How To Monetize Your Blog – Tips For New and Experienced Bloggers

This post contains affiliate links.
Posts like… ‘How to Start a Successful Blog NOW!’ Don’t actually tell you how to monetize your blog and get traffic do they? Sure they get you signed up but after that? How do you really monetize? Want to make money blogging? Gooood luck! With my tips it really is possible.

How to monetize your blog doesn’t have to be a mystery, I’m here to expose the secrets.

These are trustworthy tried and true businesses you can fully rely on to get your blogging career jump started in the best possible way. Get your notepad out you’re going to want to remember this.

Take your time to digest it all, I put as many tips as I could to help you succeed. This isn’t just resources, this is how to monetize your blog and use programs to your advantage!

I took a deep dive into what makes bloggers successful and what gives a blog earning power.

It comes down to traffic and the relationships you create with your reader. You need a solid base of the basics up and running on your blog to have that potential. Use my arsenal of tips to get you on the road to financial freedom.  

Ready to Figure Out How To Monetize Your Blog?

Starting a blog is a great way to grab financial freedom because it’s so versatile. Sign up for affiliate networks, run your own advertisements, and start pulling in money doing what you love.

Monetize!

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between you and a merchant. Below I will show you some easy Affiliate Networks to join, but as an affiliate you’re essentially giving credibility to the merchant or product by recommending it to your readers. The merchant then gives you a piece of the action ie payout based on what the customer purchases.

I created a helpful guide to get you set up Start Your Own Blog with Bluehost in less than 15 minutes. Already self-hosted? Read on.

Some merchants are set up to pay you commissions, some are “pay-per-click” for directing traffic to their site. 

Once you are an approved member of the affiliate network or program your unique member id will be included in your links. This will allow the merchant to track purchases that originated from your site and links.

You can add affiliate links to posts, or your sidebar. Many people also opt for a pop-up (caution too many pop-ups will slow your reader’s browser speed). Opting for email campaigning or ecommerce is quite popular, the possibilities are endless when you own your domain. 

Create an Affiliate Affidavit  

Keep your blog legal. When you monetize it’s important that your readers know that. A simple disclaimer on your main blog page, and above or below the post is perfect. Example: “This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a commission if a consumer makes a purchase.”

My Favorite Affiliate Companies to Promote

When you love a company’s products do a quick google search to see if they have an affiliate program. Promoting an affiliate product is an easy way to talk about products you love and placing an affiliate link can earn you big money. 

Want to Learn How To Monetize Your Blog? Take Tips From Experts

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Michelle the creator of the course, earns over $50,000 a month by promoting companies and products. This program was the best and my favorite resource to me despite 1,000+ hours of research on how to earn. The money didn’t actually start coming in till I took this course. Save yourself from frustration, Michelle has it figured out for us. 

When you take Michelle’s course you can also promote it as an affiliate. Remember the key to monetizing your blog is to share trustworthy and respected resources with your readers. They trust you.

Shareasale.com

Shareasale has an easy to use platform. Access thousands of merchants in seconds, and scan 1000’s of promotion possibilities daily. I love checking out all the available merchants (it’s addicting). My favorites include Tailwind for auto scheduling my pins, PicMonkey for photo-editing, and StudioPress by Copyblogger which provides custom themes. 

Shareasale is without a doubt my favorite. To join Shareasale as an affiliate, click “Affiliate Login” to get your profile set-up. 

Once you’re accepted to an affiliate program you’ll have access to pre-made widgets for your sidebar and in-text links.

My “aha” moment came thanks to Shareasale. If you’ve been struggling to find an affiliate/ company you want to support try this platform, they’ll have at least one or two companies to get excited about I promise.

Amazon Affiliate

Link to any product on Amazon. If someone purchases something within a set amount of time, receive a commission. It’s that simple. Amazon Affiliates is unique due to the shear number of products that are offered. Share a recipe using a crockpot? Add an affiliate link for the crockpot. Easy. 

If you read an inspiring book why not write a post about it? Better yet, why not add an affiliate link in that post, so your reader can  buy it from amazon? Amazon affiliate links are perfect for any blog or website. 

Promote Your Host

An easy quick way to monetize your blog is by becoming an affiliate of your host provider! My host provider is Bluehost as you can tell. Your reader will appreciate your first-hand experience. You can write several different posts that will motivate and inspire your reader to start their own blog.

I only promote products I use. It’s even sweeter with companies like Bluehost that help you promote them with pre-written help guides and widget.

