37. Are You Leaving Money on the Table?

Stephanie 0:00

We know how helpful a blog can be in bringing you more traffic and sales for your TPT store. But could it be doing even more for your business? Are you leaving money on the table?

Stephanie 0:12

Hey there, teacher business owner, it's time to give your bank account a break and pause that ad campaign. I'm your host, Stephanie Royer, and I'm going to show you how to pay less for traffic.

Stephanie 0:23

Welcome back to the podcast and the first week of Monetization March. I am really excited about our episode topics for this month, because I know it's something that we're all feeling in this economy. Sales are down, expenses are up, and really we're all just watching our business budgets pretty closely. As I've mentioned on the podcast before, your website is an asset for your business that you can leverage in many different ways. This includes monetizing your content. For this episode, we're going to talk about the benefits of having multiple streams of income through your blog. I'm also going to share three of my favorite types of blog monetization, and finally, we'll chat about how you can tell if you're leaving money on the table.

Stephanie 1:10

It's no secret that diversification is essential in business. You don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to platforms that you don't own. This is why email marketing is so essential for TPT sellers. Diversification is also important when it comes to monetizing your website. And one reason for this is the obvious: if you suddenly lose one source of income, you still have other income sources that will keep the lights on, so to speak. I think for most people listening to this podcast, the TPT side of the business is likely one of the only reasons that they have a blog to begin with. And so if that sounds like you, I want you to think about if you were to suddenly lose that income, like if TPT suddenly disappeared. It would be helpful if your website was still bringing in enough money, in other ways, to pay things like your hosting fees and other business expenses, until you could figure out the next step for your business. The other reason why diversification is so important is that these small sources of income can add up to a significant amount of money. As I'll talk about in just a minute, many of these income streams really aren't very exciting on their own, and they can feel like they really aren't worth it in the grand scheme of things, especially when you compare it to like your TPT income. However, when you look at it from the perspective of what tool or subscription that this income could cover, it can be more motivating to add that income stream to your business. So for me, one stream of income is enough to cover my hosting fees for the year. So for me, it's like, Oh, great, this pays for my website. And then, you know, other income sources I can earmark, more or less to other things. And it's just, it's motivating to know that my business is bringing in that income on its own. So let's talk about some of my favorite types of monetization.

Stephanie 3:16

As I've mentioned in previous episodes, I've had my own blog for a while. I don't sell digital products through this website, so the only money I make is what the blog can generate on its own. So with that in mind, I thought I would share three of my favorite blog monetization methods, and we're going to kind of rate them from the least amount of effort to things that might require a little bit more effort.

Stephanie 3:43

The first and lowest effort would be display ads. So basically, you can rent out real estate on your website to companies that will pay you to advertise. I'm sure you've seen the ads that pop up at the bottom of a website or between the paragraphs of text in a blog post. For most bloggers, the selling and filling of ad space is a process that's taken care of by a third party like Google Adsense or Mediavine. Once you have it set up, it's a pretty low maintenance way to monetize the blog content that you already have and the traffic that you're already getting. But this can be a touchy subject for teacher bloggers, especially since display ads can be an eyesore and they can have a negative impact on user experience and even how well your posts convert. But they really are a low effort way to have your blog immediately generate income, especially if your website traffic makes you eligible for a premium ad network. Later this month, we're going to dive into display ads in more detail, and we'll discuss whether they are the right choice for your website, or maybe there's something you should skip.

