Blogging started out as a way for us to journal and share our journeys with any user in the world. These older blogs were mostly written, with maybe a link or two further down the line.

Now blogs can be anything from articles to photos to film, or any other possible media. As long as it’s self-published online, we call it a blog.

Blogs are not only used to record memories and share knowledge but also to survive.

Publishers have realized that blogging is an amazing way to make money online.

There’s even more money when you monetize a WordPress blog.

Website articles are often noticed more than social media. Social media blogs have their pros, but they are limited compared to a website’s possible reach.

If you’re one of the publishers who flocked to WordPress as a platform for your blog, welcome! You’re mostly likely here to learn how to effectively monetize your WordPress blog.

Well, there’s no need to fear. We’ve covered the basics of monetizing your WordPress blog to make the most of your efforts!

What is Blogging?

A blog, first known as “weblogs,” is a way for publishers to share any type of content with a mass audience. Though many publishers stick to the classic method of writing articles.

Writing is a refined skill that takes time to build up; it’s a key factor in monetizing a WordPress blog.

Any ad needs written content or text to explain what it’s all about. Without text, even if it’s just the business name, an ad is null and void.

People need to know what you’re trying to sell or where to get the product.

As with anything, blogging has great benefits for those starting out or experts:

  • Improves writing and marketing skills;
  • Expands potential audience reach;
  • Increases traffic and conversions;
  • Deepens user relationships and trust.

 
If you want to make a great blog that grabs your user’s eye, make sure to follow these blogging best practices:

  • Consistent structure and layout;
  • Dynamic and exciting content;
  • Strong, catchy headlines;
  • Target users should relate to the articles;
  • Always have calls-to-action.

 
While blogging may seem easy, there are some downsides to keeping your website running.

You might run into these issues when you first monetize your WordPress blog:

  • Websites need updates;
  • Adverts can slow down article pages;
  • Users can overload your website’s server;
  • Desktop and mobile versions can be complex to make.

 
While there are IT concerns that come with managing a website, the blog itself is a piece of cake! Once you’re in the flow of creating content, you can start making money right now.

How WordPress Works

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems, or CMSs. Other CMSs include Joomla, Drupal and Wix.

A CMS is a tool that web-developers, and now publishers, use to build and maintain websites. CMSs have backend dashboards for easy access to all features.

When it comes to WordPress, it was first designed for publishers to use as a platform for their blog.

The default setup of WordPress directs users to the website blog when they search your URL. As well as WordPress orders articles from oldest to newest, in classic blog fashion.

WordPress blogs come in many layouts, yet they all have the same pros for publishers who use them:

  • Free to use;
  • Easy hosting options;
  • Website themes and templates;
  • Quick content upload;
  • Allows for plugins and add-ons;
  • Responsive support team.

 
A great feature of WordPress are the plugins that you can download. You can download SEO checkers, media compression plugins, and speed optimization tools.

There’s a WordPress plugin for anything you need or can think of.

There are even great tools for customizing code to really personalize your blog.

Once your blog is setup, you can add an entire online store. WordPress has great features for ecommerce stores. From product pages to payments, ecommerce plugins make the entire process a breeze.

WordPress allows publishers to really branch out when designing their blogs. Every blog can be made in a million ways, which makes it perfect for publishers who want to stand out!

5 Ways to Monetize Your WordPress Blog

It’s great when you’re a publisher who is effectively monetizing your WordPress blog, though not all of us know how.

For those still looking for ways to monetize a WordPress blog, you should try out these methods:

  1. Affiliate marketing;
  2. Display adverts;
  3. Sponsors and collaboration;
  4. Social media marketing;
  5. Donations and crowdfunding.

 
The above options are great, but they are not the only ways to effectively monetize a WordPress blog.

These options should combine with each other, not by themselves. But this also depends on how much time you have for your blog.

The key to a great WordPress blog is through your user relationships.

All your efforts become null and void if you neglect your users.

If a user wants to keep receiving your content, don’t take them for granted! Most monetization methods rely on the input of users to make income.

Focusing on money over service is the greatest downfall of publishers!

Affiliate Marketing

If you haven’t heard of affiliate marketing, then you’ve been missing out! Affiliate marketing has become the way of the future.

Through affiliate marketing, publishers and content creators can make any kind of income online.

Affiliate marketing is the exchange of advertising for commissions. A publisher provides traffic for an advertiser or brand in exchange for a fee. The affiliate network provides referral links that the publisher can use.

These links are what make you money through your WordPress blog.

You can place various types of links that make all kinds of income.

Standard links take users to the affiliate home page, so they don’t make much income. Deeplinks take users straight to product pages, where you’ll make the most money!

A great place to find advertisers to market for is through the Admitad Partner Network.

Admitad is a platform you can use to monitor all your affiliate traffic in one place.

You can partner with many advertisers and download all your links from your dashboard.

