Are you a web design company or a business with a blog? Do you want to make money from your blog without affecting your business’s sales?
If you are using, or are planning on using AdSense, I recommend that you don’t. One of the major problems with AdSense on a business website is it may show an ad from one of your competitors, and you will lose out on a valuable lead for a few measly cents. I have talked about this in detail before.
Instead, you need to find a way that you can make money without negatively affecting your business.
How To Make Money From Your Business Blog & Not Lose A Lead:
So now that AdSense and other contextual ad networks like Chitika and Infolinks are out of the equation, what can we do?
(Note: Contextual ad = Advertisement shown based on page content)
The ideas that I have shared below will help you build relations and connect with authorities in your industry. As a result, you will make money.
White Label (or Private Label) Reseller
Suppose you have a web hosting company.
Your customer who is buying hosting from you might require services to design & create their website. They may need a social media/digital marketing company to market & promote their website as well as an SEO company for SEO related services.
In short, anything that will help them build & grow their website will potentially be of value to them.
You can partner with the other “good guys” in your industry who offer such services to become that company’s white label reseller. This way, that company will get more clients, and you will be selling more services under your brand name (i.e. making money).
For example:
A web design or social-media company can start a reseller hosting business (costing less than $40) by selling domains and hosting to their customers. This way, the customer stays in the brand’s ecosystem, and this company can become the customer’s 360* solution.
To get started with this, you need to talk to the marketing and/or business development people of the companies you want to become a white label reseller for. If you are a well-established name in the industry, I suggest talking to the CEO or founder directly.
Tip: Some companies will not have a private label program yet, but if you explain how it can help both of you, there is always a first time for anything. You can also create a private page or .pdf document explaining your offering & use it to pitch to companies.
To start with, have a page set up on your website providing these services, and all leads via the contact form will go to a collaborated email address.
Alternatively, since all leads are being generated on your platform, it’s safe to keep them under your brand banner. You can create an email address likeservice@domain.com or work@domain.com (learn how to create such email addresses for free) & share the login details with the other company.
For the first timer, it will take a few months to build the perfect workflow, but once trust is built with the company, you will have a good arrangement to speed up & automate this process.
Most progressive companies won’t deny your offer. It’s a win-win situation for both of you.
At times, however, traditional companies won’t get into such deals until they are sure your blog can deliver enough sales. This is where your social & negotiation skills come into play.
But do remember, your goal here is to work and grow together.
Affiliate Marketing
White label reselling is good, but not necessarily the best way to go.
For example, one of my friends is a life-coach & a fashion blogger. White label reselling might not fit so well with her existing business model.
If this is your kind of situation, you can monetize your blog using affiliate marketing. This is more or less the same as running ads, but the difference is that you are in complete control of the ads.
And unlike white label reselling, instead of offering services, you direct users to another brand. On successful conversions, you earn money.
Example:
If you are a web design company who offers website design services, you can join a web hosting affiliate program & earn anywhere between $50-$200 per successful conversion simply by recommending something your client may need.
One important thing that you want to keep in mind: Your recommended companies should not be offering any of the services that you are also offering.
Tip: You can check out this extensive eBook on affiliate marketing for more information. This book covers everything you need to know about affiliate marketing & making money from your blog.
For your business blog, you can create a “resources” page like this, and recommend some of the best affiliate products that are relevant to your customers.
To find the best product to promote, ask yourself this question: What product or service does my customer/client need immediately after my services?
Advertisement Page
No blogger can deny the importance of an advertisement page.
In the marketing industry, it’s called a Media-Kit.
Having an advertisement page opens the door for possible advertisers who may see value in advertising their product or service on your site. Eventually, it’s your call whether or not to entertain any possible advertisement offer.
In general: A direct advertisement can do wonders for your overall income.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the advertisement page which is located here. It helps advertisers know the potentials of advertising on my blog, and gives other necessary details to help them make an informed decision.
If you don’t have an “Advertise Here” page on your blog, I suggest you make one right now. Here are the 15 best Media-Kit pages to help you find inspiration for your own.
There are many more ideas which you can use to monetize your business or company blog.
But you should always:I would recommend focusing on affiliate marketing as it’s the quickest way to earn a huge amount of money from a quality blog. And making an advertisement page will pay off in the long run. White-label reselling can happen and be profitable, but you need to identify a good company to work with.
What other ideas do you have for fellow business bloggers to monetize their blog? How are you doing it? Let us know in the comments section.
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