Turn Your Site Into a Profitable Asset

We each have our different reasons for blogging, and they are probably as wide and varied as the niches that we’ve chosen to write about. One thing that I do find is that my blog attracts other bloggers who are interested in not only earning money online, but more specifically from their blogs.

The first thing you need to do is develop a traffic strategy for your blog, because without traffic it’s going to be tough developing any type of income streams from it. If you aren’t already receiving at least 100 to 200 visitors a day according to Google Analytics,  then you should be investing all your time and energy into first growing those traffic stats.

Once you’ve developed a steady stream of traffic, and started to build a solid community around your blog you can start testing which revenue models are likely to work best for you. The worst thing you can do financially at this point is to simply add something like AdSense, or banner ads into your site, and then sit back waiting for the money to roll in. Chances are that while you’re waiting for that flow of money, you’ll be missing out on just that.

Each blog is going to respond differently to the different revenue models that are available to it. This can be due to your market, your audience, or perhaps even your own predication towards certain methods or aversions to others. Whatever the case happens to be, it’s in your best interest to find the ones that work best for you and your blog and work to develop them.

Google AdSense

Now while this is probably the most common method used by bloggers it isn’t always the best one for everyone. With that said, it’s one of the easiest to implement and you can start to see clicks and revenue coming in right away. The problem for many though is that, that click that carried away your visitor to someone else’s website could have been someone you yourself could have serviced or sold to if you’d only known what they were interested in and offered a similar product that was competitively priced on your own site, this is where testing, tracking, and tweaking come into play.

Banner Advertising

I love banners advertising because you can set them up to actually be of benefit to your readers. If you have a web design blog, and your ads are tools, and services that other designers will need or find use for then it doesn’t feel so much like advertising, more of an added service for them.

There are a few routes you can go with banners, and probably the easiest and most affordable is the OIO Publisher plugin that lets you manage your ad space like a pro. This little plugin has made me more money than any other plugin I’ve ever used, and I’ll forever be a fan of it. You can set up ad spots around your blog and then set the prices you’d like to get for them.

One of the features I love most about it is that you can add in your own banners, or affiliate banners when they aren’t fully sold out. This provided you with a full looking ad center while allowing you to earn from product sales, or affiliate sales.

Ad Management Services

If there is a downside to using OIO Publisher it is that you have to not only manage your ad center, but you are constantly looking for advertisers to fill those spots on your site. Using a 3rd party to manage your ad space will mean that it’s more a hands off process, and also they typically have a much larger audience of potential advertisers to pull from. You can likely expect to lose anywhere from twenty-five to fifty percent of the price for management fees.

Sponsored Tweets

Most bloggers have a Twitter account that they use exclusively for their site, and invest time and energy toward building it up, often into the tens of thousands of followers. Having a targeted audience also has advertising value, and the more tightly focused, or specific your niche is, generally the higher the price your account can command. It isn’t uncommon for an account to charge $30.00 for a single 140 character message.

Sponsored Reviews

Quite a few bloggers have found a lucrative area to be writing reviews on products or services that their readers are likely to already be using in their day to day lives. These reviews when done correctly can end up being of service to your visitors who may have landed on your page solely to read your review before purchasing (or deciding not to purchase) the item in question. The company being reviewed comes away with a greater insight into their product and how it is viewed my people in the marketplace.

A Review shouldn’t be good or bad, merely informative, and encompassing the points that a typical user might find of interest. Writing that a product is lacking the ability to do some core function that might be important shouldn’t be considered a bad thing, but merely an opportunity for the developer to take that feedback into consideration and perhaps integrate it into the product at the time of its next update. Not all reviews are about how amazing and wonderful a product, or service is.

E-Mail Marketing

Using your blog to capture subscribers and potential clients, or customers is nothing new, but quite often it ends up being an afterthought that gets implemented after several months, or even years. Building your list should be something that gets started as quickly as possible so that you can enjoy the compound effects toward your list’s growth. Your list is a great place for you to work on building a relationship with your readers, which will in turn build a level of trust with them. People buy from people they not only know, but also people they trust.

E-Books

Writing an e-book on a subject that your readers are interested in is not only a great way to show how knowledgeable you are on your chosen topic, but can also be a great way to add an extra revenue stream into your blog. I’m going to assume that since you blog, you’re comfortable writing and can probably finish a solid 100 page book in about a month’s time.

Your readers will be much more inclined to purchase an e-book that you’ve personally written since they are already familiar with your writing style, and enjoy it enough to return time and time again. You can then easily integrate it into your sales funnel offering them a special discount for being one of your valued subscribers.

Training Courses

Developing a course designed to provide a solution to a problem your readers are likely to face is also a great way to showcase your expertise, and add another layer of income to your blog. While there is a lot more involved in a product launch than an e-book, the rewards are also generally much higher. It’s important to put together a quality product, and not try to rush the process. There will likely come a time when you are ready to put out a second course, and having a list of previous happy customers can be a great boost to your second launch.

Digital Products

For some of you, your talents might not lay so much in writing or producing video courses, but perhaps you are talented programmers or designers. Designing a professional Blogger theme to sell, or a premium plugin can be an excellent way to increase profits. Since this area is reserved for programmers or those willing to hire a freelance programmer the competition in this area is also much less, and your chances of standing out, much greater.

Services

Many blog owners have found a lucrative market selling the very services they use daily themselves for their own blogs, and have hung out their own shingle selling things like writing services, WordPress installations, or link building, just to name a few. If you have skills that others do not, or perhaps you have a secret for doing things quicker than everyone else, perhaps adding a “Services” page to your blog is one way you can generate an additional income stream.

Affiliate Marketing

As each day passes and we write an ever increasing number of articles on countless topics, we are bound to mention a brand or two. If that company has an affiliate program then including an affiliate link to check out the product could result in some great passive income that comes in for years to come. Integrating an affiliate strategy into your blog is definitely something to consider.

These are just a few of the methods you can look to implement into your own blog, but the most important thing to remember when attempting to develop a profitable blog is that if you want your blog to produce like a business, you have to treat it like a business. This means structured planning and growth, a commitment towards the work that’s involved in growing not only its traffic and income levels, but all other aspects as well. Building a business isn’t an easy task, nor is it something that happens overnight.

Having a blog for a business is rewarding in so many ways for so many people, and as someone who does it full time as a means to earning  living.

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Posted in: Asset Site,Blogger Tools,Info Blogging,Inspiration,Tips