If you are an entrepreneur with a blog, you’ll no doubt be keen to learn the different ways to monetise it. Otherwise it’s really just a hobby.
Here are three ways I recommend you do it:
1. Sell other people’s products
Most digital products, like e-books, have affiliate programs where the owner of the product will split revenue with you when you make sales.
It’s usually split 50:50 and they pay you directly into your PayPal account each month. It’s all tracked electronically so there’s no risk you’ll be short-changed.
My rule of thumb is only sell products you have actually bought, used and found valuable.
The best way I’ve found to sell these affiliate products is to write genuine reviews based on your own experience using them. You can also use your blog sidebar to put links or promotions to these products.
The upside is you don’t need to create your own digital product and you can start selling straight away. Plus it’s a form of passive income.
This is how I got started and I recall a tremendous sense of excitement when I made my first sale.
It only earnt me $40 but the monkey was off my back and I was ‘making money’ on my blog!
2. Sell your own digital product
Package up all the best things you know and create an e-book, toolkit or online course that people can buy.
The upside is you get to keep 100% of the revenue, plus you’re able to build your own army of affiliates who will help sell your products to their communities.
Once you’ve made the product, these sales are another form of passive income. It’s scalable and you can be making sales while you are asleep, another thrill!
3. Sell your main business products
As a business owner, you obviously have the products and services that you sell day-to-day and this puts you at an advantage to most non-business bloggers. It’s known as having a ‘back end’ and the upside is that you can generate significantly more income.
As your blog gets traction it should drive company growth and it is likely you will also start to generate enquiries for additional services like consulting, training and speaking.
I don’t advise selling banners or running Google Ads
My reason for saying this is because the revenue you’ll earn is miniscule, and it disrupts the reader’s experience. Most web users have become blind to web-ads anyway, which means the price you can sell them for has diminished, and they’re often unrelated to what your blog is about.
Of course you may still earn a few dollars but the three ways I’ve described above will yield much better results.
If you liked this article and you’re looking to use social media to drive more traffic to your blog you may find the Social Media Planning Template useful. It’s a free download.
Adam Franklin is the co-author of ‘Web Marketing That Works’, a professional speaker, and co-founder of Bluewire Media.
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