When you first start blogging as a means to make money online, you may think that selling ad space is the best way to monetize your blog. But after awhile, you will start to see that selling ad space is not the most beneficial way to monetize your blog. While you can make some extra money online selling sidebar ad space directly to brands or sponsored content, there are other ways to monetize your blog as a means to bring in a residual monthly income. Let’s discuss the 4 ways to monetize your blog as a means to earn a residual income while working to write consistent content for your blog.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is the first step towards monetizing your blog. Simply sign up for a free Google account and start setting up a responsive Adsense ad unit. The reason for setting up a responsive ad unit versus a specific size ad is because people will be using multiple devices to view your blog, such as a tablet or smartphone and responsive ad units allow for the Google Adsense ad unit to change based on whatever device your reader is viewing your blog from.  If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, then you can easily use a plugin to install Google Adsense ad units while staying within the terms and conditions of being a Google Adsense publisher.

Affiliate Marketing

Sign up for Amazon Associates where you essentially become an affiliate for Amazon and can earn commissions off any sales made when someone clicks a text link within your blog post. Programs like ClickBank, Commission Junction (CJ) and ShareASale offer a wide range of products and programs that you can also apply to become an affiliate for. This will enable you to have a wide range of products or programs to blog about while inserting a text link based on keywords you have within your blog posts. The key to affiliate marketing is to have 3-4 affiliate links within each blog post as a means to earn a consistent residual income from affiliate programs.

Sign up With Sponsored Campaign Companies

There is a wide range of companies like Bloggin’ Mamas that offer bloggers a chance to sign up for an account and apply for various sponsored campaigns. This is an excellent way to connect with brands through a platform and earn some huge money on a residual basis, while most of these platforms will pay net 60 or net 90, some pay sooner and either way they provide you a means to earn a residual income. As you complete your campaigns through these platforms, you can apply for more and start marking your calendar for payouts, because they will start rolling in on a consistent basis if you are accepted into the sponsored campaigns on a regular basis.

Use your Stats for Content

The last way to monetize your blog is to start searching through your blog stats as a means to focus on what keywords are bringing readers to your blog and what older posts are getting heavy traffic. From this point, start writing new content that links back to your older content on the same topic. Choose a few keywords that bring readers to your blog and write new content that focuses on a different angle of the topic. The reason this will help monetize your blog is that if you have a program, like Google Adsense, and are using the affiliate programs properly with 3-4 links per blog post, you will start to see some click-thrus from readers on a regular basis because they will be curious what you are recommending in your niche industry. This method will also increase visitor counts, which puts you in a position to earn more with sponsored campaign companies.

There you have it, a list of 4 ways to monetize your blog in a simple, yet straight forward way; Google Adsense, Affiliate Marketing, Sponsored Campaign Companies and Using Your Stats. While the list can go on and on with ways to monetize your blog, the above 4 ways to monetize your blog is a great start towards your venture in earning a residual income with blogging.