If you are wondering how to monetize your blog authentically, look no further. Help is here!
And just to be clear, we’re not going to cover pop-up ads and other spammy ways of getting dollars that make your blog look unprofessional. We’re looking specifically at authentic measures for monetizing your blog in ways that feel tremendously empowering.
Specifically, we’ll look at various ways to monetize your blog authentically with advertising, digital products, physical products, services, and, finally, how to monetize your blog content itself.
How to Monetize Your Blog with Advertising
While you could certainly clutter up your blog with nonsense ads, pop-ups, or text links, this is not an authentic way to monetize your blog. These options don’t give you any editorial control over what ads display and when.
When it comes to advertising in an authentic way, focus on products, services, and brands you know and love. Think about what you would recommend a friend buy to solve a problem you write about, and make that recommendation in a way that has the potential to make you money.
Here are a few ways this works out.
#1 – Affiliate Marketing with Online Retailers
You can sign up to become an Amazon affiliate and link to your favorite products on Amazon. When someone links, you take a cut, albeit a small one, of their entire purchase. For example, blogger Jennifer Rue McLellan has included affiliate links as part of a blog post on baby carriers.
This option is not only limited to Amazon, so if you have a favorite online retailer, check and see if they have an affiliate program you can participate in.
#2 – Advertisements – Direct Sale
Another option is contacting brands you know and love and asking them to run ads on your website. You can set aside room in your side bar, banner, and footer for this purpose. A well-known blog in the business analysis space, Modern Analyst, makes a lot of revenue through advertising. (I know because I’ve seen their ad prices and availability.)
#3 – Affiliate Marketing for Digital Products
By far the most profitable advertising option is becoming an affiliate for a digital product. A typical revenue share is 50%, so selling even a few $97 products for $48.50 in revenue each can add up rather quickly.
If there is a digital product you’ve purchased recently and know your readers would also benefit from, check with the provider to see if they offer an affiliate program.
But, the thing about ads is that it can take what feels like forever for a new blog to experience the traffic and clicks for advertising to be truly profitable. Good thing advertising is not the only option. Let’s look at a more profitable model next.
How to Monetize Your Blog With Digital Products
#4 – ebooks
An ebook is a digital file that a user can read and learn from. There are multiple different ebook formats, including a PDF you might sell on your own website and m.obi and .epub files that you would sell on other online retailers.
No matter what format you choose, you can use an ebook to answer the questions your blog readers ask you most often. An ebook gives you an opportunity to address those questions in a more in-depth way than a blog post.
#5 – Online Courses
An online course is a program that teaches your customer to do something new. Online courses can be delivered in video, audio, or text format. Unlike an ebook, a course will typically go into more depth on a topic, include exercises to reinforce learning, and can also include instructor support in the form of live sessions, Q&A calls, or email reviews.
In my virtual training company over at Bridging the Gap, I offer a variety of online courses for business analysts. While I originally offered live sessions, now all of the courses are available on-demand, and so they provide a source of passive income.
#6 – Digital Toolkits
I saved my favorite type of digital product – digital toolkits – for last. Digital toolkits are often overlooked and they can be extremely profitable.
A digital toolkit is a digital file that helps your customer complete an activity. Common examples include workbooks, templates, checklists, or swipe files. I have 5 business analyst template toolkits over at Bridging the Gap, and together they make up my most profitable set of offerings.
Digital toolkits are easier to create than online courses and even ebooks. You can also justify a higher price point for a digital toolkit than for an ebook. All of these reasons make them an excellent first offering for a blogger.
If you’d like to learn more about creating a digital product strategy for your blog, check out my Digital Product Workshop here at Momstyle. (This is also a digital product that fits into the online course category. )
While digital products are great because you can create them once and sell them again and again, you can also monetize your blog with physical products.
How to Monetize Your Blog with Physical Products
#7 – Books
If you already have an ebook that is selling reasonably well, the next logical step would be to create a print version of the same book. Although I now love the flexibility of reading on my Kindle, I know not everyone uses e-readers. There are still a lot of buyers who prefer printed copies to read and take notes on.
Amanda Edwards and Jennifer Rue McLellan went live with a paperback version of their book, Body Love for Moms. They sell it directly through Amazon, so there is no need for them to maintain an inventory of books and individually ship each one.
