WordPress was originally designed to be a simple blogging platform. It was also one of the first types of websites that could be installed without prior coding knowledge.
WordPress is now so much more than a blogging platform. It can be used to create membership sites, e-commerce sites, content sites, and other types of websites. This is accomplished through the use of “plug-ins” and themes, which provide additional functionality. WordPress plug-ins function similarly to apps on your smartphone, and themes define the look and feel of your site.
Making Money with WordPress
A basic business strategy is required to make money blogging with WordPress. Making money with WordPress is not a magic trick. It only takes a little discipline and some Google searches to learn how to do it.
Although there are numerous ways to start a business on the WordPress platform, the most common way for most people to begin earning money online with a WordPress blog is to:
- Create valuable content in the form of blog posts for your website.
- Increase traffic to that content through free and paid marketing.
- Using AdSense ads or affiliate marketing to monetize that traffic
3 Steps to Making Money with WordPress
These monetization programs are simple to apply for and implement on your website. Here are the fundamentals of the three pieces.
1. Create Valuable Content
People enjoy reading content that is valuable. It must be unique or well-curated. Someone’s question will be answered by valuable content (for example, this article answers the question “How to Make Money with WordPress?”).
Typically, valuable content is either entertaining, educational, or both. Listicles and how-to articles are two formats that work extremely well online.
I’m sure you’ve seen and read a plethora of listicles. Articles such as “10 Tips to Apply a Gorgeous Cat Eye” or “Seven Ways to Get Your Infant to Sleep at Night” can be used. Even this article is written in a semi-listicle format because it outlines three steps for making money with WordPress.
How-to articles are a little easier to understand. Any question beginning with “how to” can be answered in a how-to article. This could be something like “How to Save Money on Heating Bills” or “How to Sleep 100% Better Every Night”.
After you’ve created some content, you’ll need to drive traffic to your website.
2. Get Traffic to Your Content
The term “traffic” simply refers to the number of people who visit your website. There are numerous methods for driving traffic to a WordPress-powered website. See the following five methods.
5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site
- Reddit: There may be no more opinionated site on the internet than Reddit, but where passions run high, clicks to your website can be had. If you use the same techniques you use when commenting in forums, you’ll see a lot of traffic coming back to your site.
- Search engine optimization: This is where search engines will list your article in their search result pages, also known as SEO. When you achieve a first-page listing on search engines, you typically receive the most traffic. SEO isn’t particularly difficult, but it does necessitate the acquisition of a few fundamental SEO skill sets.
- Paid traffic from Facebook: All of the sponsored posts you see on Facebook are paid advertisements for businesses looking to drive traffic to their websites. Facebook is an excellent platform because it is very inexpensive, to begin with. You can run Facebook campaigns for as little as two dollars per day, and if your content is even semi-viral, the clicks to your website can be relatively inexpensive.
- Commenting in forums: If you leave helpful comments in forums related to your topic, you can often include a link to relevant content in your signature. This can be very effective, and you’ll be surprised at how much traffic you can get from forum marketing.
- Reddit: There may be no more opinionated site on the internet than Reddit, but where passions run high, clicks to your website can be had. If you use the same techniques you use when commenting in forums, you’ll see a lot of traffic coming back to your site.
- Guest posting: This is where you write for other people’s websites for free. It appears to be a lot of work, but if you can get on a popular site, it can result in an influx of traffic when the guest post goes live and a steady amount of traffic over time.
Now that you have some content and visitors to your website, it’s time to monetize.
3. Monetizing Your WordPress Site
There are hundreds of different ways to monetize and profit from a WordPress site. However, AdSense ads and Amazon affiliate programs are the most user-friendly for most people starting out. Google AdSense allows you to place ads on your website and get paid when people click on them.
Amazon’s affiliate program allows you to link to any product that Amazon sells and earn a commission when customers buy.
It is entirely possible to make money from a WordPress site. It usually takes some time and effort for people to get the hang of it, but there is almost no better feeling than making your first bit of money from a site you own.
