How to monetize a blog in 2022? Blogging Guide to Monetization.

18 Ideas And Insights For Making Money From Your Blog.

Before you write a single word of content or do anything else with your blog, you need to figure out how to monetize a blog. Once you know that, you can start planning your valuable content designed to support your monetization method.

Monetization is the process of turning something into making money. In the context of blogging, monetization usually refers to how successful bloggers can make money from their sites.

To monetize a blog Each of the methods in this guide has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it is essential to understand what each one entails before choosing a monetization strategy for your own blog. However, if you want to make money from your blog, profitable monetization strategies are definitely a critical step that you need to take.

So, with that in mind, this blogging guide to monetization will show you the most popular ways how to monetize your blog, plus you will get additional tips and tricks to generate revenue.

Take a look…

1. Sell Your Own Products

To monetize a blog, Selling your own products is a very reliable method. You create something desirable, whether an ebook, software, or even classes and workshops, and make it available for purchase on your blog.

This is one of the most popular ways to monetize a blog among many bloggers who want to make money from their blogs without relying on affiliate networks income.

The most profitable way for making money with your blog is to sell your own products. Typically, these are digital products such as:

• Ebooks/reports.
• Membership sites.
• Videos.
• Audios.
• Tools (checklists, worksheets, swipes, templates, and similar).
• Online Courses.
• Apps/software/plugins.
• Webinars.

… And similar digital products.

Alternatively… 

2. Promote an Affiliate Product

Promoting an affiliate product is a great way to monetize a blog. With affiliate marketing, you can make money in terms of a commission (typically between 40-75%) for each sale generated by traffic from your site.

How much can you make money with affiliate marketing? This depends on the commissions offered by the company and how much traffic you drive. It would be best to focus on companies that offer at least 20%-30% commissions and always be sure to highlight something special about them (a bonus or other incentive) for visitors to click through.

If you do not yet have your own product, you can promote and join an affiliate program instead. These could be:

Selling digital products.

You can find to sell digital products on platforms such as ClickBank.com and JVZoo.com. You can also find directions on Google Search for what you want, such as “dog training guide affiliate program” (without the quotes).

Selling Physical products.

You can become an Amazon or eBay affiliate and make money in order to sell almost any kind of physical product. You can also try a site like cj.com. You can use Google search directly to sell digital products and physical products.

Next…

3. Offer a Freelance Service

Still another way to monetize a blog, and you can make money by promoting a freelance service. This might be a service that you directly provide, or you might subcontract another freelance blogger to provide the service.

Do you have any skills or areas of expertise that might be used to monetize your blog? If so, consider offering a freelance service on your blog. This could be anything from designing logos to providing consulting services for small online business owners looking to monetize their websites.

For example, if you write about search engine optimization, you might offer a “done for you” service to help people create and implement an SEO strategy.

I will say that monetizing with a freelance service will require the most work and effort on your part. So, if you are not comfortable marketing yourself and selling your own services, this probably is not the best monetization strategy for you.

4. Dropship Products

If you want to sell physical products directly (and you are not manufacturing them yourself), then a good option is to utilize the drop-ship method. This is where you promote a product, collect payments for it, and then send your drop-shipper their cut of the sale.

Dropshipping is a great way to monetize a blog and make money, and it is one of the most popular methods for monetizing a website. When you dropship products, you do not need to worry about storing or shipping any inventory because the supplier takes care of that for you. This leaves you more time to focus on growing your own blog and attracting more traffic.

The key here is to do your research and due diligence in order to make certain you are dealing with a reputable drop shipper. Many of them are based in China, so you will need to take longer shipping times into account when advertising your goods.

For example, AliExpress.com is known to be a reputable Chinese-based drop-shipper.

5. Promote an Ecommerce Storefront

One of the great ways to monetize a blog is to promote your own eCommerce storefront. This can be done in various ways and can be a very effective way to monetize your blog traffic. In fact, many successful bloggers are making money by promoting the eCommerce storefront.

So if you are looking for ways to make money from your blog, this could be an excellent option for you where you sell your own physical products. Examples include:

• eBay.com is a good option if you sell items such as collectibles and antiques.
• Etsy.com is suitable for handcrafted items (such as jewelry, clothing, and similar).
• Shopify.com is a good option for any physical product, including those where you employ a drop-shipper (as mentioned in the previous section).

Next…

6. Sell Advertising Space Directly

Another way to monetize a blog is to sell advertising space directly to advertisers in your blogging niche. For example, you might sell space in your sidebar, header, and/or footer. You might include banner ads embedded between blog posts on your blog or even embedded within the content itself.

Most successful bloggers even let advertisers buy “sponsored posts” (which is fine as long as your blog readers know they are paid posts).

Using this method, you can put a link in a prominent place on your blog for advertisers to learn about your target audience demographics, traffic numbers, and banner ads rates.

If your blog is already popular, advertisers will often inquire with you about potential ad opportunities (even before you get that link up). If you are just getting started, you will need to advertise the fact that you have ad space available.

