If you have a blog or site - or are thinking of starting something like this - know that you still have the potential to make money. Blogs can be monetized in many ways. This article discusses various models of online monetization and best practices for monetizing digital content.
Start with the basics. What is monetization? Simply put, monetization means making money from your site. If you make money from online content on your blog, it will be called monetization.
Affiliate Marketing
Offer products directly or digitally
Subscription
Coaching
How can you do these things for yourself and your blog? Let us understand each model of monetization very well.
Monetization through advertising: Advertise on your blog to earn money
As a blog publisher, you can easily make money by adding ads to your online content. Advertisers are willing to pay to attract your audience. In the same way that over-circulated newsletters can charge advertisers more, the more popular your site and content, the more you can earn.
You can offer ad slots for all the business ads you want to show with your content. This is called a direct deal. You can also use ad networks like Google AdSense to sell ad slots on your behalf.
AdSense helps you see ads relevant to the content on specific pages of your blog. For example, if your blog is about adventure travel and you have just uploaded a travel related post to Rekyavik, AdSense may show you ads about travel insurance, Iceland or warm clothing. As the owner of the site where the ad is displayed, AdSense pays you when a user sees or communicates an ad.
With the ability to make online ads relevant to your blog's content and readers, many advertisers are willing to pay a premium price for your ad slots.
Affiliate Marketing: Make Money By Recommending Products
Affiliate marketing is when you include a link to your content in a product or service for sale on another site. Here's how it works: When someone clicks a link to your site, goes to an affiliate site, and is processed to buy your approved product, you get a commission on the sale.
For blogs with hired visitors who are interested in product suggestions, this can be an effective earning model. Informational, how-to and lifestyle articles provide ample opportunities for affiliate product promotion.
The Adventure Travel blog can be taken as an example again, let's say you have posted about a great location for swimming. You can use affiliate marketing to suggest gear - such as swimsuits, towels and glasses - that you have packed for your trip. If a reader of the blog buys it by clicking on the suggested swimsuit link, you will earn from the blog.
To maintain the trust of your audience, try to maintain clarity about your relationship with the customer. Many countries have a legal obligation to disclose your relationship with the customer, so be sure to seek legal advice before engaging in affiliate marketing. Also the reputation of your blog is related to your product or service you promote, so keep quality in mind when choosing your affiliate partner.
Offer products directly or on digital platforms: Sell things to make money from your blog
To make money from their blogs, many bloggers are now trying to create an e-commerce platform to sell their products through online stores. Your product can be physical or digital. For example, on an adventure travel blog, you can sell a T-shirt with your logo on it or a digital guidebook for a foreign destination.
Whether your product is physical or virtual, you need to set up a system to receive payment. The things you need to keep in mind when selling physical products are storing stock, organizing shipping and managing taxes and duties. Digital products are logistically less complex because they can be delivered online.
Subscription:
Charge general fee to add new stream of income
If you have an active community on your blog who are interested in learning more about your topic, then a paid membership or subscription model is one of the best ways to use your valuable content in the long run.
In this type of business model, readers pay a certain amount of money on a regular, monthly or annual basis. In this way, by collecting membership or subscription fees from readers, you can earn more and more. This type of continuous cash flow offers the possibility of a more stable, predictable and accurate revenue stream.
In return, you can provide subscriber or member premium content, community area, learning resources, video or additional services and tools. You can combine several different types of elements that will suit your blog.
Coaching:
Monetize the blog through training
If you offer training services through blogs, you can earn money by setting up an online course or coaching package and charging for it.
When you create self-directed educational materials, such as videos or downloadable ebooks, you allow members of your audience to move forward on their own. As people continue to do your course, you can learn about their interests in other subjects.
Developing an online curriculum may require considerable time and resources in advance, so you will need an audience associated with the subject to make it effective.
Another option to increase revenue is to offer live video coaching and you will be paid for your time.
Whether your offer is based on an online course or on-demand coaching, you can include conversations with students via email or through your blog.
