Sunday, April 10, 2011

Monetizing Your Content for Passive Blogging Profits

Once you start compiling your content and adding it to your blog, it’s time to start thinking about how you can make money with your new found information. I’ve got a few ideas to help you get started, so let’s get to it – I know this is what you were waiting on wasn’t it?

1.Promote Affiliate Programs

Finding products you can promote within your content is a great way to make money with your blog. One way to do this is to sign up for an affiliate program for the items you would like to promote. Once you’ve found them and signed up you’ll receive a link (your affiliate link) that you can use to send your blog readers to the product. When they make a purchase using your link, you’ll be rewarded with commissions.

When posting your content, think of items that will compliment the content and search for affiliate programs for those types of products. For instance, if you’re posting an article that discusses using video online, you could promote the software you use to create your own videos. Do you have a product or service you love and couldn’t live without? Put together a product review and use your affiliate link to send your reader to the company’s website. A word of caution with reviews – a reader can tell if you’re just pushing a product to make a sale so be honest. If there is something you don’t like about it, tell them.

You can find affiliate programs in many places, but here are a few I recommend:

The Company’s Website – More and more business owners are realizing just how much creating an affiliate program for their products and services can increase business. Check right on the company’s website for information on how to sign up for their affiliate program.

Affiliate Networks – You can find tons of products in every market you could dream of here. Just sign up for a free publisher account, locate products you’d like to promote. That’s all there is to it. ClickBank.com

Free Affiliate Articles – If you're looking for content that is ready for affiliate links visit www.FreeAffiliateArticles.com and you'll find a bunch.

Mom Affiliate Network – If you cater to the mom market, I highly recommend checking this site out for family friendly products. You’ll also find programs to help Internet marketers and those who want to work from home here. MomAffiliateNetwork.com

Search Engines – Many times you can put the type of product you’re looking to promote plus the words “affiliate program” into your browser’s search feature and you’ll find lots of options.

2.    Adsense

Do you see those blocks of ads on blogs and websites throughout the web that “Ads by Google” at the bottom? Those are ads published via Google’s Adsense program.
Google sends targeted ads based on the content that appears on your blog. You can sign up for an account with Google’s Adsense program for free. Once you sign up you’ll be able to set up the type of ads you’d like fed to your blog (text ads, block ads, banner ads, and more). As the content on your blog changes, Google changes the ads and you’re paid whenever someone clicks on the ads.

When done correctly, you can make very good money with Adsense, but it does take a bit of testing and tweaking to find the combination of ads that will work best for your individual blog. People are used to seeing these ads and although many people do ignore them, there are many more who will click the links and you’ll be compensated when they do.

3.    Resale Rights Content

Resale rights content is content you purchase similar to PLR with one exception. You usually don’t have the right to alter the content in anyway. You purchase the content for your use and are given the rights to resell it, which allows you to then turn around sell the product yourself.

Normally, you’ll receive not only the product, but also the sales page and other web copy to add to your own website. You simply change the payment link to have it paid to you and whenever someone buys the product you get all the profits.

Master Resale Rights Content

If resale rights content isn’t good enough, there is also content you can purchase that comes with what’s known as Master Resale Rights. The difference between master resale rights and regular resale rights is:

Resale Rights – You can sell the product but you can NOT pass those same rights on to your customers.

Master Resale Rights – You can not only sell the product and keep the profits, but you also have the ability to pass resale rights onto your customers. They can in turn sell the product as their own.

Each product has specific rules on how you can and cannot use the content no matter which type you are given. Due to this make certain you take the time to read the rules before just throwing the product up for sale or offering rights to others.

4.    Create & Sell Your Own Info Products

Ok, I know you’re probably shaking your head after reading number 4. You’re probably wondering how in the world you have the time to write your own information products when you’re trying to save time and energy by NOT writing all your own blog posts. Hear me out, I promise it’ll be worth it.

Just like your blog posts, you can create information products that you can sell to your readers without writing all of the content yourself. The absolute best (and easiest) way to do this is by purchasing PLR content that centers around the topic of the info product you’d like to create and rework it a bit and compile it to create an eBook or guide you can then put up for sale. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Let’s say you have a blog about Green Living. One thing your readers would love to know is how to live a greener life without paying tons of money on things like solar panels, costly home additions, etc. You’ve decided you’d like to create an eBook to help them go green by making small changes to their everyday lifestyles without breaking the bank. You’d also like to show them ways they can not only live a greener life, but even save money in the process. We’ll call the product: “Go Green without Breaking the Bank: Small Changes You Can Make to Live an Eco-Friendly Life while Saving Money.”

The first thing you’d do is start searching for private label rights content that fits your subject. Next, you’ll want to compile all the PLR you’ve purchased into a logical, valuable document. Now, it’s time to add your own advice, tips, knowledge, etc. on the subject and form your finished product.

You’ve now created an entire eBook without having to write the majority of it yourself. Save your brain power for marketing your newly created product. Just remember, make any PLR you purchase your own by reworking it to fit your needs and add to or take away information as necessary.

5.    ECourses & Newsletters

Another great way to monetize your blog content is by adding free eCourses to your arsenal. You can put together eCourses that will give your readers further information about the topic of your blog.

For instance, if you run a blog about Labrador Retrievers, why not create a short 5 day eCourse that tells owners of Lab puppies the best tips and tricks for house training the newest member of their family. Or, create an eCourse that gives important information on raising Labs specifically.

You can use PLR content or take content you’ve previously posted on your blog to create your eCourses. Simply load the eCourse into your email management system (I use Aweber) and sprinkle promotions for affiliate products throughout the course. Once you have the course set up, copy and paste the HTML or JavaScript for the sign up box into your blog. Then market the course via your blog posts, on Twitter, and other places.

This brings me to the next step in making money with your blog – bringing in visitors.

6.    Ad networks.
Ad networks are programs that serve ads onto your blog. Normally they pay per thousand impressions. (Usually described as CPM.) So, an ad network that pays $3 CPM would pay $3 for every 1000 times the ad was viewed.

There are many sites like this online and you can find them by searching Google.

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Resources:

Blog Money - Squeeze Money Out of Your Blogs

Mom PLR eBooks

ARTICLE: 5 Ways to Use PLR

ARTICLE: How to Create Something New from PLR Ebooks

ARTICLE: Sell Ebooks to Moms

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