There are many good reasons to start a website/blog such as you want to teach others, to share an online journal of your life, to improve your writing, to share your passion, or to advertise for an existing business; but the main reason is to make money. Even if your main motivation isn’t for financial gain, there’s no reason to not monetize your blog. Blog monetization doesn’t make you a sell-out, greedy, or lessen the validity of your site. Making a website takes time and you should be compensated for your time and effort. Whether your site is about fashion, photography, food, or finances, there are many ways to make money with your site. Here’s how:
Ads
Might as well start with the obvious, ads are a great way to make money with a website. You probably won’t be able to quit your day job just from ads, but they can bring in a decent amount of revenue and should not be overlooked. Some bloggers claim to take the high road by not placing ads on their site. I can appreciate that since there are other ways to make money, but ads are a simple and fruitful way to start. If you’re worried about your site looking trashy and being covered in so many ads that it doesn’t even load, the good news is you can control that! This is your website, put as few or as many ads as you like and figure out what works.
The easiest company to get you started with ads is Google Adsense. Google has a lot of tools to help you analyze which ads are performing best, Adsense is easy to navigate, and it can integrate with Google Analytics (which you should definitely have on your site). I signed up with Adsense the first week after I purchased my domain. Google rejected me! Then I tried again a couple days later after having worked on my site a tiny bit, rejected again. Then I waited a week, rejected. I was starting to get annoyed, but to be fair my site had almost no content. After writing a few posts and adding some pages and images to my still very new site, I applied again and was accepted. Don’t give up if Google denies you a few times. They do require a certain amount of content, a legit site, an “about” page, and a “contact” page before they’ll approve you. But you don’t need a minimum number of pageviews or to wait a certain amount of time to get approved.
If you don’t want to work with Google Adsense, there are other alternatives. You can check out Chitika (no traffic requirements, I got accepted to them before Adsense), media.net (they’re the Yahoo! Bing network), infolinks (also no traffic requirements), and many others.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the golden egg of blogging. Once you begin your affiliate marketing journey you’ll realize everyone is an affiliate and it’s possible to be an affiliate for almost anything! If you aren’t familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s a way to earn money by recommending other people’s products. It’s an awesome way for bloggers to earn money because all you have to do is let people know what products or services you like and if they buy that same product then you get commission for recommending it. You don’t need to sound like a salesman when recommending a product or compromise your writing style to earn money, simply link to the product you’re mentioning with an affiliate link and you’ll get money if a sale is made. You can affiliate link to anything (clothing, books, stores, whatever!). The best way to make money with affiliate marketing is to recommend products you personally use and would recommend to friends. That’s how I feel about Bluehost. I use them, I’d recommend them to friends, and I’m an affiliate for them. I make money if you sign up with them using my link here. It doesn’t change the price for you and sometimes I can offer you a better price than you’d get without using my link. It’s a win-win for me and Bluehost and for the person I’m recommending them to.
The easiest way to get started with affiliate marketing is to join an affiliate marketing network. These networks work with hundreds of companies and make it easy for you to become an affiliate for all sorts of places. Here’s my recommendations for affiliate networks:
1. ShareASale – As the name suggests, affiliate marketing is just sharing a sale. I’m recommending ShareASale first because they are my top performing affiliate marketing network. Once you’re accepted as a ShareASale affiliate, you then apply to be an affiliate for specific companies they represent. They’ve been in business for over 16 years, their website is easy to use, and they have thousands of merchants so they are great for any niche. Some of the companies include: Tailwind, Grammarly, BuyBackWorld, Checks Unlimited, DealFlicks, ModCloth, BornToSell, Sears, Zazzle, Checkout51, and more!
2. Amazon Associates – I’m recommending Amazon as my #2 choice because it is the easiest place to start if you’ve never been an affiliate, plus they have everything! Any product you use, book you read, movie you watched, beauty products you use, etc. can be found on Amazon. Once you’re an Amazon affiliate you simply link to the product mentioned in your post with your affiliate link and you get a percentage of the sale if someone buys something. The cool thing with Amazon is you not only get paid for the product you recommended, but if the person buys other things while shopping through your affiliate link you get a percentage of that too! For example, I recommend this piano book and someone clicks my Amazon link. They might buy the book, they might not, but let’s say they did buy a cell phone case. I’d get commission for the cell phone case even though I didn’t recommend it. If you want to support MyIncomeJourney while shopping on Amazon, use my affiliate link here and you’ll make my day!! (-:
3. FlexOffers – FlexOffers is my second highest grossing affiliate network. Similar to ShareASale, they have thousands of companies they work with so it’s easy to apply to become an affiliate for big names like Trip Advisor, Betterment, Kohls, Nike, Priceline, Gamestop, DirecTV, 123inkjets, and thousands more! Sign up for FlexOffers here.
4. ShopHerMedia – ShopHerMedia has accounts with many major brands and give their affiliates coupons and deals to pass on to their readers. One benefit to SHM is once you’ve been accepted to them you have access to all their campaigns. You don’t need to individually apply to be an affiliate with each company like you do with ShareASale and FlexOffers. Here’s an example of some of who SHM works with: Proctor & Gamble, Vanity Fair, Pampers, Baxter, Red Plum, and many more! Check them out here.
5. Target – Target doesn’t have quite the online presence of Amazon, but who doesn’t love Target? It’s easy to become a Target affiliate and you’ll be able to offer your readers deals like free shipping, set up gift registries, or clearance items. Sign up here to become a Target affiliate.
Create Your Own Products
Selling your own products can be a major income generator. You can sell an ebook, online course, digital products, or physical products. If you already have products that you’re selling on Etsy, Handmade on Amazon, or even at a physical store, add them to your website. If you don’t have a product in mind, creating an ebook or online course can be a natural extension of your site.
The income possibilities with having a blog/website are huge and the upfront cost is so minimal that I recommend it to anyone I know that is trying to earn money from home. I started making money with My Income Journey on month three and have enjoyed extra income ever since!
