To monetize a site, extensive work is required including collaborating, negotiating, advertising, designing, posting on social media, and employing SEO strategies to build a large audience over thousands of hours. If earning money, the site becomes a business requiring formation as a legal entity, business licenses, a business bank account, and potentially trademarking the site name. A business plan should be made detailing mission, background, capabilities, target market analysis, and financial projections. Potential monetization methods include hosting Google Adsense, Amazon Associates, affiliate links, sponsoring posts, and selling digital products, physical products or services.

1. Tips for Monetizing Your Site

2. 1. First, know that you’ll need to work pretty
hard to make money from your site.
Understand that you will
spend thousands of hours collaborating,
negotiating, advertising, designing,
posting on social media, and employing
SEO strategies to get your blog seen by a
large audience. Don’t bank on your
writing skills alone; you simply cannot
build a successful blogging business
without putting in the work.
:
“

3. 2. If you make money from your site, it’s a
business. So…
1. You’ll need a business name.
2. You’ll need to form a “business entity” (typically Sole Proprietorship or
LLC).
3. You’ll need a business license (for info about how to register a business
in Idaho, see https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-establish-
sole-proprietorship-idaho.htm or
https://business.idaho.gov/StartingaBusiness.aspx).
4. You’ll need a business bank account (for this, you may need to file for an
Employer Identification Number (EIN) at the IRS website.).
5. If you want ownership of your site name in the U.S., you’ll need to file a
trademark through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

4. 3. Make a business plan (from Cho, pg 117).
1. Write a mission statement, describing the focus of your blog, your
goals for it, and why it’s of value to readers.
2. Provide background information about yourself, your experience,
and your blog/site.
3. A list of capabilities, indicating what types of ads you can offer,
articles you can write for other sites, benefits for future investors,
good book concepts, etc.
4. A market analysis: what are similar blogs, who is your target
audience, what distinguishes your site?
5. Financial projections.

5. • Google Adsense
• Amazon Associates
• BlogHer
• BlogAds
• AdBrite
• Beacon Ads
4. Hosting ads on your site (not the best way).

6. 5. Ask a company to sponsor one of your posts
by contacting them directly.

7. 6. Host affiliate links.
An affiliate link is a hyperlink
to a company’s product; the
company tracks how much
traffic comes from your blog
and pays you accordingly.
• Associate Programs
• Affiliates Directory
• Refer-It

8. 7. Sell actual stuff.
• Digital products.
• Physical products.
• Services