If you’ve been blogging on your website for quite some time but have yet to see any cash flow coming in, you might be doing something wrong and you don’t even know about it.
If you’re new to the blogging scene you might have heard of terms like “affiliate marketing” or “sponsored posts” as easy ways to make money online, but the question is – are you making any money on it at all?
In this article, I’ll highlight three crucial things why you’re still not making any online even though you’re consistently churning out content on a constant basis.
You’re not creating shareable content
Let’s face it, if you want to make money online then you need traffic on your website. if you’re not getting traffic on your website it’s probably because your content is too short or it’s not compelling enough that people would want to share it.
To be honest, you don’t need to be an amazing writer to create compelling content, although you should aim to be a better one, you just need to follow a formula that other successful bloggers in your niche are following.
I highly recommend visiting Buzzsumo as this website is a gift to entrepreneurs and online marketers. Buzzsumo is a great website that will reveal the most shared content in the online world. You just type in your niche in the search field and it’ll give you a breakdown of which posts are shared by people all over the world. This should give you an idea of what sort of headlines captures people’s attention and what sort of content people are willing to share with their friends.
If you see a content that you think will resonate with your readers, try to create a similar or possibly better content to get more readers. If it’s already working for that blogger then there’s a huge possibility it will work for you too because it’s a tried and test topic.
Let’s say for example your niche is handbags. All you need to do is type in the word “handbag” in the search field.
Buzzsumo will then give you a list of the most viral articles all over the web. It’ll show you which articles are the most shared content via social media so you can get a feel for what people are actually sharing online. You’ll also get an idea of what sort of headlines are grabbing people’s attention.
Now that you’ve found a content you want to work on – what can you do to make it better? Here are a few tips.
– Include much more compelling images.
People are very visual so the more compelling images you can add the better. If you don’t know where to get some, get stock photos because these photos are high quality and quite cheap. Photos have always been a touche’ subject for bloggers because of copyright infringement, so registering in a stock photo website like Shutterstock might be a good idea for you. Stock Photos can be quite pricey but if you sign up for a year in Shutterstock for example, you can get access to 50 photos per month and the cost would be $100 per month which is not too shabby. But if your budget is on the tight side you can always visit Photo Pin – this website will find the best free photos from around the Web.
– Create a more in-depth content.
Let’s say for example if the headline of the article you want to base your content on is “Top 10 Designer Bags To Invest In For 2018” – why don’t you make the list Top 15 or Top 20 instead? Do some extra research on the article and make it your own. You can even add a video somewhere in the post highlighting your list because people engage more with videos. Remember, your aim is to make the article better to get more people to share your content.
– Create sub headings and make the article more readable.
Most people get bored with extremely long articles so you can improve the blog post by making it much easier to read for your readers. Try to include subheadings, make the paragraphs shorter and highlight some sentences in your blog post – these may be minor details but trust me, it can make a huge difference.
Another good tip I can give you is going back to your old posts and make them better. Remember, blog posts are like wine – the older they are the better because the older blog posts acquire authority and historical SEO power. As long as your blog posts are search engine friendly, they’ll get more eyeballs if it’s a great content. Most people are so consumed with sharing brand new content to get more traffic and quality leads. But, if you’re smart, you’ll discover that old blog posts are in a much better position to get traffic as long as you allocate a time to update them since these blog posts have built authority over a period of time. Some of my posts from 10 years ago are still getting constant traffic because the content was compelling and it was well optimized. Try to focus on your best older posts and give them a quick upgrade, if it’s being shared around already then it’s worth giving it an overhaul. Try to add links within these blog posts linking to your newer blog posts as well. This is an easy way of driving traffic to your newer or less popular posts.
You have to make sure that your blog has opt-ins as well once the traffic starts flowing in. if your blog has no opt-ins then you are seriously missing out on getting more readers.
How else are you going to reach your readers personally by email if there’s no opt-in available on your website?
Make sure your opt-ins are really visible so that when you get new readers and they like your content they’ll end up signing up for your email list.
You’re not using the power of social media
Although it’s always great practice to optimize your blogs so that it can become search friendly, everything can change in a blink of an eye if Google decides to change its algorithm which it constantly does.
