How to Make Money with WordPress

Creating additional income streams effectively safeguards against job loss and economic downturns. This guide on how to make money with WordPress presents four strategies to bolster your financial security. Remember, these methods require effort, and there’s no magic formula for instant wealth. But you can explore these tried-and-tested tactics used by many successful individuals.

Implement Display Ads

A straightforward method to make money with WordPress is by using display ads. These can take various forms, such as static banners, pop-ups, or native advertisements. Sometimes, selecting a WordPress theme to accommodate ad space can be beneficial. Pay-per-click (PCC) impressions and pay per viewership are two primary compensation models for display ads. In PPC, you get paid when people click an ad on your Web site. PPI generates income each time an ad is viewed. PPC can be more lucrative if your ads receive consistent clicks.

Bloggers usually work with ad networks, intermediaries that connect websites with advertisers. The network selects ads for your site and compensates you for clicks or views. It’s important to choose a trustworthy network for ad placements.

Google AdSense is a top choice for WordPress users. It’s free, user-friendly, and supports a wide range of targeted ads. Operating on a PPC basis, it offers publishers 68% of the revenue per click. However, there are alternatives to AdSense, some with higher payouts or more relaxed content requirements. It’s beneficial to explore these options before settling.

Considerations for Using Ads

• Networks like AdSense have stringent requirements, like a substantial backlog of quality posts. New bloggers might not initially qualify.
• Significant traffic is needed to make substantial earnings from ads.
• Overloading your blog with ads can alienate readers, as many find them intrusive.
• The prevalence of ad blockers can hinder ad revenue.

Despite these challenges, ads remain a viable way for bloggers with sufficient content and traffic to earn passive income. It’s an approach worth considering as you build towards more lucrative opportunities.

Affiliate Marketing Product Reviews

Writing product reviews as part of an affiliate marketing strategy can be a rewarding way to monetize your WordPress site, especially if you enjoy exploring new products and services. This approach requires more effort than running an aggregator site, but the potential benefits are substantial, including receiving free products or services in return for honest assessments.

To start a review blog, you could use a versatile WordPress theme like GeneratePress, which offers starter layouts and helpful video tutorials. Enhancing your reviews is possible with tools like Otter Blocks, which provides custom review blocks.

Initially, the best way to monetize your reviews is through affiliate marketing. In this setup, you’ll use special links in your reviews. When your readers purchase products through these links, you earn a commission.

A great starting point for affiliate marketing is Amazon Associates. It’s a straightforward program to make money with WordPress, allowing you to generate affiliate links for any Amazon product. Yet, don’t overlook affiliate programs directly offered by product manufacturers or service providers. These can often be more lucrative than general programs like Amazon Associates.

Make Money With WordPress and Sponsored Posts

Incorporating sponsored posts into your content strategy is another method to monetize your WordPress site. These are articles for which a company pays you, typically to showcase or review their product or service. However, the scope of sponsored content can be broader; for instance, an outdoor apparel brand might fund a series of posts about camping tips.

To attract sponsors for your blog, follow these steps:

• Develop Your Website: Opt for a clean, professional theme. Enhance your site with high-quality graphics and ensure essential pages like “About” and “Terms of Service” are well-crafted.

• Publish Initial Content: Write several posts to define your blog’s theme, attract organic traffic, and showcase the caliber of your writing to potential sponsors.

• Identify Prospective Sponsors: Compile a list of businesses in your niche that are interested in sponsoring your blog. Initially, focus on smaller or local companies, as larger corporations often look for blogs with significant reach, like a substantial subscriber base.

• Reach Out to Potential Sponsors: Potential sponsors may be contacted by email, social media, or in person (for local businesses). When contacting them, tell them the kind of sponsored content you are proposing and your interest in their brand (such as why they suit being promoted on your blog).

Finding sponsors might be challenging when your blog is new, but attracting sponsorship becomes easier as it grows and gains visibility. Over time, you may even find companies approaching you for collaborations.

Premium And Exclusive Content

Selling exclusive content is a popular monetization method for bloggers who have established their expertise in a particular field. To make a members area or paid posts, you can use plugins like Memberpress og SureMembers. This approach involves offering premium content that delves deeper than your regular blog posts, adding value to your readers. Here are some ideas for creating content that your audience would be willing to pay for:

• Exclusive Posts: These special articles offer more in-depth information than free content. They can be completely new topics or extensions of existing blog posts.

• Printable Blog Posts: Transform your detailed blog posts into printable PDFs for purchase. Enhance these PDFs with additional content like summaries or worksheets, especially for instructional posts. For instance, Tim Urban from “Wait But Why” has successfully implemented this strategy.

• Ebooks: Ebooks are a natural fit for bloggers. They’re relatively easy, cost-effective, and can be compiled from your existing blog content. Ebooks are a practical way to package and sell your knowledge.

• Online Courses: Want to take your content a step further? Try creating an online course. Your course material should reflect what you’ve discussed in your blog and be delivered with impact. This could include written material, video content, and more. While creating a course is more labor-intensive, tools like LifterLMS can aid development.

Beyond these options, numerous other avenues exist to make money with WordPress, such as podcasts, photo collections, live streams, webinars, consulting, or freelance writing. Any valuable content placed behind a paywall is a potential revenue stream.

However, to entice your audience to pay for these offerings, you must first establish the value of your content through your free posts. Building a loyal readership and demonstrating your expertise are key steps in transitioning to selling exclusive content.