Powerful Ways To Make Money With Your Blog
Table of Contents
- Why Typical Blog Monetization Doesn’t Work
- Selling eBooks
- How To Sell eBooks On Your Blog
- Membership Websites
- How To Add A Membership Website To Your Blog
- FREE eBooks and eCourses
- Adding an eBook/Course to your Website:
- Web Directories
- How To Add A Web Directory To Your Blog
- Job Board
- How To Add A Job Board To Your Blog
- Done For You
- How To Add A Done For You Section To Your Blog
- Affiliate Marketing
- How To Monetize Your Blog Using Affiliate Marketing
Hello Everyone,
Every single day over 8,000 people start a new Internet business and it is said 90% of them fail / never really take off! There are a lot of reasons why a business fails but in the end it comes down to one main thing – it isn’t making money!
It doesn’t matter if you get 100,000 visitors a day, if you can’t monetize your site, then you will lose money and fail like most other people. Most Internet Marketers suggest you put up adverts on your site to make money. OK, that appears an easy option, but if you don’t have much traffic you will fail to sell the advertising and frankly in my experience there are many better ways to make money.
So today I have decided to go through some of my own sites and also some my favorite bookmarks and show you how and why some sites (even with the same traffic) make a lot more money than other sites in their niche. And, I’m not just talking about an extra $1000 a month – in many cases it is significantly more.
Why Typical Blog Monetization Doesn’t Work
The main reason it doesn’t work is because you can only make so much. If you only have 8 advertising spots on your site, that will Net you a total of $600 at an average of $75 per spot. Truth is that in many cases unless you have significant traffic you will struggle to get even $75 per spot.
Now if you use some of the monetization techniques I will cover below, instead of making say $600 for the month you could make $3000 or even more! (I estimate you need around 20000 visitors per month in most niches to achieve this) Banner advertising to some degree isn’t scalable and therefore isn’t a good long term solution. That said, if you are ‘lazy” (as I sometimes am) then the one good thing about banner advertising is it’s guaranteed money most of the time, provided you can keep selling those spots!
But to give you some comparison, if I had decided to go with only offering banner advertising when I launched IncomeDiary, I would of been lucky to earn $300 from advertisers in the first month, instead of the $5000 that I did.
Selling eBooks
This is something that has been increasingly more popular over the last couple years for a bunch of reasons. The main reason obviously is money, selling an eBook to your readers is easier then selling someone else’s product because your readers know who you are, what your about and you should have a good track record for offering good content. One of the big benefits of launching an eBook on your blog is traffic. I have seen blog’s traffic saw once they launch an eBook because they set up an affiliate program, so even if they don’t buy your eBook, they still look around your blog and can make you money in other ways and the best thing, you don’t have to pay the affiliate for it.
How To Sell eBooks On Your Blog
On some levels, most blogs do the whole selling an eBook thing completely wrong. Having a eBook on your blog will mean a lot of leakage because they can go off in a million different directions such as check out your about page, past posts, advertisers etc. Typically sales page give you the option to either buy the eBook or leave the website which keeps the buyer more concentrated as they won’t get distracted by other things on your blog. Here are a few rules I would encourage you to abide by:
- Have an affiliate program (via E-Junkie)
- Offer Testimonials from people who have read your eBook. Including names, website URL’s, country and picture will help reinforce the fact that these are real people giving real opinions on your eBook.
- Offer a sample page or chapter so potential buyers can get a good feel for who you are and what you have to offer.
- Have a eCover to symbolize some physical value to the product. I recommend either Minisite Studios or searching for someone on Digital Point webmaster forums.
Membership Websites
I have seen a lot of blog adding membership areas to their blogs recently, probably because of the demand for even better content and the fact that it’s so easy to set up. Think about it, would you be happy paying $10 a month (or even $100) to have access to content that will change your life or business in some way, of course you would! The real benefit of having a membership website over a eBook is that with a membership website, you don’t just bill them once but you bill them every month. Let me show you the maths then you will get really excited:
Option 1: Sell 1 eBook a day at $40, that will be $1200. Now say you do the same next month, you will make $1200 this month as well. Say you do this for a whole year, you will make $14,600!
