Selling products through your blog is a huge step towards becoming a successful blogger. It has many aspects to it which a person should keep in mind while planning. You may have seen many bloggers who have links to a specific product which they use in their blogs.
Moreover, you may have seen some members of the audience asking about the product or service to buy it. This is the power of blogging and influencing. People have tons of options to choose from nowadays, and they need help. Sometimes they are looking to find a solution to their problem, and a product helps them solve it. So, the need to find the perfect product or service is there, and you can help them out in deciding that.
People have their favorite shopping place or eating place, and that is because they have developed trust and taste in that place. In the same way, your blog can become a platform to get suggestions on specific products or services.
Selling products through blogging helps you to earn a full-time income as well as follow your passion for writing. So let us understand the concepts behind building a good blog which helps people decide what to purchase and where to purchase from.
1. Build Your Blog
Firstly, you must focus on your blog and what it will hold for your audience. This is the deciding factor in your blogging journey as whatever niche you choose, your products will follow it. There are many blogs that are built for the purpose of selling products or services. Also, marketing via blogging is one of the most popular methods being used by many popular digital companies. Similarly, your blog could also follow the same path. However, it is imperative that you first focus on your passion and write about a topic which you genuinely enjoy.
This will help you build and maintain your blog. You must be consistent with your blogging, and for that, you should be indulged with the topic. Moreover, the research required in writing would become easy as well as an intriguing task for you if you focus on topics you like.
Your niche could be anything which you may like or may have expert knowledge on. A blogger with a diploma in fashion trade could easily spread their knowledge with the help of a blog. Similarly, a computer science student can write blogs on all problems and their solutions that are computer-related.
The possibilities are endless, and any niche has the power to attract the audience to the blog when maintained correctly. Don’t be afraid that your niche is not unique; there are several bloggers writing on the same niche. However, what matters is that you provide a good, helpful, entertaining, and quality content to your audience.
Focus on helping your audience and following your passion, and everything else will come easily to you. In short, blogging is the building block of your business, so treat it like such. The more solid your base is, the more revenue you can generate through your blogs.
2. Build an Audience
There are thousands of people waiting to read something good on the Internet. People read the same topics again and again because they find something different and intriguing each time. One blog could help them out, but the other could provide them with better tips to solve their problems. So, we can see how the blogging industry can be heavily competitive.
In all this, your job is to attract people to your blog so that you can start earning through your blogs. Around 32.2% of people agree to have started blogging to earn a full-time income. This proves that many of us are ready to devote to blogging as a full-time job or a business. However, this does not mean that you can do all this without building an audience first.
Also Read: How to Increase Traffic to Your WordPress Blog Easily
There can be no sure way to earn money without having people coming to your blog site. They are the ones who will buy the product or service that you will recommend. On top of that, they are not going to follow you blindly without first building trust in you and your blogs. It is your job to earn their trust and make them feel valued; this is the only way you can start building a strong audience.
Come up with a topic which a reader could be searching for in need of a solution. Moreover, write about trendy topics and present well-researched content, backed with relevant and factual data, to your audience. Gradually your voice will have value in the reader’s minds, and they will finally start trusting you. They will become the core audience of your blogs, and your blog will generate goodwill, which is essential if you want to start earning.
3. Know Your Audiences’ Needs
Deciding on a product or service depends heavily on demand for the product in the market. Therefore, it becomes your duty to analyze what the audience wants. You can convert your readers into customers only by recommending the things they would be interested in buying. A blog is a good way to integrate a product or service of use in it and explain its usefulness.
Readers are already hooked to your content and are interested in the niche; they only require a little push. This push is where you come in and explain the pros and cons of the product or simply describe how it helped you.
Moreover, a great way to know what your audience wants is by analyzing who is reading your blogs. Jump to your blog’s analytics, read their comments, get the geographical location. All these will help you understand the age group and ideology of your audience, which is very useful data if used wisely.
If most of your readers are young students, you could present them with online courses, books, workshops, and guidance. As a result, it will attract them and will help them out in their life. On the other hand, if your niche is on finance, you would know that the majority of your audience are adults who would want an investment plan. Therefore, you can present them with your service to help them decide, or you could recommend them a firm.
In both scenarios, you will earn income either directly or through the referral commission.
