Beginning a blog is a straightforward and convenient approach to establish your own business and generate revenue online (from any location worldwide). To succeed in blogging, you do not require professional writing skills or a background in web development. Moreover, qualifications, extensive field experience, or a degree are not necessary to achieve success in blogging and establish a profitable online business. Regardless of your age, location, or level of experience, you can initiate blogging and construct a lucrative online business.
When considering ways to earn money through blogging, advertising is often the initial thought that arises.
It is indeed possible to earn money through ads on WordPress, however, there exist alternative ways for monetizing your blog content. Here are a handful of effective methods:
Pick Your Blog Name and Niche
To begin with, you should select a name and a niche for your newly created blog.
When readers first encounter your blog, they will see its name (such as yourblog.com). Therefore, the name should ideally reflect the overall subjects you will be discussing or it can be your personal name, your business name, a creative blend of words, or something else.
The general topic area that your blog will be centered around is known as your blog’s niche. Blog niches can include subjects such as travel, food, fashion, lifestyle, technology, and others.
Get Your Blog Online
When starting a blog, the second thing you need to do is to get your blog online. This is where a web hosting company comes in handy. During this step, you will choose the blogging platform and web hosting plan that will enable you to have your blog online.
To start your blog, we will be using the combination of a WordPress blog hosted by Bluehost, which is the blogging platform and web hosting that I personally use and that is most commonly used by other bloggers. WordPress is a free publishing platform that has been available since 2003 and is currently responsible for powering over 60% of all blogs on the Internet. Bluehost is a well-established and dependable company in the blog hosting industry. So now, let’s begin setting up your hosting.
Choose Your Web Hosting Plan
To start, you will choose a hosting plan, followed by entering your blog name. In my opinion, I suggest selecting the Choice Plus plan as it includes Domain Privacy. This feature safeguards your personal details, such as your full name, email address, phone number, and home address, from being disclosed on the internet.
To make your plan selection, simply click the green “Select” button on the plan you prefer.
As previously mentioned, I suggest selecting the Choice Plus plan which includes the Domain Privacy feature to safeguard your personal information on the internet. However, any of these plans will suffice when you begin your blog, and you can opt for domain privacy later during the checkout phase for an additional cost of approximately $1 per month.
Pick Your Blog’s Domain Name
Afterward, you will be directed to the page where you will have to select the domain name for your blog.
At this stage of the checkout process, simply input the desired domain name for your blog.
If the domain name you want is not available, you have two choices: either try another option that you can think of, or (what I suggest) leave the domain name selection for later. You can focus on setting up the rest of your account and take some extra time to carefully consider the name. Additionally, in this guide, there will be further elaboration on selecting the perfect name for your blog if you haven’t made a decision yet.
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves suggesting a product or service to your audience through unique tracking links, and receiving a referral commission each time someone makes a purchase after clicking on your link.
An instance of affiliate marketing in real life can be observed when you assist a friend in opening a bank account at your bank’s branch, typically resulting in receiving a gift card or a bonus as a gesture of appreciation.
There is a wide range of affiliate programs available for every industry (niche), similar to the fact that many products and services online offer opportunities to join their affiliate programs.
If you want to begin with affiliate marketing, the first step is to consider the products you currently use that might also be appealing to your readers. Next, you can check if these products offer an affiliate program in which you can enroll.
There is an extensive range of products available for promotion.
- Amazon
- Commission Junction
- ShareASale
After selecting the products you want to promote, you have the option of using a WordPress plugin called PrettyLinks to manage your affiliate links.
By using it, you can easily insert links into posts, generate branded links, automatically replace keywords with links, and also track the performance of each link on your website.
Affiliate marketing stands out as a straightforward method to earn money as it allows you to endorse an extensive range of products. Almost every well-known retailer such as Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon, and other similar establishments offer their own affiliate program, making it extensively accessible.
Display Google AdSense on WordPress
To generate income through your blog, simply incorporate a Google script into your website and begin showcasing ads, utilizing Google Adsense as an effortless method.
These ads, known as CPC ads, will result in payment for each click made by a user.
CPC, which is short for “cost per click,” refers to the fee you receive when a visitor clicks on an ad displayed through Google Adsense.
The advertiser determines the cost per click, which is different from CPM ads where payment is based on ad views instead of clicks. CPM stands for “cost per thousand impressions,” with M representing 1,000 in Roman numerals.
When you are new to earning money online, Google AdSense is a good method to begin with.
Use a WordPress Advertising Plugin to Sell Ads Directly
Setting up Google AdSense is a straightforward process; however, the potential earnings are restricted as the amount earned from each click on an ad may differ.
Selling banner ad space on your website without intermediaries can yield higher profits as you have the freedom to independently negotiate the price and terms, avoiding sharing revenue with a third party.
In earlier discussions, we outlined the distinction between CPC and CPM advertisements, wherein you receive payment based on either the number of clicks or the number of views in thousands. Although one could potentially utilize either of these models for selling banner ads, most bloggers opt for a fixed fee instead. This approach simplifies the process as there is no need to monitor views or clicks.
Directly selling ads requires more effort to manage compared to using Google AdSense. Instead of simply adding a code snippet to your website, you will need to engage in negotiations for pricing, establish an agreement and terms, and handle administrative tasks like invoicing.
Using a WordPress ad management plugin can simplify the process. We suggest utilizing AdSanity, which enables you to handle both Google AdSense and your own advertisements.