Option 2: Sell 1 Membership Website a day for $40, that will be $1200. Now say you do the same next month, you will bring in $1200 of additional membership but you will also have the recurring revenue from last month, making it $2400 that month. Say you do this for a whole year, you will make $105,600! I will leave you to pick which one sounds best to you.
One small thing I should note about my maths above, some people will obviously cancel there membership, the amount of people who cancel depends on the value you provide them. For those who have already went with Option 1, don’t worry, here is what I would do; take your eBook that you are selling for $40 and charge $1 for it, you will now probably sell 20 or 30 copies a day instead of one. Now when they order, add them to a membership program for $39 a month and give them the first 30 days to try it for FREE. This approach will get a lot more people buying and convert more people into staying for your recurring program. For those of you think this is to much work, you could simple change your eBook into a membership program by time releasing the content.
I always find inspiration the best way to start something new on my site, so here are my favourite membership websites that have been added to blogs.
If you would like to know more about recurring revenue and building membership websites, check out the great interview I did with Ryan Lee! He also has just released the videos and audios from his continuity seminar earlier in the year, I went to it and it honestly made a big difference to my online business and I don’t even have my own continuity program (YET!)
How To Add A Membership Website To Your Blog
From my research and recommendations from a lot of friends, there are 2 main ways to go about setting up your own membership website for wordpress. Them being:
- Wishlist Member – Very customizable plugin with lots of features to make your membership website stand out from the crowd! (My personal recommendation)
- aMember with WordPress Plugin – Gives a simple yet effective membership area allowing users to download and see files easily.
FREE eBooks and eCourses
As I mentioned in a past post, building your list is one of the most important things to do and the best way to attract people to sign up for your list is to offer them something for FREE! Now the benefit of having a good mailing list is, so that you can email out about new content and promotions which could make you more money. I know some people that have such great lists, that when they email out promoting a new online course, they can bring in as much as $300,000! Not bad for writing a few emails. Now this is great but sending emails can become a bit of a pain and some readers will be turned off by them. What I have done is built a really strong eCourse and eBooks sharing lots of great secrets, tips and tools on how I make money online and then monetized it with affiliate links. Now this took me around 2 days to write (partly because I’m dyslexic and writing isn’t my forty) but since then it’s made me tens of thousands of dollars with no additional effort. My advise to you is to create a eBook or course that you could sell and then give it away for free and make your money through affiliate commissions. Remember to check out my past post on making money with email marketing to make sure you approach it using my no leakage rule.
Adding an eBook/Course to your Website:
Adding your eBook to your website can be done in a variety of ways, personally I recommend my funnel system to work the best. This is how it works:
- Offer a sign up on your blog for a FREE eBook. I highly recommend using Aweber for your auto-responder as it’s what I use and most other Internet marketers. The best way to draw attract to your opt-in box is by placing a eCover of your eBook, this also gives it some physical value.
- Once they sign up for your eBook or Course, send them to a thank you page where you promote a few of your best selling affiliate programs. Also give them a personal thank you and remind them to check there emails and confirm that they want to be on the list.
- Now automatically dispatch an email using your auto-responder with your first email from your eCourse or a link to your eBook.
- Now build in several follow up emails promoting content on your blog and affiliate offers.
Web Directories
This method isn’t so common but looking from the examples I could find online, it is one of the most profitable! FreelanceSwitch has one of my favorite examples of a web directory, how it works is web designers who need work can pay monthly to have themselves listed in there web designers directory so people who are looking for web designers, can browse the directory and pick there favorite. What’s great about this approach is they have made the deal even better for web designers, they have included access to the website job board, where they can apply for jobs that are posted which has allowed them to make it free for people to submit jobs.