Also Read: Ways to Make Money from Blogging
In conclusion, analyze your audience base and think of what you could recommend to them, which would be beneficial to them.
4. Create a Professional Blog
Your blog page is a place where you are planning to convert your traffic into customers. If you are doing it on a mediocre page, then, believe me, you are going to have a hard time.
All the other things you mentioned in this article are necessary as well, but even all of them combined will fail your initiatives if you do not have a good looking blog layout.
The thing with a professional-looking blog is that there is no definite theme available for this. In fact, there is a unique design that needs to go with the niche you are working on.
For example, if you are selling hard rock bands’ merchandise, you need to make sure your blog layout represent the brand you are working with. Ideally, here, a simple and light layout will not work. Rather, a blog with a dark and rocking layout will fit much better.
On the other hand, a digital product brand blog will look better with a light and spacious layout. So, the look and feel of the blog matters a lot, and you need to make sure that your blog’s design suits the theme of your blog as well.
So, now we know the problem, but customizing the blog page is no easy task if you choose to go with the coding path. But there is another easy way which you can go with.
How to Create a Professional Blog Layout Easily?
For customizing your blog page layout, you can use the Blog Designer plugin, which allows you to change almost every aspect of your blog archive pages and the blog pages. You get 50+ predesigned blog designs that you can choose from. You can further customize these blog pages easily using the options given in the customization of the blog page.
If you wish to learn more about the Blog Designer Plugin, check here. You can literally customize and create a professional blog layout for any niche out there without writing a single line of code.
5. Sell Other’s Products
Selling someone else’s products is an easy and effective way to earn a good income through your blog. It requires no investment in stock, storeroom, workers, machinery, packaging, marketing, etc. All the investments are made by the business you are referring to. The readers go to the websites of these businesses because you recommended them their product or service.
The recommendation accrues a commission to you, which is paid by the product manufacturer. You can do this by reviewing the product or service; it should be honest and descriptive to convince the customers.
Referring a product works through affiliated links in your blog. When a reader clicks it, it takes him to the seller’s website. When you do this, a cookie is generated in the reader’s computer, which a manufacturer can check for when a person makes a purchase. So, he pays the blogger commission for referring to him.
Amazon is the biggest online retailer in the world and thus has a huge number of retailers selling their products on the platform. Therefore, Amazon’s affiliate program is a great way to earn by referring to other people’s products on your blog. You would usually find products around your niche on Amazon, and you can even select a retailer you trust.
Similarly, you can find that other online retailers also have some affiliate programs which you can join. Furthermore, you can contact a manufacturer on your own and ask them to share revenue on every referral sale.
6. Sell Your Products
You can sell many types of products in your blog, and the types will depend upon your investment and needs. Selling digital goods is common amongst bloggers because they are cheap to make and easy to transfer to customers. In addition, there is no need to have a stock of it, and there is no fear of transportation failure or delay.
Moreover, almost any niche could have digital items for their readers to purchase. You can deliver e-books, online courses, graphics designs, video editing services, tutorials, software, plugins, apps, etc. for your readers. All such products and services have their value to them because you have made it valuable to the readers. They trust you, and they want to learn from you or use your service to make their life or task easier.
Moreover, this is the best income source for your blog, as there are no middlemen in between you and your audience. Therefore, the more digital products you have for sale, the more income you can generate.
Physical goods require some investment to start your business. It requires funds for many things like storage cost, manufacturing cost, electricity cost, transportation cost, salary, etc. It is usually for people who have a good idea of what they are getting into because if they don’t, then it becomes a nightmare.
Most importantly, selling physical products require a lot of your time, which may get in your way of writing blogs. But, as it has more risk, it has more rewards. So, if it is possible for you to manage your time and funds properly, then go with selling physical goods.
7. Always be Relevant to Your Niche
Now comes the part where you decide what your focus products will be. They have to be relevant to your niche. Your readers should be able to relate to the product, and they should feel like the product or service will make their life easier and more comfortable.
There is no use of products that seem like a cash grab for the customers. Products or services which you recommend should synergize with your blog and give the best outcome to the audience.
For instance, a travel blogger will not recommend a vacuum cleaner to his audience. Camera, travel vouchers, photographs, flight discount vouchers will show a better conversion rate of his audience.
