Sure, you use your blog as a way to show off your expertise in your field, incorporate SEO so you can drive more traffic to your website, or promote your products and services as a business. But can you go beyond simply using your blog to promote yourself and actually use it to make some extra money? Continue reading for a few of the best ways that you can monetize your blog so that you can start earning cash for writing on it.

Add Affiliate Links or Pay Per Click Links

One easy way to monetize your blog is by simply adding affiliate links and/or pay per click (PPC) links throughout it. With an affiliate link, you can make a percentage of a sale every time a customer clicks on the link and purchases the product or service that it is promoting. And with a PPC campaign like those from Click Booth, you can make money every time an ad is clicked. Though you will not make a lot of money from each click or sale, if you get enough of them to happen, the money will quickly add up.

Cost Per Mile Advertising

Cost Per Mile (CPM) advertising is similar to Pay Per Click advertising, however instead of being paid on a per-click basis you are paid according to the number of page views, or impressions that you get. This is worked out for every 1000 impressions that the page has. For example, if your blog has 200,000 page views per month and displays a $1 CPM advertisement, you’ll earn an extra $200 per month. Just like PPC, CPM advertisement providers will often pay more depending on how large the advert is and where it is placed on your website. If you place an ad in a prime location and it’s pretty large, you’re likely to get paid more.

Text Link Ads

This type of advertising involves including text links in the content on your blog that link back to another company’s website. For example, if you’re writing about software for creating business cards and flyers, you can include a link to the software provider’s website. However, it’s important to note that you can’t just link to anything – you’ll need to sign up to the specific company or product affiliate marketing scheme, or there are specialized providers that you can sign up with who will automate the service. Many bloggers find text link ads useful as they’re non-intrusive and less distracting to readers than picture or banner ads and don’t take up extra space on the site.

Offer Subscriptions and Memberships

If you are an expert in your field and you have valuable insights to offer to readers, consider keeping some of your trade secrets to yourself and offering them only to those readers who are willing to subscribe to your membership program.

To encourage signups, make sure you maintain your blog with regular posts. Then offer a freemium, or a premium free product, to entice people to sign up for your email list. Then you can offer them a premium level membership and charge a monthly fee so they can continue accessing your helpful tips and information.

Offer Consulting or Coaching Services

To indirectly make money from your blog, you can use your outlet to build your reputation as an expert in your field, as well as to develop your brand and build up a big enough audience that is interested in what you have to say and do. Then offer your readers services offline, such as coaching or consulting services that can help them achieve their goals in your niche. Just be sure to place ads on your blog for your services, mention them in emails to your subscribers, and also mention what you can do for people in the blog posts themselves.

Sell Your Own Products

If you do not want to offer services, but you do feel comfortable offering a valuable product, you can sell things like audio and video presentations or e-books on your blog. All of the profits will be yours if you are selling them directly, whether they are in digital or physical form. And if you use a third party seller website like Amazon, you can direct your readers to your shop and earn money that way.

With so many different ways to monetize any blog, you can start earning money from yours, whether you run a personal blog or one for a business purpose.