4 Tips to Make Money with Your Blog

Bloggers get started for a whole host of reasons. While some get into blogging because they have a message that they want to get out, many start a blog because they want to use it as a revenue stream.

Not everyone is successful using their blog as a tool for more income, and this is usually because they don’t know how to do this. Many folks thing that they can just start a blog, post some random words once or twice a week and the money will come rolling in from the dozens of ads that are packed on the site’s sidebars; it just doesn’t work like that.

There are a lot of things that you can do to make money with your blog, and many of these are methods that have been proven to work. The following are just four top tips that you can try to start making money from your blog.

1.) Put ads (sparingly) on your blog.

Advertisements are one of the main ways that most bloggers make money. You can use Google Adsense or another advertising network, or you could sell ad units directly to companies and other sites if you are a more established blogger.

Some of these will be pay per click ads; you make a very small sum each time a visitor clicks on one of these ads. Others pay you simply for putting the ad on your site for a given period of time whether or not someone bothers to click on it at all.

Just be sure that you don’t go too heavy on the ads. While ads do make you money, people don’t like to see them. Too many ads can be a big turn off for many visitors. Put only a few ads on your site in areas where they will be seen, such as a banner or sidebar, but don’t put them in the posts in a manner that interrupts the content.

2.) Be an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate marketing programs have you put ad units and links on your page, but you are usually paid a commission on actual sales. You won’t get paid as often as you do on pay per click ads, but you will be receiving a more substantial amount when you do get paid.

Every affiliate program has different rules. You will want to choose a program with a product that you think will do well on your site to maximize your potential for earning those commissions.

Remember, like regular ads, you want to be discrete with how you post the affiliate links and other units. Too many ads (or what looks like ads) can cause your visitors to navigate away to another site.

3.) Accept donations.

A lot of bloggers boost their income by soliciting donations and contributions from their readers. If you provide high value, useful or entertaining blog posts, you probably have readers who would be willing to contribute a bit of money to keep that high caliber content coming.

To accept donations, you can usually simply add a link or button to your page that allows visitors to donate through a payment system such as PayPal. Before posting such a link, just be sure that whatever payment system you use allows donations such as this to be accepted.

4.) Advertise yourself.

Many people use their blogs to help generate business. If you do something that you can offer as a service, even if that service is blogging for others, you can promote that on your blog. As you write posts, have a few mentions of your experience in this area, and think about posting a permanent page about the sort of services you can offer.

Your future customers or clients could be your current readers, and when they need services such as those you offer, they will often think of you. Others who are seeking these services may also find these posts through search results, and you may end up with a bit more work. Your blog can be a great platform for creating even more revenue streams.

This article is written by Kevin Moor, who also writes for trojanalert.net, a site emphasizing Trojan reviews.