Stephanie 4:57

But now let's talk about the second source of monetization that I use, and that is affiliate marketing. So this is when you share links to products that your readers might be interested in. And this is through an affiliate program where you sign up, you receive a unique link for yourself and then when people use your link, those clicks are tracked, and then if the person who clicked ends up purchasing something through that link, you receive a portion of that sale. So the most common type of affiliate link in the blogging world would be Amazon. And one of the reasons why it's so common to see links for this program is that there's a very low barrier to entry. You could set up an Amazon associate account as soon as you start your website. One of the reasons this program is often overlooked by TPT sellers is that it doesn't have a very generous payout when you compare it to creating and marketing your own products on TPT. But there really are many affiliate opportunities out there. I have three different affiliate programs that bring me monthly income through my blog. If there's a product, a software, or a course that you absolutely love, reach out and see if they have an affiliate opportunity. In fact, I just opened up bring your own traffic to affiliates, because I had so many students ask if they could have an affiliate link. So now it is possible for you to earn back the money you spent on the course by sharing it with other people. The main challenge with affiliate income is knowing how to share those links strategically, and that's something that we're going to talk more about later this month.

Stephanie 6:45

So now let's talk about the third source of monetization that you could use for your blog, and that's the actual content you create. Back in the early days of blogging, sponsored posts were very common, and this is when companies would either provide free product or payment in exchange for exposure in a blog post. Sponsored content still exists, even though it might not be as prevalent as it used to be. There are companies that will still pay you to write a sponsored post on your website, but the content you create can also contribute to other income streams for your business. So just as an example, you could turn your blog posts into video scripts for a monetized YouTube channel. Then you could embed those videos back into your blog post, which will increase the views on YouTube and help you rank better on Google, since Google loves blog posts with video content. And then, just as another example, I'm hearing a lot about this one in the blogging space, because people with very large and active Facebook pages, they are being invited to a bonus program, and so they want to be able to post more, so they can earn more through this program. And so their blog content becomes a great source of monetization for this account. So they take their content, they break it down into different blurbs, they create shareable graphics, and then they publish them to their page. So they're earning through Facebook, but then these blurbs from their post can also bring them more traffic to their website because they include links. There really are so many ways that your blog can bring in additional income. The key is just knowing which streams of income are right for you and your business right now.

Stephanie 8:38

Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself to decide if you're leaving money on the table. Question number one, how much website traffic do I have right now? The amount of traffic you get determines what type of display ad network you would qualify for. So just as an example, if you have more than 10,000 sessions per month on your blog, you would qualify for a really great ad network called Journey by Mediavine. This isn't the premium service that mediavine offers, but it still provides great income. When I discovered that my sad, neglected blog qualified for Journey, I decided to apply, and it has brought my business over $1,000 in just three months, and that's just sitting there. And we'll talk more about the different ways to decide if display ads are right for you but the bare minimum thing to consider is, how much traffic am I getting right now? Is it even an option?

Stephanie 9:34

So then question number two, do people frequently ask me for links? Have you noticed that people leave comments on your blog or they DM you on social media, asking where you found a certain item that was pictured in your post. This is a great sign that affiliate links could be helpful additions to your content. On my own website, I have one link in one post that has kept the lights on for my website for years, because until recently, affiliate marketing was the only source of income I had for my blog. I discovered that a tip I shared in one of my posts required one very specific thing from Amazon. People often click to buy it themselves or just check it out, and I would have definitely left money on the table if I hadn't included an affiliate link in that post.

Stephanie: 10:26

Question number three, do I have other monetization opportunities that I can combine with blogging? So ask yourself, you know, do you have a monetized YouTube channel already? Or have you been invited to a creator fund of some kind? There are many ways that you can combine those efforts. You can use your blog content to capitalize on those monetization opportunities. This might not bring an instant influx of cash, but it can be so helpful in the long run.

Stephanie: 10:56

I know that this was a very quick introduction to monetization, but I just wanted to give a quick overview of the money that you might be leaving on the table. For the remainder of Monetization March. We'll talk about some of these income streams in more detail, including some mistakes you should avoid. So be sure that you're following the pay less for traffic podcast so you don't miss the upcoming episodes in this series.

Stephanie: 11:21

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I'd love it if you could share it with a teacher biz bestie. You have created high quality resources now let's help teachers find them. I'll see you next time.