Countless bloggers are using their blogs to generate extra side cash and meet their money goals. If that’s your aim, you can make it happen. However, generating revenue from your blog isn’t an overnight success. It takes time and requires dedication, patience, and a lot of work but if you put in the work and take the right steps, you can earn as much as you desire.
Use this article to start monetizing your blog and make that extra income.
SUBSCRIBE TO INCOME PATROL
Get updates on the latest posts and more from Income Patrol straight to your inbox.
LEVERAGE AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to earn some extra cash from your blog. So, become an affiliate and promote third-party products or services to your audience. Get paid on commission or every time someone purchases via your link. To succeed, recommend products around your niche or ones that are in line with your business. This is a great way to build authority, prove credibility, and make it easy for people to trust your opinion and follow your links. You can make lots of money here. All you have to do is ensure people follow your links and make the final purchase and the best way to achieve that is by improving your content strategy and creating content that your audience favors and finds useful. So, blog about interesting and popular topics within your niche.
Create how-to guides, long-form content, and complete guides to increase traffic and grow your audience. Focus on becoming a thought-leader and the go-to person for certain information to build trust and command attention. For example, if you are a food blogger, become an expert in the industry. Learn as much as you can about your field and share interesting and helpful information. Connect and form meaningful relations with your audience.
When you build authority in your industry, people will seek your advice, trust your opinion, and have confidence in the products you promote.
The great thing about blogs is that there are countless opportunities for link placement. You can place your affiliate links on any part of the content and ensure the products or services you recommend fit seamlessly with your posts. For example, write comparison articles, share your opinion, promote products you favor, and add affiliate links within the content.
Recommend products or services you love, have experience with, or ones you trust to maintain your reputation and retain your audience.
Join reputable affiliate programs like Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliates, ShareASale, and eBay.
Make sure your audience knows that you earn a commission each time they click on your links and buy recommended products. Understand and follow the guidelines given by your affiliate program to succeed.
OFFER COACHING SERVICES
Offer coaching services and help your target audience solve daily challenges. Focus on your niche and target people who are already interested in your services. For example, if you own an online marketing firm target small businesses or freelancers. Offer marketing advice and help them build brand awareness and avoid common online marketing mistakes that most people make.
Identify your top skills and teach your audience a new skill. Advertise your coaching services on various social media channels to build an audience. Market to your blog readers and convince them to use your services. Talk about the type of training you offer, the kind of people you want to work with, the value you bring into their lives, and what they’ll benefit from it.
Anyone in any field can become a coach and succeed. You can become a life coach and share motivational or self-improvement content. You can become a business coach and help organizations build their businesses, deal with daily challenges, and ensure growth. You just have to focus on your niche, target the right people, and offer relevant training.
Define your value proposition to raise interest and attract your audience. Answer key questions; “What value do I bring to my audience?” “What sets me apart from the competition?” and “Why would people favor my coaching services above the competition?”
Focus on your blog and curate valuable content that helps your audience solve problems, advance their skills, and attain their goals. Share practical advice and offer real-world solutions to attract attention and get people interested in your services. Look for opportunities to advance your knowledge and remain one step ahead in your industry. Identify three coaches you can learn from and follow them on social media.
Another option is to offer coaching services to happy clients and help them solve common problems and find easier ways to deal with daily challenges.
SELL AN ONLINE COURSE
Create and sell an online course on your blog. If you have a WordPress blog, use the best plugins to create and sell your course. For example, WP Courseware, LearnDash, or Sensei LMS. You don’t need over a thousand blog readers to start generating income. If you have 60 or so loyal readers, sell your course to them and monetize your blog. Since you already offer useful content and have people who value your advice, making a sale won’t be too difficult. So, create your course and promote it on your social media channels. Share it with your online communities, talk about it on your next blog post, and tell your friends about it. Mention what the course is about, how long it takes to complete, what the students will benefit from it, and outline the steps to take to enroll. Use calls-to-action on your promotional content to get them to register.
Start a marketing campaign two months before the final launch to grow your audience and increase your chances of success. Collect emails and get people to join your mailing list. Talk about the upcoming course in your emails and get subscribers excited and looking forward to it. Mention exciting features, discounts, and giveaways available to students. Use pop-up forms on your blog to pique interest and enroll more students.
Choose a topic you are familiar with or one you enjoy researching and create your course. Identify a problem and offer a solution. Aim to add value to your students’ lives and outshine the competition. You will easily get more people to enroll when you create content that students love and value. If you have been blogging for some time, focus on your top-performing relevant posts and turn them into an online course. The goal is to create something helpful, worthwhile, engaging, and unique. So, find out what your audience needs and start working.
Another option is to create your course with third-party platforms like Teachable or Udemy and promote it to your blog followers. This can greatly accelerate the process if you have a decent number of followers because you’ve already established yourself as an authority figure and formed meaningful relations with your audience.
CREATE PREMIUM CONTENT
Since you’ve been blogging about the same topic for some time now you should’ve honed in your skills and become the expert in your niche. So, offer premium content to your existing followers and increase your income. If you offer high-quality content, have a good readership, and your blog generates at least 1000 readers a day, more people will want to access your paid content.
They know you are the go-to person for certain information and realize the value you bring into their lives. They know that you provide content that takes them a step closer to their goals and helps them solve problems therefore, parting with a few extra dollars to access such information won’t be an issue.
Create a membership site and create content that’s accessible to members only. Your premium content must cover topics around your niche, be well-researched, and add additional value to readers.
Have exciting offers to get more subscriptions. For example, offer downloadable material, printable PDFs, and exclusive posts to members only. Come up with creative ideas for your paid content. For example, write a free 1000-word article and expand it into an exclusive post. Make certain information available to members only and ensure you add extra value with the additional content.