How To Add A Web Directory To Your Blog
Although there are dozens of free web directory plugins for WordPress, not many let you charge people to submit links to them. The first directory I created was for WebDesignDev which was a directory of all the resources web designers and developers would need such as hosting, scripts, domains, coding etc. I allowed people to submit for free but gave a premium option which for a price they would be posted at the top of the directory with a special border and made to stand out from the crowd. The software I used was PHPLinkDirectory which seems to be bringing out more and more WordPress friendly additions to it’s software and would be my pick for anyone trying to achieve a successful directory.
Job Board
The great thing about offering a job board is that it’s offering a needed service to your users. Take for example you are visiting a web design blog because you wanted someone to design your blog. Now this blog has a job board and it was free for you submit a job, that’s a great additional service the blog is providing. But where is the money you are probably asking, what you do is you charge the designers who are looking to do the work, possibly a $50 monthly charge to reply to any design jobs. For any designer looking for work, this is a no brainer because these are the best leads you can get, people who are saying they want to give you work. This really is a no brainer and something I really am thinking about adding to IncomeDiary as it will solve the problem of people looking to hire people and the problem that WebDesignDev is over flowing with web designers looking for work.
How To Add A Job Board To Your Blog
There are two main WordPress plugins that will allow you to add a Job Board to your blog, those being WPJobBoard and JobPress. Pricing strategy is most important here, either deciding to charge people to post job or to reply to jobs. Personally I think charging people to post jobs works best because then you can focus on getting people to respond to work, which will be easier when its FREE for them although it seems it seems to be a mixed opinion between bloggers on which way is best to charge.
Done For You
Done for you is something new I’m working on but have seen some really great examples of some very clever Internet entrepreneurs using it. “Done For You” is basically a service you offer on your blog that is all done for you, one great example is Done For You Meal Plans, something that I have seen very popular in the fitness niche. So if you want to lose weight you need to create a meal plan but the problem is, you got to spend days researching to make sure you get it right and then put it together. Instead fitness marketers put together the plan for you at a price. Now a lot of the time they can use the same plan for a lot of people so the work is minimal or they could even outsource it to someone else for the fraction of the price.
How To Add A Done For You Section To Your Blog
This is one of easiest things to do, find a problem, supply the solution, bill them! All you need to do now is create a page on your blog with your offer, add a PayPal link to purchase and then outsource the work at a very small fraction of the price paid.
Affiliate Marketing
All of IncomeDiary’s income comes from affiliate commissions and I’m getting quite good at it, this has actually be my best month ever online by far! Now the best advise I could give you is testing, work as hard as you can to test everything possible. So IncomeDiary has been online for around 6 months and I have a lot of really popular content driving good traffic to affiliate offers but I knew I could do better so what I did was I used Google Analytics to find out which pages got the most visits and then used CrazyEgg to see what parts of a post are seen more and which links they clicked. To a surprise, my most popular page in two days had no clicks on my affiliate links so what I did was included a green stop sign (something tested by Internet marketers) and I added it to the paragraph with my links. Over night I got a few clicks, although it wasn’t many, comparing it to zero, it meant a big difference.
How To Monetize Your Blog Using Affiliate Marketing
A couple tips that I really recommend you take advantage of when doing affiliate marketing are, ask for a better commission rate and also ask for a coupon code to give your readers a discount. Doing these two things will greatly increase your success at making money online with affiliate marketing because you will be able to convert more readers with a coupon code and with a higher payout then other affiliates, you will be able to invest more to get more conversions. The most important thing is how you display your affiliate links, there are a few different ways to offer affiliate links on your website, the ones I suggest are:
- Comparison charts, this way you make the reader choose which one is the best choice. This works really well because you give them all the options and which ever one they take, you collect a commission on.
- Recommendations, this converts better for me because the reader gets to see you using the product in action and so know you are not promoting it just to make money but because it actually works!
Simply linking to an affiliate link and hoping people will buy it isn’t enough!
* * * * *
To Our Success,
Michael Dunlop
PS. Which one of these do you think would work well on your blog?
PPS. If you haven’t started your own blog yet, remember to check out my FREE Blogging eCourse so you can start making money online!
About Michael Dunlop
I'm Michael, I created this site back in 2009 and since then it's received over a million visitors from all around the world. We offer tutorials and inspiration for online entrepreneurs wanting to achieve more.
