The process of marketing has evolved tremendously over the last 15+ years. As we’ve grown in the digital space, companies and marketers have needed to quickly adapt as well.
Gone are the days of well-known celebrity endorsement-only campaigns. In this day and age, nearly half of the entire world’s population is online–and that number is rapidly growing each day.
This is exciting news for marketers as their potential for obtaining new customers is increasing with each passing day.
Influencer marketing works
More and more companies that sell products and/or services are now utilizing Influencers/bloggers as part of their marketing campaigns.
This may not seem like a feasible strategy at first but let’s dig a bit deeper. Unlike celebrities, influencers can be literally anyone.
What’s more is that many of them appear to be influential by nature or have a large following and high engagement rate.
People are drawn to them and trust their opinions and recommendations on a product and/or service. It’s the Influencer’s followers that are the audience that marketers want to target.
Bloggers are no different–Our opinions, recommendations, and reviews on products are taken into tremendous consideration by our readers.
Bloggers have the ability to persuade public opinion by convincing someone to purchase or NOT to purchase a product simply by offering their own honest review.
Oftentimes, they are convincing people who know and trust them (family, friends, coworkers, etc) so their influence can be even stronger than that of a celebrity; regardless of how well known they are.
Influencers can sign up to various different PR Agencies such as Behrman Communications which was founded by Nancy Behrman.
Other ways to make money blogging
Influencer marketing however, isn’t the only way a blogger can make money. Here are a few ways that work as well:
Affiliate Links
This is basically a URL provided by an advertiser which contains the blogger/affiliate’s username or ID. Each time someone clicks on the blogger’s link and makes a purchase, the blogger will earn a certain percentage of the sale.
The number will obviously vary depending on the affiliate program the company keeps and/or what the blogger has negotiated with the advertiser.
Selling a digital product
This can be an ebook, a printable document such as a planner, an online course, or even pre-made design or copy templates.
This of course would depend on someone’s niche. I personally sell an ebook on my blog related to remedies since my blog’s niche is wellness.
Membership site
More and more bloggers are now creating membership sections on their blog where readers can sign up on a monthly basis and receive tremendous value on a certain subject not offered anywhere else.
This one can be tough to maintain as its very likely that new content will need to get created often and on an on-going basis. However, when done full-time, can be beneficial for both for the blogger (monetary) and for the subscriber (value/knowledge)
Using it as a portfolio
This method is obviously a more indirect way to make money from a blog but can still be beneficial.
For many people, their blog simply serves as a portfolio for the their business. For example, if someone owns a freelancing business writing blogs for companies, they may provide samples taken from their own blog.
Or, photographers can utilize their blog to showcase their work to potential clients who want to hire them.
Regularly keeping their blog updated with well-written articles can help to boost their site’s SEO helping to drive traffic from search engines.
Blogging is an excellent way to make money in this day and age. There are literally endless possibilities and once you learn all the ins and outs of digital marketing, all of this will become a breeze!