The Top 3 Ways a Blog Earns Revenue

How many different revenue streams have you created for your business?

Did you know a blog can create multiple opportunities to earn revenue?

The biggest benefit a blog provides is it helps build an audience and establish credibility.

This is the fourth and final article in the series of how a blog builds an audience and authority.

Let’s jump right in and talk about how a blog creates revenue opportunities.

What I love most about a blog is it’s like compounding interest. It starts slow, but each day as the traffic grows, so do the opportunities to earn revenue.

Now I must say, growing an audience for a blog is not always easy. It takes time! But if you develop a plan to grow your audience and then execute the plan, then you can be successful. 

Today, there are so many different ways to get traffic to your blog.

As far as revenue opportunities, it’s always best to have several different ways of earning revenue instead of relying on just one method.

The 3 Types of Revenue a Blog Can Create

1. Products– Products can be books, premium content, or physical products.

• • Book Revenue -Book revenue is generated from people purchasing your book. This can be from people buying the book on Amazon, other online bookstores, your website, etc. These can be offline ways that people purchase your books also.
  • Premium Content– Think of premium content as content upgrades. Your blog provides value and provides information on a topic to help people. Premium content upgrades are content that subscribers pay for that show how to achieve specific goals, tasks, skills, hobbies, etc.

My favorite content upgrades.

• • High-Value Reports – reports range from 20-50 pages and are topic specific. Each report provides value, solves one specific problem, and provides actionable content to improve results. They can range in price from $10-$49. 

• • Online Courses– an online course that is based on a book, provides more in-depth training and resources that help the user implement the content faster. For instance, an online course can include videos tutorials, worksheets, checklists, access to a Facebook group of other people trying to achieve the same goals, etc. Plus, customers may be able to get their questions answered in a forum, a Facebook group or via Q&A sessions.

• • Paid Newsletters – Create a premium paid monthly newsletter that is based on the topic of your blog. Creating a newsletter is a quick way to generate revenue. The newsletter can be in a pdf format that is delivered via email or a print version of the newsletter can be snail mailed to the subscriber.

• • Membership Sites – Membership sites are like paid newsletters, except membership sites can be multimedia driven. They can include articles, reports, videos, mp3 files, tutorial videos, and Q&A sessions.

• • Physical Products– Physical products can be anything from promotional products such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, and bookmarks, that your readers and customer’s purchase. They can be other types of products that are related to your site also. Think about complimentary products. What physical products could you sell that will help your readers reach their goals faster.

2. Coaching Programs 
   
   

• Group Coaching Programs– Group coaching programs allow the author to deliver value and speed of results in a one-to-many relationship. Group coaching programs can also provide value by creating a community where participants can interact, answer questions, and help each other.

• Mastermind Groups– Mastermind groups are created by a specific number of people joining together to solve problems, gain insight from others in the group, and achieve results.

• One-on-One-Coaching -provides the highest level of coaching support and speed of results. The fastest way to achieve a goal is to hire someone who has already achieved what you want to accomplish. One on one coaching provides the fastest avenue with the quickest results. Often, one-on-one coaching is the most expensive type of coaching.

3. Online & Offline Events

• Workshops/Bootcamps– Workshops and Bootcamps can be anywhere from a couple of hours to 3 days long. They provide valuable content and help attendees achieve their goals. These can be held online or offline.

• Retreats– Retreats are a great way to earn money and can be held at vacation destinations to rejuvenate your spirits. Typically, with retreats, they are focused on a topic or theme. They can be writing retreats, marketing retreats, finish your book retreats, etc. Retreats are normally limited to a certain number of people and are held for a specific time period like 3-5 days.

• Conferences – normally span 1- 3 days and can have 1 or multiple speakers with breakout sessions. Authors can speak at conferences or host their own conference to build their audience and earn money.

• Speaking – Keynote speeches and breakout sessions are another way to earn revenue from your blog. During these speeches, you deliver content that is based on your book and earn money by either being paid by the event owner or by people in the audience who purchase your book and other products. 

Keynote and breakout sessions can lead to additional book revenue from corporations purchasing the books and workbooks as ongoing training for their employees.

The fourth type of revenue a blog creates is advertising.

4. Advertising– Advertising is another way to earn money from your blog. The best part about offering advertising is that you are not responsible for the fulfillment of the product being advertised. You do need to advocate for your audience and only accept products and services that they will find valuable. Companies advertising can provide value to your audience. 

3 Types of Advertising to Offer on Your Blog.

• Banner Ads, Text & Dedicated Email Sponsorships -Sponsored content is when companies purchase an ad to reach the people on your email list and/or website. This can be in the form of banner ads, text links, dedicated emails, and sponsored stories. These types of ads are normally sold on a cost per thousand amount or at a flat rate.

• Sponsored Posts – sponsored posts are when the advertiser creates content that is helpful to the readers but also promotes a product or service.

• Affiliate Revenue– with affiliate revenue instead of charging to promote a product on your site, you earn a commission on the number of products you sell. Affiliate commissions can be from 4-100% depending on the market and the relationship you have with your list.

A blog is one of the most versatile tools available to authors and publishers today. Each post can be targeted to different segments of your audience. Plus, a blog post’s content can serve different people throughout the customer journey. Combine this with the opportunity to create any type of content from text, audio, video or images or graphics, and you quickly realize that a blog is a valuable asset.

---

Are you building your email list?