71 comments so far… Leave a reply
Sameer
thanks for the list Micheal, i must also add adsense contests estore paid/sponsored reviews CPA/lead generation/ppc-cpm banners/cpalead[for starter sites] other then that do what micheal told - excellent list. I would be using some of those soon but i need to start getting more traffic first lol regards, sameer
Michael Dunlop
Hello Sameer, All good ways to make money online but will never make you rich, try some of the above. Michael
Simon | Teenius
Hi Michael, Whilst I agree with your post that alternative methods of income are probably the most effective, it's hard to deny that Adsense has serious potential, too. I believe it can make you rich: I'm pretty sure that's how Problogger used to make a lot of his money, and I think Shoemoney is pretty big on Adsense too. Granted, in the majority of cases it won't rake in the money, but it;s still quite effective. Great post by the way, Simon.
Andrew @ webuildyourblog.com
To make any serious money with adsense you need thousands of visitors everyday and thats why ProBlogger and Shoemoney may make money with it. For 95% of the sites out there, it's almost not worth it. Andrew
Stuart Wooster
So true, AdSense makes no sense for new sites. I'll be removing it from a site when I relaunch it.
Sameer
yes they are defiantly not going to make us rich^^ however there are many methods to make money on the web like i use freelancing, but this list here will definitely add lots of verity to the income streams of bloggers. Never actually realized we could add so many income streams to a blog, but like you mentioned traffic is a must. I am guessing 20k unique's [mostly organic] a month is good enough to implement some of these.
Marshall Haas
I like how you broke it all down. It was long but had tons of great resources. I'm going to bookmark this one.
Andy
Great list mike. Im thinking maybe a membership system on WebDesignDev? :P
Shane Hudson - Be Motivational
Good post. These ways do work, however you must stress that to make money uses any method you MUST be working hard at it. Just setting it up and letting it go will never work.
Gennice
Excellent list Michael! I will be definitely adding an auto-responder to my blog. I think that's a great way to keep visitors and earn some money along the way... Thanks!
Derrick
I like how you emphasized the importance of presentation of information - comparison charts and done for you section.Dont you think presentation of ebook matters as well? for instance,an ebook with valuable content but crappy design.What are the effects?
Kaiser
Excellent post Michael - some real hidden income opportunities here - a few of them could really apply to what I'm doing - thanks for the reminder -
Cosmin
As many say... the money is in the list :D
Umer Hayat
Truly one of the best and informative article.. I have ever learn at incomediary. Thanks so much
Kevin
One Questions: Should WordPress MU be used if I have several websites that need to use WordPress? Or is it simply for a "community" website?
Michael Dunlop
Hello Kevin, It really depends on what your blogs will be about but I would say no as it's best to keep it all on one blog if it's a similar niche and if it's a bunch of different niche's then put them on a variety of different domains. Michael
David
My question is who does the design and coding of your comparison/recommendation sections? Much like your "accelerate your learning" section, I really want something like that on my blog, but don't know who to go to for the coding. Do you have any recommendations?
Ado
I was reading your post and instead of doing the things u offered i got my own idea.Actually it idea on how to combine what u said above with something i have in mind for long time ago...which will help me to get also some backlinks and some popularity to website :D
Arturo Vargas
Nice information, the Comparison charts looks great for Affiliate Marketing. I'm going to try it!!! Regards!!
Tom - StandOutBlogger.com
I remember reading that Yaro only uses password protected wordpress for his membership site. Simple and effective. No need to pay for a solution.
OneLIfeNoFear
Good post Michael... I have been toying with a membership site but I am still deciding how focused to make it.. I like the idea of 'done for you' too..
Teen Blogger
Great Post. I think most people make money by affiliate marketing. You've listed some great ways on how to make money and I have to say you did a pretty good job.
Kristie Chiles
Awesome post, Michael. I have learned a great deal of new strategies from your blogger emails. Thanks so very much! Kristie
Pascal
One more way to make money with your blog. You can offer some services to your visitors For example, if you run a blog about blogging or wordpress, then you can offer wordpress installation services & hosting set up for some fees.
