50 Blog and Content Monetization Strategies for 2014 & Beyond

Ready to start making more money from the content on your blog and beyond in 2014? In this guide, we’re going to look at 50 ways you can monetize your content both on and off of your blog.

Monetize Your Blog
Here are the top strategies plus a few new ones to try. Remember that monetizing your blog is all about experimentation; there is always more than one way to do it. Most of the top earners online monetize in a variety of ways.


1. If you are earning money on your blog through promoting affiliate products or your own products, remove any Google AdSense or other low cost per click advertising. Do not lose $50+ in commissions or sales for a $0.01 click.

2. If you write content for other sites, consider the topics you submit carefully. Any topics where the post would directly lead to sales of affiliate products or your own products should stay on your blog. For example, a post entitled “10 Great Tools for Freelancers” where seven out of the 10 tools have affiliate program options should be posted to your blog. Any other topics should be used as guest posts.

3. Add a “Hire Me” page to your blog that outlines services you can offer to your blog readers. If you’re not sure what to offer as a service, think of the things that people ask you to do the most. Maybe it’s help them configure their blog, evaluate or customize the design, review the content, promote the content, etc. Whatever you get asked to do often could make for a great service offering.

4. Add an “Advertise” page to your blog that outlines what advertising options you have to offer — banner ads, text link ads (nofollow, of course), sponsored reviews, sponsored tweets, sponsored infographic placement, etc. — so that people know how they can get more exposure for their businesses on your website. Be sure to include a media kit [click here to use our customized media kit generator tool] with stats on traffic, mailing list subscribers, RSS subscribers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and so forth.

5. Attract advertisers by keeping a high fill rate. If a potential advertisers comes by and sees four “Advertise Here” boxes in your sidebar, they will know the site is not popular enough to receive advertising offers. Leave one available “Advertise Here” box in your sidebar in the smallest space possible (usually a 125×125 space) and use affiliate product banners for the rest until the spaces get legitimate offers.

6. Consider paid placement of content on your blog. Networks like PostJoint connect bloggers to marketers who have guest posts they will pay to place on relevant sites.

7. Share your blog audience with quality publications to earn income. Networks like LinkSmart help bloggers create revenue-generating links to relevant content within their blog posts to sites within their publisher network.

8. Monetize the area beneath your content with third-party content links from networks like Outbrain, Taboola, and even comment platforms such as Disqus.

9. Want to try affiliate marketing, but not sure how? Start with any products or tools that you have paid for to build your blog such as premium WordPress themes, paid SEO and social media management tools, e-books you have read or courses you have taken to grow your blog, and similar. Just search for the product, tool, e-book, or course name plus affiliates or affiliate program on Google to find out if they have one you can join.

10. Already promoting several affiliate products? Cater them to your content by using the Widget Logic plugin for WordPress. It allows you to add PHP code in order to only display sidebar widgets in certain areas on your website. For example, if you write about several different topics within different categories, you can create multiple widgets for the top and bottom of your sidebar that will show affiliate products that match the topic of your posts based on the category (see example targeting options here). You can also have a default widget in both of those spots that show a general affiliate product that fits the theme of your blog for any posts or pages that don’t match the specific topics. This can help boost your affiliate commissions by showing the right products to the right readers.

11. Include a call to action at the end of each and every post, whether it is a call to action to buy an affiliate product, learn more about your services, or purchase one of your own products. When a reader thoroughly enjoys a piece of your content, they will be primed to buy something from you.

12. Turn your blog into a lead generating machine by adding mailing list opt-ins in all the right places: your header using plugins such as HelloBar, near the top of your sidebar, at the end of posts, on your about page, and on your thank you pages not related to newsletter signups such as your thank you for commenting page using Comment Redirect or your thank you for contacting me page using any comment plugin that offers a redirection URL after a form is submitted.


Monetize Older Content
Go into your Google Analytics program and look at the top pages for the last year. Notice a few pieces from several years ago that are getting a consistent amount of traffic? Make sure those pieces of content are monetized in the following ways so that you are capitalizing on all of your hard work throughout the years.

