Free Website Content for WordPress

Creating a free website can be a quick and easy way to earn some extra income or to replace a lost blogging income stream. There are plenty of free blogging platforms available, such as WordPress.com, where you can set up a blog in less than a minute.

The only downside is that if you want to be able to make money from your blog, you’ll need to have some form of monetisation in place. That could be anything from selling and displaying ads, to giving away free samples of your content, to selling affiliate products that you promote.

Luckily, you can use almost any form of monetisation strategy with WordPress, as the platform provides you with all the tools you need to monetise your content, whether you decide to go down the ad-supported or free blogging route or to opt for a more traditional affiliate model.

Monetising With Free Blogging

The most basic form of monetisation for a WordPress blog is – you guessed it – to simply put ads on the site. There are a number of reputable, high-traffic free blogging platforms out there, like WordPress.com, that will happily host your ad-free blog for you.

The great thing about this approach is that it’s incredibly easy to implement. All you need to do is register for an advertiser account on WordPress.com, and then create some ads using the provided ad code snippet.

The disadvantages of this approach are pretty obvious. If you decide to go down this route, you’ll need to place a small one-time ad fee of some sort in order to use the service, and you’ll need to keep paying the monthly subscription fee for the hosting service, even if you decide to go completely ad-free.

Monetising With Paid Blogging

Another approach to monetisation that you can take with your WordPress blog is to sell and display ads, either in a block between posts or along with posts. You could use a tool like Adsense to get started with this approach.

This is a popular choice amongst bloggers because it doesn’t require any sort of additional coding on your part. You simply need to install the Google Adsense widget on your site and, once the ad code is added to your site, you can display ads on your blog. When a visitor clicks on an ad, they are taken to the advertiser’s site.

The advantages of this approach are that it doesn’t cost you anything and that you don’t have to worry about hosting fees, as Google handles all that for you. The disadvantages are that you’ll need a significant amount of traffic to make effective use of this technique, as only the top 1% of websites globally earn money using Adsense.

Monetising Through Affiliate Marketing

Another approach to monetisation that you can take with your WordPress blog is to promote products or services that are relevant to your niche, and make a commission when someone clicks a link or buys a product that you recommended.

The great thing about this approach is that it doesn’t require any sort of additional coding on your part. You simply need to install the Affiliate Marketing plugin, create a product or service that you think people will be interested in, and then get to linking.

The disadvantages of this approach are that it can be quite difficult to get started as an affiliate marketer. You’ll need to learn how to find products that are relevant to your niche and how to create the text that accompanies your links, as well as learn enough about SEO to make sure that your content is appearing in relevant places.

Monetising Through Product Sampling And Merchandise

Not all forms of monetisation for a WordPress blog require additional coding. You can actually make money by simply getting people to register for a free account on your site, then giving them something for free, whether that’s a free sample of your novel or a discount code for a product that you’re promoting.

People love free stuff, and if you’re able to get people to register for an account on your site, then give them a compelling reason to do so. A few examples of this form of monetisation include:

• Product sampling, where you give people a freebie along with the email address of someone they’ll need to contact in order to get the details on how to purchase the product you’re promoting. The contact details are then added to the sample product so that they can be easily shared.
• Periodic offers, where you give people a limited time offer, along with the details on how to purchase the product, and then follow up with an email a few days later to remind them of the offer.
• Discount codes, where you give people a code that they can use to get a discount on a product that you’re promoting. The code gets them a discount for a limited time period, after which it becomes void.
• Free books, where you give people the option to try out a new book, with the catch being that you need to keep in contact with them regarding that option. Once they opt in, you then give them access to a free book that became available after the registration.
• Monthly deals, where you give people the option to sign up for your newsletter, and for a limited time, you’ll have a special offer, either in the form of a discount code or a freebie.

The great thing about this form of monetisation is that it doesn’t require any additional coding on your part. So, if you already have a WordPress blog, all you need to do is get to sampling and handing out freebies. You can use tools like Printful to make it easier to design your products, and Marketly to help you find relevant products to promote. This form of monetisation can be very effective, as long as you choose products that people would be willing to purchase, and you make sure to follow up with them, as soon as they’ve tried out your freebie.

Choosing The Right Niche

Before you put ads on your site or become an affiliate marketer, you’ll need to decide on what niche you want to blog about. This is especially important if you want to make effective use of the platform. It is highly unlikely that you’ll be able to monetise effectively across all industries. You need to make sure that you find a niche that is both lucrative and that you’re passionate about.

For example, if you want to create a cooking blog, but you don’t enjoy cooking, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to attract and retain any regular readers. People usually enjoy what they’re reading about, so if you want to use your blog as a form of monetisation, make sure that your niche is one that is both interesting and relevant to your target audience.

Setting Up Your Blog For Maximum Effectiveness

Once you’ve decided on a niche and you’ve got a free WordPress blog, the next step is to set it up for maximum effectiveness. There are a few things you can do that will help make sure that you’re able to monetise effectively: