I’ve been getting asked alot lately:
“Why isn’t my blog making money?”
So I thought it was time for a blog post.
This is more targetted to those using blogs for affiliate marketing, but equally if you’re selling your own products, trying to get opt in subscribers, or Adsense clicks. Here goes…
Fortunately, there’s only two reasons why your blog isn’t making any money.
1. You’re not getting enough traffic.
or
2. You’re not pushing enough of that traffic towards the links that make you money.
The first, you find out from your traffic stats, from your hosting cpanel, or external analytics software.
The second, you find out from the tracking stats of your affiliate program, the stats in your Adsense account, or your own personal click tracking for your outgoing links or “actions”
From this analysis, one of two questions follow:
“WHY am I not getting enough traffic?”
or “WHY am I not converting enough of my visitors into making me money?”
The first question is easier to answer: you haven’t promoted your site yet. There’s so many ways to get traffic that we couldn’t cover them in a single post, but what you need to do in that situation is clear… more promotion.
But the second question is harder to answer. If you’ve already got traffic and you’re not making money from it… what do you do?
Here’s a simple 3 steps to monetizing your blog.
1. Before you can monetize your visitors, you need to understand them. If you’re like most bloggers, (or content site owners of any kind) you’ve got lots of traffic, coming from different places, and landing on different pages of your site.
From looking at your traffic stats, you can see where your traffic is coming from and which pages their landing on.
Next you have to be clear about what the people who are reaching your site are really looking for…
For example, someone who found your site in the search engines, from the term “how to train your dog” is looking for something different to the person who found it searching for “best dog food tips”.
And that’s just the beginning.
You have to know what people are already buying in your niche, what info they’re MOST looking for, and what feelings or desires they’re most looking to fulfil through your content.
When you know these things, then you can make decisions about WHAT you promote on each page of your blog, whether it’s an affiliate program, an Adsense ad block, or an opt in to get specific info from your website.
2. Once you understand them, you need to convince them. So once you know WHAT you should be pushing or using to monetize your visitors, you need to work out HOW to push it. What’s the right way to present your monetization/offer/advertising to them that will result in the greatest profit.
The “how” part actually needs a few steps:
a) First you need to get their attention with your links. Some common cures to your ads/links not getting enough attention are:
- Their positioning: You have to put your ads where people will see them. Too many people are ashamed to be advertising on their site, so they hide their ads/links away where no one sees them. If you’re promoting things that you know and believe in, you should be proud to be advertising it.That putting the ads “above the fold”, getting them into the post content, where the readers eyes are going and they are “engaged”.
It can also mean changing them around regularly so people don’t become “blind” to your ads. Maybe one day there’s an Ad in the post content, the next day it’s in the top of the sidebar. So it looks fresh and people don’t get used to ignoring it. Makin sense?
- Their relevance: People landing on different pages of your site are very likely going to be more responsive to different offers. You need to try to get on every page, the offer/link/ad that is most relevant to the people who are landing on that page. Yes, this is more effort than hard coding a banner into your sidebar that shows to all visitors but… do you want to make money or not? Don’t be a nerd, make your monetization as relevant to each page of your site as possible.
b) Then you need to convince them to take the action. Bloggers and friendly content writers too often fear being the big bad sales person. But it’s the same deal, if you’re promoting products/ads/links that will help people and that you believe in, why be scared to put your sales hat on?
You need to include calls to action, tell your readers what you want them to do:
“So dog training doesn’t have to be such a pain, CLICK HERE to learn how you can get a truly obedient dog in just a few minutes a day”
“If you found this valuable, check out the banner at the top of the screen to get XYZ benefit that is really attractive”
etc
And make the call to action stand out too. Put it in bold, a different colour, put >>> towards it, test whatever you like to make sure that whatever happens, they SEE IT!
ALSO, HOT TIP: Include links/calls to action in the middle of your post as well as the end. Some people aren’t going to read all the way to the end of the post and are going to leave your site anyway, so why not have them leave on a link that could make you some money?
3. What you don’t measure, you can’t improve. It’s no good doing any of this stuff if you’re not testing to see what difference it makes. Get your metrics first, so you know how many clicks/opt ins/sales you’re getting per visitor, then start testing your changes. Make a change, leave it for a few hundred (thousand, depending on your traffic) visitors and note the difference.
Stick with what works, and keep testing different variations of what doesn’t.
The reality is that it’s going to take alot of experimentation to be able to maximize your blog revenue but if you’re committed to testing, trying new things, and doing more to truly understand your visitors, anyone can make more money from their existing blog.
