So, you have a WordPress blog. But instead of just working for the blog (writing in it, fiddling with the HTML codes to make it look good), you can also make it work for you. Did you know that your blog can bring in the big bucks? Well, now you do. The question is, how?
That question will now be addressed.
First things first. When I say that your blog can make money for you, I don’t mean the page where you self-publish whatever you like. No; plugins – also known as extensions – are what I’m talking about. Of course, the plugins have to be embedded in your WordPress page in order for them to be seen, and when they can be seen, only then can they work.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s get to the most interesting part of this article – monetizing your WordPress.
One of the most common methods of monetizing your WordPress is by allowing advertisements on your site, for example: adding AdSense ads to your blog. AdSense is a Google-run advertisement application which you can apply to embed in your page. It generates an income for you – the page owner – on a per-click basis, which basically means that advertisers pay you based on the number of times that ad has been clicked on; or a per-impression basis, where they will pay you based on the amount of traffic you have on your site.
Another money-making method is to market services, products, etc, on your WordPress site by way of using a shopping cart plugin. This plugin allows you to sell things and receive payment through the internet! There are a few available shopping-cart plugins for example Jason R Brigg’s YAK for WordPress which would link your product to the code of your blog entry, making the entry’s code the product’s identification number. It also provides modifiable payment options such as cheque or credit card, or the types of PayPal one might like to utilise.
Speaking of PayPal, it is actually yet another way to make your WordPress (and your readers) become your source of income! However, this method might work better if your blog experiences high traffic, as it is the donation method. That’s right, you can make money off of your site if you add a PayPal plugin where your visitors may make donations either with their credit cards or by electronic debits from their bank accounts. There are many plugins which would enable you to add a PayPal Donate Button to your page. Easy PayPal WordPress Plugin and PayPal Donate WordPress Plugin are two such plugins.
We have now come to the conclusion of the sermon; I’m sure some sort of enlightenment has occurred somewhere between the beginning of the article and this sentence, and the wonders of monetising your WordPress page have been exposed in all their monetary glory. I kid, I kid. Joking aside though, it is now time to view your WordPress blog as more than merely a space for self-published opinion-airing. With the right plugins, it can actually make you money!
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How to Add Banners to a WordPress Website
How to Add Banners to a WordPress Website
Being able to monitze your website is the ultimate goal for your website.
Making Money!
My first advice is to be careful with making it all about making money. If you are building a blog it is important to remember that its about the content, not about the ads. I would highly recommend that you focus on building great content and traffic before you even consider adding any type of advertisement on your site.
The main reason why you don’t want to add ads to your site is you simply don’t have any traffic, so why even have ads if there is no one to click. The best advice I can give you is to focus on building solid content and driving traffic to that page.
Once you have a ton of traffic which you have built value with, begin slowly adding banners, Google ads, etc. I have seen to many new bloggers start to throw ads all over there site, hiding their awesome content. The visitors is there for your content not the banners, always remember that.
Now that is out of the way, you have a ton of traffic and your ready to add a banner to your site. Be tasteful, don’t turn your site into a banner crazy site that could turn your visitor away in 1 second flat. I only have one banner on my site with only my strongest affiliate… Keep it clean and simple.
You will find in this WordPress Quick Tip a very simple plug-in which will allow you to add ads to your site. It’s very simple and easy to do.
For more advanced WordPress users
For more advanced WordPress users who are looking for plugins to upgrade to, here are some nifty suggestions. Imagine a blog reader finding a useful link on your blog. Then imagine the reader clicking on the link only to find out that the link is broken. To avoid such frustrations, have this broken link checker installed on your blog. It helps you keep on top of things by checking your posts in the background while your WordPress administration page is open. It will then send you a notification on the Dashboard should a problem be found. It also checks outgoing and incoming links and you can time the intervals these checks are carried out.