Host providers also have some of the best commissions available. With Bluehost not only do you get to use a trustworthy product, you yourself get to take advantage of the amazing customer service, beneficial updates, and increased commissions during the holidays.

When you start a blog with Bluehost use my helpful guide to get you set up Start Your Own Blog with Bluehost in less than 15 minutes.

Do you Need Traffic Help?

When it comes to how to monetize your blog you need traffic. The more eyes on your page the better chance of conversion. That conversion can be subscribing to the blog, opting into a freebie, or purchasing a product. You want to create an interactive environment for your reader so they are eager to click around.

Pinterest

If you want to monetize your blog need to focus on Pinterest. It equates to free advertising later! Touted as the most popular of social media sites, but why? It’s because Pinterest is also a search engine, a search engine that you can manipulate by sharing and providing great content! 80% Of my traffic and income is from Pinterest.

Start connecting with your blogging community. Pinterest is a great place to start liking and commenting on posts. Get out of your shell and start interacting with other bloggers.

Every follower is a new member of your community and a potential share for any of your pins. Find me on Pinterest: The Rising Damsel. 

Use a Pinterest Business account to take advantage of analytics and stats. Don’t worry you can convert your normal account to a business one easily. Here’s the link in case you need it: Convert Your Pinterest Account.

Tailwind  

Did you know that you need to be pinning around 40 times a day to keep a steady increase in traffic flow? I used to avoid Pinterest. The only thing it did was give me plenty of delicious food cravings, impossible crafts and exercise routines I didn’t need. However, Pinterest exposure definitely gave my old blog a huge boost in views. What to do?

Enter Tailwind. Tailwind helped me take my marketing to a new level with optimal pinning times to increase viewership. When you auto pre-schedule pins to pin, it really feels less burdensome. I started looking at my pins from a business angle. Now I analyze the usefulness of my pins to my readers, with a personal added benefit… it helps keep my food cravings away lol. When it comes to how to monetize your blog, you want to provide quality content to stay relevant.

Freebie alert!

Tailwind is offering a free trial via The Rising Damsel. You are credited with the ability to schedule 100 auto pins. I recommend scheduling 20 pins a day for 5 days.

This will give you a good idea of what scheduled pinning can really do for your follower count. Continue normal use of Pinterest but add your additional free auto-scheduled pins via Tailwind. 

This may seem like extra work at first, but once you get the hang of Tailwind you will be scheduling and pinning at the same time and it’s a breeze. Your influx of added followers will amaze you. 

Another bonus of Tailwind is completely FREE ‘tribes’. Tribes are similar to Pinterest group boards. I can help connect you with tribes. Meanwhile, feel free to join my brand new Promote Your Blog-The Rising Damsel tribe. You can use Tribes even if you don’t sign up for Tailwind! I’m an avid user of Tailwind. I know my Pinterest success comes from my Tailwind usage and their analytics. 

Tip!

Start joining Pinterest Group Boards asap. If a group board has 100,000 followers, your pin will be seen by 100,000 people instead of your normal follower count.

To find group boards check out your most popular friends’ profiles and explore their boards. Chances are they have some group boards you can connect with.

Be on the lookout for boards with more than 10,000 pins to indicate a group board. Generally, group boards hide at the bottom of someone’s profile/ board page. Once you find a group board you will have to ask for access via board instructions. 

Here’s an easy one! Connect and Share Blogging for Success! Just shoot me a message via Pinterest that you would like to join, and I will add, and follow you 🙂

PicMonkey

You need to be creating multiple images and multiple pins for each post that you create. My go to editor is PicMonkey. You can even promote PicMonkey through Shareasale. You never know which image will go viral. Typically larger pins with text and warm colors do better on Pinterest. Optimal Pinterest Size: 720by1100px for creating larger pins. 

I always use stock photos to enhance my pins. My favorite stock photo sites are pixaby.com and pexels.com. Since tons of sites with free photos are available, don’t get caught stealing someone’s work.

Every day is exciting with Pinterest. I love knowing my pins are beneficial to others and seeing my follower count increase is a great bonus!

FlipBoard

This program is similar to StumbleUpon except that Flipboard allows you to ‘flip’ through your interests with more of a ‘magazine’ feel. Originally, it was a phone application that boosted 50 million users back in 2013, and it has grown to an amazing 300 million plus users. You’ll be able to search words, phrases or hashtags.

Once you create a ‘magazine’, make sure to choose a picture to entice your reader and get subscribers. Flipboard is a program that I’m still getting used to.