13. Find an affiliate product that matches the topic of the post and add a pitch for it near the end of the post. If your post is still getting a lot of traffic, then it is considered a good source of information. Help people discover more information related to that topic that they can purchase through your affiliate link.

14. End the post with a strong call to action for your own products or services if relevant.

15. At the very least, make sure the post drives people to sign up for your mailing list. Consider having subscribers go to a special mailing list that is set up for an autoresponder series that leads them to purchasing an affiliate product or a product of your own.

16. Have an older technical post that is still receiving a lot of traffic? Turn it into a whitepaper or report and offer it as a lead magnet of your mailing list.

17. Notice a series of older posts that are thematically linked and still receive traffic? Turn those posts into an e-book that you either offer as a lead magnet for your mailing list or for sale on the Amazon Kindle Store.

Monetize Your Videos
You don’t have to create written content in order to make money through your blog. Video content can be monetized as well, no matter what network you place it upon. 

18. Enable the option to monetize your YouTube videos with Google AdSense ads. You’ll need to log in to your YouTube channel in order for the link to work.

19. Include links within your video description on networks like YouTube and Vimeo that direct people to the products or services mentioned in your video.

20. Take advantage of Associated Website Annotatations on YouTube to get links directly to your website in your YouTube videos.

21. Consider premium tools like Viewbix that allows you to add apps directly to videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and other third party video platforms. These apps allow video viewers to engage with your video in ways such as subscribing to your mailing list or learning more about your products and services. Note that apps are viewable on videos embedded on your website within the Viewbix player, not on YouTube itself.

22. Capitalize on the audience of networks like YouTube and Vimeo by turning posts about affiliate products or your own products into videos. People who may not want to read a review about an affiliate product or your own might enjoy a video review or walkthrough of the product instead.

23. Monitor your video comments. If you notice a particular set of videos are increasingly popular and people are asking for more information, consider creating more in-depth videos from those and selling them as a video course.

Monetize Your Podcast
Podcasting is continuously increasing in popularity, and it is a medium that allows you to tap into an entirely new audience if you have only been using written or video content up until this point. If you use podcasting as a part of your blog content in any way, here are some ways to monetize it.

24. Have a popular podcast? Start looking for sponsors. You can look towards other popular podcasts in your niche to see who is sponsoring them (usually announced at the beginning of an episode) and reach out to those advertisers. You can also add it as an option in your advertising page so advertisers know they can reach a larger audience on iTunes.

25. Create show notes for each of your podcast episodes that you direct listeners to. This will be a great place to include affiliate product links, links to your own product sales pages, and links to your services page as mentioned through the podcast.

26. Do you think portions of your podcasts could be compiled to make an interesting audio book? Try your hand at converting your podcast clips into an audio book for platforms such as Audible.

27. Turn an insanely popular podcast into revenue by hosting private podcasts for members only.

Monetize Your Presentations
Do you have presentations that you use for speaking or to supplement your blog content? If so, you can place those presentations on Slideshare and monetize them in a few different ways.

28. Links within presentations are clickable on Slideshare, so be sure to link to any affiliate products, sales pages, services, or squeeze pages mentioned in the slides.

29. End each presentation with a few links that people can click through to learn more about you, including links to your lead magnets, products, and services.

30. Premium Slideshare members can add a lead generation form into their presentations. This form will be shown at the end of your presentation on Slideshare itself, on any social networks the presentation is shared upon, and on any websites the presentation is embedded in. If your presentations are popular, it’s a great way to generate leads for your business.

Monetize Your Kindle Books
Amazon Kindle has provided everyone with the opportunity to be a published author. Regardless of whether you want to be an author, having a Kindle book allows you to reach a massive audience on Amazon. Of course, unless you’re a bestseller, you won’t actually earn a lot off of the Kindle store from book sales themselves as most by unknown authors are sold for $2.99 or less. Here are some other ways to monetize e-books through Kindle.

31. Make each Kindle book a lead-in to a product or service that you have to offer. Think about the topics your ideal customer would be seeking information on from Amazon and create your e-books accordingly.

32. Offer Kindle books that are acting as lead magnets for your products and services under the Kindle Select Program. This program means that you are exclusively offering the book on Amazon and gives you more options for promoting it, such as the ability to offer it for free for a boost in sales rankings and reviews.