Monika
Great post Michael. I am impressed by really valuable content you constantly provide. Keep up the good work!
Steve Solem
Great post Michael and thanks for all the info! Can I ask though - when talking about Free eBooks and courses, is there an ideal page length that works better than others? I've just completed a lengthy (60 or so page) eBook I was going to promote on Clickbank paying a generous commission, but lately I'm thinking I should maybe give it away to get more exposure for my book. Of course Id hope to get lots of traffic back to my site and signed up for my newsletter and will have some affiliate links in the free giveaway as well. Am I giving away too much for free? All the best! Steve
Bradley Will
Tremendous article Michael. Congrats on the success of this blog and your other ones. You deserve it. I am going to take some of your tips and put them into play. Appreciate your willingness to give! Bradley Will http://twitter.com/bradleywill
Pascal
One more way to make money with your blog. You can offer some services to your visitors For example, if you run a blog about blogging or wordpress, then you can offer wordpress installation services & hosting set up for some fees. Oops...forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.
Darren Singleton
Michael, That is probably one of the best posts written on this subject in quite a while. I know my online income suffers from me focusing too much on banner adverts and affiliate links whereas I should be diversifying like you talked about. Thanks for sharing this information. Best wishes, Darren
esam
thanks for your tips
Elizabeth Clark
I think you have a great business opportunity my main concern is the hidden additional cost? In just about every online opportunity I've encountered, advertising in some sort or fashion is required. List building and traffic exchanges. Is there an easier way?
Jason
Gonna work on this to try to make money online. Thanks for the tips, great post!
Een Rockstar
Michael, I never knew that you have a lot of blogs and most of them related to design niche. I bet you must ecpert in designing. I'm also like designing would you give a tips how to start a design blog which is something like graphic tutorial. TQ
Amandeep Singh
A very useful guide... I hope that this makes me a successful blogger too... :)
steve wanjie
Thank you for giving me a gold pit full of pure gold. Love, Steve.
siddharth
can i make money by playing or adding games to my website?
Missy
In reference to ebooks. This is where I want to place my focus for a few blogs of mine. But...i've never used Clickbank as a vendor only as an affiliate. What is (or has been) your experience with CB? in terms of fees, service, ease of use, etc.
sanjay gehani
Hi Michael, Thanks to your website Michael that will inspire me about the internet business. I follow your views and your website since 1 months , and i fill that it is the right dision that to make our internet business. But i want a moral personal help from your side that i have some confusion about internet business , Becoz i am new to internet business , Sir i have some qu? that :- 1. What is affilate marketing ? 2. what is Email markiting ? 3. Just give the idea that how much i get payed from ppc, affilate marketing , Email marketing , and how much ? 4. How i will get paid ? I kown that these question have no meaning but one think i want to share with you that i am belonging from middle class femily and i have lot off dreams with lot off responsbilities . I search the whole world for internet marketing and there are many websites , they also sell out the EBook and tell about the internet business , But all in these my soul will TRUST on your website , i dont kown why ? But its true . so i request you to give me the right suggesions and teach me in very simple language plz.. I am waiting for your class sir. Thanking you , sanjay gehani , 91291- 9928086602 sanjay_gehani_2007@yahoo.com India
Andrew @ webuildyourblog.com
One of the best articles I've read in months. A membership course is what I am currently creating so your advice and tips are so timely - thanks. Andrew
Sakkeer
This is Very interesting and impressive topics, I will back soon.
Lee
Wow man this is a great posting and probably the best article I have read for a while, Michael I will be definately comin back to this website!!! Cheers Lee
alenchik
this is I think the most inspiring post i have read in weeks or months... reading this post is like telling a 5 year old how to do something, it is so clearly written! thank you and I will definitely be back ( although I'm already here everyday..lol)
Nipuna
Nice article really loved it. The thing about this article is it has content which are different to many other sites in same niche. Looking forward to see more and more articles of this kind.
