How To Turn Your Blog Into A Business

I often get asked the question "How do I make money with a blog?" and my answer is often not as simple as the person would like. Every blogger has a different set of values, a unique audience and would need to monetise their site in a different way. It's never been and never will be a one size fits all solution, internet businesses are dynamic, and that's where the opportunity lies. If you're looking for ways to monetise your blog, then check out a few of my tips here, you might find a strategy that works for you.

Sell ad space

Probably the most popular way of monetising your site is selling ads on your website. Allowing advertisers to target your users with their advertising messages and getting paid per click or per 1000 impressions (times an ad was seen/displayed to a user). Google's Adsense is by far the most popular option for blog owners, and while it may not pay the bills, it's still a start.

Adding competiting networks

If you're not happy with Google Adsense income what you can do is create accounts with other competiting ad networks and have them compete with Adsense for your traffic. That way you create an auction for your traffic, and only the highest paying ad will be shown to your visitors. This can be done via Google Ad Manager (formerly known as DFP - Double Click For Publishers)

Selling direct advertising

Instead of having ad networks serve ads to your users you can offer set rates to brands and sell the space directly to them. Negotiate your own rates and serve ads that are more controlled or targetted and suited to your websites narrative and the audience it attracts. Direct selling may take a while, and you will need to know how to negotiate with brands, but it is still one of the most lucrative ways of monetising your blog.

Sell your traffic

Not every blog is advertiser-friendly and not every blog owner wants to sell out to advertisers, but that doesn't mean you cannot monetise your blogs reach and make some money from the visitors you attract.

Guest posting

A guest post can be seen as an advertorial, a piece of long-form content that is essentially an advert. Offering brands or individuals the opportunity to create content specifically for your site and then charging them for the exposure and the effort of placing it on your site is a great way to make an income and not seem super spammy with ads.

Sponsored posts

A sponsored post is where brands actually approach you to review or post your thoughts on their products or services. 

This is probably one of the most popular forms of blogger monetisation because it can involve free goodies or free access to services.

Sell your services

The reason you're attracting visitors to your site is that you're seen as an authority on a specific topic. I'm an authority on digital marketing and you're reading my blog, no coincidence there now is it? Your visitors are here to find out more about you and the information and skill you can provide. A blog post might help some, but others may want a more hands-on approach and would be willing to pay for your time. You can monetise your time and expertise by creating offerings such as classes and workshops or even one on one consulting services.

Sell products

If you can physically create products, your blog can be an amazing way to showcase your products from start to finish. You can document the life cycle of your product and show users the effort you put into creating these products. In each of these posts link back to the product and offer them the chance to either request an order or purchase the product directly from your site.

Sell products for others

If you don't know how to create a physical product but know someone who does offer to sell their product via your blog and take a commision. You focus on doing the marketing while they focus on the product. You can add new products over time or complimenting products and services and grow your commision over time.

Affiliate marketing

If you don't have a network of businesses to learn on but still see an opportunity to sell a physical product or service, then you can sign up to an affiliate program. 

Plenty of online retailers and online service providers offer these types of programs where you can create referral links from your content to their offering and get paid each time someone you refer buys from them. 

You will need to do research and find out which programs would make sense for you and your audience, sign up and start earning commisions.

Donations and crowdfunding

You're a content creator, and the content you're pushing out has value, if it didn't, you would not have any visitors. There is no shame in asking those who enjoy your content to donate to your cause and ensure you continue to create content and improve the quality of your content from their funding.

You can also offer these users special shout outs on your site, request and create custom content with the donators name in it and turn it into a really fun value-add for them.

You could also ask them to donate to specific projects you want to try like fund my GoPro so I can start my underwater video series and so on. You can create a PayPal account or set up a cryptocurrency wallet in minutes and start accepting digital donations. 

For an example check out our donations page here

Create digital assets

People visit your site for different reasons and with different mindsets, and each post you create is a new gateway for customers to find you and your brand. 

Some users will find you via social media, others through Google search and they're all looking for something different. But this doesn't mean they're all not interested in more of the content you have to offer. The challenge here is to upsell those visitors on a more valuable experience. 

This can be done in the form of a video series, eBook series, courses and even short guides or templates you've created. Once you've created these paid offerings, list them on your site and sell them to your visitors.

The opportunities are endless

Creating an internet business doesn't mean you have to be the next genius coder or crazy backing from investors or VC's. Start small, create a community and a buzz around your website.

Once you start building up an audience, engage with them, find out what they want and see how you can meet those needs. People turn to the internet for many reasons and if you can find a reason that you can service, find a way to charge for that service and you can scale that service, well then congratulations, you're officially in business.

Contact us

If you want to know more about content marketing for your site, don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Tags: blogging, business advice, Content Marketing, Google Search