Back when WordPress first came out it used to be a simple blogging platform. It is also one of the first types of websites that people can install without previous coding knowledge.

Now WordPress is more than just a blogging platform. It can be used as a framework for building membership sites e-commerce sites content sites and more. This is additional functionality brought to you through the use of “plugins” and themes. Plugin for WordPress The app creates the look and feel of your website in a similar way to what the app does for your smartphone and themes. WordPress is so useful that it now powers 30% of the websites on the internet.

Making Money with WordPress

In order to make money from blogging with WordPress you need a basic business strategy. Making money with WordPress isn’t magic. It just takes a little discipline and some googling to figure out how to get it done.

While there are many ways to start a business using the WordPress platform for most people the easiest way to start making money online with a WordPress blog is:

  1. Create valuable content on your website in the form of blog posts
  2. Get traffic to that content through free marketing and paid advertising
  3. Monetize traffic with AdSense ads or affiliate marketing

3 Steps to Making Money with WordPress

These monetization programs are easy to apply and use on your website. Here are the basics of the three parts.

1. Create Valuable Content

Valuable content is content that people enjoy reading. It needs to be original or carefully curated. Valuable content answers someone’s question (like this article answered “How to make money with WordPress?”).

Valuable content is usually entertaining educational or both. Two formats that work very well online are list articles and guide articles.

I am sure you have seen and read many lists. They can take the form of articles such as “10 Tips for Using Gorgeous Cat Eyes” or “Seven Ways to Get Babies to Sleep at Night.” Even this article is in semi-list format as it gives you three steps Make money with WordPress.

The how-to article is more self-explanatory. Any question that begins with a “how to” can be answered in a “how to” article. This could be something like “how to save on heating bills” or “how to sleep 100% better every night”.

After creating some content you need to drive traffic to your website.

2. Get Traffic to Your Content

Traffic simply refers to the people visiting your website. There are many ways to get traffic to your WordPress powered website. See the five methods listed below.

5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site

  1. Search Engine Optimization: Also known as SEO – this is where search engines list your articles in their search results pages. Usually you get the most traffic when you get a first page listing on a search engine. SEO is not very difficult but it does require you to learn Some basic SEO skill sets.
  2. Comment in forums: If you comment in forums related to your topic and in a helpful way you can often include a link to the relevant content in your signature. It really works and you will be surprised how much traffic you can get with forum marketing.
  3. Paid traffic from Facebook: All the sponsored posts you see on Facebook are businesses paying for traffic to their website. Facebook is a great platform because it has a very low cost to start. If your content is Even semi-viral clicks to your website can be pretty cheap.
  4. Reddit: Arguably there’s no place on the web more opinionated than Reddit but getting your website high traffic. Using the same techniques you use when posting comments in forums you will often see traffic returning to your site.
  5. Guest Posting: This is where you write for other people’s sites for free. This may seem like a lot of work but if you have access to a heavily trafficked website it will cause an influx of traffic when guest posts go live and steady traffic over time.

Now that you have some content and someone is visiting your site – it’s time to monetize.

3. Monetizing Your WordPress Site

There are hundreds of different ways to monetize and make money from your WordPress site. But for most people the easiest way to get started is with AdSense ads and the Amazon affiliate program. AdSense run by Google allows you to place ads on your website and get paid when people click on them.

Amazon’s affiliate program lets you link to any product Amazon has to offer and gives you a commission when people buy.

It is entirely possible to make money from a WordPress site. It usually takes a little time and effort for people to get the hang of it but there are few better feelings than making your first buck from a website you own.