So you want to generate revenue from your blog? Great news: It’s possible. However, you’ll want to follow certain principles of effective blogging to make that happen.
Here are 3 keys to monetizing your blog.
1. First, Get an Audience
If you want to generate revenue from your blog, then you’ll need to attract visitors to your site. Blogs that receive only a few hits don’t generate any money.
How can you attract people to your blog? There are a few ways. First, you can produce content that is valuable and shareable. Of course, that is easier said than done. However, if you have an eye for locating engaging content elsewhere on the web, you can rewrite it and give it a catchy title on your own blog.
Another way to attract an audience is with advertising. Yes, this costs money. The old adage is that it takes money to make money, and your effort at acquiring an audience might be no exception.
SEE ALSO: Audience Development Strategies for Humans and Search Engines
Finally, make use of social media. Many blogs use their social media accounts as a proxy for their front page. People follow the blog on social media rather than checking the blog’s website every day. Publishers provide links to some of the best articles via their social media accounts and followers can click on the links that interest them.
2. Use Advertising to Generate Revenue
Once you’ve attracted people to your site, then it’s time to start making money from your traffic. This is the fun part.
The good news is that you can generate revenue from your visitors without asking them to spend their own money. You can run ads on your site. If the visitors click on the ads, you earn money. You’re paid by the advertiser, not the visitor. All the visitor does is click the link.
There are numerous ways to run ads. One of the most popular, albeit least effective, is a standard banner ad. This is an ad that appears on the top of the page or in the sidebar. Usually, these are produced by Google AdSense.
Once your blog becomes popular, you can run native ads. These are ads that appear to be content on your blog but are really links to other blogs or websites. They tend to be a lot more effective than banner ads.
3. Consider Using Content Locking
Content locking is revenue generating tactic that, as the name implies, locks your content so the user can’t see it until he or she has performed some action. Usually, the action required by the user is something fairly simple, such as filling out a survey.
Be advised, though, that you should have amazing content on your site if you’re going to employ content locking. Otherwise, you’ll just frustrate people and they’ll go away.
Monetizing your blog is possible. However, it’s going to require an investment, in both time and money, on your part.