BBP 138: Unlocking Hidden Revenue Streams for Your Blog with Madison Wetherill

Shownotes:

In this  episode of the Blogger Breakthrough Summit podcast, Madison Wetherill reveals innovative strategies to diversify blogging revenue beyond traditional ads. She emphasizes the importance of exploring multiple income streams, which not only bolster financial stability but also deepen audience engagement. From brand partnerships to affiliate marketing and creating digital products, Madison provides actionable insights for bloggers looking to elevate their craft and expertise.

Synopsis

If you’re looking to level up your blog’s income potential, you’re in the right place. Let’s explore how to boost your blog’s earnings beyond just advertisements.

The Importance of Diverse Revenue Streams

Many bloggers focus heavily on securing ad revenue when starting their journey. However, it’s vital not to overlook other potential income sources. By exploring additional revenue streams, you can:

• Supplement Your Income: Relying solely on ads may leave you with minimal monthly returns, especially in the early stages.
• Engage Your Audience: Offering products or services allows your audience to connect with you more deeply, fostering trust and loyalty.
• Enhance Your Expertise: Creating valuable offerings can establish you as an authority in your niche, distinguishing you from newer bloggers who may not have a deep understanding of their topic.

Alternative Revenue Streams to Consider

Here are some additional revenue streams you might want to explore:

1. Brand Partnerships: Collaborate with brands through sponsored content or social media posts. This could expand your creative freedom while also boosting income.
2. Affiliate Marketing: A lucrative way to earn, affiliate marketing allows you to earn commissions by promoting products. This is a vast topic that could warrant its own discussion!
3. Digital or Physical Products: Depending on your niche, consider creating items that resonate with your audience.
4. One-on-One Training or Services: While this involves more effort, working closely with your audience can significantly enhance your income and relationships.
5. Online Courses: If your content can be structured into a learning path, creating a course can be a fantastic revenue stream.
6. Host a Summit: Similar to the Blogger Breakthrough Summit, hosting events can help you grow your email list and showcase your expertise.

Related Content

• How to Decide if Display Ads are Right for Your Site
• BBP7: The fastest way to make money blogging
• BBP 109: From Stress to Success: Transforming Money from Enemy to Ally with Katherine Pomerantz

Transcript

Liz Stapleton [00:00:07]:

Welcome to the Blogger Read Through Summit podcast. I’m your host, Liz Stapleton, and today we’ve got a real treat for you. We’re diving into the world of blogging revenue streams with the fabulous Madison Weatherill. So grab your favorite beverage, get company, and let’s try about how to level up your blog beyond just ads. Trust me, you’re gonna wanna hear this.

Madison Wetherill [00:00:23]:

There is so much focus for or getting ads on your site when you are getting started in their blogging journey that sometimes you’re not thinking about all of the other ways that you could make money from blogging. Again, this is another topic that I’m sure we have lots of presentations on this week, but I want you to just think about some other revenue streams that you might want to explore. You don’t have to add all of these at once. Maybe you just choose 1 or 2 that you want to explore in this next year and start to make a plan for how to do that. Adding additional revenue streams can help do a couple of things for you. It can pad your income from the just having ad revenue because sometimes at the beginning level of ad revenue, you are not gonna be generating a ton of money per month. So going deeper and having more revenue streams can be really helpful, but it also again allows your audience to go deeper with you and to have more of a know, like, and trust factor with your audience when you have things that they can purchase from you, and things that they can engage with you on. So they’re not just gonna be checking out one recipe and then leaving your site forever, but you’re giving them an opportunity to become a part of your audience.

Madison Wetherill [00:01:33]:

This can also help your expertise and authority in a broad way. And I’m gonna talk a little bit more about expertise and authority in our step number 4. But what I want you to consider is if you are an expert enough in your topic where you are able to create something of value to sell to somebody, that immediately adds you to a different level of expertise than somebody who maybe just started a blog yesterday and doesn’t know their topic well enough to do that. So here’s a couple of things that you can consider as alternate revenue streams or additional revenue streams that you can add to your business. You can do things like work with brands directly through brand partnerships that can be through social media content or through blog content. Can also be creating content for brands. That’s another form of brand sponsorships where you have a little bit more freedom in what you can create for the brand based on what they’re looking for. And you don’t have to worry so much about organic search.

Madison Wetherill [00:02:31]:

You could do things like affiliate marketing. This in and of itself is a whole different topic that has many many points to it, so I won’t go much into it. But it’s a huge way that you can bring in revenue to your website and to your blogging business. You could create digital products or physical products depending on what your niche is. You could consider 1 to 1 training or services. This is definitely not gonna be passive in any way, but it’s a really great way to inject revenue into your business and to also get to know your audience on a really intimate level when you are working with them 1 to 1. You could create a digital course of your content. So if your content is something that you could create a step by step course for somebody to take, that’s a great way to add in revenue.

Madison Wetherill [00:03:14]:

You could consider something like an ad free membership. Kind of an ironic thing to consider once you have ads to also then have a way for your audience to view your site, without ads, but especially as you get to a place where you have a large traffic amount of people coming to your site. This can sometimes make sense. Lastly, you could consider hosting a summit just like the summit that we’re a part of this week. Hosting a summit for your audience is a great way to grow your email list and also to be able to share your expertise and knowledge with your audience.

Liz Stapleton [00:03:43]:

That’s a wrap for today’s episode. A huge thank you to Madison for her fantastic insights. If you wanna dive deeper, be sure to check out her full session from the 2024 Blogger Breakthrough Summit by checking out the Blogger Breakthrough Summit vault linked in the show notes below. Until next time, keep blogging, keep growing, and most importantly keep being awesome.