How to Monetize a WordPress Blog

Life does not simply pass, but rather it is us who pass through life. I want you to think about the diary you had in your youth, where you listed the most intimate moments of your life. It has often been compared to a blog where we write articles to help others and on those merits I will use this entry to teach you how to monetize a WordPress blog.

Having a blog is on everyone’s mind, but most people throw in the towel when they see that it does not yield the result that one anticipated. For this reason today I’m going to speak from my point of view on how you can get higher performance from your blog, however make no mistake, the path may not be the easiest but you will get as much out of it as you put in.

Surely you have seen many ads for social networks that tell you to go out and start a blog to earn easy money, start a blog and have all the time to do what you like, it is a relative truth, as with any job and if you do not do things within certain guidelines, your effort will be in vain.

How I started writing in a blog

I finished my optical optometrist studies and today I have my traditional brick and mortar shop, but I was always very curious about the digital world and technology. I made my first web page for my store and in the same way create my first blog, where I began to make my first steps in this world full of magic.

I tried to mimic some icons of mine in the web and everything was trial and error. I kept looking all over the places to learn more and more, polishing myself as much as possible, because I can assure you I had much to learn, but I also recognized that I had a good and solid base.

Well … I’m not going to digress any further, let’s get down to business.

How to monetize a WordPress blog

First of all I think that you must understand that the meaning of the word “monetize” can give you many meanings depending on the context. Monetize in this case means to bring revenue to the blog, so if you decide to set up a blog, you should be thinking of making a profit. It is a hard work and a lot of perseverance, but I can assure you that it is a great pleasure to see people writing to you asking for advice and your help. Remember that a first phase before monetization is to drive traffic to your blog. Check out this article on Inbound Marketing.

Next I’ll explain how to monetize a wordpress blog, so grab a paper and a pencil and start scoring.

1. Advertise with adsense

Google adsense is the way to have ads on your blog to generate revenue from such advertising, but this option does not look very profitable if your blog does not have millions of visits. So, start getting millions of visits organically to your blog and you will see how you will have residual money that will gradually grow.

2. Monetize an Affiliate Blog

This is the part that I like the most and I use most often. Do you really know what it is to be affiliated? The term to be affiliated is to make a percentage of revenue for the recommendation of a particular product.

Let me give you an example: Imagine that your neighbor has a car repair shop and you get along with him, so you both come to an agreement wherein you are going to recommend his shop and every time someone visits him on your recommendation, you make a profit. It’s that simple.

You just have to talk a lot about your neighbor’s shop in any avenue possible to start receiving revenue, you can make articles on your blog that talks about the shop, you can make videos and countless other ways, here is where your creativity comes in.

3. Sale of Informational Products

The term of Informational Products in the digital world incredibly popular and means  to sell a course, such as an ebook or any product that you have created with the intention of being able to help the people who buy it. It is also one of the ways I like to monetize a blog, because it is like making a customized shoe you can sell endlessly at a very reasonable price.

4. Selling advertising space on your blog

Surely more than once you have seen ads in digital newspaper of companies that are known. Well you can do this in your own blog. It is as simple as selling advertising space or banners on your platform. You can charge the customer depending on the size of the banner, but I advise you not to go up very high with prices. Imagine if you have 5 advertisers, who are being charged $30 each month, your monthly revenue will be $150. Surely you ask yourself the following question:

How to get advertisers?

You have two options, go cold door by offering your advertising space or talk to agencies in your city to offer it for you. However, first your blog should contain good articles and high quality information.

5. Premium Content

If the main function of your blog is to help others, you can create a Premium section where for a monthly fee, your subscribers can get access to a special area where you have a lot of courses, plugins and special tools that they can make use of. This can be a, sort of, VIP area of your blog that opens the door to more sites.

Conclusion

I could go on to explain many more ways to monetize a WordPress blog, but I consider, the above listed, to be the best. Other methods include organizing face to-face courses, selling your mailing list, selling audio or video advertising, etc. You have to start like a Bonsai tree, that is to say, from less to more, taking a lot of initiative to become a reliable reference.

Now you know a few tried and proven methods to monetize your blog, though surely I forgot some. Now it’s up to you to start developing your idea!

Original Post by Fernando Muro

Matthew Mur

CEO Axzes, Digital Marketing and Social Media Specialist.