Starting and maintaining a blog can be one of the most rewarding and creative experiences to be had. Becoming part of a like-minded community will expand your friendship base, inspire new ideas and even boost your resume in ways you could have never imagined. So if you’re at the point of figuring out how to monetize your blog, that means that you’re probably ready for the next step. But before you get ahead of yourself, run through this short checklist to see if you have what it takes to turn your blog into a business:
1. Do you have consistent, quality content?
2. Do you have a great design and interesting, beautiful imagery?
3. Are you providing readers with something to learn?
4. Have you established a solid readership with good engagement?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to all of these questions, then you must be ready to step up your game and take your blog to the next level. Check out these tips for how to monetize a blog by adding features that will provide an income stream.
- Build a media kit. Gather all the key info – blog stats, RSS subscribers, your mission etc. and create a presentation you can send to potential sponsors.
- Outline advertising options that you offer. This can be anything from sponsored posts or product reviews, banner ads to sponsored tweets – get creative. Google AdSense or Chitika are great ways to get started.
- Add a “Hire Me” option to your blog. Depending on your specialty, people will want to work with you. Provide a layout of goods or services you offer.
- Take part in paid placement – different brands will have guests write posts that will be strategically placed or shared via your blog.
- Join an affiliate link program. You can work with brands who offer affiliate programs to add links to products or services they offer within your relevant blog posts. This is sometimes accomplished through a call-to-action at the end of a post or links in the sidebar. Basically, you get paid to refer readers to a company’s site.
So what do you think, can you turn these ideas into actions? Are you ready to take your blog to the next level and earn an income doing what you love?
