Although it is easy to sit back and be jealous of individuals who are now the proud owners of large blogs or web sites, it is important to remember that they were once nothing more than a person with an idea for a blog or web site. Therefore, whether you are just getting your feet wet in the Internet world or have been busy slowly increasing the size of your blog or web site for awhile now, it is important to remember that although the people who are now successful may make it seem easy now, they put in a lot of hard work to get to where they are today. Therefore, instead of being negative towards yourself and thinking that you will never reach the level of success that they achieved, you should use their achievements as inspiration for yourself. They are people just like you, so it’s important to keep in mind that the only thing holding you back from achieving their same level of success is your own self doubt.
Additionally, if you took a poll of all the individuals who are bloggers or web site owners, you would see that the overwhelming majority are at the same level that you are: they are either just getting their Internet property off of the ground, or they have been working for awhile but are still classified as a small Internet property. Once again, while you can view this is a bad thing, it is actually a good thing. It shows that while you may feel inadequate sometimes, the work that you have put in has helped you to achieve a level of success that you should not be ashamed of having under your belt.
While you are not going to go from a small blog or web site owner to a major success story overnight (because there is simply no way to make this transition without consistent hard work), just because you only have a small web property does not mean that it cannot generate any income for you. In fact, when properly monetized, you may be surprised at how much income it can generate. To help you pay at least some of the bills during your journey from a small web property to the big time, let’s take a look at the three top ways to monetize a small blog or web site:
- Memberships: While it is not as common as the second two forms of monetization on this list, memberships can actually be the most lucrative. Regardless of how many people visit your web site each month, if you can convert them from free visitors to paid members, you can use your blog or web site to generate a substantial amount of revenue.
When it comes to selling memberships through a blog or web site, the key to getting people to pay for content is to have unique and compelling content that no one else can offer. While you can’t expect people to pay for general news, you can expect them to pay when you are offering them unique advice that they can actually take and use to improve some area of their life.
For detailed advice on earning revenue by selling memberships to your blog or web site, you may want to consider joining the Teaching Sells program (although their doors are currently closed, they do reopen and accept new members).
- Affiliate Commissions: Whether you are a blogger or a web site owner, affiliate commissions provide a unique way to monetize your existing content. For example, let’s say that you are a gadget blogger. By joining an affiliate program, you can add affiliate links to the gadgets that you blog about, and if someone clicks that link and decides to purchase that gadget, you will earn an affiliate commission.
If you want to take a look at the world of monetizing through affiliate commissions, three of the most popular affiliate networks are Commission Junction, Azoogle Ads and the pepperjamNETWORK.
- PPC Advertising: Although you may have expected PPC advertising to be at the top of this list (because it is arguably the easiest way to monetize a small blog or web site), it is not the most effective way to monetize (which is why it is number three on this list).
The reason that PPC advertising is less effective than memberships (especially for small blogs or web sites) is because all PPC advertising units are some form of a banner or text ad. Therefore, when a visitor clicks one of these ads and leaves your web site, the odds of them returning are very small. So, while you may make a little money, you are probably going to lose that visitor for good (which can make it difficult to take your blog or web site from a small property to a large one).
Even though it has its downsides, there is no denying that PPC advertising can make it extremely easy to monetize your small blog or web site. So, if you are interested in exploring this option, two of the most popular options are Google AdSense and the Yahoo! Publisher Network.
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