Among the most common reasons for starting a blog is to make money. Of course, this should come as little-to-no surprise given their near-limitless earnings potential. Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch blog, for instance, is believed to generate nearly $15,000 per day in advertisements, while Huffington Post generates nearly $30,000 per day. If you’re struggling to turn a profit with your blog, you should first check to make sure you aren’t making one of the following mistakes.
Ads are Poorly Blended
Ads that “stand out” from a website or blog’s native content are less likely to be clicked. This is why it’s essential that bloggers blend their ads into their site’s background and content. You can do do this by using the appropriate formatting (e.g. color, font size, ad size, etc.), matching your ads to your blog’s appearance.
Blog Contains Nothing But Promotional Advertisements
There’s nothing wrong with including some banners, contextual ads, and other promotional material on your blog, but you should also include informational content as well. If your blog consists of nothing more than promotional advertisements, it may deter some people from reading and following it. And if people aren’t following your blog, it’s not going to generate much (if any) revenue.
Using the Wrong Method of Monetization
How do you plan on monetizing your blog? Some bloggers use third-party “banner broker” services that pay either a flat fee or per click for displaying their ads. These services rarely yield any significant revenue, however, so it’s best to look elsewhere. One option is to ditch the broker service and contact the advertising website directly. By cutting out the middleman, you can boost earnings by as much as 40%.
Another option is to use a cost-per-click (CPC) ad service such as Google Adsense. Adsense will automatically display text and/or banner ads on your blog — based on your blog’s content — giving you a percentage of the revenue share for each click. Revenues from clicks can range anywhere from $0.01 to $50 or more, although most clicks will generate around $0.25-$0.50 cents.
Not Properly Optimized
When creating a blog, take the time to optimize it for your target search keywords. This means using the appropriate title and Meta tags, as well as performing off-site SEO like building backlinks and creating brand name mentions. Optimizing your blog for higher search rankings will yield more traffic, which should have a positive impact on your blog’s earnings.
Broken Links
An all-too-common mistake made by new bloggers is using broken links. If you are linking to a product or signup form, double-check the link to ensure it functions as intended. If visitors encounter a 404 error page after clicking your blog’s call-to-action (CTA), it’s not going prove helpful in boosting your earnings. You can check for broken links manually by clicking each and every link on your blog, or you can use a tool like www.brokenlinkcheck.com to automatically check all of the links on your blog.
Have any other blogging tips that you would like to share with our readers? Let us know in the comments section below!
Image attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenwbrown/
It’s important to have a business plan of sorts for your blog. Too many people fail to research and develop a solid strategy, then wonder why they aren’t making money.
I agree with the need to have a solid plan in place. A plan isn’t necessary if you’re blogging for fun, but you can’t operate a business on a whim.
Thanks for the useful tips. My 2016 plan is to start blogging and I’m trying to learn all I can.