Blogging isn’t cheap even if you’re using a free and open-source platform like WordPress. Paying for a reliable hosting provider, SSL certifications, premium plugins, themes, and domain renewal fees can spike up the development and maintenance costs of your blogging site.You need to hire a custom WordPress development company to create a highly-refined and polished blog and monetize it. Monetizing your blog can help you sustain those costs and earn passive income.
Here’s how you can monetize your WordPress blog in 2024.
1. Sell a service
Tech giants like Meta and Google gobble up most of the ad dollars. The blogging industry has transformed dramatically and has pivoted to paid models instead of relying on ads. You can sell digital content or paid subscriptions for a service. However, you need a loyal fan base and sell something that can truly help out your audience. If you need to keep development costs low for your blog, you can get help from an offshore website development company.
There is no free money glitch and whatever you sell needs to be in demand. For instance, if you run a pottery blog and a Youtube channel with the same content, you can sell your products through the same channel. If you make great art or good products, your fans would buy them up and provide you with a steady income. You can also sell subscriptions for meal plans, tutorials, guides, and other types of digital content with your expertise.
You can hire the services of offshore WordPress development or use plugins to add subscription features to your blog. Make sure to add tiers to your subscription plan like Elite Explorers, Premium Pioneers, and Ultimate Insiders. Don’t have a product to sell? That doesn’t need to be a hurdle for monetizing your blog.
2. Affiliate Marketing
A sizeable chunk of digital marketing revenue comes from affiliate marketing. It doesn’t ruin the user experience and can be profitable when you don’t have your own product or service to sell. As an affiliate marketer, you’ll sell third-party party products or services.
You promote something in your blog and point your audience to the third-party website to make the purchase. You may sign up for Amazon Associates or other such affiliate programs and promote their products. You’ll get an affiliate link that’s unique to you. Every time a user buys a product through that link, you get a small share of the profit.
For instance, if you have a technology-related blog, you’ll have numerous opportunities to place affiliate links for gadgets and electronics from Amazon. It’s relevant to your content and your users are more likely to trust your recommendation. Make sure to check the products and their reviews before you use them for affiliate marketing. You don’t want your users to have a bad experience with your recommendation.
3. Show ads
Showing ads is the simplest way to monetize your website. Bloggers often hire a dedicated WordPress developer for this job. Think of popups and banner ads you see when you open a website. If you decide to show such ads on your website, you can monetize it very easily. While Google Ads is the most popular and widely used service for displaying such ads, you can also try alternatives like Propeller Ads and Ezoic.
Depending on the revenue model, you get paid every time:
- Someone sees an ad(Pay-Per-Impression), or
- Every time someone clicks on an ad(Pay-Per-Click)
However, this should be the last option for monetizing your blog. People don’t like intrusive ads when they are trying to read an interesting story or an informative post. Over 40 percent of the global population uses plugins, apps, and software that block ads.
You also risk higher bounce rates when you aren’t strategic with ad placement or bombard the user with pop-up ads. You’re better off building your brand with good content and trying out other methods before you try this option. Choosing the best WordPress developers in India can address all your blog development needs.
You can make a generous passive income if you execute the right mix of strategies for your blog. WordPress sites are highly customizable and you can always add custom features or plugins to monetize your blog. All monetization strategies aren’t equal and you need to figure out which monetization methods is the best fit for you.