Today we will share with you 25 ways to make money online with a WordPress blog. We focus here on WP not only because it is the most popular blogging platform (almost 30% of all WordPress blogs ), but the most simple, flexible and professional.
Remember that there are other blogging platforms, but here we are looking to make money, that is, we focus on blogging with a source of income.
Before continuing, let’s make a necessary clarification: there are two WP, WordPress.com and WordPress.org that are from the same company, the latter allows you to download the WordPress blogging platform, but you have to host it on a commercial server and, therefore, pay a monthly hosting, it is the way in which women of the company works, and it is the platform to which we are going to refer here.
Many people use the Internet as a channel of their traditional business, so they already have a commercial space or an office and rely on a blog to have a point of sale or promotion.
But in this article, the accent will be placed on a blog as the main business. So the WordPress blog is the business, and therefore you can have an office or make money working from home. And as any business requires time and money (although much less investment than a traditional business) to take off and yield economic benefits. Of course, a blog can be used to make money, but this note aims to make your blog your primary source of income.
Also, a WordPress blog requires you to update constantly, today you can occupy the first place in searches and tomorrow, Google adjusts using, they sent you to position 20 or 50. The web changes constantly, and you have to be attentive and willing to learn new things.
Before starting to make money with your blog you must have made specific previous steps that I will list below, but I will not develop because I have previously treated them in depth :
Decide what market niche you are going to address
- Investigate which keywords you should attack
- Buy your domain
- Hire a hosting
- Build the blog with WordPress and start uploading content.
Now, with everything in place, we can start to create content for the WordPress blog, get traffic to it and monetize it in different ways. We can not pretend to make money with our blog if we do not have visitors and, to have visitors, we have to have content to attract them and keep them in our blog.
Genuine Ways To Make Money With Your Blog
The following options to make money with your WordPress blog are excellent and useful options, are not magic formulas or schemes to make you productive quickly and without doing anything; that does not exist.
To locate us more quickly, we will present the different options grouped by type.
Monetize content
Sell Adsense or similar advertising through advertising agencies or networks
The best-known and most accessible advertising service to implement in Google Adsense. Adsense is an advertising program created by Google that works basically in the form of CPC (cost per click) and that allows web publishers or bloggers previously approved by Google, place ads on their websites through a code that generates publicity related to the content of the site.
By clicking on an ad, the advertiser gets a potential customer to show interest in your product and service, Google charges that click to the advertiser and shares the profit with the blogger. The blogger receives 68% of the recognized income (since the invalid clicks are not paid, and I already inform you that clicking on the ads themselves is prohibited and causes the account to be closed).
It should be noted that all clicks do not cost the same, or indirectly you will win according to the amount of traffic you have, how likely to click advertising is your audience and, especially the market niche in which you move Markets where there is little competition pay little, where there is a lot of competition, they spend more because the advertisers “dispute” your advertising space. Hence the importance of the choice of the market niche and the previous research of the keywords.
Another important point that influences the potential gains is the location of the ad in the content and the purchase intention of the visitor.
Locate the ad to get the most performance is an art that requires specific basic knowledge and tries to see what results.
Regarding the intention of the visitor, a visitor can search for information (for example, when searching for product reviews, brand comparisons, etc.), inquire before buying or can seek to buy when, for example, he searches for a particular brand and model, ask for the price, etc.; that is known as purchase intention, and naturally the advertiser pays more if the plan is to buy that if the project is to inform.
To speed up acceptance in Adsense, it is convenient, and at least 15 to 20 original and quality published articles. Currently, they take a long time to approve.
You may wonder how to implement Adsense in my WordPress blog? Well, there are 2 primary forms:
Copy and paste the code that they give you in each location (in the HTML) where you want the ad to be shown, or
you integrate it through a plugin.
The first option is very inflexible; the ads will always appear in the same position in all articles. While the second option is very flexible, as well as include the first option if you want, you can remove ads in the posts you choose and even put the ads in some posts manually. Adsense is very flexible, lightweight and easy to implement; it is also free. What else do you want?
You can combine Adsense with other ad networks.
Make money with YouTube
YouTube seems to be a content distribution channel that appears to satisfy all types of audiences, mainly if you produce “how to” guides because the visual helps us to clear up doubts that would be cumbersome to explain only in writing.
To make money with YouTube, you have to have a lot of public and a lot of relevant content. Once you have your video channel you can monetize it through advertising from Adsense, are those ads that appear at the beginning or end of a video.
To start, you have to have an Adsense account (the same one you use to put ads on your blog), have more than 10,000 views and perform the following steps:
- In your account (top right) select “Creator studio” or “Studio creation.”
- Then in the menu that will appear on your left, you select “Channel” and “Status and Functions.”
