Do you perhaps have a website or a blog but it just generates costs? Would you like to earn some additional income from your hobby but don’t know how to start? If the answer is yes, you may find this little guide helpful.
We’ll cover topics related to different ways of traffic monetization, from selling the ad space on your website, through affiliate marketing up to content creation.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising to earn money with blogging
One of the most popular models of traffic monetization is PPC. In this model, the advertiser pays every time their ad gets clicked by someone visiting your website. There are quite a lot of good ad networks that offer PPC ads in many different formats. Among them all, Google AdSense is probably the most well-known as well as one of the best paying. They also work with so-called contextual ads. You just choose which spots will contain ads and AdSense will automatically display them depending on your website content (thus, contextual). All to boost the possible user conversion.
However, advertising with Google AdSense may be harder than you expect. They have very strict rules when it comes to the content they accept so if your website or blog has content related to something from their prohibited list, you won’t be accepted into the network. Moreover, they have very limited payment options. Additionally, the contextual ads may bring you more grief than money. If you are interested exclusively in AdSense related pros and cons, you can learn more it in our post about AdSense alternatives.
Affiliate Networks for earning money with a blog
If you can’t or don’t want to advertise with Google AdSense or any other straight-up contextual ad network (most of the networks are), you may want to try your luck in affiliate marketing. In general, there are multiple, sometimes very distinct affiliate networks. Some, like VigLink, specialize in in-text links monetization. Other in creating very specific sales funnels and an interesting approach to cookies policy, e.g. ClickFunnels have so-called “sticky cookies” which count a conversion from a user that will start in your funnel. You just need to find an affiliate network that offers products or services that your audience may find interesting. You get paid for every converted user. Usually, conversion is set on a completed purchase.
Good thing that comes with affiliate networks it that you get much bigger payments per conversion. Additionally, some affiliate networks offer rather a niche product which creates big earning opportunities for some website owners in that particular niche. On top of that, most of the affiliate networks offer payments through PayPal or Payoneer. Affiliate networks also have some cons. Sometimes, it is much harder to find a fitting network – one that will have a product for your readers but will be also a trustworthy partner. The affiliate marketing industry is pretty large and offer something for anyone.
Guest Posting and Sponsored Posts to earn money with a blog
If your website is rich in content, frequently updated blog you may offer to publish guest posts for interested companies. This practice is called guest posting. An article is published at your website with a dofollow link back to their targeted page. The most important factor is your website stats – domain and page authority, domain age and, of course, average monthly traffic and geos.
On the other hand, if you prefer to write the posts yourself, you may prefer paid reviews of products and services for companies that may want to reach to your audience. It’s perfect when you have few but very loyal readers or when you exist in a niche. Naturally, the traffic will be lower, but the potential conversion rate for the interested company will be much higher. After all, they are presented in front of people of very refined and specific taste. Just remember to always be honest – people can feel when you’re not being honest about your review and once you lose their trust, it’s basically game over.
Look for your own path
There are other ways of monetizing your website or blog traffic, but I feel that these are the easiest, to begin with, especially if you just starting monetization. Just remember, to check for new things and new methods, because every website or blog, every audience, and every content niche is different and some very weird things may bring you big revenue.
