If you’ve been blogging for months, or even years, and you still haven’t made any money on it, now’s the time to make a change. Anyone can monetize their blog by following the proper steps. Not everyone will be able to quit their day job and live off the money generated by the blog, but you could set that as a long-range goal if your initial attempts to monetize go well.
Whether you write about running,addiction rehab centers or fantasy football, here are some tips on how to monetize your blog.
Blogger Outreach
One way to monetize your blog is through blogger outreach services. This involves reaching out to brands and businesses that you think would be a good fit for your blog and audience. By partnering with these brands, you can earn commission on sales or leads that you generate.
Join an Ad Network
This is perhaps one of the most basic steps to monetizing your blog. You probably don’t have time to go out and sell your blog to advertisers yourself (though kudos to you if you want to take this approach). By joining with an ad network, you essentially add a middleman to your efforts to sell your blog.
The ad network sells ads on your behalf and places them on your site. The one drawback to this is that you often don’t have much say over whose ads will appear there. So if you object to, say, the politics of one of the advertisers placed with you, you may not be able to remove the ad because of the terms of your agreement.
Reach Out to Companies for Testing Opportunities
Nearly every major company these days works with bloggers to spread the word about their product. Not all of them compensate the bloggers they work with, but many do provide free goods and services. If that’s something that appeals to you, try reaching out to the public relations representatives who work with these companies and asking to be considered for future campaigns.
This can provide two-fold benefits. You could get in on the campaign for the brand you’re interested in, which is great, but the PR firm will also keep you in mind for future campaigns for brands that you may not yet be familiar with.
Sponsored Posts
A bit different than a traditional ad, a sponsored post is one that a company pays the blogger to write. It may be pertaining to a range of products, such as a recipe using almond milk or a review of a new running shoe. It’s important that the blogger stick to his or her own opinions when writing such posts and not just act as a shill for the brand. That could hurt the integrity of your blog.
