I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying ‘don’t put all of your eggs in one basket’. It’s a saying that most of us have been aware of for most of our lives. Yet, as bloggers most of us do exactly that. We put most of our eggs in one, maybe two baskets, and hope for the best.
Our digital world is fabulous and it can literally change your life. However, it’s fast paced and prone to huge rapid changes. Which could ultimately affect the ‘one-basketers’ out there! For example, in the past Pinterest removed affiliate links from pins, which had a huge impact on the bloggers who used these as their primary income stream.
Revenue streams can seem a little dry for a lot of us creative entrepreneurs. A revenue/income stream is simply a channel through which you make money from your blog. So, it could be sponsored content or advertising.
So, why exactly should you have multiple income streams? What’s the big deal about diversifying your income? Well, imagine you get most of your income from coaching clients who come through your blog Facebook page. What happens if the algorithm changes and your posts get shown to less people. Your income declines as a consequence, possibly leaving you in a pickle financially. It makes sense to have more than one revenue stream, not to spread ourselves too thinly, but to have income coming from multiple sources to support us if one of our streams dries up!
Convinced? Okay! The first step is to investigate where your income comes from now and start tracking this income. Do you make money through Amazon or another affiliate scheme? Maybe working with brands is much more your jam? Write it all down and keep track of how much money comes from each stream. Assess how you can add extra streams to your blog. I think having four streams, each bringing in 25% of your income would be ideal (you could always have more!). This way if one dries up, you still have 75% of your income to support yourself and your family.
There are so many ways you can create multiple streams of income for your blog in order to diversify your blogging income. Here are a few ideas which might work for you:
How to diversify your blogging income
SPONSORED CONTENT
One of the main streams most bloggers consider is working with brands on sponsored content, accepting paid guest posts or taking on an ambassadorship. These are all great, and definitely a common way to earn money from your blog. Sponsored posts come in all shapes and sizes, so whatever your niche or audience size there will probably be a brand who is a good fit. You can be contacted directly by the brand or you can go through a Blogging Network. These networks will set up campaigns, set prices, and act as your liaison between the brand, meaning less hassle for you. They will take a cut of the fee. However, bear in mind they might be able to use their experience to secure you a higher rate than you would have achieved alone, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
You can also pitch your own ideas to brands, to try to secure collaborations directly.
YOUR OWN PRODUCTS
Maybe you’re great at design and could create some pretty downloads for your audience. Or even a template that would be useful and solve a problem for them. People are always looking for ways to make their lives easier, so do just that with the product you create. I have done-for-you schedules, spreadsheets, courses, a membership community and various workbooks and an ebook and paperback.
You might feel you have a lot to offer your readers in a certain area, in which case you could consider writing an ebook or perhaps creating a course to package up your knowledge into bite-sized chunks.
AFFILIATE LINKS
These are a popular way to earn as a blogger. You receive a percentage every time someone purchases a product through your link. However, instead of solely relying on schemes which payout a small percentage, such as Amazon, look at the products and services you use personally to see if they have affiliate schemes. These often pay out much more to their affiliates and it’s always easier to recommend product you love and use regularly. Companies such as RewardStyle or ShareASale allow you to use affiliate links from a range of companies from one platform.
ADVERT PLACEMENT
Ads can be placed in various positions on your blog. You might have a sidebar, footer or banner ads. Or display ads within or at the end of your content. You may also have test ads within your content.
There are various different ways you can get paid from advertising. PPC (Pay Per Click) means you get paid a very small amount every time someone click the ad. Popular networks are AdWords, Adproval, Carbon Ads, InfoLink. PPP (Pay-Per-Performance) means you get paid for every purchase (or lead gained) through your link, eg via Amazon.
You can also have private advertisers who pay you a fee to host their ad on your site for a specific length of time.
PHYSICAL PRODUCTS
If you have a skill to create a physical product, you could always sell your wares via a shop on your blog. This can be a great way to diversify your blogging income. If you don’t have a particular product creation skill you can always create a shop filled with products that are drop-shipped to the customer (meaning you never have to deal with the packaging/stock levels etc). Shopify is worth a look!
Maybe you’re a wonderful photographer, in which case you could start to sell your images via a third party site. Or even take lots of wonderful stock images, which you bundle up and sell on your site. Taking this one step further you could create a paid-for resource vault on your blog to which you upload your wonderful stock images.
FREELANCE WORK
As bloggers we have lots of useful skills, so consider offering your skills as a service. Whether that skills is technical WordPress knowledge or graphic design, perhaps your organisational skills, you can hire yourself out to other bloggers or business owners. Facebook groups can be a great way to validate your service idea.
There are so many ways for us to diversify our income as a bloggers. Think about your skills and pick the best fit for you. Here is a round up of the methods I’ve mentioned.
Diversify your blogging income
- Pay-per-click ads/Pay-Per-Performance Ads
- Private Ads
- Selling back links Sponsored posts
- Sponsored posts
- Sponsored social media shares
- Affiliate links
- Brand Ambassadorships
- Paid podcasts sponsorships
- Social Media Management
- E-course
- Printables
- Downloads
- Planner
- E-Book
- Audiobook
- Physical products
- Graphic design work
- Designing Blog themes
- Branding and logos
- Access to a resource library
- Subscription service
- Membership site
- Paid workshops
- Masterclass series
- Mastermind group
- Virtual assistant services
- Freelance writing
- Sell stock photos
- Editing/proofreading
- Handmade items
- Monetise YouTube videos
- Guest speaking
- Blog coaching (one-to-one or groups)
- Consulting
- Blog setup/installation
These are just a few ways to think outside the box in order to make sure your blog biz has a rock solid income from multiple streams. How do you diversify your blogging income? Do you have multiple income streams? Are there any new ideas here you can investigate and potentially implement in your business?
