Ways to make Money from Blog

Over the past decade, blog monetization has gained momentum. What was once just a way of making money on the side has now become a full-fledged profession, with various revenue channels opening up. Here are few ways to make Money from Blog.

Google AdSense- Once you sign up for AdSense, you will be allotted ads to place on your blog. After this, it’s a waiting game to see if your account is approved. If it is, you can continue to receive ad placements and earn a steady, if not large, income from it. AdSense pays on the basis of clicks and views the ads receive. The two categories on offer are cost per click (CPC) and cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM), and the ads are allotted based on which category can earn more revenues for a particular blogger.

The CPC rate, for instance, can range from Rs 2 to Rs 50, depending on the niche, content, use of keywords and the traffic you receive. AdSense lets you choose where you want to place the ads on your blog, and pays you when you accrue a certain amount from clicks or views. It is a safe bet because you don’t have to screen the ads for quality or compatibility with your content. Earnings can range from a few hundred to several lakhs of rupees for different bloggers.

Affiliate Marketing- Using your blog to sell or promote another seller’s product can be one of the most profitable avenues, if you can successfully convert readers into buyers. One of the main advantages of this channel is that you will not have to deal with production, shipping and customer care. However, it also requires you to have an audience that trusts your judgment. It works best for niche audiences, especially if you have a good degree of authority in your domain, as well as great salesmanship.

You will earn a percentage of profits made by the seller from the traffic redirected by you blog. You can feature product reviews with relevant links, but too much plugging can annoy readers. It is also important to find a good offer that is credible and rewarding, and the best way to ensure this is to approach a network rather than individual brands or sellers.

Product Sales- You can market your own product by featuring photos and descriptions on your blog. You can either allow your audience to purchase the items directly through your blog or redirect them to an e-commerce portal that stocks them. You can also turn your blog into a membership site, where readers can subscribe to receive personalized services. For instance, if you specialize in handling fiancés, you can allow your audience to sign up to receive specific financial advice tailored to their needs.

Sponsorship- If your blog already attracts a significant amount of traffic, you could choose to enlist blog sponsors. Sponsorship includes selling ad space on your blog to merchants, which offers a more stable source of income. You can charge for hosting banner ads, button or links on either a one-time or a monthly basis. Ads can pay Rs 2000-15000 a month for a 2x2 space, depending on your niche and readership.

Sponsored content which blend seamlessly into your blog prevailing tone and theme can also add to your earnings. The best bet for bloggers who want to monetize is to reach out to companies or wait to be approached. Promotional posts for events or reviews can fetch you anywhere between Rs 3000 and Rs 20000, depending on the sponsor and your popularity. You can also be paid in merchandise or services, if you’re open to the idea.

Ways to find your Niche- If you are looking to start blogging; here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing your niche. Being passionate about your subject matter is crucial to creating good content. Choose a topic you love to write about it, to set yourself apart and to hold the interest of your audience. Being fond of a subject is not enough. You need to evaluate whether you have enough specialization to offer valuable content to your readers.

Like any business venture, blog monetization can only be successful if you offer something that is not easily available elsewhere. Find a gap in the content market and plug it. You must ensure that your blog is one of the top results offered by search engines when people start looking into your niche. Use SEO techniques to help your content show up in search results. For AdSense, use the Google Keyword Planner to find out which keywords rank higher, and try to choose a niche that corresponds with them. This will ultimately yield better revenues.

Native Advertising

Advertisers and publishers are not new to ad blocking. It has been in existence since the time of desktop publishing. Over the last couple of years they have rushed to native advertising primarily because of the sharp rise in ad blocking. It works with the theory that if an ad is harder to identify as an ad, it would perform better against ad blockers.

Take fashion brand Lifestyle promotional campaign that highlighted its end of season sale. For the announcement ad, the company tied up with popular content site, and created a fun and engaging article on the types of people on average shopper would meet during a sale. The good thing is publishers are actively handholding advertisers to get around entry hurdles.

Twitter India, for instance offers brands the know to how to leverage native advertising through a host of products such as Promoted Tweet, Promoted Trend, and Native Video, that surface in the form of content that the user is familiar with. Brands need to be where their customers are, but that is increasingly a challenge as consumer’s consumption of content today takes place across multiple platforms from TV to online to mobile apps.

There are few things to remember while using native ads. Always add value for users. If users find the branded content informative and in line with their interests they’ll read and share it. Native content that is identified as sponsored and has a clear call to action performs the best. Being transparent is important to retaining the user trust and leading to engagement. Since native ads look and behave like the content around it, strive for quality content that’s good as the editorial content.

While consumers transition between devices they expect the content to be consistent whether on desktop or mobile and that goes for advertising too. Native ads are especially effective for cross platform campaigns, from PC to mobile. The look and feel of the native ad should be in line with the content on the page. Native ads flow in with the user content experience. With digital video consumption is on rise, and the user love for short snacky content, brands need to explore native video as well as stretch the creative boundaries on content genres.