The last step, and I purposely made it the last step, is to monetize your blog. Too many people dive into slapping ads up on a website before it even has anybody viewing the website. Make sure you completely navigate the previous 10 steps in this guide prior to addressing this step, the monetization step. If you’re ready to go, please continue…
The most important thing you can do in this step is to identify the strategy that will be driving your monetization approach.
What do I mean by this? I mean what kind of revenue you are trying to generate will determine everything. For example, are you attempting to earn money by getting people to click ads that you place on your site? Are you trying to build a reputation for a business or individual so that you can then sell your products/services/information? These questions will help determine your overall strategy.
If Advertising…
If this is your main strategy, then your traffic needs to be very much based on search results. You want to rank high for certain keywords and have Google and other search engines drive traffic to your site. The reason for this is because search traffic tends to be the type of traffic that will click on your ads.
Google Adsense is definitely the de facto form of online advertising but there are additional options you may consider depending on your topic or type of site.
If Selling Products/Services/Information…
If your approach is to gain visitors so that you can sell something to them, whether its a book, a box of diapers, some consulting services or whatever, then you need to use your blog to establish your credibility. Your blog is your marketing strategy or advertising approach. Your visitors need to be converted into customers.
Depending on your business model, you will need to use the blog content to convince your readers to buy from you. As such, I’d recommend doing minimal ads on the site or maybe none at all.
If you’re not selling your own product, you can do a similar type site and sell someone else’s products. This is called affiliate marketing. A quick search on affiliate marketing will lead you to thousands of resources that can tell you everything you need to know about it.
