Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Have you ever wondered how other bloggers are making so much money? What is their secret? How can you make money with your blog?
Here are three ways you can make money with your blog.
- Affiliate commissions. Many bloggers use their blogs to promote the products and services of others. They are affiliate marketers. You can create quite a successful business by choosing a blog topic that interests you. The more specific the topic, the better. For example, if you love reading mystery novels, you can create a blog that reveiws mystery novels. Each review could include an affiliate link so your readers can buy the book. You might also include ads in your sidebar that advertise ‘how to write mystery novels’, and writing programs. The foundation of a successful affiliate business is content and there is not better content tool than a blog.
- Advertising Revenue. Many profitable blogs earn all of their income from advertising revenue. There are two ways you can earn money from advertising. You can participate in programs like Google’s AdSense. You simply sign up and paste the code on your blog. Google inserts the ads. You can choose the ad category so they match your visitor’s interests. Each time someone clicks on an ad, you earn money. You can also sell space on your blog. The more readers and subscribers you have, the more you can charge for ad space on your site. In the meantime, consider placing affiliate banner ads in the sidebar. This will get your readers accustomed to ads on your blog. It might earn you some additional income in the meantime. It may also help your readers visualize their ads on your site. You should also place an ‘advertise with us’ or ‘your ad here’ link somewhere on your blog so anyone who wants to advertise on your blog can contact you easily.
- Your own products or services. You can use your blog to sell your own products or services. If we continue with the mystery novel example, you might decide to write a ‘how to write a mystery novel’ downloadable course. You can use your blog to promote your product and earn a nice profit. You could also offer manuscript critique services. You could help aspiring mystery writers get published while earning an income. Again, you can use your blog to promote your services.
There are a number of ways to use your blog to profit. Decide which monetization model best fits your needs and profit goals. Create a plan to make it happen. Always remember that the secret behind any profitable blog is the content. Always focus on creating the best content possible!
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
As has been mentioned before on this blog, it’s important that you choose a niche for your blog. What is a niche? It’s a specialized or highly focused topic. The example from a previous blog post had to do with exotic pets…instead of a blog on exotic pets, one could have a blog on sugar gliders…that is a niche blog. There are several reasons why niche blogs are successful.
#1 Loyal Readers
If you choose a niche it will be easier for you to find loyal readers. When people do an online search, they are often searching for very specific information. If you provide that specific information you could be on the top of their list. It is highly likely that they will subscribe to your blog which gives you regular access into their homes and lives. This loyalty provides you with an abundance of opportunity to profit.
#2 More Profits
Niches are more profitable. As a blogger, it is easier in a niche for you to establish some of the key triggers that get people to buy. The most notable triggers are credibility and authority. When you blog about a specific niche, you are establishing yourself as a subject matter expert. You will earn the trust of your readers which means they will be more likely to buy from you or trust your recommendations. This results in profits.
With a niche blog, you will be able to draw very focused traffic. This means you will have a special appeal for targeted advertisers. Back to the sugar glider example…sugar glider advertisers will know that your audience is their target audience and they will pay you so they can advertise on your blog.
#3 More Traffic
It is much easier to compete in the search engines when you have a niche topic. For example entering exotic pets in Bing yields 24,400,000 results! Entering sugar glider yields one tenth of that number…a much smaller field of results! If there is a big demand for your niche topic, you will have much fewer competitors. This means that whenver someone searches for your niche topic, they are more likely to find you easier. The result is more traffic!
Choosing a niche topic also makes it much easier for you to provide value to your readers. More value means more repeat visitors. It also means more inbound links as people will want to share your blog and the information it offers with others. This in turn helps to increase traffic to your blog and raise awareness about your blog. In short, a niche blog makes it easier to market and grow your blog.
Choosing a niche topic means you’ll be able to reach your audience faster. You’ll be able to keep them coming back to your blog and will grow your subscribers more quickly. Ultimately this can lead to more profits from your blog.
Before you choose a niche, be sure there are good numbers behind it…this means be sure there is a good demand and low supply for your niche topic.
When the numbers support it, niche blogs prosper. Choose your niche today and start profiting from your blog!
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
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