Bloggers: The Original Influencer – New Ways to Monetize Your Blog
Bloggers are not strangers to monetizing their influence. Before social media influencer marketing became a viable digital marketing strategy, bloggers used their influence to make serious cash.
Blogging is, however, more work than simply posting an image on Instagram or video on YouTube. The written word takes more time to develop, and growing influence via blogging is more time-intensive.
The good news for bloggers is that there are new ways to monetize your blog. As the original influencer, bloggers can employ new money-making tactics. Bloggers can also learn how to make money on Instagram to increase their influence on social media channels.
Let’s take a closer look at how bloggers, the original influencer, can use new ways to monetize their blogs.
Generate Revenue Via Affiliate Marketing
This is a page bloggers can take out of the social media influencer money making book. Social media influencers on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and even LinkedIn are making serious cash via affiliate marketing. And bloggers can easily get in on the action.
Affiliate marketing is also great for new bloggers, especially if you haven’t reached the personal brand point yet, selling your own personally branded merchandise. All a blogger really needs to do is create content that aligns with affiliate products and/or services.
But how do you get into affiliate marketing exactly? First, you need to sign up as an affiliate on one or more affiliate network platforms, like Rakuten, ShareASale, or Commission Junction (cj.com).
Once approved, you get access to top brand offerings with a unique affiliate link you can utilize within your blogs. Here’s an example of how to use affiliate links in a blog from blogger/influencer A Cup Of Joe:
You can see that the shoes covered in The Best Travel Shoes blog have a unique link. When you click through, you land on the brand’s product page for the specific affiliate product:
This affiliate link is from Nordstrom, which is an affiliate advertiser on Rakuten’s affiliate network.
When a user buys this product via the blogger’s unique affiliate link, the blogger gets a percentage of the sale. This could be anywhere between 3 percent to 7 percent. That could be a pretty decent payout for the blogger when a large number of blog followers purchase the affiliate product.
Become An Amazon Affiliate
Amazon is the largest e-commerce site on the planet. Having access to the Amazon product line can equal serious revenue for bloggers. This makes becoming an Amazon affiliate a major way to monetize your blog.
The blog A Cup Of Joe utilizes affiliate marketing via affiliate marketing platforms, as well as an Amazon affiliate. Here’s what this blogger does to earn a percentage from Amazon affiliate sales:
Just like in the affiliate marketing example, when a user clicks through, they land on the Amazon product page via a unique Amazon affiliate link:
This can prove very lucrative for bloggers approved as Amazon affiliates. There is no end to the Amazon products you can promote and recommend to your audience. And with access to the Amazon API, you can put some exceptional content together for maximum revenue.
Market And Sell An Exclusive Ebook
Ebooks serve up opportunities for bloggers. Since bloggers are savvy content developers, writing an actionable and marketable ebook can prove pretty easy. And bloggers already have an audience ready to consume the content, making sales simple.
For instance, blogger Cookin’ With Mima has several recipes that could be easily packaged in ebook form.
And marketing the ebook would be effective since this blogger moonlights as an Instagram influencer with over 2 million followers.
Ebooks are a great way to generate income as a blogger, making it a way to monetize your blog in a very unique way.
Net More Blogger Revenue With Brand Sponsorships
One of the best ways to monetize your blog is to net lucrative sponsorship posts from brands. Brands are in need of unique ways to reach target audiences, and having a blog with loyal readers is enticing to brands in every industry.
How can bloggers net more revenue via brand sponsorships? There are a few tactics a blogger can employ to get the attention of brands. The first is to find brands that relate to your industry, niche, and content, and reach out to them on your own. This, however, can prove a bit challenging, since you need to get through the gatekeepers at companies.
The second tactic is to partner with an influencer marketing platform that focuses on helping bloggers grow their influence and connect with brands. This eliminates the legwork for bloggers because influencer marketing platforms already have a network of brands.
With a few brand sponsorships a month, you can start generating blogger revenue at the highest level. For instance, if you are a travel blogger, you can access brands related to travel, like Hilton, Marriott, American Airlines, and more.
Wrapping Up
The above new ways to monetize your blog can prove worthwhile for bloggers. After all, bloggers are the original influencers. And making money on a blog can be made easy. Have you had success with any of the money-making tips above? We want to hear from you.