If you have a large number of blog readers, this monetization method can be highly profitable. You need to ask yourself how many ads you want, what kind of ads and ad network are they going to be? Will you have pop-ups or do banner ads? How will you serve the ads to your target audience?

Remember that monetizing with ads has become less popular over time because of ad blocking software.

7. Offer Ad Space Through a Broker

If you want to offer ad space, but you do not want to find the advertisers yourself, then you can go through a third-party service that introduces advertisers to publishers like Google Adsense.

One of the most popular platforms is Google Adsense, which shows third-party ads on your site based on your content. So, for example, if you are writing about dog training, then Google picks up on those keywords and displays dog-training ads on your site.

Generally, platforms like Google AdSense work on a “pay per action” model, which means you only get paid when someone clicks on the ad. How much you get paid depends on your quality content, as some advertisers are willing to pay more money than others.

For example, you will probably get paid a few pennies or dimes per click for something related to gardening or quilting, whereas banner ads related to insurance, legal issues, and similar may pay several dollars per click.

8. Create a Book Out of Your Blog

Once you have had your blog running for some time, you will have a nice collection of popular blog posts. You can monetize your blog by compiling the most popular blog posts into a book to sell. Here are your options:

1. Create and sell ebooks directly from your blog.
2. Create a physical book and sell it on a site like Amazon (using print on demand).
3. Create a Kindle book and sell it on Amazon.

Self-publishing your own book has become much easier in recent years, thanks to the advent of online publishing services and platforms.

There are a few different ways you could go about turning your blog into a book, or you could write an entirely new book based on your blog’s content. You could also hire a professional freelance writer, author, and ghostwriter to help you write the book for you, but you have to spend money on this.

No matter which route you choose, there are a few important things to consider. First, make sure that your book is well-edited and professionally formatted. Second, promote your book aggressively once it is published, and it is also important to market your book to potential readers to ensure that it sells well.

9. Provide Coaching or Consulting

Need an idea for a high-ticket offer to promote to your blog audience? You can offer coaching services, consulting, or feedback.

For example:

• You can make money by offering copywriting consults or video feedback on sales letters if you teach copywriting.
• If you blog about weight loss, you might offer personal consultations to help people with special dietary needs or preferences to adjust a diet to fit their needs.
• If you blog about dog training, you might offer personal consulting to help readers with their dogs’ problem behaviors.

You can also provide coaching services or consulting is by partnering with an established coaching or consulting business. This could involve setting up a referral partnership where you refer clients who need coaching services or consulting to the business, and in turn, they pay you a commission for each referral.

Blogging helps you establish your authority and expertise, which makes selling consulting or coaching services on the backend a natural fit.

10. Promote a Pay-Per-Action Offer

The idea here is to put specific ads from third parties on your site, where these third parties pay you if your visitors perform a specific action. For example, you can make money $5 for every person who joins a mailing list or fills out a form.

Where do you find these sorts of opportunities? Check out MaxBounty.com.

Maxbounty.com is a leading global affiliate marketing network that connects advertisers and publishers. As an affiliate marketing expert, you can promote Maxbounty’s Pay-Per-Action (PPA) offers on your website or blog and earn money for every lead or sale you generate.

To get started, create an account on Maxbounty.com and select the PPA offer you want to promote. Once you have been approved for the offer, add the provided tracking code to your website or blog and start driving traffic. When someone clicks through your link and completes the required action (such as filling out a form or making a purchase), you will earn a commission!

11. Ask for Donations

The idea here is simple: you ask your readers to donate in order to support your work. This idea is not that far out of the box. If you look around, there are significant media and sites that accept donations.

For example, NPR (National Public Radio) holds regular fundraising drives to raise more money. They set a goal and then spend a day raising more money and giving out gifts (such as tote bags) to people who donate a certain amount.

Another organization that uses this model is Wikipedia.com. You will see a big banner ad at the top of all pages asking you to donate at certain times of the year.

Still another example is TheGuardian.com, which shows a “contribute” button at the bottom of each news story, which urges readers to donate.

You can do the same thing by having a PayPal donate button on your blog. You might have the button permanently in place at the end of all blog posts (or at least your longer, more valuable blog post).

You can also run quarterly, twice-yearly or yearly fundraisers to drum up even more donations.

12. Convert Your Blog Into a Membership

For this monetization method, you will blog as normal, with a good chunk of your blog post available to the public. However, you will create a set of in-depth posts every month that are for paid members only.

You might even display the title and a two- or three-line preview on your blog, but people cannot read the entire blog post unless they become paid subscribers.

One example of a news site that uses this model is DailyBeast.com. You can read all the shorter articles for free. However, the in-depth articles are reserved for paying members/subscribers only. You do get to see the first few paragraphs of each paid article, which helps sell the subscriptions.

There are many benefits to converting your own blog into a membership site. The most important advantages of utilizing this option include:

Increased revenue:

When you convert your blog into a membership site, you can charge members a monthly or yearly fee in order to access your content. This can be a lucrative way to make money; an additional income help offset the costs of running your blog.

Increased engagement:

By making your content available only to members, you create a sense of exclusivity that can encourage greater engagement from your audience. Members are more likely to revisit your site often and share your content with others, resulting in increased exposure for your blog.

