It is possible to have a successful blogging business, but you need to understand how to monetize your blog to meet your goals.
IE 338: How to Monetize Your Blog in 2023
What are the different ways to monetize a blog?
Most people almost immediately think of ads to have on your site as a way to monetize. I always recommend not to start off immediately by putting ads on your site.
If you are starting to try to grow your pageviews, get to a point where you have at least 25,000 pageviews and then start to look for an ad network. Having Google ads on your site when you’re only getting a hundred page views in a month is not going to be anything but pennies in your pocket.
And in reality, it’s going to push people away rather than keep them from coming to your site.
Once your pageviews have hit 50,000 session you can look into Mediavine or wait until 100,000 sessions to apply with Adthrive. So depending upon where you are looking into both of those as your pageviews start to increase and applying to them once you get close is going to be key for monetizing there.
Affiliate marketing is another option as well as sponsored content. Products and services are also an option to monetize.
How do I know if my blog is ready to be monetized?
If you know your audience and you have a problem that you are solving for them, then you can start to put things in place so that you can monetize.
The first thing that you want to put into place is having an opt-in or a freebie that is going to allow you to grow your email list, that will show them that you are an expert and can help solve a problem for them.
And this way, if you are then looking to have your own product or service as you continue to grow, they have an opportunity to get that and understand that that’s what they are there for.
You want to have an optin in place for that.
Can I make money for my blog?
If your blog has a small audience, you absolutely can, but again, you have to be focused on that problem that you solve.
There are some sites that are very niche and are never going to have a huge audience because their site is so specific to the problem that they are solving for their audience.
They absolutely cannot only rely on Ad networks. They potentially want to incorporate sponsored work, their own products and services and affiliate marketing.
So again, it’s really honing in on the problem that you solve before you can try to decide how you’re going to monetize.
How much money can I realistically make from my blog?
This is a question that really depends upon your journey.
How much time can you put into it?
Also, the time that you are putting in, is it the correct strategies that are working at that time?
Are you focusing on the right things?
Am I continuing to grow my site the way that I need to be growing it?
And this is where having a community of other bloggers is key. It is why I created my membership site, Influencer Entrepreneurs Insiders, so that you have an opportunity to really understand what others are doing and to get that personalized roadmap that many are looking for.
So if you are looking for that, definitely think about joining in with us. But as far as how much money you can make, it really, again, depends on how you are going to monetize.
There are some bloggers that are making a hundred bucks a month. And then there are those that are making upwards of 25,000 a month just on ads, and it can continue to grow.
Should I accept sponsored posts on my blog?
I absolutely think that sponsored posts are a great way to monetize your blog and influence.
You need to make sure that it is legit.
All sponsored content needs to be nofollow.
In other words, those links need to be nofollowed because if you are getting paid in exchange for a link, it has to be nofollowed according to FTC guidelines.
So with that being said, If you are getting emails in your inbox and they are asking for a dofollow link, that is not a sponsor post and you should not be doing that as long as it is a legitimate company looking and understanding that you are creating content with a nofollow link.
It doesn’t matter how small you are. If you are smaller niched site you can still make a full time income. It’s just a matter of gaining that audience that has that know, like trust factor with you.
How do I find brands that are interested in working with me?
The best way to do this is to start off by looking around your house.
What brands are you already using in your content? If you’re a food blogger, check out your pantry. If you’re a makeup blogger, go and look what makeup you are using. If you’re an organizer, look at what you’re using to organize.
What brands are you already using within your home and then trying to find an email address.
You want to pitch brands that are a good fit for you and your audience.
I have an entire course Pitch Perfect Pro that walks you through this. But I also have my pitch checklist, which is a guide that is going to tell you exactly what needs to be into that pitch and how to go about finding that correct email address.
Can I use affiliate marketing to monetize my blog?
You can absolutely use affiliate marketing to monetize.
Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be for a huge brand like Amazon or any of the brands that are on share sale, but it can also be for other bloggers that, again, has a product or service that is a right fit for your audience and solves the problems that they have.
Affiliate marketing is one of the ways that you are making a percentage of whatever you sell.
So it is your job to be able to sell that product. And you also have to make sure, again, that you are explicit about making sure that they are aware, that you are disclosing that it is an affiliate relationship as well as that the link has to be nofollowed.
How do I create a successful e-commerce store on my blog?
There are many different ways that you can create a successful e-commerce store.
You can create a shop feature on your website by using Shopify in order to do this.
You can also use outside software like I do for podia that actually holds all of my courses.
You could use teachable, you can have your printables actually on SendOwl that will deliver it as a pdf, ebook.
There’s lots of different options on how to do this and if you actually go and check out Monica Froese, she offers a workshop on how to actually transform your site so that you can stop using ads and start having a shop that just naturally sells.
What are the legal and ethical considerations when monetizing a blog?
We’ve talked a little bit about each of these, especially for affiliate marketing and sponsorships. The idea that everything has to be disclosed.
You have to make sure that it’s a nofollow link. When you’re disclosing, it needs to be disclosed before you link out.
There are also certain regulations depending upon the affiliate network. So for example, Amazon, if you’re going to send an affiliate link to Amazon, if it’s an individual link to an individual product it has to be able to be found publicly.
In other words, you cannot email your list and send them to an affiliate product link. You can send them to your affiliate influencer store that has a bunch of products that you suggest, but it cannot be an individual link.
So if you are trying to put up an individual link to something that you love, it has to be able to be found publicly, which would be considered your blog.
An email list is not considered public. People had to actually raise their hand to be part of that.
Same thing with YouTube. As long as its publicly out there and it’s not a private YouTube video that you’ve done for people just on your list.
This is only if you are trying to do it to a specific product. If you have an influencer Amazon store where you have lots of different products in there, and you can then link to that influencer store on Amazon.
But again, you have to read the fine print when it comes to each of these, because there’s very specific ways to disclose for Amazon. There’s different ways to do it for share a sale, or whoever else you’re going to use. So understanding that is going to be important.
When it comes to sponsored posts that you are creating you also have to disclose. As well as make sure that they are no follow links, that you are telling them that it is in a partnership, in collaboration with whatever language you’re going to use.
And you have to be clear on that relationship, not only on your blog, but also on social media. You need to be disclosing and using the features that are offered on social media platforms to show that it is sponsored that it is a collaboration in paid or even in exchange for product that has to be disclosed and let it be known to anyone that sees it publicly.
