Nearly every person in the world today with a blog dreams looks at how to turn a blog into a business. You probably heard some of the success stories over the year, including how one woman turned her blog into a best-selling book that later became a movie or how another blogger sold his blog to a larger company for millions of dollars. While it might take some work on your part, there’s no reason why you can’t make money off your blog starting as soon as tomorrow.
Look for Advertisers
Advertisers know that it only takes a little elbow grease to turn a blog into a business. When you look at some of your favorite sites, you’ll likely see that those sites have ads running every hour of the day and every day of the week. If you have a high number of repeat readers and unique page views, you can seek out advertisers on your own. You can sell unused ad space on your site for big bucks. Depending on the layout of the page, you may even have enough space to sell ads to multiple companies.
Create and Sell Related Products
Grace Bonney, the founder of the popular DIY blog Design Sponge, found success when she turned her blog into a book. Bonney took some of her favorite posts from the blog and combined those posts with new articles and tours of homes across the country. The book was such a hit that she later went on several tours to promote it. Even if your blog doesn’t lend itself to a book idea, you can find other ways to create and sell related products. You can sell everything from shirts and hats to calendars and coffee mugs with your slogan, catchphrase or images from your blog on the front.
Become a Guru
There are some blogs that readers flock to every day for the information provided by the author. Becoming a guru lets you gain your share of the market and make money from your blog. You can be an expert in parenting, gardening, teaching, natural medicine or almost anything else you can name. Create videos that give readers additional information that they can’t find anywhere else, and earn money when people view those videos on YouTube and other sites. Some experts even offer paid newsletters and seminars.
Sell Affiliate Products
One way you can turn a blog into a business is through the use of affiliate ads. Affiliates generally run ads for products manufactured by other companies. The companies pay blog owners anywhere from two percent to 50 percent or more of the sales made from that site. This is a good option for those running product review sites. You can place ads relating to products that you reviewed well on your site and earn income when your readers buy those products. Affiliates do best when they work with companies that sell products that match well with the content and information provided on their sites.
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There are millions of blogs in the world, but only a small percentage of those blogs make any income. Some writers are happy making just a few hundred dollars every month, but some bloggers make six figures every year. Becoming an affiliate or guru, creating products for your blog and selling advertising space can turn your blog into a business.