How to Make a Blog Income: 7 Proven Ways

Are you trying to earn a blog income?

Guest author Ige Fizo explains how to earn a blog income even if you don’t have traffic.

He also explains why having a great deal of traffic may not help you earn a blog income at all.

If you have struggled to earn a sustainable blog income, and have no idea why this post is for you.

 

Are You Trying to Earn a Blog Income?

Your Site Traffic Doesn’t Count. Here’s Why.

I’ll cut to the chase as quickly as I can.

Your site traffic count doesn’t count!

Okay, I just steered the hornet’s nest and I seriously get it that most blogging peeps right now would want to give me those tough looks.

I would probably do that a couple of months ago. So, no problem!

But, in this post, I will show you clear proof and data to support my point.

Now, does it really mean that your site traffic is worthless?

No, it means that what matters itself is not the size of your blog audience but the quality of your audience!

Firstly, before we go into details, let’s take a look at these two questions:

1. What is Your Blog Goal?

Sales?!

Okay, I know you blog because you love to share your views – but I also know you wouldn’t mind it a bit, if your blog could end up a money-making machine. So, here’s the point:

We are here for the sales – and the sales = bucks!

Now, if that is it, I don’t want to care if a blog turns up a couple of hundred thousand hits a month – while all they do is make some clicks, check how cute the author’s profile pics are – and then jump off the page like a Springbok (a gazelle with a characteristic habit of leaping when disturbed).

No, I don’t want that kind of traffic.

So, to avoid that, In this post, I will deal with important things you need to do to make sure your traffic counts.

2. Blog Traffic Size Or Conversion: Which is More Important?

Let’s talk some funnel.

I’m not talking about the kitchen funnel.

I’m talking about the sales funnel for a business. Now, if your blog is your business, your blog currently runs a sales funnel – even if you don’t know!

Here’s what a sales funnel looks like…

From the above infographic, even though blog A receives more traffic, blog B is by far the most productive.

Most of the traffic to Blog A is unresponsive traffic and doesn’t convert into sales!

Finally:

Why do blogs have high traffic counts and low sales or income?

In my few years of blogging, I’ve discovered what seems to be the basic cause:

It’s a simple rule: If you get the wrong folks on your blog, then don’t expect the right results.

But I see a whole lot of blogging peeps making the mistakes.

How?

3. Search Keywords and Wrong Content

The search keywords you target and the posts you publish on your blog determines the intention of your visitors.

How?

If you run a blog that gets some monthly traffic from search engines, I believe a good volume of your visitors locates your blog through search queries.

Such queries can fall into any of these three major categories…

Information keywords: People who use these queries do so with the intent of getting information about a particular topic of interest.

Transactional keywords: People who use these queries do so with the intent of making a purchase.

Navigational keywords: Visitors who reach your blog through these keywords already know your blog, know what they want and are more likely to respond to your pitches.

Why does it matter?

Look: How to clean white mesh shoes …

I don’t think someone who searches for this on Google wants to purchase a new pair of shoes. That’s an informational query.

Now see this: Best athletic shoes for flat feet

Someone who searches for such a query has a high intent of purchasing a pair of athletic shoes for flat feet – he’s merely taking a bit of time to search for the best. That’s a transactional query!

Now, if 90% of the blog contents you write are based on informational queries, oh well, you may get the traffic – but it would be a tough job getting the bucks.

The reason is simple: Those peeps are not in the spending mood Tom!

4. What Are Your Audience’s Demographics?

Wait a bit!

Have you ever thought of why companies conduct surveys?

Simple: To know their audience, identify the likely prospect and concentrate their effort on these prospects. Really!

Now, who exactly are your visitors?

If you’ve never thought of this while your blog traffic continues to spike – I ‘m afraid, getting your visitors to respond to your pitches is a tough nut you’ve got to be ready to break!

Here’s why:

If you don’t know the categories of people who make up a large percentage of your blog visitors, you obviously won’t know what type of products to pitch or recommend.

