Monetizing your blog is a natural next step if you aim to generate any type of revenue from it. Soon enough, it may help you make a living on blogging alone! You can start monetizing your blog as early on as once you launch it, or you can wait to accumulate regular viewers and visitors first. But what options are out there? How do you start, and when is the best time to start monetizing your blog? The answers to all of those questions and more are below. 

Accept Guest Blogs Or Sponsored Links

A great way to drive revenue to your blog is to open it up to alternative writers or brands. You can feature additional blogs written by guest writers who pay a set fee to get an article published on your blog. The best part is that you get to set all of the guidelines, like what topics you approve, how long you want the length of the content to be, whether or not they get to include a sponsored backlink to their business, and so on. The more page views your blog has, the more people will be interested in submitting guest blogs your way along with paying a higher rate for it. This is especially a beneficial option if you have a lot on your plate now and can’t manage to blog regularly but still want to provide fresh content for your readers.

Offer an Ebook

Writing and selling an online book or manual is not only a great monetization strategy, but you can pair it with any other monetization method for additional revenue. Writing an ebook that offers substantial value for readers is a lengthy commitment to creating, but it can be worth it in the end if it’s marketed effectively. An ebook is a great method of monetization no matter what stage your blog is in, since there can always be someone who is interested in the topic. You can sell and promote the ebook on your website, in blog posts, and on third-party websites like Amazon. Maybe it’s the success of your ebook that kicks off the success of your blog with a domino effect. If you have a knack for writing, certainly try this out, or consider hiring a ghostwriter. 

Try Google Ads

Running display ads on the same page of your blog is one of the most popular ways that bloggers decide to monetize their blogs. The choice you have to make here is whether you want your readers to see and possibly become distracted by ads alongside reading your blog. Some bloggers decide they want to find less eye-catching and more implicit ways of generating revenue than ads, but nonetheless, this method is excellent for beginner bloggers. Having ad management and monetization tool handy will help you navigate through the ad campaigns to understand how much revenue you are generating per click on the ads, along with determining the best course of action. 

Promote Merchandise 

An indirect approach to monetization is promoting your merchandise or products in the process. For example, if you are selling a product that can be at the center of many of your blog posts without being too salesy, then you can hit two birds with one stone. You can also go on to review and possibly even promote products by other companies that can compensate you for the exposure gained. Awake the inner sales and marketing guru within you to find the best strategy for this method of monetization. 

Provide a Subscription Service

This approach is best for blogs with a steady viewer and reader count (10,000+ readers a month). While you don’t need every single reader to purchase a subscription, you certainly don’t want to put all the time and energy that goes into creating exclusive content for it to be read by only a dozen people. There are a variety of approaches you can take, which makes this method quite a flexible one. First and foremost, you are in control of dictating the pricing. You can establish a monthly or annual subscription and charge only a couple of dollars or as high as a few hundred for the whole year. You can also decide to release early access to content for subscribers before anyone else or opt to create exclusive, subscriber-only content entirely. Keep in mind that you need to carefully plan this one out to ensure subscribers are getting the value for the money and will be hooked to your content for the long term. 

Consider all of your options, do some independent research and planning, and you’re bound to find the monetization method that best meets your expectations.