Underground Blogging Secrets: Extracting Money From Your Blog

by Robb Sutton

With the ultimate goal of pulling monetary value out of your content, you have to figure out how to extract dollars out of words. While we drive traffic to our blogs to get more eyes on our content, if you really want to make it online full-time, you have to build up a digital empire by applying underground blogging secrets that extract money out of your content.

We watch bloggers everyday do it wrong. They post up content, promote it on Twitter and Facebook, sit back and wait for a social media traffic spike and then rinse and repeat. Meanwhile, they keep checking their stats and wondering…”why am I not making any money?”

You are not making any money because content publishing on its own is not a monetization effort. Have you ever looked at a blog and wondered, “how the hell does this site make so much money?!” It is because 90% of all of the income made online (unless you have as much traffic as Perez Hilton and…if you are reading this post…you aren’t) is actually made off-site. If you are really planning on making money in your blogging, you have to realize that your blog content is the means of attracting more readers and your off-site marketing and promotion is your means of monetizing those readers.

So what can you include in your digital empire to actually generate income? While there are dozens of ways to generate revenue…here are the big three.

  1. It’s All In The List – The word email list makes most people flinch up and run for the hills. However, it is still the #1 resource online for generating income. Before you start thinking you have to be an email spammer to make money, that is actually the complete opposite from the truth. Your email list is your means to build up trust and respect with your readers…not spam the crap out of them. Your email list is a collection of your loyal minions that help you grow your business past the couple bucks a day stage. With that respect…comes responsibility to continue delivering the goods (both free and paid).
  2. Your Own Products – When you sell a product (eBooks, tangible goods, services), you income is generated outside of your normal blog content. By providing valuable resources and goods, you further solidify your reputation online and…through that…you create repeat business. The big question you have to ask yourself is…”what do my readers want to spend their money on in my niche?” Once you find the answer to that question, it is up to you to provide the solution.
  3. Exposure – The online world is growing rapidly. With major print productions looking to online resources as a way to evolve and grow, more readers are looking to digital resources over typical print. This opens a huge door for entrepreneurs looking to make it big as you no longer have to compete with the high, up-front capital investment required for print. With enough traffic (and email newsletter subscribers), you are able to provide exposure for companies in your niche for advertising. However, this requires you to step outside of the online world and go after the advertising dollars. If you are planning on putting up an “advertise with us” and sit back and wait for the offers…you are going to be consistently waiting. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, step outside the box and cold contact potential advertisers.

The key to success online is through diversification. If you can take one thing from vastly successful corporations, it is that diversification is the one thing that keeps a profit driven company consistent over the longhaul. By constantly evolving and adding in different methods of income generation, you are able to weather storms with ease.

What would happen if your primary income stream went away tomorrow?

The scary question that most bloggers never ask themselves. With as many viable income streams as you can manage coming into your digital empire, you are able to consistently grow and not worry about disastrous situations. You just keep rolling on…expanding and growing while others falter.

Related Posts

Leave a Comment