In Admitad Store you can browse through all the available advertisers. Once you’ve gotten the hang of promoting your desired advertiser, you can start marketing for popular brands like:

Join Partner Network Now!

Affiliate marketing is so versatile, as you can place affiliate links on any platform. You can turn a link into any type of ad, from articles and ads to videos. Effectively monetizing a WordPress blog has never been easier!

Display Adverts

Using display ads is one of the top ways to monetize a WordPress blog. Without ads, it’s pretty difficult to earn any sort of income! Even affiliate marketing relies on affiliate links. In this case, we rely on the visual ads that advertising networks supply.

Display ads, as with affiliate links, can be placed anywhere on your WordPress blog.

Advertising networks provide ads in all forms.

You can get side ads, banners, product ads – whatever ad you could need. Though the quality of your ads defines how much money you’ll actually make.

Other factors that influence how much income your display ads will generate include:

  • Where you place your ads;
  • The amount of ads you have;
  • How relevant your ads are;
  • How much your ads stand out.

 
Display ads might be one of the best ways to monetize your WordPress blog, but they come with their own hassles.

If you place your ads in places where no one can see them, you won’t make any money. If your ads overload users, you’ll chase them away.

But if your ads relate to your users and stand out so much that they have to click on them… Well, it’s safe to say you’ll be set for a while!

Sponsors and Collaboration

Sometimes making money online by yourself can be too much for one person. That’s why publishers and content creators from all over the world help each other. While being independent has been drilled into us since birth, we’re never taught to ask for help.

When you start working online, you realize that you earn much more when you join up with other publishers. Asking for help is no longer embarrassing, but necessary.

There are two main ways to join forces with other well-known publishers:

 
A sponsorship is a more formal type of collaboration. A sponsor is a brand or business that asks a publisher to help them market products or content.

Finding a sponsor is one of the best ways to monetize a WordPress blog.

A generic collaboration differs from a sponsored one in that one party doesn’t pay the other to help. Publishers, influencers, and content creators upload a combined advertising post.

Afterwards, they all equally benefit from the traffic and income.

Whatever posts or videos you make with others should be posted on your WordPress blog. There’s even a collaboration where influencers take complete control of your blog! An account takeover is scary, but it gets the job done.

Cross-Platform Marketing

When you’ve got a WordPress blog, you might think you don’t need to market yourself anywhere else.

You’d be very wrong—you have to market your content on any platform you have access to. Whether it’s a social media account or a column in a magazine.

As an online publisher, you should always use any social media account you have available. Between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, you’ll have your hands full!

Don’t settle with just your WordPress blog. Users need to see teaser content on other platforms so that they want to see your blog!

Social media opens a new avenue of ways to monetize your WordPress blog.

Many social media networks have built-in features so publishers can earn an income. Though they usually need you to have a certain number of subscribers or views before you can activate it.

If you want to monetize your content quickly, without a large following, you should try out ConvertSocial.

ConvertSocial is great for monetizing any of the following platforms:

 
Whatever extra layer of income you can make, add it to your daily to-do list. The more money you have coming in from your advertising efforts, the better!

Donations and Crowdfunding

If you still can’t figure out how to monetize your WordPress blog, you should consider user donations.

While advertising is a refined skill, asking for help can often get the job done just as well. When you’ve got your hands full making content for your blog, you can’t always market it.

That’s why many publishers rely on the generosity of their users.

While it may seem too easy, sometimes you can just ask users for money. They’ve even developed a name for it so it doesn’t sound rude!

Crowdfunding is really just publishers asking for help.

Crowdfunding allows a publisher to set a total goal for the amount they need.

Then users can donate as much as they’d like during a set period of time.

Once that times up, the publisher can thank all users who donated.

If the goal isn’t reached, another crowdfunding event can be held.

Donations don’t have the same limited time period.

Donations happen through a PayPal or Payoneer account.

Users can donate whenever and however much they’d like to this account. Donations take off the pressure that crowdfunding can put on shy users.

Conclusion

When you first start a blog, you’re full of hope. Then the reality of constantly writing kicks in—and it will eventually kick in!

Most jobs online are tedious and rehash the same content. It’s up to the publisher to pick a niche or product they actually enjoy marketing.

If you can’t stomach the thought of marketing the same product, you’ll always be starting at the bottom.

Changing up your niche comes with the price of starting over again. But when you’re at the bottom, there’s nowhere else to go but upwards. Whatever you decide to do at the end of the day, you can reach the top again!

As long as you work every day to get where you want to be financially, you’ll be okay. It’s when you stop putting in the effort you need to be putting in… That’s when your marketing starts to go wrong.

If you’ve been trying for months and still don’t know how to monetize a WordPress blog, you need a new avenue. WordPress isn’t for everyone. Luckily, you can do affiliate marketing from any platform.