is the same concept. People will always need information, and that information will still command a premium cost.
3.) Sell reports
Statistics and trends are always sought after. If you happen to blog about a topic that your audience would like custom compiled data, then offering it for sale can be highly lucrative.
Take a look at business insider that offers paid aggregation of data points and charges a premium for the data they provide. Nearly $5,000 per report.
The price points are alarming, right? Guess what? Companies purchases these reports all the time. I have purchased a few reports in the past for clients upon their request.
These reports are purchased to save time to quote data points within blog posts and use data for marketing material.
I recommend you consider this monetization method if you blog about business endeavors.
I would also recommend hiring a data analyst, a designer, and an engineer to perform a custom data scape.
To find these people, I recommend using fiverr.com. This is not for everyone but is highly lucrative for those it is intended for.
Create a service
Services will always be needed as long as those who have a particular skill set can sell it to those who don’t currently have that skill. This is a simple fact of life.
When it comes to monetizing a blog, you can offer your particular skill set for a fee for those who don’t have your skills.
6 services to consider monetizing on your blog.
1.) Sell Design Services
Start a Web design business
If you can create a website, this is a great option to monetize your blog. You don’t need to know how to code to offer this service. You can reach out to local businesses to create a Wix website for business owners.
Wix provides a drag and drop interface and pre-set templates that take only a few minutes to set up a website.
Business owners are willing to pay for convenience of time. After all, they are business owners. They don’t have the time to be website designers too.
Start a Logo design business
Every business needs a logo. Consider monetizing your blog by offering logo designs for a set fee. Additionally, suppose you wanted to scale your logo design service.
In that case, you can outsource the design work to a designer on 99designs.com or easily create a professional-looking logo yourself for your client by utilizing canva.com.
Start a Merchandise design business
E-commerce is on an upward trajectory with no signs of slowing down. So, merchandise design is always in demand.
You can offer your design skills to the masses by embedding a contact form on your site.
Look into a service called teespring. You can create products to sell online without taking in inventory.
Start a Infographic design business
Designing infographics use to be very hard, but now through the use of online design platforms, anyone can create them.
Again, I would recommend using Canva for this, simply drag and drop your design and use pre-made templates that you can customize.
2.) Become a lead generator
If you don’t possess a skill, you can still profit from generating leads from your blog by driving site traffic to web design companies, local based business, and much more.
Every business needs a healthy pipeline of customers, no matter what blogging topic you choose to address.
I recommend setting up contact forms to capture lead information to be forwarded to companies for a fee.
Note: You can promote lead generation offers through affiliate networks, or you can set up a private lead generation contract that will require negotiation with the business you plan to generate leads for.
You will have to ensure tracking is established to attribute leads to your marketing efforts.
I advise at the very minimum that you utilize UTM’s to track sales. Once you have set up your UTM’s, I recommend using the following custom google analytics UTM report to track sales.
3.) Create speaking engagements
A lot of money is up for the taking by offering speaking engagements to your audience.
Note: You will need to build up a sizable audience to offer public speaking to make a decent profit from this monetization method.
4.) Start a consulting business
By offering your expertise, you can generate consistent income on a month-to-month basis.
How to calculate hourly rates for consulting services
To calculate your hourly consulting fee decide what you would like your yearly salary to be.
Take the annual sum and divide it by 52 (The working weeks in a year), then again by 40 (Hours in an average workweek).
Example: I want to make 100,000 a year
100,000/ 52 = $1,923 per week
$1,923 per week / 40 (hours) = $48 per hour
5.)Start a training course
Training your audience for a set fee through learning management systems can be highly lucrative.
You can offer live video sessions or pre-recorded videos where you walk through how to perform specific actions.
You can also give your audience the option of completing assignments for you to grade after completion. Training programs can range from per week, per month, or quarterly cadence.
Anyone can put together training courses through the use of online course platforms. You have the option to charge a flat fee or a recurring fee for your training sessions.
The list is endless on what you can provide to organizations or individuals, no matter what blogging topic you focus on. You don’t have to target organizations exclusively.
As long as people want to learn (until the end of time), you can teach the knowledge you hold to those interested and what you have to offer.
6.) Become a Freelancer
The best way to immediately generate income from your blog is to offer your expertise. Freelancing can be a great way to earn money.
To start freelancing, you will need to set up a dedicated page on your blog to show past work and credentials that validate your expertise in your respective field.
