Blog Monetization Tips- Turn Your Blog into a Money Maker

Anyone who does not want to make a few more bucks with his/her blog, please stand up. Hmmm, not that many people. That isn’t surprising, given today’s ever more so fast-paced and expensive society. After all, who wouldn’t want to tap into a few more income sources to help pay off the bills? Indeed, blogging is great way to make money, but only if you know what you’re doing.

Going about earning money with your blogs is not as straight-forward as it seems. Before we start, please determine the type of blog you have. Is it strictly a personal blog, a business blog, a niche blog, or does it fall in between categories? Don’t get me wrong here, because any blog can make money. It’s just that if you have like a personal blog that wasn’t originally suited toward making money, then it will take a little more effort. 

Monetizing niche blogs is the easiest, because your viewers already share the same interest in the same products as you. All you have to do is go out there, find those products, and promote them in some way on your blog. The easiest way to do that is to sign up with a contextual advertising company like Google, Yahoo Publishers (although they’re reluctant to accept new members at this stage), Adbrite, or Bidvertiser. Note that Google does not allow you to have ads or affiliate programs from other companies on the same page as Adsense ads. But that shouldn’t matter, because Google ads are plentiful and are enough to create big earnings all by themselves.

Just in case if you get lost out there, here are some blog monetization tips:
1. Your blog must have content first… Yes I know that to some of you, this statement is completely meaningless (after all, the point of blogs is to share your knowledge), and I apologize for that. But you won’t believe the number of “splogs”, or spam blogs, out there whose sole purpose is to display advertisements and nothing else, and get any passerby to click on them. That, by default, defeats the whole meaning of blogs in general. Anyhow, when first starting out, don’t think too much about monetizing your blog. Content is key. It’s always nicer to have good content, because without content you won’t get any visitors. Now here’s an ancient age trivia- if a blog has ads on it and no one comes to see them, does it make a cent? 

2. Once you have content, promote, promote, promote. Other than content, this is the most important blog monetization tip that will directly affect your earnings. Tell your friends and families about it. Post it on related community forums (make good use of signatures). Visit related blogs and start a chatter. Make your blog known on the guestbooks of related websites. Submit an article to an article directory. Knock your self out, but please do refrain from spamming, which relates to putting up unrelated and unnecessary comments on other people’s spaces. Experienced earners will tell you that for every minute you spent building your blog, you should spend two to promote it. The point of promotion is to draw a steady amount of interested traffic, from which your blog will monetize off of.

3. Promote the right programs. Depending on your niche, contextual ads like Adsense may not have enough high-paying advertisers to make your effort worthwhile. The other side of it is that your niche could bring you $1.00+ per click, although that will take a little luck. Anyhow, if Adsense alone isn’t for blog monetization, venture into affiliate programs, which can pay much more based on how much your viewers buy. Affiliate programs usually do better than contextual ads if your blog isn’t niche based. It is also the way to go if your traffic isn’t eligible for contextual ads, in that case affiliate programs are the only way to go. There are an infinite amount of affiliate programs out there. Of course, you want to be signing up with those related to your blog in some way. A good place to start is Commission Junction or Modern Click. Keep an eye out for programs that pay “per lead”. With these, your visitors don’t even have to buy anything, and you can get paid up to $16 per lead just for the sign up!