10 BEST WAYS TO MONETISE YOUR BLOG...

You can get paid blogging in several ways, here are my top ten.

1.     Google AdSense provides a way for website owners to earn money from their online content. AdSense works by matching text and display ads to your website based on your content and visitors. The ads are created and paid for by advertisers to promote their products.

2.     Create a paid online course. You are already teaching your visitors through your blog so why not make it into an online paid course, bringing together virtually any type of content. They are a great way to build passive income long term.

3.     Paid reviews are those in which the person giving the evaluation has been paid to do so. Some people question this practice, wondering if people who write paid reviews can remain impartial but if you give an honest review you will get repeat business.

4.     Banner Ads are ads placed in a banner style on the sidebar of your blog. The business sponsor usually pays a monthly fee to have the add on your site and this can be very lucrative as it allows you to cut out the middleman and charge what you want for other people to advertise on your site.

5.     Writing an eBook is another great way to make some money from your blog. Self-publishing through Create Space is a simple process. Create one aligned with the content of your blog.

6.     Sponsored blog posts are another way of earning some money. Joining a blogging company like Get Blogged make it really easy for bloggers to monetise their blogs, and for brands, businesses and agencies needing help with, or wanting to outsource their outreach in a cost-effective way. They do all the work for you and send you a list of potential jobs. Getting paid blogging is the icing on the cake.

7.     Affiliate Marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor brought by the affiliate's marketing efforts. There are lots and lots of companies you can work with. A popular one is Amazon Associates due to the number of products it must sell.

8.     Host a Webinar, which is a live workshop online. People go on to Webinar’s to hear you talk about your specialist subject. This is great for people that live overseas that can’t get to one of your workshops. You make money from Webinar’s by charging for a virtual seat on your presentation. They pay to watch you perform your presentation online.

9.     Offer a Membership area. Your most loyal readers are your clients and could be willing to pay to read more of your work. You can create a members-only area for them to share more in-depth blog posts, downloads, videos, audio content, and more.

10.  Offer a Freelance Service, you’re already an expert on your niche. Earn an income by offering your skills and expertise as a freelancer, create a Hire Me/ Work With Me page. 

MAKING MONEY FROM AFFILIATE MARKETING...

Affiliates are traditionally websites/blog owners who can send traffic, via links (clicks) to your site.

With so many advertisers trying to persuade you to join their affiliate marketing company to make money with your website or blog, it's a bit of a maize and quite confusing so I shall do my best to explain some better known affiliate marketing companies.

Adsense - will let you advertise in as many blogs or websites as your like with content ads, search ads and one feed burner. This is the big one and to me the easiest to get around and although you would need to work extremely hard to make a little money it does work once you start getting people reading your blog or website. In tiny dribbles but at least you can see something for your ads.

Amazon -  will only let you use it on one site but you can have three adverts of theirs on your site. So far I haven't earned a single penny with their adverts. Two great books on the subject that are available from Amazon are Amazon Affiliate Niche Sites The Complete Guide and Amazon Associates Affiliate Program.

Signing up to an affiliate agency is one of the quickest ways to obtain access to a wide variety of affiliate programs.

Basically, a consumer visits an affiliates website or blog. The customer sees a product or retailer via the advert on your blog and clicks the link to be taken to the merchant's site to review or purchase the item.

The customer completes the sale online then tracking software records the key purchase date such as the sale amount, IP, date and time, etc. and reports this to the Affiliate Window.

This is the end of the journey for the customer then after the sale the commission due to the affiliate is paid for sale generated.

However, without visitors to your blog, your chances of affiliate success are virtually none. It takes persistence and determination. No money will be generated if the banner and links you place on your website or blog are just to decorate the pages.

I'm one of those people who will have a go at anything but just as long as it does not cost me a penny, which these do not and they 'should not' ever cost you anything.

Simply signing up with an affiliate program and putting a few banners around your blog is not the best way to generate incomes and commissions, but you just never know who is going to click on your website and you just might have a nice surprise one month.

Choose affiliate programs that complement your content. Banner overload can drive traffic away from your site so set it out neatly and appealing to the eye, just like you would with a shop window.

One tip I was told is to place the most important banners in the top quarter of your blog, where it can be instantly viewed.

GETTING INSPIRATION FOR MAKING MONEY...

So, if you are like me and you seriously want to make some extra money then I bet you are continually either searching on the internet or reading books or magazines on the subject.

I've always been interested in making money even as a youngster I would do extra jobs around the house to make a few pence, and I am sure had my health been better then I would definitely have pursued more routes into money making schemes.

Now in my mid 60's I still have the mind and drive to try and find something that could bring in extra money, but the chronic pain I suffer from a spinal problem slows me down. I can now only make extra money online using my laptop and computer which was the reason why I started this blog.

At first I planned to just write articles on different ways to make some extra money but I soon found that I would soon run out of ideas for posts on the subject. So while sitting in the car the other day on a journey from the East Midlands down to Brighton, I began to plan a new type of blog.

I still want to include different ways of making some extra money but I am going to concentrate mainly on what I do each day to try and bring in some extra pennies.

https://www.park-resorts.com/ownership/search/

Today for instance I have been scouring the internet looking at the cost of second hand static caravans and the costs of pitches, gas, electricity and insurance and if after paying all that you could still rent your caravan out and make some money.