33. Interlink each Kindle book you create with others. This way, if someone discovers one but isn’t necessarily interested in the product or service it promotes, they will still be invited to read your other books and learn about the products and services associated to those.

34. End each book with a link to your squeeze page so that readers can become mailing list subscribers. Create a list with a specific autoresponder series that leads the reader into buying a particular product or service.

35. Add links to supplementary content within your Kindle book that are fully monetized. For example, if you mention a product that you are an affiliate for, link to a YouTube video or blog post where you demonstrate the value of the product and have an affiliate link for it.

Monetize Your Infographics
Infographics have been heavily used by the SEO industry as a way to build backlinks in exchange for better rankings. High quality infographics also have the potential to become viral across social networks and sites as large as Mashable. Learn how to use infographics for monetization in a number of ways.

36. Place an infographic on your sales or squeeze pages. Because of the high likelihood that the infographic will be shared, you will get a lot of links back to your sales and squeeze pages, increasing their rankings and conversions.

37. Place an infographic within product review posts. Because of the high likelihood that the infographic will be shared, you will get an increased volume of traffic to your posts, increasing their affiliate sales.

38. Include shortened links throughout your infographic in relation to mentioned affiliate products, such as an infographic about the top tools for a specific purpose.

39. Include links at the bottom of your infographic leading back to your business website, sales, or squeeze pages. This way, no matter where the infographic is posted, people can find a way back to your business.

40. Turn product reviews into infographics, posting them on sites such as Flickr and Pinterest. Include links from those networks that lead to the products themselves. Watch out for Pinterest stripping affiliate credentials in some cases.

Monetize Repurposed Content
People like to learn in different ways. While some people like to read posts on a blog, others might want to hear a podcast or watch a video. Here are some ways you can repurpose your content on an on-going basis and monetize each piece of repurposed content.

Repurposing Text-Based Blog Posts

41. Turn blog posts into podcasts simply by repurposing the text within them as a script. Monetize your podcasts in the ways discussed in the section about podcasting above.

42. Turn blog posts into videos by turning tutorials into screencasts or a little facetime with the camera. Monetize your videos in the ways discussed in the section about videos above.

43. Turn blog posts into presentations by taking the main points and turning them into visually impressive slides. Monetize your presentations in the ways discussed in the section about podcasting above.

44. Turn a series of blog posts into an e-book. Offer the e-book as a lead magnet or sell it on Amazon Kindle.

45. Turn technical posts on your blog into whitepapers and reports. Offer the whitepapers and reports as lead magnets, adding new subscribers to lists with an auto responder series designed to sell a related product.

Repurposing Podcasts

46. Turn each podcast episode into a written post for your blog if you haven’t already. You will want this to be more than just at transcription. Find someone who can turn the podcast content into a unique piece of written content, then monetize it with relevant links to products and services.

47. Turn a series of posts created from your podcasts into an e-book. Offer the e-book as a lead magnet or sell it on Amazon Kindle.

Repurposing Videos

48. When applicable, strip the audio from your videos (such as interviews and Google+ Hangouts) and use them as podcasts. Monetize your podcasts in the ways discussed in the section about podcasting above.

49. Turn each video into a written post for your blog if you haven’t already. You will want this to be more than just at transcription. Find someone who can turn the video content into a unique piece of written content, then monetize it with relevant links to products and services

50. Update a series of older, popular videos with additional details and repackage them into a video course. Link this course to the older videos.

Bottom Line
There you have it — 50 ways to monetize the content you create for your blog, your podcasts, your presentations, and your videos. With these tips, you should have a very successful and profitable content marketing and monetization strategy. Have additional tips? Please share them in the comments!


Source: http://monetizepros.com/blog/2014/50-blog-and-content-monetization-strategies/

Work at Home Mom: How I Get a Week Of Work Done in An Hour

How do you manage your work-life balance?

5 Social-Media Tips to Enhance Your Marketing

Could your marketing campaign use a little flair in social media marketing?

If so, here are five helpful tips to enhance your marketing via social media:

1. Share at the best times. 
There may not an exact best time to post, but data analytics firm SumAll found the optimum times to post on various platforms as follows: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST for Google +, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. for Twitter, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for Facebook, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. for Tumblr, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. for Instagram, and 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. for Pinterest. 