Take a look at my about page for inspiration if you would like. I set it up to welcome freelance work. I would not recommend anything that I don’t practice myself. 🙂
Take a look at how this food blogger monetizes her blog. Carolyn does a great job diversifying freelancing opportunities.
Start to Advertise
When it comes to the monetization of a blog, this is the top choice for several bloggers. It is estimated that 24 billion dollars are spent on banner ads within the United States.
Given the amount of money spent on ads, it is safe to say this is a safe option to consider in your monetization strategy.
Here are a few options to consider when it comes to advertising to monetize your blog.
1.) Google AdSense ad network
What is Google Adsense?
Google AdSense is an ad network the provides banner placements from other companies directly on your site. Google pays publishers on a CPM or CPC basis for placing AdSense on your site.
What is a CPC?
CPC stands for click per conversion. Meaning, it is worth a set cost for every click.
What is CPM?
CPM stands for (Cost Per Thousand). The M comes from the Roman numeral, which denotes 1,000. For every 1,000 views, you will earn a flat rate.
AdSense is the top choice for bloggers to earn income. The process is very straightforward to start running ads.
All you need to do is place a small amount of code on your website to produce the ads on your site. You simply copy and paste this code into your website.
By choosing to sign up with Google AdSense, you will only make a sizable profit when you accumulate a high count of page views.
To calculate your potential earnings, you can use a Google Adsense calculator. Additionally, many bloggers report excellent earnings from an alternative ad network called mediavine.com.
2.) Sponsored Promotions
As a blogger, you have the option of promoting products directly in your posts.
Growth hack tip#3:
To create sponsored posts, you must indicate they are sponsored. Any links that point out to paid commissions will have to feature the rel= “sponsored” tag.
As a blogger, you have the option of teaming up with brands that target the same demographic you target.
Paid promotions are highly profitable and can be set up by directly reaching out to companies or placing a page on your site that states you are willing to work with brands.
Growth hack tip#4:
Look into companies that are running Google AdSense ads. Locate senior content managers on LinkedIn for those specific brands and pitch your sponsored post offer.
How much can you make from sponsored posts?
The amount of money you can make from sponsored posts will vary based on your domain authority. Your domain authority is a measure of how popular your site is.
If you have a higher DA (scale from 1-100), you more than likely have more traffic vs. less traffic from a lower DA.
Here is a range of sponsored post compensation based on DA. Please note this does not take into account social media following that would increase the cost per post.
3.) Podcast advertising
One of the most exciting opportunities that bloggers can take advantage of in 2023 to earn an income is podcasting. Starting a podcast is a natural extension of your blog.
The same topics you cover in your blog posts can be recorded in an audio format to be turned into a podcast episode. On the inverse, podcasts can be transcribed to be turned into a blog post.
The growth of podcasting is exploding. Take a look at the global growth rate.
Given the metrics, it would be wise to capitalize on the growth of this trend. To be able to start a podcast, you will need to use podcast hosting.
What is podcast hosting?
Podcast hosting stores and distributes your podcast. The main benefit of podcast hosting is submitting your podcast to significant outlets like Apple, Spotify, and other podcast directories.
How much money can I make from podcasting?
How much you make depends on your audience size. The bigger your audience, the more profit potential you have to monetize your podcast.
4.) Newsletter advertising
Newsletter monetization is one of the most common monetization methods for bloggers.
If you are not currently taking advantage of making money from your email list, I recommend starting as soon as possible.
Email lists are secretly responsible for generating huge profits for some of the most prolific bloggers today. Take a look at the following chart that breaks down the most effective marketing channels.
As depicted in the chart, the return on investment from email marketing is more significant than most marketing channels.
Email automation software is a powerful tool when it comes to generating profit from newsletters. Several services and products can be promoted through email lists.
7 ways to monetize your newsletter list
1.) Offer exclusive discounts
By offering an exclusive offer to your email list, you can increase your open rate. If possible, apply scarcity to your offer by mentioning your product or service is available only for a limited amount of time.
2.)Use Email Ads
Placement of ads directly in your email can be utilized to drive sales. Here is what a typical email ad looks like.
Through the use of constant contact you can easily create email ads that look like the image above.
As a word of caution, avoid placing numerous ads in your email. If too many ads are displayed, you risk diluting the communication and value you offer.
Email ads are not just for ecommerce. Get creative with email ads by offering newsletter discounted rates for the specific product/service you provide.
