Blogging can be expensive, even on a free platform like WordPress. In addition to the time it takes to create your posts, you should worry about your hosting provider fees, domain renewal fees, security plugins, and any other premium plugins you use.
If your site consistently generates thousands of views per month, it’s no longer a question of whether you can monetize your site, but how.
Of course, all approaches to monetizing a WordPress blog require a bit of extra work, and there’s certainly no surefire way to get rich quick; if that were true, there would be a lot more bloggers out there. However, there are a handful of strategies used by successful bloggers that you can try for yourself.
In this post, you will learn the five best ways to monetize your blog.
Advertisements
Often the easiest way to monetize WordPress is through display ads. These ads may appear on your pages as static screens, pop-ups, and/or native ads.
To place display ads, bloggers work with ad networks.
Those ad networks pay for their ad clicks/impressions and determine which ads will appear on your site, so make sure you choose a reputable network if you choose to show ads.
Affiliate Marketing
The second passive income opportunity we will discuss is affiliate marketing. Compared to ads, this option is better for the user experience and has the potential to be more profitable.
Affiliate marketers promote third-party products in their blog content. They mention products in their blog posts and place special affiliate links, which visitors can follow and purchase the product from the third party website.
Your affiliate links are tagged with a unique tracking code, which tells the merchant that the traffic is coming from your blog. When visitors purchase a product on your website through this identification link, you receive a portion of the revenue.
Sponsored Link
As an established writer, you can get sponsorships, in which brands pay you to mention or review their products in their posts.
While dedicating entire posts to a product requires more effort on your part, you can earn much more than affiliate marketing and display ads. And if you regularly post reviews, you can connect with the brands you already cover.
If companies don’t contact you about sponsored content, it’s up to you to contact the brands requesting sponsorship. Having an established reader base will make brands much more likely to accept a sponsorship deal.
Sell Exclusive Content
After blogging for a while, you’ve shown your expertise on a topic and helped your readers do the same. Another common monetization strategy among experienced bloggers is premium content.
Premium content should cover topics within your blogging niche, but offer information beyond your standard blog posts.
Sell products
Merch is an effective way for loyal readers to support your work and promote your brand. Similar to paid content, you can also sell physical products on your site through an online store.
There are many free and paid WordPress eCommerce plugins that can add a store component to your existing blog or turn your site into a store with a blogging component.