I’ve personally found that women tend to be online late on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. I typically wait until around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. to post. When I'm working with an ecommerce site, the best time for me to post is Thursday night. My previous company Organize could sell almost three times the amount of products online on Thursday night as compared with any other night of the week.

2. Grow your email list. 
Yes, email is still popular. In 2012, 91 percent of consumers reported checked their email everyday, according to a survey by Exact Target, now part of Salesforce. Furthermore, it found that email is the preferred channel for customers.  

What does this have to do with social media?

Since email can be a major asset in a marketing campaign, try to gain more email subscribers. Provide a sign-up form on your website or on Facebook through one of many apps, offer incentives for customers to join an email subscription list or run a contest.

3. Conduct A/B tests. 
How can a company owner learn if a social-media campaign is reaching the intended audience or figure out which components customers liked? Run a simple A/B test, also known as split testing.  

GetResponse can help a business test what works when contacting customers through email. Optimizely can aid a company with A/B testing of its website-landing pages and other pages. 

4. Send the right message to the right platform.
Every social media platform serves a different purpose and draws a distinctive audience. Understanding this can make your marketing efforts go more smoothly. For example, you wouldn't want to promote a law firm on Instagram or Pinterest.

Evan LePage, a writer for HootSuite, explains that Twitter users enjoy an image that has been attached, Facebook users like pictures and can’t stand asking for likes and Google+ followers are passionate brand advocates. 

Test each platform to see how your audience responds. I’ve found that women tend to be on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook, and men turn to Twitter and Google+ more. Here is additional data from Alex Hillsberg on how men and women use social media.

5. Don’t just rely on organic strategies.
In a perfect world, organic search-engine optimatization efforts would be enough for all your marketing needs. And best of all, it’s free. But the world isn’t perfect. Sometimes you have to pay for a spike in traffic. 

A pay-per-click strategy is a great way to get immediate results. Use Google Adwords to advertise near specific searches of keywords and you'll only pay if someone clicks on your ad. 

And all the major social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, offer opportunities to purchase ads. Advertising is available on YouTube and Reddit. Consult Larry Kim's guide on this topic.

When you pay for placements, you expand your outreach outside of your current community of contacts in a rapid and effective way. While organic strategies are great, it doesn't hurt to shell out money for ad placements on social media networks.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235906

Professional SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Internet Marketing Plannin...

SEO how important is it?

5 Website Features Google Loves

Every business owner wants Google to love their website. While search engine optimisation is a complex topic, the starting point is a well designed website that helps Google understand what your business is all about. By incorporating these 5 features into your website design, you’ll build a great foundation for gaining Google’s love.

1. Create a clean website structure and easy navigation

Google’s robots are smart, but they can get confused! A clean website structure and easy navigation will not only benefit the robots, but your human visitors too. Your website structure should follow a clear hierarchy, e.g. with sub pages for your various product categories or services. If possible, each main product category or service should have its own page on your website, and should be easy to find through your navigation menu. Google also likes you to create a sitemap to make it even easier for the robots to crawl your website.

2. Include the right keywords, in the right places

Keywords help Google understand what your website pages are about. Think about the keywords a potential customer may be using to look for your type of business or product. Then incorporate these keywords into your website, ideally one main keyword per page. For example, you might create a page for the keyword “flower delivery melbourne”, and a separate page for the keyword “wedding flowers melbourne”.

On your target page, include the keyword in the page title, meta description, main heading, page text, URL and in image alt tags.

3. Write a blog to keep content fresh

If you haven’t updated your website for 5 years, you may be in trouble! Google is always hungry for fresh content and will prioritise websites that have been updated recently. A blog is a great way of keeping your website updated and feeding Google the fresh content it craves. Posting new articles at least twice a month is recommended.

Another benefit of your blog is that it creates new pages with long-tail keywords related to your business, e.g. “how to pick your wedding bouquet colours”. While there may not be as many searches for this keyword as for “wedding flowers melbourne”, the smaller amounts of traffic you can capture with each blog post will add up.