BlogLovin’ 

If you haven’t had the chance to Sign Up for BlogLovin’, you’re missing out on a huge audience. Bloglovin’ is a community of blogs with a scrolling news feed. This enables one stop accessibility to all the blogs people follow. With BlogLovin’ your blog subscribers will get a notification (based on their preferences) of your new content, just like a built-in subscription list.

Widgets and Plugins For Success

There are some really amazing features that come along with adding widgets or plugins. I continue to be absolutely blown away by the free features available to bloggers through WordPress. If you’re ever struggling with a solution to a blogging problem, check if there is a plugin or widget before you pull all your hair out or your computer ends up in pieces.

Yoast (SEO) Plugin

SEO is one of the most important parts of your website. Optimizing your blog’s performance from day one is easy with Yoast. SEO(search engine optimization) translates to: The ability of search engines to find your site. You’re also learning to use SEO effectively. Optimize your post title, meta description, slug, keywords, and readability which are all located conveniently below your post.

Increasing your SEO stats later will be very time-consuming and literally involve editing every post. Using best practices from the start, you will always attract search engines.

JetPack by WordPress.com Plugin

This plugin gets you to access to all your stats, related posts, search engine optimization, social sharing, backup, as well as email list management. JetPack also makes it super easy to alter your menus with a ton of widgets. JetPack should be a standard plugin.

Social Media Icons JetPack

Make sure your readers know of your participation with social media communities. Some of the best sharing platforms are Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. WordPress dashboard enables you to change the size of icons.

Blog Subscriptions JetPack 

Successful bloggers will always tell you that the money is in the subscription list. Let WordPress do the initial work for you by installing their Subscription JetPack for free. A notice will be sent out to subscribers when you post something new. 

Top Posts and Pages JetPack  

Highlight what interests your readers so new subscribers can be guided to your popular posts first. You will want to create your own images to link to your popular posts, but until you can do that a simple link is a great way to show off your work.

Supreme Google Webfont

Life-saving plugin. WordPress.org will have you doing some coding to change your font settings. Yes, you are reading that correctly, the easiest way to change your font is with a plugin. This plugin gives you access to all of the google web fonts. You can also change the size of your font with this plugin, handy.

Ultimate Social Media PLUS Plugin 

Add social media ‘sharing buttons’ below your posts with this plugin. You can also float icons on the side for maximum viewability. This makes it foolproof for your readers to connect with you in every way possible. Once this plugin is installed, you will be able to select icons that match your website’s vibe.

Yuzo Related Post Plugin

This is a great tool that allows you to link recent posts below your blog entry. Yuzo will highlight the post and include a picture if desired. Entice your reader to keep exploring your blog.

Simple Author Box Plugin 

News articles always have a photo and bio of the author, make sure you add yours also! With Simple Author Box, you will look professional and your blog will look tailor-made. It’s necessary to update your user profile bio to enable this plugin to work, as well as have a working Gravatar profile. Customize the author box’s appearance to match your blog colors and look like a professional from day one.

Pinterest “Pin It” Button Lite Plugin

Let’s be real, Pinterest is going to drive MAJOR traffic. Your reach grows exponentially with every new follower. With the Pin It button on every image, readers can easily pin to their respective boards. It would surprise you to know how many people skip pinning because of a missing “pin it button”… out of sight out of mind every time. 

One Last Recommendation on How to Monetize Your Blog

Open Links in a New Tab

For the love of all blogging set up your external links so that they open in a NEW browser window!!!! You’re definitely going to link; you’re using affiliates, that’s the point. Just make sure that you select ‘Open in a New Tab’ when adding links. This way, your reader can easily navigate back to your site after they’ve clicked a link. Don’t send your readers away without a way to get back home. Always leave them a bread trail with an open browser window that has your site.

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This is my growing list that I plan to update often. When you carry out my tips, you will see an increase in your traffic and an increase in your conversion rate.  

Interested in more tips on how to monetize your blog?

• Start a WordPress blog with Bluehost walk through an easy set up.
• Skyrocket Your Traffic Using The Ultimate Social Media Scorecard the printable everyone’s talking about.
• 100 New Blog Post Ideas For When You’re Feeling Stumped

How do you monetize your blog? I would love to hear what’s working for you!

Starting a blog is the best thing that I ever did for myself, I love being able to help people. Use my research to your advantage. 

I hope to inspire each of you to find your own creative outlet and become financially independent. Don’t forget to find me on Pinterest for pins and inspiration.

Want all the freebies and access to The Rising Damsel’s Free Library filled with tons of deals and printables? Subscribe to the blog and get the password. You will have 24×7 access to guides and printables that will completely revolutionize your follow counts, along with exclusive savings from major companies updated weekly.