If you’re serious about blogging and you want to make your space on the internet your actual business rather than a fun and creative hobby, you need to get serious about adding as many income streams as possible to your blog.
Even if your writing attracts thousands of views each week, you aren’t going to make much money if you don’t diversify your opportunities by maximizing your income streams. You can’t just rely on Google ads and affiliate links, you need to create many more opportunities to earn money from your writing than that.
With that in mind, here are a few income streams that you should definitely think about adding to your blog right now:
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is very popular with bloggers because it is such a simple way of increasing blog revenue. Basically, you will need to approach companies who mesh with your niche with a view to promoting their products and services. You will do this by creating content about their stuff. This content could come in the form of a review, product announcement, infographic, video or top 10 list – it doesn’t matter as long as you get the product out there and help to create a wider buzz about it. The advantage of sponsored posts is that you are generally paid for them upfront, so you don’t have to wait for the clicks to come in (although you still need to work hard at promotion to make your blog attractive to sponsor companies).
Courses
More and more bloggers are offering online courses as a way to boost their blog’s income. This is easier than it has ever been thanks to the advent of learning management systems that allow you to teach classes and offer educational content from your own blog. Using an lms with virtual classroom is ideal because you can teach in real-time, but be sure to record any classes so they can be accessed at any time and you can make money while you sleep. What should you teach? You can teach pretty much any skill you have, but teaching other aspiring bloggers how to be successful is an evergreen topic. Obviously, teaching a skill related to your blog’s niche is the ideal. Blog about knitting patterns? Teach a beginner knitting class. Blog about photography? Teach a class on Photoshopping images… you get the idea.
A Members’ Area
If your blog is popular and you know that your audience finds value in the things you write, it would be a very good idea to create a members only area where you can add exclusive content, tutorials, offers…whatever, that will only be accessible to readers who pay a monthly fee. You’ll need to step up your game and ensure you really do offer value for this to work, but if you can do that, you might be pleasantly surprised by the number of people who are willing to pay.
What income streams have you added to your blog? How well have they worked for you
Disclosure: This is a contributed post