What is Blog Monetization?
Monetization is using your blog or web site to generate income. This income can be active (like a service, such as writing reviews) or passive (selling ad space on your site). Passive income is great, because it allows you to focus on growing your blog/business rather than spending time doing the thing that makes money. However, each blogger will find the mix of active and passive income that works best for them.
These are my ABCs for Blog Monetization:
Regardless of your topic, this 3 step process will work for any site.
A. Attract a Following
B. Blog Monetization Strategy
C. Conversion Optimization
A. Attract a Following
The first thing you need is a audience. The internet is a big place, so “Build it and they will come” does not work anymore.
1. Draw people in. Generating traffic to your site can be tough, and you need something to bring them to your site. SEO is important, but it is a long term strategy. FB shares, Pinterest, and blog hops are helpful. Content Marketing (offering something of value for free) is one of the best ways.
2. Keep them coming back. Then when they arrive, you need to make sure they will stick around and come back for more. You have to have an engaging site with lots of reasons to stay. Quality writing is the first step, but not enough. Site design, images, etc. are all contributing factors. The most important piece is getting permission to speak to them, not just wait for them to come to you. This means building an email list.
3. Form a community. Finally, you need to form “tribe” so you have a real following. Get all the people who are interested in what you have to say, and bring them together. Just 100 passionate, loyal followers is enough momentum to start a movement.
B. Develop a Blog Monetization Strategy
After you have some regular traffic to your site, the next step is to figure out how to really make money. There are a dozen ways and some are more active than others. You can sell a digital product, have paid advertising, do paid product review, or affiliate marketing.
C. Optimize for Conversion
Finally, it is not enough to just offer a service/product, include an affiliate link, or have an ad on your site. You need to optimize it! A conversion is when a user completes a desired action. In this case, the action is whatever makes you money. If you have 100 views a day, and one person buys your ebook, then your conversion rate is 1%. Website design, images, and well written copy all contribute to increase your conversion rate.
Can we help?
If you are a blogger in need of help to monetize your site, let us know and we can schedule a free consultation.
