When To Monetize Your Blog ?

When to monetize your blog ? A common and recurring question among new bloggers with as many answers as there are so called “gurus” out there.

I perceive and appreciate the concern behind this question. Many bloggers would prefer to build their audience prior to introducing any means of monetization. And, it is obvious that you have to have a number of readers before you can expect to sell anything from your blog.

Of course, if your audience is a small local community or your family, or if you are considering your blog as a public notebook, the question surely does not arise. But if you are here, it is because you are asking yourself the same question we all asked ourselves when we decided to create our first blog and to make money off it.

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It is my belief that if you plan to earn from your blog, you should do it from the beginning.

A traditional business

Let’s take for example a traditional “brick and mortar” business …

I have never heard of a store owner asking, “When should I sell?” …

A store is open to sell these products from the first day!
Newspapers usually print ads from the first issue.
Gymnasiums propose membership plans from the first day of opening.

Then …

Why should it be different for your blog if you intend, from the beginning, to monetize it ?

In my opinion, and from my experience, it can never be too early.

My own experience

To date, I have created dozens of blogs. Each time, I intended to monetize them but for my first blogs, following so called “gurus” advice, I waited between 1, and even 2 years before doing so. But it was hard to wait that to start making a penny.

Then later on, however, I decided that monetization would be present from the very beginning.

Was there any difference in terms of traffic growth, ranking, or engagement of my readers ?

No, none at all ! I just took more time to make my first blogs profitable and reap my first profits.

In fact, I mostly wasted a lot of time, especially regarding the prospects on my lists.

Monetize from the beginning

To monetize from the beginning has many advantages:

First, it will generate a small income (most welcome). Certainly not huge at first, but a few bucks is still better than none at all. At least to help with some of your running expenses. And you will really be surprised by the motivation and the boost it will give you !
Then you will gain a lot more experience by trying. The first time I tried selling affiliate products, it was not an huge success. But I did learn a lot. And my mistakes had smaller negative effects than if I had a wider audience.
Finally, and I guess is of most importance, by monetising from the beginning makes it clear to your readers what they can expect to find on your blog. And so, you will not have the risk to part with an settled audience which is accustomed to an absence of monetization. This may have no effect, but that can just as well be an issue.

How to monetize rather than WHEN to monetize your blog

In my opinion, there is a better way of asking this question: “How should I monetize early ? ”

Start to monetize NOW!

Some blog monetization techniques work better on the first day than others.

If your goal is to sell advertising space straight to advertisers and sponsors, you first need to first have some traffic and establish your authority before engaging any advertiser. In this case, contemplate running ads on AdSense for example.

If your ultimate goal is to market your own products (for example an eBook, or a course), it is unlikely that you have a product from the start. And even less a product of interest to your readership. In this case, sell other people’s eBooks while you are developing your own.

When did you start monetizing?
Have you monetized from the beginning or later?
Or are you still waiting to do it?

Here are some articles that you will find useful too:

Thanks for reading

John

So, the answer to your question is not when to monetize your blog, but how to monetize it. If you have any other tips in this particular field my readers and myself would like to hear from you. And, should you have any problems that you would like to be resolved, please make use of the box below and someone and/or myself will respond typically within 24 to 48 hours. If you liked reading this article please share it socially and post your appreciation in the comments area below, I will highly appreciate it!

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