It's quite possible to make money with your blog without ad networks although ad networks help to boost revenue, but it's always better to have something else that earns you money on your blog. I've run this blog for almost six months without an ad network because I was test running some things.
So, here's a quick rundown of ways to earn more money without an ad network.
1. Offer Other Services On Your Blog
Unless your IQ is less than 0.0005%, there's always something else you should know how to do apart from just writing posts and clicking on the publish button.
Only do this if the skill you have is related to what you blog about. Don't do it if your skill it's totally unrelated to what you do . It's would be quite absurd to see a Tech Blogger start offering Food Catering Services.
You'll end up losing readers trust and they'll be like :
If you run a multi-niche blog like an entertainment blog, almost everything fits.
On my blog for example, I offer services like logo designing, app development for blogs, website design, etc.
All this services help to boost my monthly earnings. So my earnings are not tied down by some ad network's CPC or CPM.
2. Search For Advertisers
There’s a popular quote in my country, "if the mountain doesn't come to you, you go to the mountain". There are 2 major stumbling blocks you'll face in this method.
A. Where To Search For Advertisers.
B. What To Send To Advertisers.
Just keep reading and I'll break the blocks to the size of a mustard seed.
Waiting for advertisers is just like going to church and the pastor says that you must get an alert this week and you stay at home without going to work, sleeping all week waiting for an alert .
You don't just sit back and wait for advertisers to contact you, try and reach out to them. Also make sure that you have a reasonable Alexa rank and traffic statistics. The common mistake bloggers make in this method is going for the popular brands that are advertising in their niche. The possibility of these "popular" brands ignoring you is 97%.. I once tried contacting about 50 popular brands in the Tech niche(most were smartphone brands) but only 4 brands responded after some days . I changed my strategy and decided to go for the starters in the industry. I got an instant response the very first day. If Plan A doesn't work try plan B.
Another problem you may have as a blogger is when you want to search for advertisers then you discover that you've hit another stumbling block. "You Don't Know Where To Start Looking For Advertisers"
At this stage you've reached a huge block, without help from anywhere or making research you decide to quit the idea with the mentality that advertisers are hard to find or contact.
On the contrary, Advertisers are everywhere. Brands are always looking for a way to expand their reach. The first place to search for brands that are advertising are on :
A. Top blogs in your niche.
The funny thing about most of the brands is that they tend to prefer a sponsored post to banner ads and you have to be really smart to discern the difference between a sponsored post and a normal post because most bloggers who get sponsored posts craft it in such a way that you can hardly notice it's a sponsored post.
Once you see the sponsored post, analyze it properly. Google up the name of the advertiser in this format - "contact email for (Advertiser)" (remove the brackets). With this you should get their email.
You can also check the banner ads on the blog
B. On Facebook
You use Facebook every day but you forget the potential that Facebook holds. Facebook is in fact the gold mine of advertisers. 98% of every brand runs adverts on Facebook. Facebook has upgraded its pages in such a way that you can contact the page directly from messenger by just sending a message. If emailing a brand doesn't work try connecting with them on Facebook.
Look for the brands advertising in your niche, send them a message and wait for a response.
You just hit stumbling block 2. "You don't know what to send"
There’s a simple way format you can use to contact advertisers without sounding like a nursery school student.
I believe you learnt how to write a formal letter in secondary school or junior high but just in case you suck at letters, I'll give you a little clue.
Personally, I send advanced emails and attach media kits sometimes but I'll highlight how to do that later, I won't want to derail this post or make it too long so the people who have the patience of a fruitfly can still learn something.
Here's a simple format :
Hello Sir/Madam,
I am (Your Name), I run (Your Domain Name). My website is focused on (give a brief description of your blog and vision ). I want to work with (Advertiser Name) because I believe that my blog would help boost your brands online presence and products as well. I'm sincerely waiting for your response.
Best Regards,
(Your Name).
Try to sound as professional as possible, you don't go and start asking a brand or it's representative, "How is your family". It's not done. I believe I've cleared all the blocks, you may now cross over without any issues.
3.Partner With Offline Businesses
I believe bloggers should also be entrepreneurs . You should understand how social media works and know how to reach a particular audience.
Try to reach out to people that have a thriving business and have the vision of expanding their business and taking it to another level.
Don't contact pessimistic people. Considering the fact that some successful businesses don't have an online presence. As a blogger you should meet with the owners of the business and give them a detailed explanation of why they should promote their business online. I won't write what you should say to them because I believe that this method is for people that are smart not people that'll go about destroying the reputation of bloggers so you should be able to figure that out yourself .
If you have a good audience and traffic you can just promote it on your blog and drop the business number on the post otherwise open a page on Facebook and run an ad for the business and keep your own share of the bounty.
4.Affiliate Marketing
Unless you're new to blogging, this shouldn't be new to you. Here's a simple description of what affiliate marketing is.
It's like bringing someone to a store,when he buys a product, the shop owner pays you a certain amount from the money paid for the product .
Affiliate marketing works well in niche blogs. The success rate of affiliate marketing on niche blogs is 85.7% against the 37.2% of multi niche blogs . If you blog about tech, sell tech related products, if you blog about fashion sell fashion products but If you blog about everything and you don't have reasonable traffic go and open a supermarket. I'm kidding though, you can sell everything.
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