If you have been blogging for a long time, nothing matters more than knowing that your posts are secure and accessible in the event of a fault. Backup your database on WordPress by using this plugin. It is compatible especially for Windows users.
Hard to deal with your codes on the blog? There are plugins that easily colorizes your codes making it standout and easy to read. The plugins are usually free of server dependency and supports multiple languages such as ; C & C++, C#, Delphi, CSS, JAVA, JS (Java Script) and more. For example, the Hex Hub HTML Color Codes and the Code Markup.
You have a RSS feed on your blog, now add to it! The Feedfooter is a handy plugin that puts an extra footer part on your RSS feed. You could place a greeting, an advertisement link or a personalized note to readers. It supports HTML enabling the embedding of banners right on the RSS feed. With 10 spots, you could place 10 different footers which rotate throughout your blog.
This cool plugin is a must have for your blog. The clicks made on your blog by readers are color coded with the most clicked on part turning red. It helps you easily track the most strategic locations for banners and ads and to know which links and advertisements are working and which are not. Having cool looking aesthetics does not hurt as well.
If you are a regular poster, the TinyMCE plugin is a nice WordPress plugin that allows you to change between a multitude of design choices to your blog post. This plugin is a timesaver with many shortcuts as well as a drag and drop option. In addition, linking, imagine and embedding videos are fast and easy.
This plugin brings your blog to new levels. It shows relevant posts and blogs when reader click on it. With high profile websites such as the CNN using this plugin, your blog could be linked to this international site should their news article be related to your blog post.
Just when you think you have seen it all, there are more plugins out there which can make your blog faster, cleaner and just more user friendly – increasing your traffic – which is the whole point of your blog in the beginning.
Monetizing your Blog
Monetizing your Blog
After you have set-up your wordpress blog and begun getting some traffic to your blog from your link building and from the search engines you can begin monetizing your blog. You shouldn’t start monetizing your blog too early because it will turn some people off from your blog. Also make sure that you don’t make each post a big advertisement for some product or advertisement because your readers won’t enjoy that too much. You need to figure out the perfect combination of ads to make money off of your blog while keeping your readers happy.
Pay-Per-Click Ads
Google Adsense is the biggest ad network for bloggers and you’ll be best off using them for your pay per click ads. You simply make some pay per click ads to the size you need them in the Adsense admin section and implement them into your blog. The size of the ads will make a big difference so make sure you don’t try adding too big of ads into your blog. You should try to implement the ads into your blog so that they fit right into the content as it will draw in more clicks.
Affiliate Leads
Many of the affiliate networks offer leads that you can add to your blog and what this means is simply that you send your readers to a lead page where they sign-up for something free. Leads don’t pay that much when there free, but some of the leads which cost money will pay a lot of money. You’ll also find that you have better luck trying to get people to join leads then buy products.
Affiliate Products
All affiliate networks have products that you can promote and you can either add links or banners to your blog to promote these products. It’s best to generally write a review as a blog post to promote the product this way it won’t interfere with your blog. You will be paid on a commission basis for the products you sell ranging anywhere from 5-75%.
Link & Banner Sales
There are lots of webmasters and businesses that will buy links and banners from blogs with traffic and you can make lots of money with ads. You can choose to find the people privately on webmaster forums or you could advertise your blog in some of the networks out there that allow you to advertise your blog in hopes of selling links and banners. Many of the networks work great and will find you advertisers quickly, it’s best if your blog is niched based though when looking for private ad sales.
There are lots of ways you can monetize your blog as you can see, and I haven’t touched all of the methods either. I’ve gone through the most popular methods, but there are some other things that can make you money depending on your website niche. I’d recommend starting out with these monetization methods first so that you can make some money before moving onto other areas. Also remember that you should stay with the same networks until you reach minimum payouts so that you don’t have money sitting in a bunch of networks that you can’t withdraw. It’s a rookie mistake that many webmasters make and I don’t want to see you waiting months for your first check.