Making your blog profitable, plus the best hosting for WordPress

4GHadmin | 09 March 2017
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Digital Online Social Media Blog Working Concept

If you’re enthusiastic and / or passionate about a subject matter – and that could be ANY subject matter – blogging about it is almost certainly going to be a personally rewarding experience. That’s particularly true when you receive interaction on your blog, and that’s most commonly in the form of comments and having others link to your blog. It’s a nice feeling to know your writing is being read, and that others are taking an interest in what you have to say.

For some, there comes a point when they sense that their blog is capable of so much more. It’s true that some blogs are bonafide money makers for their authors and it’s quite common for well-established bloggers to think ‘hey, why can’t I make my blog profitable?’

Well, you can! But you need to take a strategic approach to it and get the most ideal web hosting from a reputable Canadian web hosting provider.

Tips for Making Money From Your Blog

Increase website traffic

You not only want search engines to be your friend, you want them to become a powerful ally in making your blog more popular, and thus more profitable. The first most effective way to increase website traffic is to focus on increasing your social shares. The more people who share your content on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the more people will be motivated to visit your blog / website. The best way to accomplish this is to write great headlines that are SEO optimized and persuasive in prompting people to click on your links. Also provide easy ways to share your blog posts.

Other ideas:

  • Use long-tail keywords and do extensive keyword research
  • Start writing posts for other blogs in your niche
  • Install the CommentLuv plug-in on your blog to make it easier and more inviting for feedback and discussion

Network and Reach Out To More People

Plain and simple, you grow your blog – and in the bigger picture your brand – by networking extensively. Reach out every influencer in your niche. Connect with them, build relationships and frequently share their stuff on social media networks. Be proactive in every way you can to foster good relationships with influencers and other bloggers. Not only is it effective, it’s actually really enjoyable to make connections with others who have similar interests and aims, plus a strong interest in the digital space!

Other ideas:

  • Attend webinars and join seminars
  • Start participating extensively in blogging forum discussions
  • Tweet! Comment and frequently retweet stuff to grab reader’s attention

Develop and Launch Your Own Products

This one is obviously a much more intensive step, but again it’s very worth the effort. Develop information products and marketing them allows you to develop what’s called a passive income stream. More like a steady trickle rather than an infrequent gush, if you will, and that’s actually really preferable in the long run.

Build a specific list of email subscribers who are interested in your products and who are ready to buy stuff from you, and take leads from the people who are already making money by selling information products. Give commissions to anyone who helps you sell these products.

Construct an Email List, and Grow It

Have a look at top bloggers and analyze their income reports to see that their major earnings come from by leveraging the power of their email list. Make sure to integrate your email list right from the beginning. One advisable step is to offer an incentive to boost your email sign ups and make sure to add value to the people by sending them useful newsletters often. Be wary of pitching your products too often – subscribers may end up unsubscribing from your email lists.

Other ideas:

  • Offer incentive to your visitors with a freebie. Freebies like eBooks, videos, infographics etc. can prompt people to sign up to your email lists.
  • Use content upgrades to attract the right people to your email list. Offer a freebie that is relevant to your blog post or turn your post into PDF and make it easy for download. This way you can effectively build your list.
  • Showcase testimonials – somebody had something good to say? Share it right up front

Most bloggers use WordPress to write and publish their blogs. WordPress web hosting is built specifically for WordPress. This type of hosting is often called Managed WordPress Hosting, with the entire infrastructure is designed to do one thing well—run WordPress!

All 4GoodHosting clients will have access to a WordPress blog through their CP (control panel) and we’d love to hear about the successes – personal, financial, or otherwise – you’ve had with your blog hosted by us.

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5 Ways to turn your Blog into a Revenue Stream

4GHadmin | 02 November 2015
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Make Money Blogging presented in the form of binary codeDo you already have a blog? If so, you might have a potential money-maker on your hands. When you find yourself investing your time & energy into something like a blog, it’s only natural that you eventually get paid for it, not only to help sustain yourself, but to also be able to push yourself further to offer more.

A blog by itself meets all the criteria of a full website, and therefore it is possible to use it to create a small business.