Pique interest and convince your readers to upgrade to premium content by proving value and establishing relations with your free content.
Your charges depend on offered material, industry rates, as well as your goals. Decide whether you want to charge a monthly fee for your content or set a once-off fee. If you set a monthly fee, give access to all exclusive content for one month to members. Remove access once the subscription expires or ask members to upgrade. Again, you don’t need a great number of subscribers to succeed. You can make nice earnings from 100 members even if you charge very little per month.
If you offer a once-off fee, set the right price because subscribers will have access to all content without any additional charges. Charge a once-off fee or create a yearly package and charge less per year.
Keep your premium content up-to-date, have exciting deals, and constantly look for ways to improve your offers. For example, have meetups and offer one-on-one advice to members.
SELL DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Identify your top skill or passion and turn it into a digital product. For example, if you enjoy graphic designing, design business cards, brochures, flyers, and posters. Promote and sell them to your audience. Upload samples of your work on your blog and various social media platforms and advertise.
If you are a web designer, create templates or plugins and sell them to your audience. If you enjoy taking pictures and have good editing skills, sell stock photos on your blog. Sell on third-party platforms like Etsy, Shutterstock, or Getty Images, if you prefer, and tell your readers about it.
Join freelancing platforms like Upwork or PeoplePerHour and create your profile. Add a professional personal image and help people easily identify you. Provide all the required details and include all the important information such as your full name, skills, services, and client reviews where applicable.
Add your blog URL for social proof and to make it easy for potential clients to discover your content.
Tell your blog readers about your services and add your digital products on your blog for easy access and more purchases. Sell your products from your blog or create an online store with the WooCommerce plugin.
Advertise your new store to your followers and encourage them to buy. Upload promotional content and add a CTA to lead them to your store and guide them through the purchasing process.
Other digital products to consider are checklists, guides, journals, video effects, illustrations, audio, and on-demand design elements like fonts and icons. The goal is to create something that your audience needs and values. So, develop and sell products related to what you blog about.
Another option is to outsource the work and then sell the product to your followers. For example, if you are a tech blogger, want to sell website themes but don’t have coding skills, hire a freelance developer on Guru or Fiverr. Pick someone with good reviews and ratings. Charges vary depending on your requirements, the developer, and the timeframe. Promote and sell the final product on your blog.
Another option is to advertise and sell physical products like custom mugs, clothing, computing devices, office equipment, and clothing.
WRITE AND SELL EBOOKS
Write an eBook and monetize it. Pick a topic that your audience favors and finds interesting. Ask them about their challenges or the kind of information they wish they had easy access to. Encourage them to leave comments on the comments section and respond to every comment.
Identify a common problem and offer a solution. Center your book on fixing the issue and helping your readers overcome a specific problem. Aim to add value to their lives and help them meet their goals. For example, if your blog focuses on self-development and making money online, teach your audience a new skill and share useful tips on how to build, market, and grow their online businesses.
If you don’t get the response you are looking for and can’t think of something to write about, repurpose your existing content. Transform your best article or articles into a book. Write down your goals, update the information, and start writing.
Know what you want to achieve from your book. Set goals and let them guide you. What do you want to accomplish from writing your book? Do you want to teach a new skill? Or perhaps you want to share helpful online resources and make your readers’ lives easier?
Consider your value proposition. What does your audience gain from reading your book? Why would they want to buy from you? Answer these questions and let them guide you in writing a book that converts and sells.
Promote your eBook to your blog readers, on social media channels, or via a podcast.
If you don’t have enough time to research and write your book hire a ghostwriter on freelancing platforms. Work with someone who covers content related to your niche and has good reviews. Ask for work samples to get an idea of who you’ll be working with. The best thing about hiring a ghostwriter is that you will have complete rights to the content once the project is completed.
Hire a designer on 99designs or Upwork for your cover or use Photoshop to create a professional cover.
BECOME A FREELANCE BLOGGER
Become a paid blogger, set your rates, and earn as much as you desire. You already have great writing skills, a brilliant portfolio, and an audience that loves your work. So, advertise your freelance writing services and let people know you are in business.
Create a freelancing profile and list your services. Mention the type of content you write and the people you write for. For example, say you write eBooks, website content, as well as articles on diverse topics for landing pages, emails, sales letters, and newsletters.
Add your blog URL to prove credibility and show potential customers you can deliver.
Web owners, authors, and countless brands are always looking for writers and bloggers for their online content. So, take advantage of that and use it to make more money. Target small businesses, freelancers, influencers, and startups. Market your services and convince them to hire you. Send them work samples or a link to your portfolio. If you produce and share high-quality content on your blog, getting your first client won’t be difficult. Prospects will go through your blog, read your content, fall in love with it, and send projects. If you do it right, you can quit your 9-5 job, become a full-time freelance writer, and earn a living from it.
Guest blog on reputable sites to market your services, reach a bigger audience, and boost sales.
Work with brands and use sponsored blog posts to monetize your blog. Recommend their products or services to your audience. Get paid for mentioning products, reviewing them, and sharing an opinion. Target brands within your niche or ones with offers that are related to the type of content you create. Recommend products that you believe in and ones that your audience needs.
If you have great content, a strong online presence, and a great number of followers, brands will easily work with you and some will even approach you and ask you to mention their products to your networks. They need social proof to determine whether or not the investment is worth it.
BONUS TIP:
Build relationships with influencers and partner up with them when creating and launching your product to ensure success.
Links and Resources from this Article
LIMITED-TIME OFFER!
With LIFETIME ACCESS membership ($67) you have access to ALL exclusive materials (current and upcoming) for lifetime. We create new courses, ebooks, webinars and downloads on a regular basis. This offer expires soon and will be replaced with monthly-paid subscription, so hurry up! Get access HERE!