Azad Shaikh
Nice list of money making ideas. I think i have to try to sell some ebooks. I have lots of ebooks with resale rights did it work for me.
Aqif
Hey there Michael. I really thanks to you because you have created a superb content to guide your readers in monetizing blog. Seriously there is some fresh ideas I just get after reading this blog post. Whatever it is, I would love to tell you that this content is awesome. To your success Michael :) - Aqif
Morgan Richman - Make money online
Nice and informative article. There are lot of opportunities to make money online and blogging is one of them. You have to know what you are good at and start a blog site based on on your specialty/hobby. Aim to have 2000 visitors or more within three months then monetize it using Google Ads.
Shama Kern
I am so impressed with all this great info you give away for free.
Nora Saunders
Hi Mike, I like this. One question: Do you or anyone have any suggestions on how to apply these tools to a Celebrity Gossip Blog. My plans were to try and start a blog about something with less competition. Well, I am blogging in the Entertainment field, what I love so I have to be very creative as to Entertainment Affiliate Programs and online ecourse ideas. There is alot of of competition in my field but the the celeb blogs are soo blaah. Throw some pics up and thats it. No design, no photoshop, nothing Any suggestions? I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything or be the next Perez BUT I want to get damn close. So what about it, any ecourse ideas for my niche?
webmaster
Hi Nora - the question you need to ask is what do people who read celebrity blogs like to buy? And a more important question - what do they need to buy? Personally, despite the success of Perez, I would not get involved in this market - it is better to get involved in a market with a proven track record of buyers. Also, you need huge numbers of visitors to get any kind of worthwhile income. A few years back I owned a Celeb site - even with over 100K visitors in one week, my earnings were not that great -- I had sites with just 1000 visitors per week in other niches make me significantly more. Of course if writing about Celebs is your passion - I can understand why you would be reluctant to give up - and I do subscribe to the belief that if you are enjoying yourself, building a community of followers (even if they are not big buyers) - there is reward in that. Sorry to be negative - just telling you as I see it. No real suggestions for an eCourse - well apart from perhaps teaching people how to become mini-celebs in their own right - which is entirely possible today with blogs and Web TV After all - the Top Bloggers are Celebs in their own niche Barry
Lakhya jyoti saikia
Nice article.Within a few weeks I learn lots from you.Thanks Mike...
MEZIAN
Again a new life-changin article! Thanks Michael :) Othmane MEZIAN - Morocco
Kim Wagner
Hi Michael, I'm new to internet marketing and I find your eCourse and blog very helpful for stimulating ideas. I have started a blog about teaching English in the 21st Century and am now at the point where I need to learn about building a list. I plan to have a free offering soon, but I am stuck as to what I want it to be. Teachers can be a tough market! LOL...always critical! Thank you for the tips. I am beginning to have a better understand of how to make money from a blog. Looking forward to more. Thanks, Kim
Ahmad
thanks Michael you're My favorite writer
Felicia
Thanks for the post! You have some great monetization ideas and resources. I am currently working on a job board / directory. this info will come in handy. Thanks again!
John
Michael, I have been following you since your 7 day course. A ton of great info! My two biggest problems are finding a niche and getting traffic. My passion is coaching, particularly young kids. I believe there is a niche for that, but how could I develop a product for that and get traffic and sells? Thanks.
Joseph D
Hey Michael, great post lot's of good ideas for monetizing blogs I myself do a lot of reviews on different products from different sources. And I review services as well it keeps me plenty busy. Social marketing is a good source of traffic these days. Twitter, facebook and the likes. Anyway keep up the good work. Thanks again Joseph D
Raw Foods Chef
Hi Michael, Love your ideas. Would you have any suggestions for a raw foods chef to build a profitable online business? There's a lot of competition out there with many raw food bloggers offering pretty much the same: either an e-book of how to transform into a raw foodist in 30 days, recipe books, "how-to" videos, and an affiliate program of equipment and food/supplements for the raw foods lifestyle. I'd like to stand out from the crowd. Thanks! Raw Foods Chef
The comments are closed.