For instance, if you run a blog with a demographic that looks somewhat like this, then selling or promoting a product like “shaving stick for old” doesn’t cut the cake.

Why?

The majority of your audience are females and they are in their 30s – so, sorry Tom, they don’t need your “shaving sticks for old men”.

Another important metric to consider is your interest overview. What makes up the interest of the majority of your audience? Here’s one:

Now, for a blog with an audience interest that looks somewhat like what you have in the screenshot, to make sense of your traffic:

• The most relevant items to promote are fashion items.
• The most relevant posts to publish are fashion related posts. Sorry, but no space for diversion.

You can easily track the demographics and audience interest for your blog traffic via your Google Analytics. To do that, browse to:

• Audience > Demographics > Overview and
• Audience > Interest > Overview

5. What’s in Your Lead Magnets and Email Campaigns?

Blog traffic from your email list is one of the most effective ways for any blog to make sense of its traffic and make money from it.

This is because your list subscribers already have some level of trust in your blog as a brand.

But hey, I do see blogs go overboard with this!

Here’s the deal:

A blog just sent you a link to its latest post: This device kills 100 mosquitoes in short quick steps.

Not bad! But hey, the last time you subscribed to that blog, it was for a PDF download on “how to increase blog traffic” and not on mosquitoes. Tom?

Now, there is a high chance that majority of such subscribers – like yourself – are not interested in the topic.

They either:

• Become irritated and opt out or
• Visit the site out of curiosity – just to see what the guy is talking about. No intent to purchase!

You might be wondering:

So what do you do if you run a blog on lifestyle or general topics?

Simple: Segment your email list.

Research shows that segmented email lists drive 24% more income than unsegmented lists.

Image credit: Oberlo

6. What Is Your Audience’s Location?

Social traffic is one of the main traffic mediums for a blog. But unlike other traffic sources, social contents have very short time span.

Why does it matter?

Suppose you post your blog content on your social channels at a time when 95% of your social audience is past night-time.

Sorry, even if they come over to your site like a curious cat, expect them to jump off like a Springbok.

Now, even if the social traffic is up, your site engagement would be low.

So What Next?

According to SproutSocial, the best time to post to Twitter is between 9am and 4pm.

Image credit: Sproutsocial

But, what if you and your social audience are in different time zones?

Here’s a simple trick:

• Share your posts on your social channels at different hours daily for a week.
• Track your social visitors’ engagement rates on site with Google Analytics.
• Select the hours when you have the highest engagement rates.

7. What’s Your Site’s Brand Trust Index?

Does your blog audience even trust you?

If they don’t, then don’t expect them to respond to your recommendations. Tom!

Now, if you run your blog with the intent of making money from it, hey you’re running a business!

Even if you don’t want to believe it: your blog is your brand.

Noted!

So, what is your site brand trust then?

Your blog brand trust is the degree of trust your visitors have on your blog. Your blog brand trust determines how easily it would be to convince your blog audience to:

• Sign up for your mail list
• Respond to your pitches and promotions
• Purchase from your blog or site

Now, how do you increase your blog brand trust?

• Write a convincing privacy policy
• Put up your contact information
• Write a convincing about me page.
• Have a well laid out and bespoke site design. Amateur site designs invoke suspense.
• Employ influential social proof.
• Respond timely to questions and inquiries.
• Finally, be a trustworthy brand.

Conclusion: What’s the Bottom Line?

Hey friends, It’s confession time!

It took some personal experience and a few stunning moments to accept this:

The success of a blog does not lie in how much of a traffic it gets, but on the:

• The quality of the traffic – and
• How well it’s able to convert the traffic into a sustainable income.

But Friends: I would like to hear your experience.

How best have you been able to make sure that your blog traffic counts?
What are your challenges?

 

Author’s Profile

 

Ige Lewis Fizo is the guy behind incomefizo.

When he’s bored, he jumps up four times, envisions his goals and runs back to his work.

Readers, please share so bloggers wishing to monetize learn Ige’s 5 tips for earning a blog income.