Blogging monetization and optimization has been a hot topic for a few years now, but with the ever-changing nature of the web, new ways for achieving that goal tend to pop up every day. To make things a bit easier (and much more effective), I gathered the ultimate monetization tools for 2016 – so you won’t get caught off guard!
1. Build a direct relationship with brands
There’s nothing like getting up-close and personal. Building direct relationships with brands can increase your blog’s value, authenticity and credibility, and eventually become a steady income source.
When it comes to cooperating with brands, you can start by offering to publish sponsored content – either sponsored reviews or paid posts – many companies are searching to create a good buzz about them, and are willing to pay for that extra push.
You can also become a brand ambassador – turn yourself into the “face” of the company, promote it and endorse it.
Hot Tip: Need help connecting with brands? Check out Blog meets brand, Ambassador and Brand Backer.
2. Try non-traditional ad solutions
Banner ads are the most straight-forward way to monetize your content. There are many traditional banner ad solutions, the largest one being Google AdSense, naturally. If you want to take things to the next level, you should try non-traditional smart ad solutions.
Hot Tip: Infolinks has a great suit of products that can help you really increase the revenue from your content.
3. Offer a service
One of the most effective ways to make more money from your blog is by offering your readers a service or a product.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be something obvious like T-shirts or “best dad ever” mugs – you can offer coaching services, counseling services and webinars. If you have a certain expertise, people might pay good many for your time and advice. You can offer one-on-one skype talks, on-demand video or live stream webinars.
Another effective option is offering premium membership-based content.
Hot Tip: Want to stream your knowledge to people? Try services like telestream or TechSmith.
4. Build an email list
A solid email list can take you and your business a long way – email marketing is a wonderful way to spread your content, generate leads and attract quality traffic to your blog or site.
Besides sending timely newsletters, you should create great email content, something you can be proud of. After you’ve got the content down, there are a few tips to building a larger email list:
Offer a freebie to attract new readers: people love gifts – I can’t help it. Offering a free product or service can help your email become more popular and attract new audiences.
Add a “join our newsletter” box to your blog: People that are already visiting your site would more likely sign up to your newsletter. Check out this WordPress plugin that might help.
Mass email tools: Let them do the dirty work for you. You can try Mailchimp, Send Blaster or SandGrid.
Hot Tip: Encourage readers to share your mailing list by using a customized call to action button, over at Da Button Factory.
5. Affiliate programs
Affiliate marketing has been going strong for a few years now, and it seems as though it’s just getting bigger and better. Basically, affiliate or referral programs are based on a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” principal – you can either sell someone else’s product or service, or refer traffic to that certain product or service. You can spread the word by writing posts about it, mentioning it on your social media platforms, adding a banner to your site with the information etc.
Hot Tip: Searching for the perfect program for you? Check out the Infolinks referral program or Amazon’s program.
6. Write a quality e-book
Quality content is a must, especially if you wish to become an expert on a certain subject and to create a stable and ever-growing community. If sharing your knowledge and celebrating your experience is one of the reasons you became a publisher – writing an e-book is just for you. A PDF e-book can either help you generate great leads – by asking readers for their email addresses in exchange for the file – or create actual revenue, by putting it up for sale.
There are a few things you should do before sitting down to write an e-book:
Think about your audience: Who’s going to read your e-book? What are their interests? How informed are they about your chosen topic? Once you figure out who your audience is, you can channel your efforts in the right direction.
Write what you know: Let’s be honest – people can independently look up just about anything these days, but there’s a huge advantage to nicely presented information, written by someone who knows what they’re doing. So write about the things you know and love, it will help your credibility and will probably be a lot more fun to do.
Promote it like crazy: Writing an e-book is not an easy task, so make sure you spread it all over the place. Send it as the main content piece in a newsletter, write a blog post about it, share it on your social media channels and add a downloadable link to relevant conversations online.
Hot Tip: Check out these two free e-book creation tools: iBook author for mac and iPad and Pressbook
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post by Infolinks. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.