Blogging is one of the most promising career in the digital field today. In fact, many serious bloggers look at it as a way to earn a stable income while for others it is the only source they rely on for meeting their expenses and saving a decent amount for the future. CMS like WordPress has made it much easier to create a blog. However, if you really want to convert your blogging passion into career or business, you need to be more serious and sincere. In this blog we will share some popular and time tested ideas to start making a reliable income from your WordPress blog:
Affiliate Marketing
In simple words affiliate marketing refers to selling a product or service through your blog for a commission. The income depends upon the collective sales. The more you sell the more you earn.
Example: For instance, when you join a travel company as an affiliate you get a certain commission on each sale you make.
The best way to sell their travel packages via your blog is to write engaging and informative content around those plans.
Along with serving the engaging content to your readers it also earns some commission when your readers buy their package.
Tip
If you have joined multiple affiliate programs you can use affiliate management plug-ins that make things easier for you. With these plug-ins you can easily craft awesome links and effortlessly insert your affiliate links into the posts. Besides there are a number of other tasks you can easily do with these plug-ins that will increase your sales potential.
Ad Programs
While it is easy and quick to join affiliate programs, you need to rely on the sales for earning real income. If you are looking for a comparatively easier way to earn sustainable income from your blog, then you can opt for joining ad programs.
Convincing your readers to buy a service or product could be pretty difficult but it is much easier to earn from the ad programs as your income is based on the number/instances of clicks you get on the ad displayed on your blog. In the digital world it is known as CPC or cost per click ads and there are several parameters that decide your total earning. You can also get paid on the total number of audiences who view the ad but it needs a really high and regular traffic as the payout is calculated on per thousand visitors.
However, you need an approval from Google to join Google Ad sense programs and your blog will be reviewed on multiple parameters. Getting approval by Google is not always an easy task and you may never be sure of the same. The good news is that there are some other reliable options by the trusted internet brands like Media.net that are said to be comparatively easier to join. While the income might be lower than Google Ad sense, there are comparatively better chances of getting approval even if you are a new blogger with limited content and reach.
Sell Ads without intermediary and keep 100%
As with any other commission based program the Google ad sense pays you the commission. However, if you are looking to earn 100% income from your ad programs, then you can start selling the space on your blog directly to the advertisers and keep 100% of the price.
Tips
It is advisable to keep things uncomplicated and hassle free by charging a predefined fee for displaying ads as you can easily monitor your earnings and prepare income reports. It also allows you to easily incorporate the best methods, practices to boost your income potential by identifying the gaps.
· For earning a stable and decent income via banner ads you need to be really good at negotiating
· Besides you need to have relevant knowledge on deciding/limiting the deliverables and liabilities
· Instead of relying on the verbal agreement, you should insist on some legal documentation to safeguard the interests of both the parties
· It is a good idea to gain good insights on these factors before you decide to sell the ad space
· As for the administrative ad management work there are various WordPress plug-ins that can make things really easier, streamlined and pain-free for you.
Publish Sponsored Blog Posts
While the above options seem really good, there are some limitations. To earn from Google ad sense or similar programs, you need to gain more traffic or depend upon the actions of the users and in order to sell the banner ads you need to be really good at negotiating and performance tracking. If you are looking for a neater, zero hassles income and zero management then you can go for sponsored blog posts.
· For that you need to invest single time effort in preparing media kit inclosing all the vital stats establishing the authority and reputation of your blog like traffic stats, social media traffic and followers, visitor demographics and blog theme and other similar factors that proves your blog to be the best option for a specific business to gain maximum exposure to targeted audience.
· Sponsored posts allow the business to widen their reach and help you earn a certain pay check for each post you publish
· With the financial support you can concentrate better on your writing and produce awesome content that will really entertain and inform your audiences
· Hence it is the best option to keep everyone happy.
Guest Posts
If you are looking for something easier then it would be great for you to offer space for guest posts in return for a set fee. In this model, you would often need to place the back links of the clients’ site in each post. In other words you will help your client to gain a better visibility and reputation by transferring your brand position, traffic and audience. Your regular audience who know you and trust your blog will find it easier to trust your guest bloggers (and their products) too. By clicking on the hyperlink they will directly visit their website's product page that can eventually result in increased conversion opportunities.
Drawbacks
However, this model might have some drawbacks too
· Google doesn’t appreciate bloggers openly asking for some fee in exchange for inserting back links
· Besides many businesses might have a mentality that as they have paid for the links/posts, they don’t have to be very specific about the content quality and mediocre content end up disappointing your audience
Solutions
The best solution to these issues is single and simple to be implemented. Instead of just asking for the fee in exchange for the back links, you can offer editorial services to the clients. It will help you to write the engaging content that aligns with the service or products of the clients and insert natural back links.
It will also help you to earn a good income via genuine method and without compromising with the content quality standards
Conclusion
Blogging has gained a wide popularity as a trusted source of income with a very high potential and low investment. Creating a blog is easier but it is much more difficult to turn it into a single source of meeting expenses and earning income. While there is no shortcut for turning your blogging into business, there are several reliable income options. In this blog, we have presented a list of top options that can make your journey easier by allowing you to earn a good income.