Most of the online forums I read like 'Money Saving Expert' and 'Money Magpie'  say that it's hard to make a profit renting out a caravan but you could certainly make enough to cover all your expenses of keeping one on a park.

I think that if it was done up into something really 'different' and 'unique' ( I will search Pinterest and Houzz for inspiration) that you could definitely make some money as well as enjoy some free holidays.

I will write more on this at a later date but for now just being by the seaside has already inspired me into thinking about a static caravan holiday home as a potential money making business. 

IS MAKING MONEY FROM BLOGGING EASY???????...

Is it just me, or do you keep finding lots and lots and LOTS of articles on the web, Pinterest, wordpress and other sites on how you can make money blogging?

I have been looking at a site on Pinterest which I am now following called Babes Make Money  and
there are a ton of sites on making money but the majority are geared up around making money blogging.

Well I write a number of blogs, two of which are on Wordpress and one of which was an award winning blog a few years ago when it was on another blog platform which closed down. Since moving it to Wordpress I have done everything in my power to try and make money with it and to also get it ranked on Google like before.

I find it really frustrating that I am doing exactly what is suggested to make money from your blog but apart from the occasional promo posts I just cannot seem to get my rankings or earnings up any higher.

Had I changed the blog completely then I would be able to see where I went wrong but it's based on the same blog I started in 2007 - for anyone interesting in taking a quick look at the blog I am talking about it's my Back Pain Blog UK. 

Please take a look as I would love some feed back on where I am going wrong with the blog or any suggestions on getting it ranked higher in the hope I could then earn a few pennies from it.

Do you have the same problem with your blog? Has blogging changed that much over the last 7 years that it's a bit like a competition as to whether you are successful or not?

#HOW TO SELF PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK AND EARN SOME EXTRA MONEY...

Have you always wanted to write a book, or maybe you have written a book but don't know where to go with your manuscript. Obviously you can try sending it out to publishers but their margins on books have decreased over the years. There are now fewer major publishing houses in existence and the ones that are left tend to focus more on publishing books that have track record, or a celebrity name to them.

So that leaves all new authors in a difficult position and hence the reason why so many are going down the self-publishing route. Create Space who I used for my books will publish them completely FREE...

Create Space is an Amazon Company who will self- publish your book for you then get it onto the Amazon sites throughout the world. The free Publishing Resources help you with creating content, formatting files and marketing your work.

They have some FREE book covers to choose from or you can download your own. I would certainly recommend doing your own or asking a friend to do it for you. You can see the difference in my two quite clearly from a professional cover to the off the peg one.

You can maintain complete creative control and own your copyright with their non-exclusive agreement. You can set your list price and receive industry-leading royalties, so basically you decide how much you make. Have your work published and available on Amazon.com and Europe in just a few days.

Every part of self publishing with Create Space is very straight forward. Just simply join and add your title and then your on your way.

There are a number of other large self-publishing companies like Lulu  and Blurb. I have self published two books with Blurb but they were both personal diaries for my family. But I'm sure they are all very similar in format and easy to master. 

#HOW TO SET UP ADSENSE ON YOUR BLOG...

As I am sure you will know you can make money through Adsense by placing ads on your blog, you can then earn a percentage of the revenue that Google makes for sponsoring the ads.

The companies that want to advertise pay Google, which then pays the hosting website. But first your have to set up an Adsense account. It's easy to do - first you need to have a blog or website and you must be over the age of 18, otherwise you will need to apply using your parent or guardian. If you don't have a Google account then you will have to create one to sign up for Adsense.

You will then be asked for your primary blog/website or url, even if you have more than one blog/website they just want a primary address. Then you pick the language that you are writing it in.

Google Adsense will then list its Terms and Conditions and Program Policies. It's all very straight forward basically letting you know what you are NOT allowed to do to increase your sales.

Next you just simply fill in your contact information and make sure you have your bank details in front of you when you fill this form in and check and double check for no mistakes. Next accept Adsense policies then sign up with an email account. The Adsense team will then review your application and let you know if you can join them. This can take a few weeks so don't lose heart if you don't here back straight away.

Now add Adsense to your blog - There are three place you can consider putting your ads on - on the sidebar, right at the top of your pages (under or above the header) and somewhere in the content (either at the end near the footer,before the comments, or right in the middle of the text). Your site has to be up and running for around six months before you will be eligible for adding Adsense (hence why I don't have it on this one yet).

Adding the Adsense isn't to complicated although I must admit that Affiliate links are much easier. So, here goes -
1. Log into your Google Adsense account
2. At the top, click on the option that says My Ads
3. Click the button that says New Ad Unit
4. You will then see a setup area where you can name your ad. This is just for your reference so you can name it where you are going to position it (header)
5. Choose the option that says Responsive from the drop down menu
6. All the other options leave as default
7. Click the Save & Get Code button where you will see another window pop up with html in it.
Select and copy the code
8. Now head to your blogs Layout
9. Click on add a gadget on your Cross-column
10.Now click on Adsense and enter your code. Click Save Arrangement and in goes your first advert

Adsense will only allow you to put three adverts on each blog/website so next you can repeat everything I have put above but choose the large sidebar type ad for your sidebar, and a small horizontal ad for your content.

Your add will not show up straight away so don't panic when you can see nothing showing on your blog/website. That's it, when you next check on your blog you should see your Adsense adverts. There is support from Google if you need it.

My next post will be on other ways to make money from your blog including self-publishing your own books on your blog subject.