By posting interesting, high-quality content, and by adding in the right measures for optimizing SEO (Search Engine) exposure, you can gain hundreds if not thousands of visitors. If you have a stream of visitors, you can you convert that into a revenue stream.

So how do you go about making money with blogs?

Here we list the most popular advertising techniques that paid bloggers utilize daily:
The quality of your content should never be compromised for the sake of advertising revenue. If your content becomes overpopulated with advertising techniques then it will only corrupt the flow of your content, it will seem too commercialized and you will surely lose readers over it.

1. Create or Promote a Product

A great way to earn money is to produce and ship a product and make some extra money from that. It can be a digital (downloadable) product too; such as e-book or even an online course. Creating your own digital or physical product as a blogger should be an exciting path to online success.

Types of products a blogger might create and sell:

  1. Retail (or wholesale) merchandise
  2. Ebooks, Webinars, Online Courses
  3. Software, Plugins, Apps
  4. Video, Audio, DVD
  5. Reports

Note: a successful product launch also begins with great timing. You probably will feel a sense of urgency in introducing your service or product, but rushing could also foil your ambitions. If after second thought, postponing your product launch until everything is perfectly in place could mean the difference between experiencing no traction or receiving glowing reviews.

2. Use of Affiliate Marketing

What is affiliate marketing? It’s very likely that you’ve heard it before. Affiliate marketing is the process of selling some other company’s product which returns you a commission based on each sale.
We here at 4GoodHosting have an excellent affiliate system (add link). Additionally, companies like ShareASale, LinkShare, and Amazon Associate are some of the leading affiliate programs which a vast variety of bloggers use. You can sell branded products easily through Cafepress. These sites allow you to select products of every kind imaginable. This gives you freedom of choice as to what types of products you wish to promote on your blog.

3. Advertising Partnership

There is an array of advertising programs which you can join that will advertise directly on blogs.
You can approach companies directly too, perhaps companies that you like. It can be any company that advertises online. If you have a photography blog, you can write to camera companies, or perhaps film, or frame companies.

Many blogs explore sponsorship with advertisers at present and we will only see more of it in the year ahead. Sponsorship can also happen on a post by post basis, with some bloggers being paid to write on certain topics by companies, either a once or on a regular schedule – some bloggers have actually made big money from their blogs by doing so.

Google these adverting companies: AdHearUs, AdGenta, Adknowledge, AVN, CrispAds, Double Click, Clicksor, Industry Brains, Intelli Txt, Kanoodle, OneMonkey, Pheedo, YesAdvertising, Peak Click, RevenuePilotTextAds, SearchFeed, Target Point

4. Offering Paid Services

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, blogging is going to yield you a significant number of skills, all of which can be utilized together (as a blogger) or individually, and still provide a solid stream of income. Here are some of the most common services that bloggers might promote themselves as being able to do:

  1. Freelancing : Freelance is the most widely known way of working online. As a blogger you can showcase your valuable skills in writing and marketing; there is a plethora of jobs available to individuals with internet skills.
  2. Coaching : You can promote yourself as an online coach who can teach others the ins and outs of successful blogging.
  3. Events : attending events and promoting your services in the real world is a great way to make new connections and meet new friends.
  4. Speaking : If you like to speak, make yourself available for speaking purposes, if some group will pay for your flight and accommodations, you might as well make a vacation of it, if fits your schedule. This can allow you to promote yourself beyond your usual reach.
  5. Web Design : Bloggers are also by virtue web designers, you can charge to setup blog or entire websites for others. Sell yourself!

5. Donations

Donation buttons and “tip jars” have been a part of blogging for years. This past year we noticed a number of bloggers offering fund raising drives.

Flipping Blogs : You can also put your blog up for sale right on your blog itself! Or you can start a service for offering people easy setup of their own blogs, like WordPress.org. Weblogs Inc was sold to AOL for millions.

We hope you have found these suggestions helpful. Don’t forget about checking out joining our 4GoodHosting affiliate program as one method to make some bucks from your blogs. We will pay you once you have commissions of $50 or more. : )

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