4. Be sociable

Incorporating social media into your website has many benefits. While it is still unclear how much weight Google really gives to social shares and likes, it does crawl social media websites and will take social chatter into account when evaluating your brand’s online footprint. If you are talked about on social media, and people share links to your website, Google will take note!

5. Make your website responsive

Google likes us to create websites that are useful and relevant to its human visitors. Usability on mobile phones and tablets can be an issue, and Google clearly recommends making websites responsive so that they adjust for mobiles and tablets. That way, you can have one website that serves all devices and is easy for Google to crawl and index.

While there are a lot more factors involved in SEO, these 5 tips will hopefully get you a head start on your way to a loving relationship with Google.


Source: http://www.motivatingmum.com/blog/5-website-features-google-loves/
By Alli
This post brought to you by Frederike Ramm, Ondetto Web Design

5 Tips For Work At Home Moms

Before my husband and I embarked on our journey to try to get pregnant, we did all we could to make sure things were “just right.” (You know the thinking I’m talking about, don’t you? The money, the car, the house, all that in order and straight as an arrow? That. I guess some people call it getting your “duck in a row.”) I switched to a school district closer to home that paid more, we bought a larger SUV, I cut back my Dr Pepper consumption, and drank a little more water. We were prepared. (So I thought).

What I always knew in the back of my mind, though, was that I really wanted to stay at home with our child. I know that’s a battle most moms go through: working and supporting the family finances or being home with a new baby. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I looked for jobs that would provide more flexibility than being in a kindergarten classroom all day away from our son. With every lead, a door closed. Every opportunity turned into a dead end. I was at the end of the rope; I was frustrated, tired, and disappointed.

I was due October 2, 2010, and in August, very much to my dismay, I headed back to work to set up my new classroom (our district re-aligned, and I was one who got moved). I got things set up for the few weeks I’d be there before the long-term substitute came in for my maternity leave.

Then a funny thing happened. My son arrived, and a door flew wide open. I had an opportunity to work from home for a friend’s small business. We crunched some numbers, looked at our budget, and made the leap. I was going to be able to stay home with my son, and I was over the moon! These days, many opportunities are available for work from home income for parents wanting to go that route (both moms and dads).

Now that I had this new gig, I needed a plan in place so that work and snuggles could exist in perfect harmony. Of course, my system was different than it is now with a preschooler, but the basics are the same. It’s not always easy, but it IS possible (and rewarding, and worth it) to work from home and have little ones running around at the same time. Working from home is not for everyone, but here are some of my tips to help work-at-home-mamas or mamas who may be interested in tackling a work-at-home gig.

Pick a time to work. For me, it is easiest to work when everyone is sleeping. No, I don’t mean naptime. That’s my time to recharge before the boy is back up and running. I mean nighttime. I’m always the last one up anyway, and this lets me use my time productively. I know lots of moms who use naptime to work, and that’s totally fine, too. The important part is to pick a time that works for you, and use it to your advantage to get the bulk of your work done.

Organize your time. Use a calendar or list to help you stay on track with what’s important each day. Since I like to work at night, sometimes I have issues that need to be handled during business hours that have carried over. When I know what I have to do, it’s a lot easier to get it completed. As moms, we talk a lot about keeping our families on a schedule, and it’s just as important to keep ourselves on one! I use a combination of things to keep my time organized: the Calendar app on my phone, a paper planner that allows met to allot specific amounts of time to each task, and Notability on my iPad to sync notes from iPad to iPhone after meetings.

Include your children (when possible). While this isn’t always a possibility, it has really helped around our house. My son loves to use my “work papers” to “do work” of his own. He’ll usually pull his desk up next to mine and get to it. Even if the task you give them doesn’t actually have to do with your work, including them lets them be part of it, rather than something that is taking time away from them.

Go mobile. Honestly, this is my lifesaver a lot of times. I can do a good percentage of my work from my iPhone or iPad, so I am able to go and do with my son without fear that work will come up outside of my “scheduled” work time. If something comes up that I am not able to accomplish while I’m out, I use Notability on the iPad or just send myself a quick email to remind me to take care of it when we’re home. You could do the same with your phone or plain ol’ paper and pen. It’s all about finding what works best for you and your family.

