It’s easier than ever to start a blog and make it profitable.
In the past, a website could have cost thousands, if not tens to thousands of dollars to create and maintain. It was also difficult to monetize a website. PayPal was still in its infancy. Stripe was not yet available. Email marketing was also limited.
You can now start, maintain and monetize your WordPress blog with just a few hundred bucks (this will vary depending on what you do). It’s not easy to make money from your blog, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier for all bloggers.
ConvertKit’s 2017 state report on blogging found that pro bloggers made an average of $138,064 in profit, while amateur bloggers (86% of those surveyed), made just $9,497.
This is especially true when you consider the fact that many bloggers create blogs to be their boss and leave their boring 9-to-5 jobs.
How do you get from an amateur blogger to a professional blogger making six figures per year?
You need a solid marketing strategy, which includes content, a profitable niche and a great monetization plan.
Also, you will need to be able to perform quick math.
How do you start to monetize your blog?
It’s impossible to determine how many people are visiting your blog or how big an email list you should have in order to make money. This is because it all depends on the product and how you market it.
It is important to have two things in order first.
- Get steady traffic – You don’t necessarily need to have tens or thousands of visitors, but having at least one thousand visitors per month is a sign that you’re doing something right.
- Build your email list: You don’t need to do anything crazy. Here are some examples of people who used a small email list to their advantage.
These two factors are important, but it is primarily about the numbers.
If you want to make $6,000 with your blog, for example, here are some examples:
- You can sell a $200 product to 30 people (e.g. a course).
- A $600 course can be sold to 10 people.
- Join the affiliate program to earn recurring commissions and reach the $6000 mark at a pace that suits you.
- You can even charge $6,000 to consult with a client.
Monetization is math and not magic.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that increasing the price of your products is the only way to monetize. It means that you should choose a monetization strategy to align with your blog’s current or future goals.
This article will show you how to monetize your blog and make money online, regardless of whether you have thousands of pageviews per month or are just starting.
We will show you some of the solid strategies that other bloggers used to generate income from blogs in different niches.
You can monetize a blog that has a lot of subscribers and active social accounts. Dropshipping e-commerce allows you to create a store on your blog and not have to worry about fulfilling orders.
Divi Template can be used to add a new page on your blog called “Shop.” You can also use a CTA button for more attention. Arianna Huffington’s new blog thrive global features an e-commerce shop on one of its pages as well as within its front page modules.
You can link the “Shop” to your dropshipping ecommerce store. Anything related to your blog can be sold. Arianna, who is a blogger at Thrive Global, chooses to sell products that promote relaxation and productivity, such as travel journals, pillows and travel essentials kits. There are many products you can sell, depending on the subject of your blog.
There are many options for starting an e-commerce store. First, let’s talk about what dropshipping is and how it is better than traditional e-commerce stores.
Dropshipping: What is it?
Dropshipping allows an entrepreneur to sell products online without having to store any inventory. You sell the products first, before you buy them from the manufacturer, wholesaler or supplier.
This alone will save you a lot of money, time, and effort. You don’t have to invest large amounts of stock, without knowing if they will sell. You don’t have to rent large warehouses to store the inventory that isn’t sold.
This business model is even more appealing because every order is processed and fulfilled directly by the wholesaler you purchased the product. This makes it much easier for you.
Your blog will help increase traffic to your online store, as well as promote it on social media. The wholesaler will do the “dirty work”, such as keeping stock and processing orders.
But what about the profit?
According the Oberlo statistics, the average profit margin is 200%.
There are two options for pricing strategy. To increase your profit margins with high-quality products, you should match the product’s price to its quality. The second is to price your product according to the amount of advertising. If it costs $15 to place one order, then the product should be priced higher to make a profit.
Dropshipping has its disadvantages.
One of these is that as a store owner you have limited control over how orders are shipped. This means you can rely on the wholesaler for each order to be processed, fulfilled, and shipped. There are sometimes issues that need to be addressed, but good communication should allow you to resolve them.
Dropshipping relies heavily upon advertising such as Facebook ads and Instagram ads. It depends more on impulse buying than keyword searches on Google and other search engines. However, this promotion cost would be offset by the profit margin.
Dropshipping businesses have a limited branding opportunity. You’d be more likely to see the logo or slogan of a non-dropshipping ecommerce store if you opened a box from one. You’d find coupons, flyers, and vouchers for future purchases inside. Dropshipping doesn’t offer these branding options. It’s not available, or at least it is limited.
Dropshipping Business Models
There are three main ways to start a dropshipping business online.
1. You can use WordPress and ecommerce plugins like WooCommerce and Ecwid.
The WP ecommerce plugin requires you to upload each product image and specification one-by-one. This can be time-consuming if you plan to sell hundreds of thousands or even thousands of products. Dropshipping businesses would need to use the plugin’s features.
The WP theme should be modified to fit the dropshipping model. This is probably the best way to sell online but it’s not the most practical.
2. WordPress, WooCommerce and dropshipping plugins like AliDropship and WooDropship.
Dropshipping plugins for WooCommerce are a great way to save time on your WP site. These plugins allow you to upload images and product specifications with greater ease. They also offer conveniences such as search and import, auto updating and ePacket shipping filter. Order tracking and customization are possible.
You will need to manage the e-commerce site yourself as WooCommerce and Dropshipping plugins are installed on your WP site. Dropshipping plugins such as these are preferred by many people due to their ease of use.
3. Use Shopify or Oberlo Dropshipping App.
Shopify platform is secure and you don’t have to worry about security issues. It takes just a few minutes to register and start your ecommerce store. Shopify platform offers many features, including unlimited bandwidth, themes, discount codes and fraud analysis.
Oberlo can be installed to Shopify stores to dramatically improve the features, especially those for dropshipping. It allows you to import product images, price auto updating, fulfillment orders, product customization, shipment tracking and switch suppliers with the lowest price. You can also filter products with ePacket. Oberlo and Shopify can both be tested for free.
Once you have decided how to build your dropshipping website and it is ready to go, you can begin to look at which products you want to sell. AliExpress is the preferred source for drop shippers due to its ease of use, large selection of products and low prices.
WooCommerce plugins that support dropshipping will most likely already have AliExpress functionality. Shopify and Oberlo allow you to quickly select AliExpress vendors’ products and have them uploaded instantly. To ensure that you are satisfied with the quality and services offered, it is a good idea to purchase samples from multiple suppliers.
Oberlo is now available on your Shopify store. This makes it easier to search for products. Oberlo Products already contains thousands of pre-vetted products. This dashboard is also part of Oberlo.
It’s now time to take action. This article is a good starting point. Take the time to analyze each option. A lot of people make good money selling online through their own dropshipping business. One of these people could be you.