Case in point: I used to comfortably earn $6,000 per month from Google Adsense eight years ago, but when Google decided to change its algorithm, my earnings dramatically went down to just $500 per month! Then it changed again and eventually my website was getting less than $100 per month so I decided to take out Google Adsense from my website because it was useless for me and it ruins the readers experience anyway.
Enter social media.
For my blogs, the main traffic driver is Facebook followed by Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. I use Instagram to drive traffic to my blog by posting compelling photos and then adding eye-catching captions. For example, if my headline reads “The 10 best moments from the 2018 Oscars,” my caption would be something like “if you want to find out the 10 best moments from the 2018 Oscars then click the link on our bio.” Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t allow active links in posts anymore because a lot of people abused the system, but as long as you mention “click the link on our bio” – at least you can direct people to the link in your profile since that link is active. Just make sure your website link is in your bio otherwise your efforts are useless.
You can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website by creating compelling photos and headlines and adding a link from the photos to your website. Again, Pinterest is a very visual social media platform so your images need to be really compelling to make people click on your photos.
Facebook is my main source of traffic at the moment because basically everyone is on Facebook so your posts will get more eyeballs. You need to create a Facebook page for your website and you need to grow this page since people are always on Facebook. Maintaining an active Facebook page is advisable if you want your brand to have more engagement on Facebook. Make sure you mix up your posts as well, besides posting a link to your website on your Facebook page, try to add some images and share some video for maximum engagement. If you want more detailed information about this subject then here’s a link to my previous post.
For some people who want to get traffic immediately, they resort to PPC traffic which is fine as long as you know what you’re doing.
If your marketing budget is super tight then Facebook Ads is the best place to start because it’s very cheap and it allows you to laser-focus on your target readers. You can spend as little as $2 per day on Facebook ads. You have a few choices to choose from when it comes to directing traffic to your website, you can boost a Facebook post if you think it’s compelling enough, you can try to get more likes for your Facebook page or direct all the traffic to your website. If you’re going to use Facebook ads then you might as well focus on growing your Facebook page first because you’ll get more social shares that way.
You don’t know how to monetize your website
There are many ways to monetize a website but at the end of the day it all boils down to probably three main options.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing, in a nutshell, is an arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to your website in exchange for traffic or sales generated from your website’s referrals. Basically, if you promote someone else’s product and people end up buying it, you’ll get a commission out of the sale. Some advertisers might want to place a banner ad on your a website and will pay you for any visitor clicks on that link.
Some of the best ones out there are Rakuten Linkshare, Clickbank, eBay, ShareASale, and Amazon. The best way to get more people to click on your links and get a sale is to create an in-depth review of the product and get your readers to trust you enough that they’ll buy what you recommended. You can even add multiple affiliate links within the blog post to get more chances of someone clicking the link. You can also create list posts so you can have multiple products within a single blog post. If you want a more in-depth information about making money from Affiliate marketing you can click on this link.
Sell Advertising on your blog
Another option to monetize your website is by selling advertising on your blog – it can be an banner ad or a link within a blog post. If you want to take this route then you need a substantial amount of targetted traffic before any company decides to get in bed with your website. They might require proof in terms of statistics that their ad in your website is working to make sure that their money is not going to waste so it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Sell a product in your website
You can either sell a digital product or a physical product in your website. If you’re going to take this route, make sure the product you’re going to sell is related to your niche otherwise no one will be interested. If you’re thinking of creating an ebook and selling the book on your website, try to search related books in Amazon first to give you an idea of what readers want. I would even go as far as read the comments on the book so you can get an idea what is working or not working for that book and you can address it on yours.
If you’re thinking of selling a physical product, try to create in-depth reviews on this product. Don’t be afraid to point out the pros and cons to make your review more authentic and add plenty of testimonials for social proofing. The more honest you are with what you’re selling the more genuine you’ll sound.
In Conclusion
Some of you may question if it’s really possible to make money online.
For some people, it might take time so be prepared for the long haul. Basically, it’s consistently releasing compelling content, leveraging the power of social media and effectively knowing which monetization process works for your website.
As long as you don’t lose hope and you continue to be consistent then you’ll eventually reap the fruits of your labour.