Improved customer loyalty:

Membership sites often enjoy high levels of customer loyalty, as members feel.

Build a community of followers:

One of the benefits of having a membership site is that you can build a community of followers who are interested in what you have to say. This can help increase traffic to your site and also help you build relationships with potential customers or clients.

If you are interested in creating a membership site, there are several tools and platforms that can help you get started. WordPress, for example, offers plugins that allow you to create such sites.

13. Selling online courses

There are a few different ways to monetize a blog by selling online courses. One way is to create your own online course and sell it on your blog. Another way is to become an affiliate for an online course provider and promote their courses on your blog. A third way is to join an online course marketplace and sell your courses through their platform.

Every one of these approaches has its own set of benefits and drawbacks.

Increased revenue stream:

By adding an online course to your blog, you can significantly increase your revenue stream. This is because you can charge more for an online course than you can for a blog post. In addition, many students will purchase an online course from you, again and again, providing you with continuous revenue.

Increased exposure and reach:

When you sell online courses on your blog, you reach a larger audience than if you only sold courses through other channels. This is because your blog followers are likely to be interested in your courses and are more likely to purchase them.

The disadvantage is that online course marketplaces typically offer less profit than self-hosted online courses or online course affiliate programs. However, to sell online courses through an online course marketplace is not that difficult and typically takes no more than a few hours per week.

Monetize your blog to sell online courses. It would be best to become an online course affiliate for third-party online course providers who sell their content through popular online course marketplaces like Udemy, The Newbie Artist, Skillshare, etc.

Becoming an online course affiliate and selling courses on your blog through an affiliate link is free and easy; all it requires is signing up.

14. Sell Merchandise

If you have developed the type of brand that people want to display, you might sell branded merchandise to make money, such as t-shirts, tote bags, coffee mugs, and similar. Otherwise, you can create and sell merchandise that’s related to your niche.

For example: if you are in a dog training niche, you might create merchandise with cute sayings and quotes about dogs, dog comics, cute images of dogs, and similar.

Need an example of a site that sells merchandise? Just look at any politician’s page, as virtually all of them have an online store where you can buy branded t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, and the like.

How do you set up a site like this for yourself? You can use any number of platforms that make it easy to create and sell merchandise, such as CafePress.com, Zazzle.com, or TeeSpring.com.

It can help you build a stronger relationship with your readers. When readers buy something from you, they feel like they support you and become part of your community. This can help keep them coming back for more content and also inspire them to refer your blog to their friends.

It can provide you with an additional stream of revenue. Once you have a loyal following, selling merchandise can be a great way to make money.

It can help boost your brand visibility. Having branded clothing, accessories, or other items available for purchase increases people’s chances to see your logo and learn more about your brand. This type of exposure can lead to tremendous success down the line.

15. Consider Multiple Monetization Methods

You have just learned about all sorts of ways to monetize a blog. The good news is that you do not need to choose just one method. Indeed, you may have better results to make money by employing multiple methods.

For example:

• You might promote your own offers as well as affiliate networks offers.
• You might promote drop-shipping products as well as branded merchandise.
• You might sell both services and products.
• You might promote affiliate link offers as well as sell advertising space.

As always, selling your products tends to be the most profitable, but you can mix and match methods to see which strategy is most profitable for you.

16. Test Different Methods

One of the keys to your success is testing and tracking your monetization methods to find out what works best for you. This includes:

Testing the method as a whole:

For example, you may experiment a bit to see if selling digital products or physical products gets better results for you. Alternatively, you might see if selling ad space versus selling affiliate products produces more revenue.

Testing parts of the campaign:

Once you have decided on a method, then you can test parts of that method or campaign. For example, suppose you are promoting affiliate products with affiliate marketing. In that case, you might test and track your ad and content headlines and calls to action in order to optimize conversions and earnings.

Next…

17. Start Planning Your Content

Once you know what monetization method you are using, then your next step is to start planning how your content will support that monetization method.

For example, if you are selling online courses and consulting, then you will be creating content that helps establish your expertise.

If you are selling advertising space, you will focus on creating content “sticky” and valuable content that gets your visitors to return to your site repeatedly.

If you are selling affiliate offers, then you might post things such as product reviews and comparisons.

The point is, think about what sort of content will best help you reach your goals.

18. Amplify Your Monetization Method

No matter what monetization method you choose, you can help amplify it by taking the steps below:

• Start a mailing list. You can announce new blog posts to your list and follow-up and promote your offers to your subscribers.
• Connect your social media marketing pages to your blog. You can then encourage your followers on social media to like and share your content, and you can encourage your blog readers to follow you on social media.
• Host webinars. A free webinar can establish your expertise and help you promote a paid offer. Alternatively, you can use your blog to help you sell paid webinars/workshops.

Now a few parting thoughts…

Conclusion

You just learned a variety of methods to make money by monetizing your blog, as well as tips and tricks for optimizing your revenue. Now is the time to take action – go ahead and set some time aside right now to develop your monetization strategy, as well as plan the sort of content that will best help you achieve your goals!