I am pleased to present a post written by my colleague Gianluca Caruso. Gianluca has a degree in Communication Sciences and has a long experience in Web Marketing . He worked at several agencies for about a year and Seo agrees with me:
- the desk
- joys and sorrows of Seo
- countless coffee from the vending machine
I thank Gianluca and I wish you all good reading.
If you have decided to earn money with your blog , you are in the right place!
How to earn money with a blog
Gianluca Caruso
If you have started a blog in hopes of making it a veritable source of income or you simply want to round up the monthly income with an additional source of income to your salary know that : you can earn money with a blog ... but it is not easy ! We need quality, commitment and a lot of patience .
In fact, if we consider the large amount of people who open a blog in the hope of seeing some gain, those who succeed are very few! In short, the life of the blogger is not easy and , as you can imagine, the easy money in real life as in the "virtual" does not exist. That said, do not be discouraged , but remember that :
earn money with a blog you can as long as you make the right choices and is dedicated to this activity sustained efforts.
Before analyzing in detail the possible methods to monetize it is good to make a clarification : every blog is different ! This means that to earn money online , there are no universal solutions and miracle solutions but , depending on the niche market and the type of traffic your site gets , you have to choose the most appropriate tools .
Niche blogs
The niche blogs are those dedicated to a very specific topic and sector . I am therefore single issue but have the advantage of going very deep : the topic is observed from all points of view and with a variety of insights .
Let's take an example : I like blues guitars and then I open a blog dedicated to this theme in which I review all models of blues guitar artists that use them , the most famous album of blues guitar and so on.
Blog generalists
Blogs generalists are those blogs that talk about most topics related to a certain macro - theme .
Returning to the previous case , the example could be this time a blog of musical instruments, in which items will be included on the guitars , but also articles on the trumpets, violins , flutes on and so on! Obviously, in this case, will be treated more arguments but in less detail than the niche blog ( with rare exceptions) .
For each blog its monetization
The niche blog is designed by nature to have fewer visits than the generalist : fans of blues guitars will never be as many fans of musical instruments in general! At the same time, however , blog blues guitar will meet people with the same passion , very interested in a specific topic and eager to find quality information on that topic. The reason is simple: if you are a fan of blues guitar , I will not settle ever read a post superficial but I want to read quality material written by another expert like me.
Two models are so different that they can not give rise to two different types of monetization .
In niche blog readers already constitute a specific target, loyal and who puts great trust in the blog itself. These users will be more likely to perform an action on the site , such as requesting a quote for the purchase of a product or service. In the blog of blues guitars , users will be able to trust me when I will propose them to visit a famous instrument store in the center and take advantage of blues guitar on offer in that store. For this reason, Blog niche you can focus on affiliate programs (see below ) , which usually require actions on the part of visitors to generate earnings.
In the blog generalist , however, you can focus more on the factor 'quantity' of visitors. As anticipated . , The blog will tend to have more generalist visits , that's why it becomes easier to earn with programs pay per impression , pay per click (see below ) , and so on , which do not require action by the user, but who are paid according to what users see or click on an advertisement published on this site .
Methods to monetize a blog
Now let's see the main methods to make money with a blog starting with the contextual ads to get to the tools used less ( and too often overlooked ) .
Pay per click ads contextual
This method is by far the most widely used by bloggers who want to monetize their posts. Google Adsense is without a doubt the best platform if you choose this form of advertising. How does it work ? On your blog you will see graphic ads or text in theme with the content covered in your pages . The gain is done " per click " and then you will receive a reward every time the users will click on the ads. You do not need to do is register with Google Adsense, and will then bring up Google ads in areas of the pages on your website that you have indicated you. The advertisements are clicked on by users very easily because they are in theme with the page on which they appear .
Advantages: ease of use, good Ctr ( click-through rate with respect to views) ;
Disadvantages: the gain -per-click (CPC ) can be sometimes very low, there are more expensive areas ( such as finance ) that give the bloggers gain for each click . The average cost per click is higher simply because :
- are more people who invest in advertising in this specific field
- it is a field that spins money.
Ads pay per impression
This is probably the most desirable method of monetization by bloggers. The gain depends simply on the number of views that the banner will receive information on your website. The gain is , in this case , defined in terms of CPM or cost per 1000 exposures . In practice, if an advertiser pays you 10 euro CPM means that you can earn € 10 for every thousand views . To sell this type of advertising , you can rely on external platforms or point to direct selling.
Advantages: ease of use ;
Disadvantages: the CPM is often too low , in this case therefore serve many visitors to get interesting gains .
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs allow you to earn by promoting products and services of advertisers . In practice, the advertiser will recognize a commission if you are able to promote / sell its products. The main models of the commission affiliate programs are :
- Pay per click ( rarely used ) : Earn a fixed amount for each click on the link / banner information (what changes compared to the normal pay per click ? Explain ) ;
- Pay Per Lead : Earn a fixed fee for every compilation of budget relating to the product information
- Pay Per Sale : earn a commission fixed or variable if the user buys the product / service information .
Advantages: a single transaction can guarantee profits much higher than in the case of programs CPC and CPM correspond to hundreds of clicks / views . The affiliate links can be easily integrated into the post ;
Disadvantages: difficult to use . If not used properly ( targeted traffic , optimized landing pages etc. .. ) conversions and then the gains will be low.
Selling links within posts
Inside of your articles you could sell text links that point to sites of advertisers . The promotional links would have a double benefit to the advertiser's site :
- the link is a new source of traffic to the site
- better positioning on search engines ( Inbound links are in fact one of the main factors that affect the ranking of a site ) .
Advantages: you can take advantage of alternative spaces without having to give up banners , contextual ads , etc. ..;
Disadvantages: Can Google penalize sites that sell links to " fix " the search results.
Create a blog with the purpose of selling
This is also a good solution ( although a bit ' extreme ) to earn online. You could start a blog, so constantly improve earnings over time visibility on search engines , all with the sole purpose of reselling it .
Advantages: you have to think only to grow the site;
Disadvantages: abandon a project on which you worked even for a short time
Donations
Finally it is the turn of the more unusual tool to monetize your blog : user donations ! This method is mainly used by websites that offer free software. Users can reward the blog owner offering a small amount via Paypal. In the case of blogs, this possibility can be integrated via the classic " buy me a beer " at the bottom of the article.
