Are you a successful blogger looking for ways to monetize your web traffic? If you do not see the results you want from display ads, affiliate marketing, or influencer opportunities, then you may want to consider selling goods or services on your blog.

As a blogger, you know how to get eyes on your content. Unfortunately, you might not be as comfortable with selling. Don’t worry; you don’t need to be an SEO ninja or savvy salesperson to succeed with a blog store. Here are six tips to help you get started with selling on your blog.

Know your audience

Before you start thinking about what you want to sell or how you can promote it, you need to understand the dynamics of your audience. Behavior analysis can help you develop audience personas which will provide insight into the interests, activities, and personalities of your visitors.

Once you have an idea of who your audience is, then you can think about the products or services that they’d be interested in purchasing. Any successful salesperson will tell you, the best products or services are the ones that solve a real problem. Find problems or needs that exist with your audience personas and create your offerings using that information.

Create your own products

While many bloggers can earn a nice, passive income through affiliate marketing or display ads, the real opportunity to grow your monthly income from your blog is to sell your own products. After you have a better idea your audience and their needs, you can create products that they would buy. For instance, if you’re a travel blogger your audience may be interested in buying travel guidebooks, professional photographs of your adventures, or handmade travel totes.

Look at what other bloggers in your space sell on their site and don’t be afraid to ask your audience what they’d be interested in purchasing. When it comes to selling on your blog, it helps to get creative.

Use tools and resources to simplify the process

Many bloggers don’t consider selling on their blog because they think it’ll be too difficult to setup and run. That excuse couldn’t be any further from the truth. In fact, there are a number of resources and tools that make launching an eCommerce store easier than ever.

Take Shopify for instance; they offer customizable themes that make blogging and running an online store a breeze. Not only can you create and launch an online store in one day, but they have a huge repository of free guides to help blog entrepreneurs take control of their monetization efforts.

If you don’t feel like building a store on your own blog, you can leverage third-party resources like Amazon to facilitate your online store and use your blog to drive visitors to your product pages. Amazon even has a fulfillment management service if you don’t want to deal with the logistics of managing shipments or dealing with returns, then going this route might make sense.

It’s not just tangible products

If you want to sell on your blog, remember that people will pay for more than just tangible products. Do you have knowledge or skills that people would pay you for? If so, sell your knowledge as a service. 

Take Matthew Barby, a popular SEO blogger, as an example. His audience isn’t looking for tangible products like t-shirts or mouse pads. Rather, the visitors to his blog want to pick his brain and learn how to use his strategies. Thus, he sells his consulting services through his blog to help monetize and justify the time and energy he spends writing free articles.

Promote on your social media pages

Most successful bloggers have a thriving following on social media, too. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram are great ways to grow your online store. Use your organic reach to share your latest product release or leverage paid promotions to target new customers. Promoting on social media can increase your sales and grow your followers at the same time.

Your social channels should be used in coordination with your blog to help promote your products or services. Look at popular brands in your space that sell similar products and learn from what works for them. Every social media platform is different and what works in one industry might not in another, so it’s important that you research whatever platform you plan to promote on and understand the best way to engage your audience on that channel. 

Promote carefully on your blog

As a blogger, marketing and sales may not be your strong suit. This is fine – but, can create a problem when you start promoting products on your website. There is a thin line between promoting products effectively and overly pushing products. An example of this is the use of pop-ups or overlays on websites. This marketing tactic has grown more popular in recent years because of its effectiveness, but it can also generate a poor experience for your visitors.

People don’t like change, and if you are trying to add an online store to an established blog, you may ruffle the feathers of some of your loyal followers. Remember to be authentic with your promotions and make it match your blog’s personality and feel. Also, create informative content that outlines your products and how it relates to your blog, and why your visitors should care. The more transparent and creative you are with your online promotions, the better the results. Don’t be afraid to promote your products on your blog, just be careful and strategic with how you approach it.

Blogging full-time is an increasingly popular career choice. It’s rewarding, flexible, and for many, very profitable. Bloggers are always looking for new ways to earn money with their website. While passive income from AdSense and affiliate marketing is a popular choice for millions, others are looking for new and innovative ways to monetize their blog traffic. If you want more control of your blog earnings, consider following the tips above and start selling on your blog.

Sell Digital Downloads

This post was written by Derek Miller, a content marketing consultant for CopyPress. CopyPress is a leading digital content production company, specializing in articles, infographics, interactives, and videos.

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