You only need one money making blog idea to turn your dreams into reality.
If you’re tired of just dreaming about making money from your blog and want to turn that dream into reality read on!
This article has 12 highly effective strategies to turn your blog into a money maker. You’ll be surprised at how easy implementing some of these ideas are.
So, without further ado, let’s learn how to make money from your blog.
Table of Contents
- Offer consulting or coaching services
- Create and sell your own digital products
- Offer freelance writing or editing services
- Sell physical products
- Offer a paid subscription service
- Partner with brands or businesses
- Offer sponsored content or sponsored reviews
- Promote your own offline services or events
- Sell advertising space
- Offer sponsored social media posts
- Run a membership site
- Crowdsourcing
1
Offer consulting or coaching services
A simple way to make money online is to offer online services.
Do you have a skill that is demand?
Do you have expert knowledge or expertise in anything?
Teach a skill:
- crocheting
- hairdressing
- makeup
- DIY
- painting
Offer online services:
- online translation
- mentoring
- virtual tutoring
Anything. If there is demand for your knowledge or skills you can make it into a business and sell online.
How to get started selling your skills and knowledge?
To get started, simply create a page on your blog detailing the services you offer and how much you charge.
You will need to do some keyword research so your page will rank in search engines. There are plenty of affordable SEO and keyword research tools you can use, or use this free widget to get some ideas (e.g. “learn hairdressing online”):
To increase your credibility it’s a good idea to include testimonials and case studies to show your results.
Don’t have any results? Consider providing your service for free to begin with in exchange for a testimonial you can put on your website.
Bonus: Ask for a video testimonial (post the video on YouTube and embed the video on your website)
Create a page on your blog describing your skills and how much you charge
2
Create and sell your own digital products
Another great way to make money from your blog is by creating and selling your own digital products.
Here are some examples:
- ebook
- online course
- social media banners or logos
- stock photos
- digital art
This can be a great passive income stream because once you create the digital product you can keep earning revenue from it.
3
Offer freelance writing or editing services
Do you like writing?
Why not offer your writing or editing services? Plenty of businesses need to write content for their websites but don’t have the skill or the time to do it.
Businesses that need writing and editing services:
- website owners
- blogging sites
- e-commerce sites
- email marketing companies
- social media companies
- influencers
- blue chip companies
And many more… Pick a niche you want to service and build a website to promote your service.
Include on your website a portfolio of your work, social proof, case studies or other proof of your skills.
4
Sell physical products
Another way to make money from your blog is by selling physical products on your blog.
This could be handmade crafts or merchandise related to your blog’s niche. For instance, if you blog about yoga sell yoga mats, yoga books, workout gear etc.
To get started, you can use an existing e-commerce platform such as:
Or add e-commerce to your existing blog. For WordPress sites you can install WooCommerce – a free e-commerce plugin that will let you sell products directly from your website.
For e-commerce sites do the following:
- add product descriptions for each product sold (ideally keyword research these products)
- add multiple high quality images of each product
- do competitive research in your niche to see what keywords your competitors are using
Each product page on your website will be indexed by Google so you can get free organic search traffic direct to your product pages. No advertising needed!
Tip: Use social media to promote your products and drive traffic to your blog
5
Offer a paid subscription service
Does your blog have a loyal readership but doesn’t generate money for you?
Consider offering a paid subscription service. In addition to your free content offer paywalled articles. Perhaps you can dive into a topic in more detail or provide expert advice or opinion on a topic.
You don’t need all your readers to pay, a small number regularly paying for content can provide a good income.
You could provide a Premium section to your website with paywalled content. You could also offer consulting to your premium readers, or a reduced fee. It’s up to you, be creative and see what works.
You can also offer different tiers or packages to cater to different budgets.
Ning makes it easy to set up a website, add social media and receive payments through your paid content. I’ve used the platform for previous websites and found it simple to set up and maintain.
6
Partner with brands or businesses
Another way to make money from your blog is by partnering with a business and earning a commission for promoting their products or services on your blog.
Join affiliate programs, such as Amazon Associates, to promote physical products and earn a commission.
Don’t know any local businesses you can partner with? No problem, join an affiliate network to work with companies online. Read my review of ShareASale affiliate network here: ShareASale Review: Drive targeted traffic to your Website.
7
Offer sponsored content or sponsored reviews
Instead of receiving a commission for a sale you can offer to write sponsored content or sponsored reviews on your blog. This is when you write a post or review about a specific product or service in exchange for payment.
To get started, reach out to a local business in your niche and offer to write a sponsored post or review in exchange for payment.
8
Promote your own offline services or events
Make money by hosting events. Use a blog to promote those events online. Your blog can include event details and location information.
I used to host events and used a website to help promote the events, including RSVP and mailing list support.
If you want to make money with consulting services why not add events as well? You can offer free events to show off your skills and expertise and build trust and credibility.
Business is about relationships so meeting potential business partners in real life can help you form those relationships you will need.
Some types of events you can organize:
- retreats
- workshops
- socials
- networking
- dating
For instance, if you want to sell wine online, why not organise a wine tasting event? Promote the event on your website and on social media. People can buy wine from you at the end of the event or online on your website afterwards.
9
Sell advertising space
Here is a simple way to make money from your blog.
Reach out to a local business and offer to put their business ad on your website. It could be a simple banner at the top of each page, or on the home page. You can charge them a small fee every month.
The more traffic you get to your website the more you can charge.
The more targeted your website is to a specific niche the more valuable your website traffic. Meaning, you’ve guessed it, the more you can charge.
In addition to reaching out to local businesses, add a page on your blog detailing your advertising options and rates.
You can also use a platform like Google AdSense to sell advertising space on your blog.
10
Offer sponsored social media posts
In addition to monetizing your blog, you can also monetize your social media accounts by offering sponsored posts. This is when you post about a specific product or service in exchange for payment. To get started, you can reach out to brands or businesses that are relevant to your blog’s niche and offer to create a sponsored post in exchange for payment. Be sure to disclose that the post is sponsored to be transparent with your audience.
11
Run a membership site
Create a community and run a membership site. It’s easier than you think. Services like Ning will allow you to quickly set up a membership site and handle the payments for you.
Some of the ways to make money by running a membership site:
- organise paid community events
- subscriptions (multiple tiers and a free or trial option)
- sell products on your membership site
- advertising on your membership site
Membership sites can be fun to run if you are a people person. I used to run this kind of site and it’s great to host events and meet new people. As the organiser, everyone knows you and it’s a great way to network and find new business opportunities.
Even if you are not naturally extroverted it’s worth considering. You’ll quickly become more social and outgoing.
12
Crowdsourcing
This is a new concept that has taken off recently. It’s proven popular for creating video and board games. There is no reason you can’t use the concept for your own business though.
Consider the following projects:
- Write a book
- Produce a high quality video course
Consider asking people to crowdsource the project and provide the finished product for free. Afterwards you can sell the product to other people online.
Even if the project is expensive, a large number of people paying a small amount can cover your costs.
Provide updates on your project or some of the unfinished work to your contributors as your progress.
You can crowdfund on your own site or use popular sites such as:
- Kickstarter
- Indiegogo
These sites allow you to pitch your idea to a global audience.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, 12 creative ways to make money from your blog.
There are many different strategies you can try, and it’s all about finding what works best for you and your audience.
You are not limited to one strategy, you can use multiple at the same time for more leverage!
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