Blogging offers amazing opportunities to build authority and earn income.
You can create a blog about anything you have knowledge about or experience in. The key is to choose a niche and dive in - serving a specific audience is better than writing about a jumble of topics.
With effort and time, your blog can grow into a real business, generating income and positioning you as an authority in your space.
Here, are 12 ways that you can use your blog to turn a profit.
1. Use Your Blog to Position Yourself as An Expert Consultant
You can use your blog to position yourself as an expert in any field - take Facebook marketing, for example.
Facebook Messenger marketing and Messenger chatbots are on the rise and the marketing possibilities are endless. If you're a digital marketing or social media consultant, leverage the buzz surrounding Facebook chatbots and create a blog that's all about using Facebook Messenger chatbots for businesses.
Potential topics could include things like why chatbots are great for business, how to set up a chatbot, how to use it to capture leads, the lower cost for click-to-messenger ads, etc.
Over time, you can use your blog to build authority as a Facebook chatbot expert.
With a blog as your base, you can successfully add a chatbot consultancy to your business.
2. Implement Google AdSense
You can easily add a script from AdSense to display ads on your blog.
Every time a visitor clicks on those ads, you can net money, and if you can drive enough traffic and generate clicks, that money can really start to add up.
3. Offer Native Ads
People tend to be turned off by blatant, glaring ads. Native advertising seeks to solve that by making ads blend in with the media being viewed.
Unlike banner ads, native ads don't look like ads, so they don't put people off as much. For example, a native ad might populate in the sidebar with organic articles, making it more palatable (and clickable) to your site visitors.
4. Offer Sponsored Blog Post Opportunities
As your blog grows, you can also look to offer sponsored blog opportunities.
With enough traffic, your blog could become a hot commodity, that people would actually pay to be featured on.
A company can pay you to write and talk about their products to promote them to your readers. You can even reach out to companies with a one-page media kit to pitch your blog.
5. Incorporate Video Ads
Banner ads and sponsored posts can be pretty effective, but video ads can potentially do even more.
You can either create short videos showcasing the product/s being advertised or use one provided by the company.
Video ads also have more room for creativity, making them more interesting and engaging than banner ads.
6. Sell Ad Space in the Newsletter Associated with Your Blog
If you have an email newsletter tied to your blog, you can also sell ad space in your newsletters for extra income.
This is best if you have a sizeable mailing list, with fairly high engagement rates.
7. Build More Blogs and Flip Them
If you get good at building successful blogs, flipping can become a good income source for you.
Put up a blog for a niche, attract a sizeable reader base, and then sell that blog at a premium.
This is a great business idea for those who are into starting and growing blogs.
8. Incorporate Affiliate Marketing
Adding affiliate links to your posts is another way to monetize your blog.
An advertiser can pay you a commission for each sale through that affiliate link, while you can also put up those affiliate links on your blog in banner ads and native ads.
9. Use Your Blog as a Platform to Become a Coach
As you become known as an expert in your niche (thanks to your blog), people will want more from you - and they'll likely be willing to pay for it.
After building your blog, you can start offer coaching services. As a coach, you can offer guidance, advice, and accountability in learning a skill or reaching a goal.
10. Offer Sponsored Social Content
Similar to sponsored posts, you can also use sponsored posts in the social media channels associated with your blog.
This is best if you have a large social media following and focus more on visual content.
11. Branch Out Into Ebooks & Online Courses
As your authority and expertise grow, consulting and coaching aren't the only things you can branch out into. Thanks to your blog, you can also start to produce eBooks and online courses.
Through eBooks and courses, you can take a deeper dive into the material that matters to your audience, or you can offer exclusive content through them that isn't available on your blog.
Once you've established yourself as an expert, and provided valuable content on your blog for free, people will be willing to pay a premium for more from you.
12. Sell Blog Ads Directly
Much like displaying ads from Google AdSense, you can directly sell ad space on your blog.
Not having to rely on Google as an intermediary means you can potentially earn more money for each ad.
It takes time and consistent effort to establish yourself as a trusted resources, but as you can see, there is a range of ways that you can utilize blogging to build your personal or business brand, and maximize your audience reach and performance.
Depending on your aims, hopefully these tips will set you on a path to bigger blog success.
A version of this post was first published on the Inc.com.
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