5 Clever Ways to Make Money with a WordPress Blog

19
Jun

There are many benefits of owning a blog. One of the best benefits that bloggers look forward to is the monetary advantage. However, this does not come right after you start your blog, which is why experts recommend a well-planned strategy to build traffic in your site.

What are the clever ways to make money with a WordPress blog?

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If you happen to have many regular visitors, you are likely to get a good amount of money from your blog. This is achievable through these 5 methods.

 

  1. Pay Per Click

Known as one of the most popular ways to monetize a blog, it is also one of the easiest. The Pay Per Click (PPC) is a method where every click is converted to money. It varies from a bidding system of payment or a fixed rate per click. These ads come in pop-ups, pop-unders, banners, sidebar text links, full-page ads and in-text links.

It sounds like a big opportunity, but you should remember that the success of PPC highly depends on your number of audience and your blog niche. Adblock and NoScript are two of the most popular ad blocking extensions. If users download these, there will be a decrease in clicks.

The topmost PPC and ad companies are Yahoo Publisher Network, Google AdSense, Bidvertiser and Envero Media. As for integrating PPC ads in your WordPress, the Easy Ads plugin will help you with it. This plugin will allow you to display ads from AdSense, Clicksor, Bidvertiser and Chitika. The good thing is you get to choose where your ads are displayed.

 

  1. Custom Search Engines

Having an integrated search box helps users find content in your blog. But it is much more beneficial to have sponsored ads shown together with the search results. Every click on this will convert to money. A custom search engine is more effective than the theme-integrated search box because there is greater control over it.

You can use Google AdSense for Search or Eurekster Swiki to include sponsored ads in the search results of your blog. Gigya Toolbar and Search Integrate are some useful WordPress plugins to help you with it. You can make money from the Gigya toolbar through the ads shown in the integrated search box. It works just like Google AdSense where it displays sponsored ads in the results.

 

  1. Sponsored posts

This is for those who are investing in real high quality content for their blogs. A number of websites pay you to write for them. They serve as the connector of advertisers and publishers. It works by allowing advertisers to choose publishers or vice versa. It depends on the website owner, but they give out a fixed rate for every blog post, which you will have to relate to the advertiser’s content.

In many instances, there are negotiations depending on the type of content you are writing or the amount of traffic you are getting on your blog. Sites offering sponsored posts are PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Smorty and SponsoredReviews.

 

  1. Affiliated Links

Become an affiliate of a company by helping them sell their products. This is possible by getting a percentage of sale or a fixed rate from the number of clicks on your link. If you are able to get customers to click on the links and take them to the business’ page, you are definitely getting a good rate in return. However, you should be knowledgeable in affiliate marketing to get these clicks.

Popular affiliate link programs are Commission Junction, ClickBank and Amazon Associates. For wordpress plugins for Amazon, you can use Amazon Product In a Post or WordPress Amazon. Plugins used for ClickBank are ClickBank Widget and WP ClickBank Ad Display. You have the luxury to choose among the wide array of products to link to your blog.

 

  1. Custom Merchandise

If you are the old-fashioned type of seller, you can sell items! Of course, you need to be sure you have a good following. The power of having a lot of loyal readers is the ability to sell them things more effectively. CafePress is a site for selling customized posters, shirts, mugs and many more. Just incorporate your logo and they will do the rest, from creating the product down to shipping. After that, get the CafePress WordPress plugin to display them on your website. Zazzle has similar methods where you can design custom products. It is up to you.

For passionate writers, you have a better way to make money through e-books. They are easier to publish and can be as short as 1-2 pages. It’s just like writing a typical blog post with a higher word count. Plugins supported by WordPress are Bookshelf and Sell from Blog. It will surely be a monetary benefit from doing what you love.

With all these options on hand, finding a good source of money will come easy. But always consider to do it one at a time to avoid annoying floods of ads.