Blogging 101: How to Monetize your Blog

Blogging 101 is a 10 part series where I share my tips and tricks for creating and growing a blog from scratch. This is the tenth installment in the series, and you can find more information on the topics of this series here.

Wow! I cannot believe this is the final installment of my Blogging 101 series. It’s been over two months since I posted my first piece and I know I have picked up a few new followers along the way specifically because of this series! I sincerely hope this series has helped you think about starting a blog or has given you new ideas or information to help make your blog the best it can be! When I started this series, I truly wanted to demystify blogging for those who may have been interested in the subject but thought the task too big or too complicated to pursue. I am by no means a professional on the subject, but I often think there is too much secrecy among bloggers about what they do, what works and what doesn’t, and I really wanted to give some real practical advice on the subject. So, thanks for reading and letting me impart my knowledge to all of you!

I have chosen the subject of monetization as the final installment of my series for a very specific purpose. First of all, I believe that blogging as we know it today was rooted in a true passion for writing and sharing as a means of creative outlet and that the monetization of blogs was something that came after. Because of this, I believe that you should first and foremost wish to run a blog for the love of it! If you don’t love what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it, and people will be able to tell if your heart isn’t in it. That leads me to my second reason for publishing this topic last, because it is hard work to make money from blogging and if your heart isn’t in it, you won’t ever make it long enough to earn a decent income. So, start your blog for you, as a hobby and/or creative outlet. Put your heart into your content and feel a true passion for what you post, and then monetize strategically!

It may surprise you to hear that there are many ways for you to monetize your blog. When you think about it, however, it makes a lot of sense that there would be more than one way to earn an income from blogging, because the business of blogging is all about entrepreneurship, and any good entrepreneur will tell you that if you want to make money from a business venture, you need to diversify your income streams! I am going to break down those possible income streams into categories. Those categories are affiliate networks, sponsorships, advertising, and direct sales.

Affiliate networks are merchant revenue sharing programs where bloggers can sign up to promote products through their blogs and earn a percentage of any sales that result from their direct links. There are many different affiliate networks out there, some that promote a wide variety of products (Amazon) and some that represent merchants from specific fields like fashion (Reward Style). These networks also vary in the selectivity of their membership. Some programs are pretty lax in the requirements of their members, and some are highly selective. Since there are such a wide variety of networks, with so many different options, I highly suggest that you do some research on your own for which networks you may want to target. One of the best things about affiliate networks is that you can be a member of multiple networks in most cases and promote multiple different products within your blog if you so choose.

Sponsorships are a more targeted and labor intensive form of monetization in which bloggers work directly with companies or marketers to create content centered around specific products. I say that these opportunities are more labor intensive because usually a blogger would need to do a good amount of work in order to secure a sponsorship. This may mean the blogger would have to research companies, find contacts and then pitch a blog post idea to the company, making the case for how the sponsorship would benefit the company, its products and negotiate an appropriate amount of payment. If you have ever seen a sponsored post in a blog, you may have wondered how the blogger came to that opportunity. More prominent bloggers are often directly approached by companies to promote their products, others use agents or are members of marketing related networks where companies can pick bloggers from a pool of possible candidates to promote products, but often, bloggers need to directly contact companies or their marketing firms in order to start on the road to sponsored posts. As you may be thinking, this process can be an uphill battle, but normally once a blogger has established a reputation for working well with companies, the process can become easier as you add companies to your sponsorship resume.

The next form of monetization is selling advertising space on your blog. This one is pretty straight forward, but for some, the idea of selling ad space can be a daunting task, which is why there are platforms out there like Passionfruit Ads* that will help make the process easier. Sites like Passionfruit help bloggers manage advertisements by placing ad images, tracking and rotating ads, and automating payments. Of course, sites like these take a portion of your ad revenue for the service they provide, but if you want to leave your ad management up to a more precise platform, this could be an easy way for you to sell ad space without spending your own precious time.

The final form of monetization I am going to cover is direct sales, and by this, I mean by using your blog to promote and sell your goods and/or services. It is very common to find blogs that support a business, either a real brick and mortar company or an e-business. You can sell anything from digital products (ebooks, podcasts, learning series tutorials etc) to physical goods (products you create yourself or resell) to services (event planning, consulting, photography etc). Even if you don’t run a business, you can still find ways to use direct sales on your blog. Perhaps you write about recipes on your blog, you could put together a digital ebook and sell it through your site. Maybe you love photography and take beautiful images, you could sell digital copies of your photo’s. The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to directly selling to your blog readers and if you are truly serious about monetizing your blog, I think this is something that everyone should be thinking seriously about.

So, that’s it! Those are the four major categories of blog monetization. They are probably not the only ways you can make money through your blog, but I think they are the most common and tried and true approaches. The best part is, you can employ one or more of these methods on your own blog right now and with some ground work and planning, there is no reason why you couldn’t take advantage of all the methods I suggested. Like I said earlier, diversifying your income streams is important if you are trying to make money as an internet entrepreneur, so give each method some thought, figure out how you could apply each to your own blog and get to making some money! I am by no means an expert on this subject, so if you have any questions, which I am sure you have many if you are serious about this enterprise, I have some suggested reading for you!

Must-Read Business Books for anyone looking to monetize their blog in a smart and strategic way!

• Blog Inc
• 4 Hour Work Week
• $100 Startup
• Crush It!

And yes! Those are affiliate links to Amazon where you can purchase the books! If my advice has been helpful and you would like to thank me for it, using my affiliate links to purchase products I recommend is an easy way to support me and my blog and it doesn’t cost you anything extra. I don’t always use affiliate links and I don’t always make product recommendations, but when I do, you can be sure that it’s for products I do recommend and honestly believe in. That’s my commitment to you as my reader and it is one I hope you bring to your own blogs with a true sense of responsibility to your readers as your pursue the path of monetization!

*This site was recommended to me by my blogging buddy Kristin from My Life as a Teacup!