If you found this helpful, let me know 
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Thanks for the timely information, Andrew. I just started driving traffic to a new blog and the visitor analysis tips will help greatly.
BTW, I’ve been reading your ‘Crap Cutter’ report – phenomenal stuff!
Best,
Scott – a.k.a ‘Mr. Free Traffic’
very simple and straight forward article, andrew
I admit that I’ve made the mistakes of not pushing the vast traffic that I’m getting on the “money link”
Hi, Eric. I just need to ask you about that vast traffic. I am studying Andrew’s report and trying to implement his strategies. But as a blogger, of course any traffic tip is appreciated. Would you care to share?
p.s. I checked your blog out. It really doesn’t look like you are having monetizing problems right now. : )
As always Andrew, very interesting and useful information.. I tend to believe in the right traffic.
And to add to “What you don’t measure, you can’t improve” is “What you are not getting, you won’t also be able to measure.”
Nice tips here Andrew. I definitively need to “sell” my ads more.
I like the idea of rearranging the ads around the page every now & then to prevent readers from becoming invisible to them.
I also want to use more color in my links.
Thanks!
Thanks Andrew for those money making tips.
Something else I’ve been experimenting with is having my visitors click over to a clean page with content that sells the click.
Cheers,
Nando
Great post, Andrew. I too have been too “shy” to put ads on my site. I’ve only just recently decided to monetize my traffic and wished I would have done it sooner
~ Bina.
Andrew,
Awesome stuff! I like how you break it out for us. I admit I don’t want to be a “pushy” marketer either, but once you develop a relationship with your peeps, they tend to trust what you say:) its all about helping people!
Thanks guys, glad ya liked it
Nando,
love to hear more about your experiments with that.
Andrew
Thanks for a great post about monetizing, Andrew. Useful, doable money making tips for all of us. Let’s have some more…
Good advice Andrew, Thanks.
It even makes sense to a “newby” like me.
Bookmarking this site now and looking around for more great info.
Blessings,
CG
Thanks Andrew for these valuable tips and I just can confirm: traffic, precise niche positioning and wording is the mixture. Also give the visitors more than they expect to get so they come back often…! Looking forward to your next posts.
Martin Bigler
Thanks, Andrew –
Very clear; good reminders.
Some I’ve been doing (eg link mid-post) so I feel pleased reading your tips. Others (measuring properly) I haven’t got to yet (still new!) tho’ I can see how important they are.
I’m also intrigued by Nando’s comment: “Something else I’ve been experimenting with is having my visitors click over to a clean page with content that sells the click.”
Can Nando, or you, or anyone explain this one?
Thanks Cynthia,
I was kinda waiting for Nando to elaborate on that one too
Keep us posted on your progress!
Andrew
Hi Andrew & Cynthia,
Sorry to keep you guys hanging. Regarding my experiment, I’ve included a link to give you an example. Hope you don’t mind.
http://nonstopmarketer.com/how-do-i-start-making-money-as-an-affiliate/
From this post I link to a clean page I created on a blogger blog. From this page the content leads to an affiliate link. I’m getting clicks, but no conversions yet.
It either needs more traffic or I have to change the offer. Starting to post like crazy to get traffic up. Alexa is at 592k.
Thanks for the tips regarding the ads again, I’ve put some up and getting good response.
Cheers,
Nando
WOW! You are straight talk clear & also intuitive in your writting style. Thank you…it makes sense & is encouraging all at once. I’ll be using some of it to drive more traffic to help other parents at my blog motherhoodcrossroads.blogspot.com
Oh man! I knew I’d forgotten something! A call to action. Doh!!! :-/
Andrew,
Very useful article, especially when it comes to ad placing.
I have joined an affiliate program to sell books for webmasters from my website. I place the links to those books (which are very, very relevant to the site content) at the very end of articles. I choose books most related to the topic of that article. And even though I don’t have much traffic yet, the clik-through rate is quite high, like 10-15% of visitors also go to the affiliate website.
never thought of that.
thx
Spot on as ever, Andrew. I always gain something from your blogs and messages. Many thanks indeed for this latest one,
Best wishes,
Mike
Very helpful Andrew.
I feel I don’t lead my visitors enough, so this is something I can work on.
Thanks,
John.
Andrew,
Again you have provided me with more very eye opening solid information of what it takes to suceed in business. For that I will always be so thankful and consider you a true friend.
Thanks Andrew, I’ve been waiting for such words. I’ll try your tactics.