For the majority of bloggers, their blog was started with one intention in mind: making money. Whilst making money is not a great sole reason to start a blog, it’s definitely doable and is an excellent added benefit of running and maintaining a successful blog. Whilst those bloggers first starting out shouldn’t expect to be able to earn lots of money early on, persevering to build up your blog traffic and create a name for yourself, proving that your blog is able to stand on its own will usually result in monetary rewards. We’ve put together five great ways to monetize your WordPress blog.

the-top-5-ways-to-monetize-a-wordpress-blog

Photo by Supertrooper at freedigitalphotos.net

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click is one of the most popular methods that bloggers use to make money from their blog, and also one of the easiest money making methods to set up. PPC ads are displayed on your blog, and whenever a user clicks onto one of them, you’ll earn money. The ads come in a variety of styles so that you can match them into your blog easily – there are ad banners, sidebar text links, in-text links, pop-ups and full page ads available. You can buy and manage PPC ads from companies such as http://clicksgeek.com.

Custom Search Engines

Did you know that you can create a custom search engine on your blog and use it to earn money each time a user clicks on a sponsored ad that shows up in the results? This is one of the best ways for users to easily find content on your blog, as well as being a feature that brings some money in for you.

Sponsored Posts

The majority of bloggers enjoy writing, so why not put your writing skills to use by creating sponsored posts. There are a number of sites online that will actually pay you to blog on behalf of an advertiser. Depending on the site you may be able to choose who you’d like to work with, whilst other sites will have set terms. Either way, you’ll be able to earn money from publishing a blog post that advertises specific content.

Affiliate Links

Most people are familiar with affiliate links, a process where you become an affiliate of a specific company and help them to sell their products on your blog. Each time a sale is made for the company through your link, you’ll receive either a fixed amount of money, or a percentage of the sale. If you’ve never earned money through affiliate links it’s a good idea to gain some knowledge of affiliate marketing before you begin.

Custom Merchandising

Never underestimate the power of good, old-fashioned selling when it comes to making some money from your blog. As your blog gains popularity you’ll probably have some fans who’ll be happy to purchase custom merchandise from you, maybe even sporting your blog name, slogan or logo.

How do you make money from your WordPress blog? How long did it take for you to start earning? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.