- Activate the monetization option
- Accept YouTube terms
- Link Adsense and YouTube
- Choose which videos you want to monetize Using your Video Manager (within Creator Studio)
- If your channel is well known, it will attract brands that want to appear in your videos.
Generate revenue with Podcast
Depending on your theme you can generate part of your content in PodCast format (audio), from there the most usual is to get an advertiser, or you can also offer it to your audience as a payment service with a small monthly fee.
Sell advertising directly
Whether you have a person who sells advertising for your blog, or your blog is well known, and advertisers contact you directly, you can negotiate the price of your spaces with each advertiser. This way, you do not pay the Google commission, but you have to take care of getting the client, selling, billing and charging him.
There are intermediate forms and are related to installing a plugin such as BuySellAds which is a marketplace that relates advertisers with publishers.
Sell promoted posts
The sponsors are well known in the world of sports and TV shows. To attract a sponsor, your blog has to be well known, have authority, be a reference for a specific audience.
You must install Google Analytics or any other analytics package that allows you to offer your potential sponsor correct data of your audience: age, gender, geographic location, income levels, type of education reached, etc.
It is convenient to have an updated half kit ready.
If you find it difficult to contact the potential advertiser directly, you should know that there are online platforms that take care of it. And you can use these platforms to get clients or pay to promote yourself and shorten the time it takes to get to know you.
Write paid reviews
When you have some fame, and your blog is recognized, you may be asked to do product reviews and, like all work, there must be a payment in between (even if it is a trade). This system is widely used in fashion blogs, makeup, photography and technology.
Something important to make clear is that you do not guarantee a positive review, but that you will publish your opinion without pressure. Otherwise, your credibility will suffer.
Here is Writing tips for blogging beginners.
Send promoted emails
This depends on your audience and the relationship they have built. It can be very profitable to send from time to time an email paid by an advertiser who wants to contact your list. Remember the saying: “Money is on the list.”
Never deliver the list, that would be missing the commitment of privacy.
Make money with Instagram
Instagram has ceased to be a channel to share your travel photos or your selfies; now, it has become another channel to publish tutorials, videos of exercise routines, etc.
It depends on your product, and if you have many followers, you can receive financial compensation from the brands if you advertise their products. The influencers of fashion and makeup make a lot of money in this way.
Create a paid membership
With a paid membership, your audience pays a subscription for more information. They can be in-depth studies, exclusive conferences, courses, in summary, premium content.
This modality has the benefit of stabilizing the income because the payment is a monthly subscription, and as a counterpart, it forces you to be producing premium content continuously.
Some plugins allow you to build private access to a part of your blog; These plugins are MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, LearnDash (specific for courses) etc. They are paid plugins.
Sell digital products
Ebooks, reports, case studies, etc. Whether your authorship or third parties that you can market through the affiliate system.
The digital products have the advantage that once the first one is produced, there are no production costs for the additional copies as it would be a printed material. Distribution expenses are non-existent, and you have the collection expenses.
Once put into operation, you can go to sleep quietly if the sales funnel is well configured, the system will continue selling without supervision.
If you are going to sell both physical and digital products, and you are going to charge directly from your blog then you must have installed an SSL certificate (to encrypt the payment data), in the case that you derive your clients to another blog or site, they are the ones who will have to deal with security issues.
Ebooks
If you like to write, you have here an excellent vein to explore and exploit. You can sell your ebooks directly from your blog or Amazon or similar. From your blog, your profitability per sale is higher, but from Amazon, you reach a much larger audience. Try both and decide what is best for you.
Of course, you can also explore the sale of third-party ebooks by being affiliated with Amazon, and you can combine it with the first option: you offer your ebooks and also a selection of the best ebooks available for that audience.
Courses
You can start selling your ebook to test the audience and then sell your path because in general, the courses are perceived as a premium product compared to the ebook. We have already talked about how to build a paid section within your blog to host your course.
It takes a lot of time and dedication to put together a course, but if it is valuable, the price is right, and you have put together an active promotion campaign to the right audience, the course usually runs smoothly.
An online course has enormous advantages over a face-to-face one; this is the question of geographical reach, the freedom of schedules (people enter when they want), once put into operation requires little attention from you.
Seminars
Online seminars require much more technological preparation than a course because being life, for example, the transmission may fall, and you will need to have at least one person to help you answer the questions of the participating audience.
To organize a live seminar, also called webinar, you have the following software: Google hangouts (simple and free), and the following all payments GoToWebminar, Webinar Jam, Webinars OnAir, Zoom.
Sell physical products
As in the previous case, they can be yours or third party products via an affiliate program. In the case of selling products, you should install a store with a plugin such as WooCommerce or set up a store in Shopify.
