Blogging Is The Only Business That Talks About Monetization

Think about it. You don’t open a store and then try to figure out ways to monetize it. Nobody opens a doctor’s office and then goes to conferences to figure out how to monetize their office. Even writers and assistants know that they are going to charge when they start working.

The only people that I know that start making money immediately from blogging are ones that work for a social media department of a company. A lot of mommy bloggers I’ve interacted with started for reasons other than making money. [Although I've noticed that happening less and less, but that's another post.] It’s so easy to just start that many have just jumped in head first. They started for community, connection with family, something to do while the baby had them up at 3 in the morning, or because they flat out love to write. Some of them thought that it would be nice to make a bit of extra cash while others had no clue it was even possible.

And you know what? There are still some bloggers out there that don’t care about monetization. Gasp – shocking I know. If you look really hard you will find a few that still blog for the sheer joy of it. Problem is, their passion or talent comes across in their blog and companies come after them. All of a sudden that passionate blogger is making money and asked to speak all over the country. Then the only thing they know to tell others to do is, “Blog what you’re passionate about. Just create good content. Network on and offline.” [Gag - stepping down off my soap box now.]

Do I think monetization is bad? No way! I personally love monetization and would love more of it. I never before thought about how blogging is backwards – get everybody to come and then figure out how to make money. AND even though the money might not come rolling in the first month there are steps you can take from the beginning that will greatly help your monetization efforts. Have you taken these seven steps on your blog?

1. Use Feedburner and have a prominent subscribe button.
2. Set up a mailing list and ask people to join.
3. Join affiliate programs and start sprinkling the links through your posts.
4. Write good content that you’ve thought about – not just tapped out rapidly.
5. Syndicate that good content through Twitter, Facebook, blog catalogs, and more.
6. Join a good forum or pick a good mentor to steer you straight.
7. Comment, comment, comment!

Have I missed a crucial step? What would you add?