If you are looking of ways to get the most out of your home-based business, then look no further than your blog. Your blog could be a gold mine if you use at least one of these quick and easy ideas. As a general prerequisite, your blog should not be a brand new one and must have some loyal followers who read your posts and engage in comments.
The higher the number of followers, the higher the chances of success for these ideas. Without further ado, here they are:
- Affiliate Programs
This one is a simple and straightforward monetization method. You should find an affiliate program that is in line to the theme of your blog. For instance, if you write about living a healthier life by exercising and watching what you eat, a brand promoting indoor fitness equipment or a bio food brand can offer good affiliate programs for your blog. You promote these products through banners on your site or links within texts, and when one of your blog readers buys a product from the affiliate, you are paid a commission.
- Pay-Per-Click
This is one of the most popular ways of using the internet to make money for your home-based business. It works in this manner: you display banner ads on your blog, and every time someone clicks one of these ads, you are paid. There are two things that you should consider though: if you place too many banners on your site, your followers might feel annoyed and leave your blog. Another issue is that more and more people are installing ad blocking extensions on their browsers, so they will not even see your banner ads.
- Paid Reviews
Marketers and brand managers sometimes contact bloggers and ask them to test and review their products and services. This may look as a win-win situation for you. You work from home, get to test products for free and get paid for writing about them. But also consider your readers: if you turn your blog into one big advertorial and replace all the cool things you were writing about with paid reviews, you will start losing followers.
- Webinars
This is a very effective way both to monetize your blog and gain online reputation. Hosting a webinar to share the skills you specialize in can be a fantastic way to generate extra income. Many bloggers are becoming famous for their online webinars or Q&A sessions. However, you should offer value for the money people pay, so try testing your webinar formula with a few close friends at the beginning (for free, of course).
- Premium Content
If you use your blog to share advice, how-to, DIY or tutorials, you can offer the most valuable content either on a pay-per-view or subscription basis. The subscriber system will also help you differentiate between the loyal and regular followers and develop an incentive plan to even further monetize your blog.