Writing, like most creative endeavors, is usually driven by passion and love for the craft. But because of the way civilized society is set up, the investment put into the craft (most notably time) starts to outweigh the returns derived from it (most notably the warm fuzzies). It’s why most creators eventually try to find financial gain from their work. It’s pragmatism, not greed. I call it the Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter approach to art, something none of your little faves could ever relate to.
But I digress.
Since we deal with blogs on this blog for an association of people with blogs, we’re going to be talking about how you people with blogs can make money from your blogs.
We’re going to go beyond the usuals, the ones such as Google AdSense, selling/promoting your own products and the old sending your content out into the world with a silent prayer in the hopes that a kindly capitalist-adjacent person will be impressed enough to hire you and make all your dreams come true.
It’s important to note that these tips are most effective when you’ve built an audience, a loyal and consistent one at that.
1. Donations
This one is easy. Just ask your audience to support you if they enjoy your content. At the very least, the donations should allow you to keep the site running through hosting and maintenance payments.
You can display a mobile number on a page/widget where they can send to you or add a PayPal Donate button to your site, which is very easy and recommended if you’re cool and your content goes beyond our borders.
2. Premium content
You could introduce membership plans where people can pay a fee to be granted access to perks such as early or entirely exclusive content. It doesn’t have to be monthly. It can be a once-off payment or for content individually e.g. pay per post. Make sure they are already familiar with your content, that it’s something they would want to pay for and that it’s something affordable.
3. Paid reviews
If your audience or traffic is large enough, you could be approached by brands to do reviews for their products. Of course, this review has to be objective and honest, because integrity and ethics are very sexy. It is therefore recommended that, unless you’re unscrupulous and your spirit animal is a venomous snake, you not approach these brands yourself so that you’re not compromised.
Stay transparent.
4. Consultancy
You could provide consultancy services or public speaking engagements for blog-related topics if your own is successful enough. We’re not even necessarily talking about a financial standpoint, but rather traffic. If, say, you get as many regular visitors as he whose name rhymes with Backson Jiko, you could provide paid consultancy services for companies that want to learn how to build their brand online.
You could also provide consultancy services for social media strategies if you’re also successful in that regard.
5. Direct advertising
Is AdSense playing games like it always does? Go around it. Seek out advertisers yourself and sell ad space to them directly. Most Content Management Systems (e.g. Joomla, WordPress) provide for differently sized banner widgets where you can display banner ads. If you can’t design one yourself, co-ordinate with a graphic designer to get one that works best within the dimensions you choose to display. (#FeedFreelancersKE for life) These are a better alternative to AdSense because you have complete control over what’s displayed in the advert as well as how much you earn from it.
You could also try native advertising, which is when you work the promotion of a product into a post. For example, a travel post where you provide positive mentions to your travel agency. Try not to be overbearing with the praise, be measured, be cool, be calm, be collected.
6. Affiliate programs
This one is a bit similar to the previous point, but involves commissions. Basically, you post links to products on your blog and you get rewarded every time a person visits the site from that link. The plan could also extend to a commission from a percentage of payment on a purchase made by a person who followed your link.
Here‘s a list of affiliate programs to help you get started if you can’t find a company on your own.
We hope this post allows you to get your blog to work for you. Let us know in the comments below of any other ideas we may have missed. Follow us on Twitter for the all the latest.
Now go forth and unleash your inner Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, stream Pray You Catch Me, which is the best song on Lemonade, the greatest opening track ever and, as a matter of fact, it’s the greatest three minutes and sixteen seconds ever recorded and furthermore you cannot even BEGIN to talk to me about a Chris Br-