In the early days, blogging was all about creating a personal online journal that told family members or friends what you were doing, what was going on in your life and how you felt about it. Many people blog to demonstrate expertise, help other people, or promote a cause. They have very real and often personal reasons for blogging.
When it comes to monetizing blogs, people often have mixed feelings about whether or not this is the right thing to do. As a matter of fact, some people believe that monetizing your blog is a way of degrading or demeaning the content.
But for others, monetization is an important part of the blogging strategy. What is certainly true is that nowadays, if you want to start an online business to generate an additional income, you can certainly do so with nothing more complex than a blog.
Before starting to look at creating a blog to generate an income, the first thing to understand is the essential nature of what you need to do to make money online.
Once you make up your mind whether or not to make money through advertisements on your blog site, then you can move forward.
One of the first and most important thins to do if you plan to monetize your site is to do it in a way that leads to success. If you are half-hearted or shy about your endeavors, it is likely your monetization will fall flat.
Here are some tips to Keep in mind if you want to move forward with monetization:
- Choose ads that are relevant and provide value to your blog visitors.
- Create titles for articles that are relevant to your blog topic and your advertising – congruency and consistency are important.
- Create a plan for monetization so you can measure your success and identify challenges.
- Engage in SEO so you get enough traffic to your blog for monetization to work. Traffic is key to success.
- Avoid annoying ads and pop-ups that will turn your visitors away.
- Consider reputable resources such as Google Adsense for your monetization efforts.
- Evaluate affiliate programs offered through Amazon and others for monetization.
- Promoting products as an affiliate can be a very effective way of generating an online income from your blog.
- Make sure your blog software and host supports advertising on the site.
One other important way to monetize your blog that is often overlooked is through “Donations”. Believe it or not, people make a lot of money from donations on their blog. If you are passionate about your subject matter, consistent in your blog posts, and interactive with your audience, it is very likely that donations can work for you too.
Including a “Donations” button prominently displayed on your blog site can result in income for your efforts. Some people include catchy phrases in place of the word “Donations” – “Buy me a cup of coffee”, “Buy me a beer”, “Help my cause”, or “The buck goes here” are examples. Use your creativity and decide if your blog topic and passion are enough to make people want to give!
You can find a lot more information in our “Blogging For Money” publication.