Online selling has become a good source of income for online bloggers. Some have digital products like courses and online tools, while some go with their own branded physical products.
Believe it or not, the percentage of people who uses their blog’s success to venture on to another type of business has increased in the past years.
It could be argued that marketing your blog and selling your items are just too much work, but weighing things out, selling products through your blog offers a lot of benefits. With this, you’re just hitting two birds with one stone.
Your blog now becomes a 2-in-1 entity. And it still serves its purpose: to gain profit.
Regarding market, if you have a blog that people read, there’s a better chance that you have already gained their trust.
If you’ve been in the industry for too long and becoming stagnant, you can always repurpose and enhance your content. However, with blogging, you can do even more than that.
Sell products.
If you’re reading this post then perhaps you are thinking about adding another form of strategy to monetize your blog.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, you can start and go on with it right now by selling physical goods or even SaaS development or digital tools. Just make sure to consider these things below:
Identify your product
First things first, you have to know which product would work best for your blog.
Remember that you have to be consistent with your branding. That means that you also need to consider why your readers read your blog in the first place.
If your blog is about fashion, beauty, or lifestyle, your products can be along the lines of makeup and clothes.
If you’re a travel blogger, you’re better off selling travel items.
Hell, if you have skills in creating tools and software, develop something using SaaS product ideas.
See what I mean?
In identifying what product is perfect for you, you will have to consider its relevance to every element of your branding proposition.
Secondly, find out what would fit most to the audience that you have. Send out a survey through email or ask them on social media.
In here, you have to assure that you have enough people who find your products interesting. And from that, you can create a solid idea of the demand for your chosen products
This part is crucial. It’s is where you get a glimpse of your potential market before spending lots of money, time, and effort in it.
Place your product well
Never make it hard for your readers to buy from you.
One of the commonly used tricks is to add a “Shop” page and menu then add all the products in there. There’s no problem with that at all but if you’re going to only stick to that trick you’re likely to get few possible sales.
If you want to be serious in this, you need place your products all throughout your whole blog.
For ideas, here are some places where you can showcase your products on your blog:
- Right sidebar
- Product reviews
- Listicles
- ‘About’ page
- Widgets
- Footer
But remember this one thing: never trick your readers into clicking a link that goes somewhere else. It’s a huge turn-off, and if you fool them, you don’t just lose a sale but a reader as well.
Look at your competitors
Once you already have a potential product in mind, it is now time to identify and analyze your top competitors and bloggers.
Do they have the same products you’re planning to sell? Have they succeeded?
The simplest way to determine is to search it on Google.
What do you get for looking at your competitors?
Simple answer: their strategies and mistakes.
If you figure those out, you will be able to craft your plan better.
Learn how to market effectively
If you’re ready with your product now, you must also know how to market it effectively.
Wrong execution could mean missed opportunities. You have to start mapping out the marketing strategies that you’ll be using in the future.
Go ahead and read this guide to give you better ideas.
Social Media, Google Adwords, and affiliate links are just some of the channels you can use. Go out there and look for more opportunities to market your new products.
Conclusion
You are what you sell, they say. But this does not necessarily mean that you have to follow the things that you think is good. You have to bear in mind that the products that you sell matter to a certain market.
Listen. This is going to be a lot of work. If you’re going to do it, make sure that you will do it well. And “well” means you get to make money from it.
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