Stay Sane. Y’all, this is so important. I mentioned above that I use naptime for recharging while my son sleeps. This is a huge part of my day. I can tell a huge difference in the days I work through naptime and the days I use it to recharge (I’m sure my husband would agree). When working from home, it is easy to make all the time seem like work time if you’re not careful. I had a really hard time with this at first. Setting boundaries—and keeping them—will allow for the best work-at-home experience. Prioritize date night, quality time with your kids, and taking care of yourself! When you’re off the clock, be present and enjoy!

Are some days harder than others? Absolutely. Is it worth it to be home with my boy? You betcha! I wouldn’t trade it for the world, and I’m so glad we’ve been able to find a balance between work and home life that is perfect for us! Are you a work-at-home mom? Thinking about becoming one? What are you best tips and tricks?

Source: http://momquery.com/5-tips-work-home-moms/
By Jolie Gray

6 Home-Based Businesses You Can Start Today, Online

The Internet has paved the way for effortless communication, so it’s no wonder more and more entrepreneurs are turning to home-based businesses. What was once perceived as working from the couch and wearing pajamas while fulfilling customer orders has evolved to some pretty lucrative small business ventures.

With a household headquarters in mind, here are 6 examples of some of popular and successful home-based businesses you can start in a neighborhood near you.

 

Photo: Maison Scotch

Professional Blogger
Everyone’s favorite form of keeping an online diary is also a great way to make money from the comfort of your own home. Blogging from home is growing in popularity not only because there are practically zero startup costs, but also because it’s a great way of turning self-expression into profit. Before you quit your day job, it’s important to remember that financial success with blogging does not happen over night. It takes discipline in many online arenas including self-promotion, content creation, and SEO. But whether you blog for yourself or guest blog for others, blogging from home can translate into a steady (and sometimes lucrative) income.

Online Retailer
The number one go-to source for consumers looking to buy something is the Internet. So, why not take advantage of the Internet-as-a-storefront mentality and sell something online? There are plenty of online businesses to start, so pick a market and run with it. From services to products, as long as there’s a need for what you want to sell, you’ll be in business. For instance, if you’re a website or graphic designer, sell your services to those in need of design help. Or if you collect antiques, source products on eBay and turn your passion into an income. Just keep in mind that customer service is just as important online as it is in person.

Tax Accountant
When tax season rolls around, millions of people turn to accountants for filing help. This spells opportunity for those with a background in accounting. Whether you’re a certified public accountant or you’re great at running numbers for friends and family, starting a home-based accounting business can be a real income-maker. Tax accountants aren’t the only accountants out there. Entrepreneurs are always in need of small business accountants and internal auditors. As long as you have experience, freelance accounting allows you to enjoy working from your home or even in a telecommuting capacity.

Artisan
Whether you’re a painter, woodworker, or any creative type in between, selling your crafts online is a great way to turn your skills into a steady income. Besides, consumers are always looking for unique gift ideas, especially during the holiday season. There are plenty of ways to sell your crafts online from creating an independent website to joining art-inspired sites like Etsy. Likewise, social media is a creative’s best friend when it comes to spreading the word about arts and crafts, so get social with your selling tactics.

Photographer
A picture says a thousand words and starting a home-based photography business is the perfect way to turn every shot into income. As long as you have an eye for photography and adequate equipment, you can start your own wedding or all-occasion photography business from the comfort of your own home. If catching magical moments on camera isn’t really your thing or you’re more of a straightforward photographer, websites are always in need of stock photos. Submitting stock photos of just about anything to websites can garner a steady income.

Freelance Writer
If you’ve ever heard the saying that content is king — it’s probably because websites, online products, landing pages, and blogs are always in need of good copy. With some solid writing skills and a good at-home work ethic, you can become a freelance copywriter in no time without even leaving the house. There are millions of writing options to choose from, so freelance copywriting gives you the opportunity to learn new things or write about topics you already know. From how-to articles to technical pieces to family topics, freelance writing is a never-ending opportunity.

With the right skills and passion, the occupations above are a great way to make your home-based business dreams come true. Do you run a home-based business? Please feel free to share your experiences with us in the comments below.


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