Thumbnail example Monetizing Your Blogging Efforts

If you are new to blogging you may be wondering how you can make even more money from your blogging efforts. Making money from blogging is often referred to as monetizing blogs. When the time comes that you are interested in monetizing your blog (and for most bloggers that is from the very beginning) you will want to do a little research into the opportunities that exist to make money with blogs and the requirements for doing so. Below are a few ways that you can monetize your blogging efforts. Doing one or a combination of these things can bring in a significant income if you are willing to work hard for the money.

1. Affiliate marketing. This is one of the most effective means of earning money from a blog. Many Internet marketers are building a nice monthly income through affiliate marketing efforts on their blogs. You sign up as an affiliate with a company or to sell a specific product and advertise that company or product on your blog. You can do this through links, buttons, and/or banners on your blog. Be careful that your blog doesn't read as if it were a walking advertisement and you should be able to build a sizable income through affiliate marketing on your blog.

2. Direct product promotion. Sometimes entire blogs exist to sell one item and one item alone. Some feel that this is a lot of work for limited results while others will argue that the focus will drive a very specific group of people to the blog—those looking for what you have to sell. This ensures that the traffic is highly targeted and increases the odds that the traffic will result in sales.

3. Paid blog posting. This has become a growing trend in recent years. Companies will pay you to blog about their products and include links to their company website. These are often one shot deals and your blog needs to have some sort of record of regularly monthly, weekly, or daily traffic in order to get the best offers. It is a good idea to let your readers know when you are being paid to promote a product or website in the spirit of full disclosure.

4. Paid to blog. Believe it or not, there are companies out there that know the benefit a blog could bring to their sales but have no interest, desire, or expertise when it comes to building a blog or a blog readership. In an effort to reach out to their potential customer base they will hire writers to blog for them. While this doesn't directly help your business it can increase your exposure in the “blog – o – sphere” and provide valuable backlinks to your own blogging efforts.

As you can see there are plenty of ways to monetize your blogging efforts and we've barely begun to scratch the surface. There are plenty of opportunities to make money with a successful blog but the key ingredient is learning to get the traffic and then learning to convert that traffic into clicks, views, and/or sales.