There are 3 ways bloggers make money online.
While there are other methods that bloggers use, personal branding, affiliate marketing and network marketing are the main ones.
The fact is that the majority of bloggers do not have a great deal of success in monetizing their blogs. But it’s also fair to say that there are many bloggers who do not operate blogs to make money, but to champion a cause, promote an ideology or share an expertise.
Among those who do work to monetize their blogs, though, here are the 3 methods I consider most feasible.
Personal Branding
Now, creating and maintaining a personal brand is not usually profitable on the front end.
People read blogs written by experts, authorities and leaders all the time. But they are not likely to spend any money while doing it.
Even when authority and expert bloggers offers products and services for sale either overtly or in sidebar ads, the conversion or reader to buyer is not a great method for monetizing a blog.
Instead, these bloggers spend the majority of their effort developing a personal brand such as “dog trainer,” or “self-development coach.” While they may offer their products and services, the strongest model for monetizing their blogs is rooted in list building.
So rather than “sell” a dog training or self development product or service, they typically will offer a free ebook or video or some such thing, in exchange for a visitor signing up for their ezine, or email newsletter. In the course of delivering free information and updates in the newsletter, the personal branding blogger will eventually promote products and services related to his/her personal brand.
Many bloggers make money online using personal branding in this way.
Network Marketing
Other bloggers focus on generating leads and prospects for their “primary opportunity” in the form of an MLM, direct sales or other network type of business.
Some network marketing blogs make an up front pitch for people to join them in their business. Their articles focus on the benefits of joining their “team”, and feature success stories of others, profiles of company owners and leaders, and such things.
Others offer content geared more to the niche that their company is in, rather than talk directly about the company. So if you’re a sales rep for a healthy juicing company, for instance, you might blog mostly about the benefits of juicing, and the benefits of getting involved in this lucrative business.
A reader might find information tucked somewhat concealed within the blog, that would indicate what company this blogger represents, and how to contact them to join their downline.
On the other hand, some network marketing bloggers never talk directly about the company they represent until they get you on their email list. In that case, they use the list building method that personal branding bloggers use, as a way to bring prospects onto their email list.
They eventually get around to doing serious promotion of their company only to people who have joined their email list.
Affiliate Marketing
Many bloggers choose to monetize their blogs by offering affiliate products, services and programs or services to their visitors.
Among this group of bloggers are those who sell products by reviewing them, and then selling them right in the article.
Many Amazon sites employ this method to promote physical products.
Clickbank and other digital product affiliates employ a similar method.
Then there are bloggers who promote a random array or products and services by continually reviewing them on their blog post, and giving people a chance to buy them by clicking a link to in within the post, or maybe on the sidebar of their blog.
Google Adsense blogs follow a similar path, but they are not affiliate marketers in the strict sense of the term, because they don’t make commission as a result of a purchase, but only a click to view an Adsense ad. So they simply expose people to ads on their blog, and when clicked, they earn a fee.
CPA, or click per action bloggers, follow the same path that Adsense bloggers do. Again, they get paid just for having people click their ads.
The Blogging Business
No matter which type of blogger you are, these are the 3 best ways for bloggers to make money online, in my opinion.
Bloggers of any stripe, though, share some things in common.
All bloggers need to know who their target audience is.
They must create high quality content for their audience to consume.
They need to provide content on a consistent and frequent basis.
They must find ways to build some rapport with their visitors. This goes a long way to creating a trust that will serve them well when they eventually make offers of products and services.
Finally, the greatest opportunity to make money online for bloggers is to build a list of their readers and prospects. That’s where people get serious about doing business with you. It’s why most industry experts agree that “the money is in the list.”
Social media provides bloggers with enormous leverage for building their list. You may want to learn how to use this leverage in your own business.
Donna and I are conducting a live webinar to show you how to build your list with social media.
It’s called:
“List Building Leverage With Social Media”
Check it out.
So, what type of blogging model do you follow?
Do you monetize your blog with one of these 3 methods?
Please leave your comments below, and of course, share this article on your social sites with folks you think will find it useful.
