Let’s unpack it a bit. As I see it, there are a couple of crucial but separate issues here:
- Getting the first 100 or so regular readers
- Using monetization effectively
Getting Your First 100 Readers
When you’re just starting out, there are a few ways you can bring in traffic. These are three great ones to begin with:#1: Telling Your Friends
While you don’t want to spam your friends and family with constant updates about your blog, it’s a good idea to email them all and let them know what you’re up to.
They’ll often be keen to support you (and may well leave comments) – and even if they’re not in your target audience, they may know someone who is.
#2: Using Your Forum and Email Signature
If you belong to any web forums that allow you to have a link in your signature, use it! (And if it’s appropriate, post on the forum to let people know about your blog too.)
Whenever you send an email, you have an opportunity to promote your blog: add a link in the signature. You may also want to include your blog’s tagline, or a sentence or two about it.
#3: Leaving Comments
While this isn’t a great long-term strategy, it can be a quick way to get a few readers early on. Choose five or so large blogs in your niche and comment regularly on their posts. (Don’t feel you have to comment on every single post).
Make sure your comment adds to the conversation by making or reinforcing a point from the post, or by asking a good question.
If you do those three things, you should have at least a few dozen people who know your blog exists – and some may become regular readers.
Using Monetization Effectively: Considering Advertising and Sponsorship
Let’s tackle the next part of the question, then, which is about advertising and sponsorship.I want to make one really crucial point before carrying on: You cannot ASK people to click on your ads, and you cannot click on your own ads.
(If you do, you’ll be breaking the terms of service you signed up for.)
Of course, you can increase the chances of someone clicking on your ads by:
- Making sure they’re reasonably prominently positioned on your site.
- Making sure they’re as relevant as possible to your audience.
Sponsorship can mean different things to different bloggers. Some will have “sponsors” who are basically advertisers, with banners in the sidebar. Others will take “sponsored posts” – posts they get paid to publish.
You may be able to attract some sponsors with a small, new, blog, but they won’t be willing to pay much.
If you’re not getting approached by sponsors spontaneously, you could look for sponsored posts / ads on other sites in your niche and contact those companies, letting them know your rates.
But…
There’s a deeper issue here, and that’s whether advertising and sponsorship are really effective monetization methods.
The problem with both is that they need quite a bit of traffic in order to work well. You may only get a few cents for each click on an ad (and most of your visitors won’t click).
If you’re new to blogging and want to monetize fast, a better method is to use affiliate links.
Affiliates get paid commission on what they sell – often 50% on digital products. So if you sell a $30 ebook, you’ll get $15.
Plus, with affiliate products, you can go far beyond just putting an ad banner in your sidebar. You could write a review or a case study, or even interview the product creator.
It’s still not going to make you rich overnight (I’ll let you into a secret – nothing in blogging is!) but affiliate links are a great long-term way to make money from your blog.
(Source)
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