Thousands of words have been written on monetizing your blog or blogging in general to the point where you can make a living. You’ve probably read several of these pieces and come away from experience more baffled than when you started.
I agree that there are many ways to turn a boring old blog into a cash cow. As a result, many people struggle to deal with what I call “information overload” in today’s Information Age.
Because of this, I have determined the five characteristics your blog must (and I stress must) have to make a significant amount of money. I selected these five characteristics for the following reasons:
The value of this function relative to the time and effort required to implement it is known as a “benefit/effort analysis.” This means that a feature that has a lot of positive effects but requires little work will get more attention than one with fewer positive effects but requires more work.
Studying a vast number of posts written by an expert and famous bloggers and looking for patterns
Applying what I’ve learned over the past year of creating and monetizing my blogs
If you’re serious about making a living through blogging, I hope you’ll use this piece as a guide. In addition, I pray it serves as a laid-back, simple summary of the thousands upon thousands of articles already written on the subject.
With that, let’s get started.
First and foremost, it must have
Adsense by Google
There’s a good chance you’ve seen Google AdSense even if you aren’t familiar with the service. Google AdSense, or simply Google ads, are displayed on various websites (including blogs). You might be wondering at this point why webmasters bother to host Google ads on their pages. If you have a blog, what’s the point in allowing advertisements from a competing business?
Putting Google AdSense on your blog is a good idea because Google will pay you for each click on one of their ads. AdSense is a great way to monetize your blog, but there are other advantages as well:
Ads are automatically tailored to your blog’s niche. The Google AdSense code, once added to a blog, automatically analyzes the post’s topic and displays only ads related to that topic. This is fantastic news because it increases the likelihood that your website visitors will interact with your advertisements.
AdSense gives you a lot of leeway in deciding how your advertisements will look on your blog. Ads can range from tiny boxes to towering billboards. You can even customize the text color of the advertisements to match your site’s aesthetic.
You can see which ads on which sites (in this case, blogs) bring in the most money with Google AdSense. To put it another way, you can optimize the advertising on your sites for maximum profit.
The best part about using Google AdSense is that it takes little time to get up and run. Google AdSense is a free service that allows bloggers to monetize their content by displaying relevant advertisements to their readers. If you’re overwhelmed by the prospect, you can always ask me for help or look up some guide online.
Second Necessary Characteristic
Instapaper: Social Bookmarking
You may be wondering, “What is social bookmarking?” Similar to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, social bookmarking sites allow users to organize their favorite web pages and share them with others. Some people even argue that it is the same thing.
Whatever you call it, having social bookmarking on your blog is essential to increase your blog’s visibility among other blogs. Using social bookmarking, readers can quickly alert their friends to a particularly insightful post on a blog. When you have a blog, how do you incorporate social bookmarking?
Popular blog hosting services like Blogger offer this functionality as a user plug-in. When I write a blog post, I use WordPress because it has a handy plugin that adds little social bookmarking icons to the end of the post. If readers enjoy your piece and want to spread the word, they can easily do so by selecting one of these icons. That’s all there is to it. And it works wonderfully in terms of attracting new visitors. We also know that an increase in visitors means a rise in revenue.
Key Third Characteristic
Contextual Links
You’ve probably heard of something called an “affiliate link” before. Let me provide a brief, elementary explanation if you haven’t already. Simply put, an affiliate link allows you to earn a commission from a seller if a referred customer goes on to buy the recommended product or service. Referral programs pay you money if the people you send there purchase something.
Affiliate links are now commonly used to track who referred a customer to a website and distribute financial rewards accordingly. So then the question arises, “How do I get an affiliate link?”
Fortunately, there are a plethora of affiliate programs online that make it easy for bloggers to insert affiliate links into their content. For this purpose, Clickbank is the best option available. You only need to sign up as an affiliate, then look around the marketplace for items your audience might be interested in. Some advice:
Consider the percentage and absolute amount you stand to gain from each sale.
Look at the design of the sales page and decide if you would buy the product. It won’t appeal to anyone else if it doesn’t appeal to you.
When you find a product you want to promote on your blog, you can generate an affiliate link by clicking “create hoplink” and enter your account username. That settles the matter, period. You can include your affiliate link in your blog post as soon as you have your affiliate link.
You can look up the procedure on the Clickbank website or contact me directly if you have further questions.
Fourthly, and most importantly,
Online News Service
If you want to make money with your blog, an RSS feed is a must-have feature. The primary goal of implementing an RSS feed onto your blog is to attract more readers. It’s common knowledge that increasing exposure leads to greater earnings.
Some readers may be unfamiliar with the term “RSS feed,” so let me quickly explain what it is and how it can help you grow your blog’s readership. RSS, which currently stands for Really Simple Syndication but has previously represented other things, is a format for delivering frequently updated content on the World Wide Web. For frequent internet users, this is a welcome solution. It makes it simple for the user to keep up with the latest posts from their favorite sites (in this case, blogs). They save time because they don’t have to visit each location separately. By not signing up for an email newsletter, the visitor also protects their personal information.
The RSS feed is there primarily to save the reader some time. Furthermore, a visitor may use your RSS feed to incorporate content from your blog into their blog. Good news, your writing will likely appear on other blogs. This is the same as word of mouth, and only it happens online. Who knows, maybe a hugely popular blog will publish your article one day, at which point your site’s search engine rankings will skyrocket. Why? Because you’ve finally implemented an RSS feed on your blog!
How exactly does one incorporate an RSS feed into a weblog, then? WordPress, one of the most popular blog hosting platforms, provides templates with built-in RSS feed integration. Many, however, lack this capability, necessitating your implementation. It’s not hard to put together, and numerous online resources will walk you through the process. If you find that too challenging, you can always contact me or visit the website I’ve provided as a resource down below.
The Fifth Most Important Thing
Click here to opt-in box.
What strategies do you have in place to “keep” visitors and encourage repeat business? And maybe even make a sale to them weeks or months after they first visited? You’ll need an opt-in box on your blog if you want to do this.
An opt-in box is a box on a website (or blog) where visitors can enter their email address (usually their first name) in exchange for future content. This usually includes a free ebook, software, or newsletter subscription. Whatever it is, people are generally willing to part with personal information (email and, at the very least, a first name) in exchange for it.
Doing so can build a list of enthusiastic readers about your blog’s content. It’s essential to remember that they provided their contact information because they were interested in hearing more. The next step is to begin communicating with your list via email, where you can provide additional value through advice and suggestions related to your blog’s topic. However, you should never try to sell them something right away! This is the last thing you want to do when you want to gain subscribers’ trust. After a couple of weeks, when your list has gotten to know and trust you, you can start making sales pitches.
The good news is that subscribers who stick around for an extended period are more likely to buy the products you recommend than someone visiting your blog for the first time. In Internet marketing, there is a saying that “the money is in the list,” Now you know why this is so.
There you have it.
Those are the five most important features if you want to make money with your blog. If you implement these five features, you’ll be well on your way to blogging success, and they won’t take much time or effort. If you’re having trouble getting started with implementation, there are plenty of online resources to consult, but don’t hesitate to contact me for personal assistance.
NOW is the time to act, which is of the utmost importance. Understanding does not confer authority. The knowledge that can be put to use is a real strength.
Martin Sejas is a devoted and experienced blogger who wants to help other bloggers make a living from their writing. In his blog, which can be found at the is a money expert and provides straightforward explanations.
Read also: Search engine marketing tips 101: What Search Engines Notice When They Visit Your Web Website
