Wouldn’t it be great to get paid for doing what you love?

You do it because you love it. It started out as a hobby. You wrote and posted about things that were important to you. After a while, you have noticed that more-and-more people read what write. You look at your Google Analytics, and you realize that you have respectable traffic.

Now what? It might be your time to start earning some money with your pride and joy of a blog. [adrotate group=”4″]

If you haven’t started a blog yet, check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.

Let’s face it. Sooner or later it is time to start making money with your blog.

I get it. It’s not just about the money, but to call it a business you have to generate revenue.

The best thing about monetizing your site is that you have so many options.

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Here are the most common monetization options:

  • Email list – Build your email list from day one. Your list could be your most valuable marketing asset. Even if you have very little traffic, start incentivizing people to subscribe to your list.
  • Donations – If you are fairly new, you could start monetizing by asking for donations.
  • Call to action – Include a call to action in your posts. Don’t be shy. You have to tell people exactly what you want them to do. If you want them to subscribe to your list, tell them. If you want them to comment on your posts, turn on comments. If you want them to buy your book, or sign up for an upcoming webinar, tell them how to buy.
  • Sell services – Have a hire me section on your blog and sell relevant services like web design, blog writing, or marketing services to your audience.
  • Adsense – Adsense is one of the most common ways bloggers make their first few dollars. Displaying Pay Per Click (PPC) ads is one of the most popular ways of creating advertising revenue for yourself. It isn’t perfect, but it’s simple. To make serious money with Adsense your site needs to have massive traffic.
  • CPM advertising – Cost Per Thousand (M, the Roman numeral for 1000) advertising is when you get paid for every 1000 impressions. You generally need a lot more traffic for CPM advertising than Adsense advertising. [adrotate group=”4″]
  • Advertising space – You can monetize certain sections of your website directly with advertisers if you don’t mind managing the ads yourself.
  • Sponsored posts – For example, if you have a blog about web design, you might write sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are a great way to generate revenue as long as you stay true to your audience. If your blog is about designing and marketing websites, don’t write sponsored posts about dog food.
  • Affiliate marketing – There are products and services you can link to and earn a nice commission on each sale. Making a living off of affiliate revenue is difficult, but doable as long as you are willing to learn about affiliate marketing.
  • Write an ebook – Sell your books on your website for maximum profit. You could take your most popular posts and turn them into an ebook.
  • Consulting – Offer related consulting services. If you are blogging about web design, usability, and marketing, it is natural for you to also offer the same services.
  • Strategic partnerships – Partner with other bloggers and market to each other’s customers.
  • Products – Create your own products such as books, webinars, reports, courses, videos, etc. The great thing about creating your products is that you don’t have to have a ton of traffic to make money this way.
  • Podcast – Create your own podcast and sell advertising for each episode.
  • YouTube – Make great videos about your niche and post them on your YouTube channel. Once you build a following, you will make money from the advertising shown during your videos.
  • Text link ads – This type of advertising allows you to place text links to relevant businesses throughout your website. To maintain your site’s integrity, it is very important to be selective about the links that you accept.
  • Write tutorials – Millions of people search for information at any given second. Develop tutorials and guides for your audience. Offer an introduction for free and charge for the actual tutorial.
  • Paid directory listings – You could create a paid directory of relevant businesses and service providers.

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Here are some less conventional monetization options for you:

  • Conference – Create your own conference. As your blog becomes more popular, you could create your own conference. You can charge a fee to attend and sell sponsorships.
  • Membership – Offer access to more content, products, services, or consulting for paid members.
  • Private forums – This is similar to a paid membership. Private forums can be created to help your audience interact with each other.
  • Kindle – Turn your most popular posts into a Kindle book.
  • Advertising widgets – As widgets are becoming more-and-more popular, widgets are turned into advertising systems.
  • Product reviews – Publish detailed and objective reviews of products or services. It is important to review things related to your niche. If the product has an affiliate program, you can make money that way.
  • Webinars – Offer training through paid webinars. The greatest thing about webinars is that you can record them and resell them over-and-over to new customers.
  • Job board – Create a section of your blog that enables companies to post jobs for a fee.

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In the comments section below, discuss your ideal way(s) to monetize your blog.