Growth hack tip#5:
A/B split test different time intervals and day parting for your email ads. E.g., Monday email sent at 12pm vs wednesday email sent at 3pm.
3.) Offer virtual summits
The purpose of an email list is to build trust by offering value first and foremost.
By providing a virtual event through a webinar, you can further strengthen your bond with your audience.
Additionally, you have the option of offering the virtual event for an upfront cost.
Growth hack tip#6:
I recommend offering a free virtual event to increase the amount of attendance to sell to those who may be on the fence.
4.) Use tripwires
Tripwires are low priced products or services offered to subscribers upfront after initially opting into your newsletter.
I recommend making your product or service desirable enough while inexpensive to take full advantage of this tactic.
5.) use down selling
When pitching your product or services, if subscribers don’t immediately purchase, introduce lower-priced items or try to reduce the price of your initial product and service to make a profit.
6.) use upselling
If subscribers have purchased your product or service at the original price point, consider introducing higher-priced items subscribers might like to have.
7.) use cross-selling
If subscribers are actively purchasing your product or service, introduce closely related products or services.
Consider teaming up with other businesses that are not direct competitors to form joint ventures to pitch to your subscribers.
Setup directory Listings
$25,000 per month sounds nice, right? Stick with me, and I will show you how you can potentially make that sum from this monetization method.
However, let me cover the foundational elements of directory listings. To monetize your blog with a directory list, you need to list various companies within your niche and charge a monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee.
Companies that pay for directory listings are looking to capitalize on niche traffic that ranks in search results for relevant keywords.
To take advantage of this monetization strategy, you will need to focus on SEO for a niche that offers specific services.
Examples of directory listings
- Lawn Care services – Gardening niche
- Daycare centers -Mommy blogger niche
- Local marketing agencies – Marketing niche
Take a look at what a typical directory listing looks like below. I worked on this site when I first established my career.
I learned a ton from the site owner in the short time I worked with him. The owner showed me how he generates $300,000 per year from this small niche-based blog.
Let’s examine the blog a little closer to see how monetization occurs. But, more importantly, how you can replicate the business model.
Follow along with the numbers on the image with the notes below.
- Ad space was added in the top portion of the site and in the main body next to the paid company directory listing to earn additional income.
- Advertisement media kit for local businesses to be added to directory pages for a fee.
- The widget navigates you to a local company page with a specific service you selected, allowing the advertiser to gain potential leads.
What I listed last is key, you need to navigate users to your directory listing pages to justify a monthly fee to companies.
How much money can be made from a directory listing?
The amount you can make is contingent on which niche you will cater to. Directory listing fees can range to as little as $50 – $500 and up.
Consider the following example:
If you placed ten directory listings on one page that targets a specific niche, with each company paying you $50 across the U.S.A (50 states), you could make $25,000 per month.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at the numbers.
$50 (monthly fee) x 10 (listings per page) = $500 for one page that you are renting for local companies.
Now let’s multiply that by 50 since you can eventually have one page for each state over time. $500 x 50 = $25,000 Per month.
Keep in mind; this is not even including advertising slots that you can place on the site.
You don’t need to rank on the first page of Google for this business model to work. At a modest price of $50 per month for each company, you just need to produce additional traffic to generate valid inquires.
Companies will have sales teams to nurture inquires to qualify leads. You just need to spark awareness.
Some companies are willing to pay a monthly fee just for extra visibility for branding purposes.
Growth hack tip #7:
Start with one state in a specific niche. One state can be very profitable just narrow down to the zip code level. The same concept applies to countries overseas.
How do I set up a directory listing on my blog?
To set up a directory listing on WordPress download the business directory plugin.
How to drive traffic to directory pages
As I stated, you will need to focus on SEO. Focus on producing niche-based content by creating several blog posts.
Use SEMrush to research keywords that you can insert into your blog posts.
The key is to funnel traffic from your blog to your directory listing pages. Make sure to link content from your blog to your directory listings. Companies will start to approach you to be listed on your site overtime.
On the rare occasion they don’t approach you take a proactive approach by emailing companies. Feel free to use this email template for outreach:
Hello,
I am the founder of {yoursitename] we specialize in increasing visibility to {your target niche}.
The site currently generates {list traffic metrics} Would you like to have your site listed on our directory?
Wait to receive a yes first, then send a friendly message thanking them for the interest with a link to your directory listing rates page on your site.
You can use Paypal or Stripe as a monthly payment portal that you can set up for all your clients.