I have my book, How to Start a Business Analyst Career, available on Amazon. I also distribute the book to other retailers through Lightning Source and also it through my own website. For sales through my website, my virtual assistant handles the physical delivery for orders in the United States and we use CreateSpace drop shipping for international orders.
#8 – Handmade Goods
While it might make the most sense to sell your handmade goods on Etsy, you can also mention specific Etsy listings in your blog posts and showcase your Etsy shop on your website. Writing about topics related to your homemade goods will create a parity between blogging and product sales.
#9 – Represent a Product Line
If you use and love a product line that your blog readers could also benefit from, becoming a representative or marketer for that product line could be a logical next step. These types of opportunities can also be called multi-level marketing.
Essentially, you use your blog as a vehicle to promote the benefits and uses of the product, and then you profit by selling the product itself. For example, if you are a health coach that believes in essential oils, you could sell your preferred brands of oils directly to readers.
When it comes to physical products, or really any kind of offering you make on your blog, it’s going to be easier to monetize your blog when you can market the same item or kind of item over and over again. This allows you to create content that supports selling a specific product. Of course, selling unique items can still be profitable, but you will not benefit from the evergreen sales process (or marketing automation) that a blog enables.
How to Monetize Your Blog With Services
Providing services to your blog readers can be a particularly lucrative way to monetize your blog. Consider the questions your readers ask you and then look at how you might help them individually to solve those problems.
Here are some examples.
#10 – 1-1 Coaching
Individual coaching involves meeting with one person at a time to answer their questions and create an action plan to solve a particular type of problem. For example, I provide a limited number of 1-1 Intensives to women looking to flesh out their digital product strategy and product launch plans. (Find out more on my Work With Me page. ) And look at that – I just marketed this service via my blog. 🙂
#11 – Group Coaching & Membership Programs
Individual coaching is a wonderful opportunity to connect with a client, but not all clients can afford 1-1 work. Group coaching enables you to help multiple people at once. Group coaching can take the form of group calls or masterminds, and can be done virtually or in person.
Membership programs are a specific, and often more limited, form of group coaching that blends your services with a virtual product. Typically a membership program involves a customer paying a monthly fee to be part of an exclusive group. In return, members receive specific support in a group setting.
For example, I used to have a membership program at Bridging the Gap that offered the opportunity to join a monthly Q&A call, email me 2 questions a month, and receive exclusive discounts on all of our products.
#12 – Consulting Services
Not all clients want to be coached. Sometimes what they want is for you to do some or all of the work for them. Consulting typically involves more time from you than coaching, and you might find yourself working on a client project for 5, 10, or even 40 hours a week. (Of course, if this happens, you’d need to figure out when you will actually keep up with your blog!)
Example consulting services include graphic design, website development, virtual administrative services, copywriting, and even strategy work like business planning and marketing.
And a quick note on marketing here. No matter what type of services you choose to monetize on your blog, sharing client success stories in blog posts is a great way to showcase the types of results a client might expect and bring credibility to your services.
How to Monetize Your Blog Content
Finally, let’s look at two ways you can monetize the content you publish on your blog.
#13 – Sponsored Posts
A sponsored post is when an organization pays you to write a post specifically about their brand or a product. In some cases, the organization might even write the post for you, and all you have to do is publish it.
Typically a sponsored post is labeled as such right at the beginning, so it’s clear that there is an exchange of money or products in return for the post. Jen Rue McLellan is able to earn $300/post, for on-target, on-topic content on her Plus Size Birth blog. Here’s an example of a post where she talked about donating plus size maternity clothes.
#14 – Sponsored Videos
A different take on the sponsored post is to do a sponsored video, which can then be shared on YouTube and embedded into a blog post on your blog. Kristen Miller Hewitt finds that brands will pay much more for videos that blog posts. Here’s an example of a sponsored video for Dreams Tulum Resort & Spa.
#15 – Product Reviews
Product reviews can also be an authentic way to monetize your blog or at least receive free products in exchange for your review. Just be sure that the company requesting a product review allows you to share an honest review, no matter what your experience with the product is. To provide a false review would definitely not be authentic.
How Will You Monetize Your Blog?
In this post, we’ve discussed 15 ways to monetize a blog in an authentic way. Remember, when readers benefit from your content, a portion of them will want to engage with you or your partners in deeper ways. There can be real money in blogging when you look at how to monetize your blog by providing value-added advertising, products, and services to your readers.
So, how will you monetize your blog? Please leave a comment below.