You can also set up an Amazon affiliate store. You can do it with a plugin that brings you Amazon products or with WooCommerce.
Create directories
Directories are a good alternative when you have a developer community that is true to your WordPress blog. Let’s see some possibilities.
Create a business directory
The niche market directories are beneficial. Of course, the theme has to be related to your audience and may be of interest to suppliers of your audience, or if this is entrepreneurs, you can be customers exposing their products and services to the rest of the community for a minimal fee.
The directories have to be maintained because sometimes people do not update their data or put a link wrong, and customers complain to you. On the other hand, when someone leaves the directory, it must be removed from the Google index so that it does not contain false information.
It has the advantage that it can become a stable income by charging a monthly payment for participating.
Create a bulletin board for job offers
Same as above but for job offers. Of course, this does not work for all blogs, but in some, it is perfect. There are several plugins available to put together the bulletin board. The same WooCommerce offers an add-on to build paid listings. Another alternative is the WP Job Manager plugin.
Sell online services
It has its advantages and disadvantages. The services do not require all the previous preparation necessary for example to build a course or write a book, but as a counterpart has the disadvantage that each benefit requires your time because ultimately selling a service is to sell specific time.
To give a more professional image you can create order forms for your service through WinForms, which in addition to the form allows you to make the payment through PayPal, integrates with Aweber and Mailchimp to take subscriptions.
Offers consulting
We already know that offering your services and consulting are not the same. Consulting has a lot to do with offering your advice and procedures, but it frees you a lot of time because instead of doing the work yourself, you advise the client on, for example, strategy issues so that your clients execute themselves but taking advantage of your expertise.
For example, an SEO consultancy analyzes the problems of a WordPress blog and offers the client an analysis of the same and the things that must be done to improve the positioning, work that the team of the same client must execute.
In other words, to provide consulting services, you must be an expert in your activity.
Offers coaching
We also know that coaching and consulting are not the same. A coach provides guidance, advice, helps to set goals and improve performance.
If you decide to provide the coaching, you should take turns for what you can help with a specific plugin that, if possible, should also allow you to charge, for example, BirchPress, Booking Calendar, Appointment Calendar, etc.
These systems allow you to coordinate with several calendar systems, such as Google calendar, iCal, Android, etc.
Offers freelance services
Are you a designer, programs, editor, do you dedicate yourself to marketing, etc.? They are all activities that you can provide your audience and that allows you to work from your home office. In addition to offering your work as a freelance in your WordPress blog, you can advertise on any of the freelance platforms.
Design and sell templates (theme) for WordPress Blog
Here you can design templates for WordPress Blog and even offer to customize them for a particular client or sell templates developed by others through the affiliation system, all premium professional WordPress blog templates.
Design and sell plugins
The plugins are a market in constant development while they attend to the increasingly specific needs of the WordPress market. Of course, this is an opportunity for those who are interested in technology and also have programming skills.
Design and sell app
Similar to the previous one, the app is a market in constant development. If you have a good idea, you can start with a free distribution app and then develop a paid premium version. It is ideal to have versions for the IOS and Android operating system.
Sell graphics and photos on your blog
This depends a lot on your market niche, but if you move in the graphic design sector, you can well market graphics and photographs through the affiliate program of one of the essential image banks.
Develop blogs for third parties
This is another business leg that you can explore in two different ways: developing the design of the website from scratch, personalizing some of the best available templates (either free or paid) and finally offering third-party templates through the system affiliate.
Offers SEO services
Positioning services, installation of utilities, the configuration of security features, online marketing, etc., are all services related to the marketing of the blogs that you can offer.
Community manager
Whether you have taken a course or personally in charge of dealing with your audience, you can certainly offer your experience as a community manager to third parties. It is very common for small companies that do not have experience in social networks to outsource community management services.
This is an alternative that you can consider to take advantage of all your expertise with social networks and that you can develop in parallel with your WordPress blog and from your place of work.
Conclusions
You can use the method that you think best suits your audience or better yet; you can combine several ways to monetize (that’s why it’s better to put the eggs in different baskets :-).
For example, you can have advertising income (both Adsense and direct advertisers), charge a commission with affiliate products that are useful to your audience, sell ebooks (yours or others), give courses and seminars, provide consulting, etc. , etc.
On the other hand, each alternative has queues, derivation methods to monetize your WordPress blog.
Your imagination depends on how much money you can make money with your WordPress blog, here we have shown you 25 proven ways to make money with your WordPress Blog.
But remember, it is practically impossible to make money with a blog that has just started, it needs maturity, audience, positioning, quality content and quantity of them.
Can you think of other forms? Leave your comments below and please share this guide on your social networks.