How to manage directory ad units
To manage ad units, look into using a WordPress plugin called Adsanity. This plugin is one of the best ways to manage your ad units. It is very user friendly, so you should not have any problems.
Setup recurring revenue
The holy grail of generating income is earning passive recurring revenue. To be able to make a passive income, you have several options.
I have touched on a few passive ways to generate income already, but I would like to focus on two key business areas.
Passive income # 1 Private communities
Private communities present a tremendous amount of profit potential. To form a private community essentially gives you the power of forming a group of advocates. These are the people that will naturally promote your products/services if you offer value.
Private communities can be forums, Facebook groups, Pinterest groups, and much more. Whatever platform you choose to form your community on is up to you.
While I am on the topic of communities, please join our private Facebook group to join other entrepreneurs that want to grow their business like a startup.
I specifically recommend Facebook due to the more advanced functions you can take advantage of. The lookalike audience feature Facebook provides is extremely powerful.
What is a Facebook lookalike audience?
Lookalike audiences analysis your existing followers to find their commonalities. Facebook then uses an advanced algorithm to find highly-qualified users you previously wouldn’t have been able to reach.
Let’s say you have created a private Facebook group of 2,000 people. You can then use lookalike audience targeting to greatly multiply that targeted group you had of 2,000 to 10X the number of people with highly similar profiles likely to join your group.
Having the power to 10x your user base is unbelievable. When you are Facebook, you can do this with ease with a user base of billions of people.
Imagine creating a service or product and having over 20,000 people you initially made from a loyal following 2,000 who are ready to purchase from you.
Sounds good, right? To be able to activate lookalike audiences you need to implement the Facebook Pixel on your blog.
Passive income opportunity # 2 Coaching
I talked in-depth about offering your knowledge to generate income. Coaching is no different. Coaching carries a hefty price tag, depending on which topic you choose to focus on.
Are you familiar with Tony Robbins? If you aren’t, he is one of the most prominent life coaches in the world.
I have the pleasure of calling him a former client. Take a look at how much he charges for a pre-recording of a coaching program.
Granted, he is a well-known public figure, but this does not mean you can not charge fees similar to what Mr. Robbins’ charges.
First, you have to identify your core strengths once you understand that you can surely sell it to the masses.
Take a look at this woman who charges a modest fee of $25.99 per month.
She positioned herself to only use a small amount of time for continual profit from what she offers. Two calls a month and access to a private community.
Who would not pay that for a little help? She also has more services at higher tiers, but looking at this example, anyone can do the same thing in any niche and earn an immediate recurring income.
How do you plan to monetize your blog ? which tactic stands out to you the most and why? I would love to hear your questions and comments.
How to monetize a blog FAQs
Can you make money blogging?
Yes, not only can you make money, you can potentially make a lot of money blogging.
The key is to focus on a specific niche, consistently writing and updating your posts, having a monetization plan in place, and lastly, actively promoting your blog consistently.
How do beginner blogs make money?
Beginners can make money blogging by first building up the number of posts they have.
Once you have a few blog posts, live you will then need to promote your blog.
The best route for beginners to make money immediately once they have some traction from the blog is offering freelancing services for a set fee.
How do I start a free blog and make money?
You can start a free blog with Wix. Please note that there will be certain limitations on monetizing your blog with the free option.
I advise you to explore using the paid version of Wix to get started very fast.
How much money can you make from a blog?
The possibilities are endless. It will depend on what you would like to focus your efforts on.
The most popular method is to place ads on your site, but you will need to build up traffic to make this route profitable for your blog.
Which blogging platform is best for making money?
Any blogging platform can be monetized. WordPress is the most popular option when starting a blog, but Wix is also a great option to start a blog. Read my guide on WordPress vs. Wix to decide which is a better alternative to get started.
Who is the highest paid blogger?
Many prominent bloggers exist that span over several different verticals. Here are a few highly successful bloggers.
- Finance – Michelle Gardner – makingsenseofcents.com
- Podcasting – Pat Flynn – smartpassiveincome.com
- Food – Lindsay Ostrom – pinchofyum.com
- Home organization – Abby Lawson- justagirlandherblog.com
How can I make my blog profitable?
It will take time to make your blog profitable. You will need to focus on driving traffic, more importantly, providing value to your audience to increase engagement rates on your site.
Once you have built up traffic, monetization opportunities will be readily available to monetize your blog.
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