The question for almost every blogger is, “How can I monetize my blog?” After all, for the majority of us, we are blogging to make money.
After scrolling through at least two dozen blog posts, looking for the best passive income, the same ones kept coming up over and over. Yes, many of them are staples for bloggers. But the list is missing some critical choices.
Let me introduce you to 5 unique ways to monetize so you can make money blogging.
1. Curate Blog Posts into Kindle Books to Sell
This is a new passion of mine! It is so simple these days to create Kindle books and sell them on Amazon. Several years ago, we did not have the awesome software (that’s free, by the way) and other tools that make this option so simple.
What I do to lay a foundation for my book is choose several blog posts that discuss different elements of the same topic.
For example, if I choose to create a Kindle book on email marketing, I will scour my blog for posts on that subject. Next, I will organize the order of the blog posts in a logical sequence.
Then I will look through the information to decide what I should keep, what I should edit and what I should write new content for. Most of the time at least 40% to 50% of the book includes blog posts I have previously written.
Then I create new content to fill in the gaps, expand on topics where necessary, and make the book as it should be.
By the time I am finished, I have between 4,000 and 5,000 words for my Kindle book. These short(ish) books sell for between $1.99 - $5.99 passively on Amazon. Plus, Amazon pays additional royalties when people read your books!
You’ve already written the blog posts, so creating Kindle books is a short walk to profits when you are blogging to make money.
2. Turn Blog Posts into Printables/Digital Downloads to Sell
Did you know that the information in most blog posts can be turned into printables… one of the best passive income types? Whether you sell these on your own site or put them in your Etsy shop, they are a quick way to make some extra cash.
Here are just a few examples of monetizing your blog (even if it’s not actually on your blog) so you can sell digital items on your site or sell on Etsy.
- Reminder Cards – Create reusable reminder cards that include quotes from your blog post, different steps from your blog post, etc. Your readers can print them out and leave them on their desks, refrigerators, or other places to help them remember what they should do next.
- Trello Board – Does your blog post involve a process? A Trello board can help your readers accomplish, whatever task your blog post focused on.
- Planner Pages – The same with planner pages. Not everyone uses a digital project management system. Some prefer to have printed pages. I personally use both.
- Stickers – Quick to make, visually appealing stickers are a hot item right now.
- And so many others!
3. Sell Private Label Rights (PLR) Packs
As I mentioned before, monetizing your blog doesn’t actually have to take place on your blog. Using what you have on your blog to create something to sell works just as well.
You are already writing a blog post about welcoming a new puppy, for example. It wouldn’t take that much more work to expand the post you’ve written and create a PLR pack of three, five, or 10 posts about welcoming a new puppy.
Not familiar with PLR? It stands for private label rights. You create the content then sell it to others and give them the right to use it on their blogs or in other places.
Mini bloggers and digital product creators purchase PLR content that they use as the basis for additional work they write. It saves them time and gives them a jumping off point.
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4. Affiliate Marketing (a new twist)
For bloggers, affiliate marketing is probably the best passive income to make. It is so simple to include affiliate links in your blog posts to earn additional income passively. That’s why it is almost always mentioned when people talk about blogging to make money.
Usually, as bloggers, we are looking for products or services, that directly relate to our blog niche. But here’s a clever twist.
Expand beyond your direct niche.
Let’s say you have a blog about gardening. Sure, you could incorporate affiliate links for things, such as gardening, tools, seeds and plants, watering cans and so on.
But take a good long look at what else gardeners need. Here are just a few things I came up with:
- Sunscreen
- Sun-protective hats
- Sun-protective clothing
- Moisturizer (especially for your hands)
- Supportive back cushion (for when you finish gardening)
- Heating pad (for back and for shoulders – a huge issue my mom used to have)
- Ice packs for back, knees and shoulders
- Muscle care cream (Icy Hot, Blue Emu, etc.)
Get the idea? Most of these are things that people need before they garden, or after they garden. Inserting affiliate links for these types of things are likely to get a “Yes…that!” response from your readers.
5. Advertise Your Own Products
You often see the suggestion to include Google Adsense, Media Vine, or other types of network advertising. But have you thought about the fact that you can include advertising for your own products or services or affiliate products?
I start in Canva. Choose an ad template or banner I like and edit it to fit my needs. My favorite for placing ads within my blog posts is the AdInserter plugin and I use Thrive Leads for the banners at the top.
Then post the ad inside your blog content (or at the top) and link them to the sales page. Ta dah! You’ve created custom ads for whatever you want to promote.
However you do it, monetizing your blog is a critical step so you can earn from all that hard work you’re putting in.