Firstly, the readers get to know the content of the blog; they build trust, and then they follow your advice. Thus, in the end, they feel confident about the product that you are presenting to them. There is no short-cut to this, and even if there was, it would not last for much longer.
8. Be a Blogger, Not a Seller
People do not visit a blog site thinking of buying a product; they visit to look at the content. Therefore, if you start acting like a salesman on every blog, then people are less likely to enjoy your content. Remember, you are building a blog site and not a marketplace, your blogs speak to your audience, and your authenticity gives them the trust they need to make the purchase.
You are marketing through your blogs, and the stories in the blogs give the product their value. In other words, there are several products of similar nature, but products that you recommend have meaning to the readers. Therefore, using this logic, both you and the audience can benefit from the transaction.
It is a blogger’s job to make exciting, intriguing, and helpful content for his audience. Therefore, when he succeeds in it, he is called a successful blogger. Otherwise, he becomes irrelevant in no time.
For instance, if you are trying to help people in deciding for an investment opportunity, then you could easily give them in-depth knowledge to help them out. You should not be a greedy person holding on to important info to sell later. Instead, let them in on the secret and give your audience correct and valuable tips. This will improve the quality of your content and give your blog an edge over your competitors.
Now, you can provide them an even better, in-depth, systematic guide to financial investment in the form of an e-book. This is the ideology you should go with when you are thinking of selling your products in your blog.
9. Support & Check Recommended Products
Always recommend products or services which you believe in. The audience could easily find out if you genuinely support the product or not. So, make sure that the products are liked by you and they make your life and work easier.
Also Read: Blogging Tools to Make You a Better Blogger
Some bloggers get sponsored deals in which they are paid to review and promote a product. In such cases, it becomes a little difficult to be honest about the product. But, it is best to be your usual self and review it honestly. Also, make sure to disclose information about sponsored products to your audience.
The products should be such that customers feel satisfied and get what they paid for. In other words, they should not be charged reasonably on any item or service. In addition, the product should be the same as advertised.
If the customers feel that they have been duped in any way, financially or otherwise, then it will be your reputation, which will take the hit.
Never let your reputation and authenticity take a hit.
It takes a lot of time and effort to win the audience’s trust. Therefore, if you present them products without a prior check, then you will be termed as unreliable by your community.
Maintain the trust factor between you and your audience, and all will go according to your plans.
10. Communicate With Audience
Communication is essential, and when you have to maintain a large audience, it becomes an even more imperative element. The audience will not trust just any blogger on the Internet; they will want to know who is behind the blog.
It is obvious, why would anyone just give away money on the advice of an unknown person. Therefore, you must also invest yourself into getting to know your audience and conversing with them. You can start by replying to the people’s comments on your blogs and replying to them on social media posts.
Moreover, respond to the emails from your audience, it will work better than most marketing techniques businesses use these days.
Communication also helps you build a community around your blog, which is a must-have to become a successful blogger. The community can help you in deciding what products they are more willing to purchase and what more they want to read about. In short, it will help you make your job easier and more fun as you will get to listen to your audience.
11. Have Patience
Selling products require a lot of time and patience, so jumping into the business and expecting a huge income is not an ideal approach. Your focus should be on work and planning instead of looking for money. Though all this you are doing is for earning a good income, you cannot do it if you are unfocused and impatient.
Firstly, you will have to take every action to make it reachable to a large audience. Secondly, you must be consistent in publishing your blogs. Thirdly, you should communicate with your audience and help build a community around your blog. Fourthly, you should decide on a relevant product to sell on your blog and also decide whether it will be your own or someone else’s product.
When you are done with all this, you will have to apply some ways to convert your readers into buyers. Finally, you will have to be patient and be ready to face disappointment. But, consistency pays off, so you will start to see that you have succeeded in increasing your conversion rate.
12. Hire Experts
There are many tasks involved when you decide to start selling products in your blogs. There are technical aspects to blogging which you may be unaware of, or you may lack the skill to execute it properly. So, you should hire experts to handle such tasks.
Moreover, when you decide to sell physical products of your brand, then it becomes even more of a hectic task which you cannot handle alone. There has to be delivery, packaging, storage, manufacturing, and much more of the products. Therefore, people who have experience in such departments will make your life easier.
This is an investment that will bear sweet fruits for you to harvest later.
Conclusion
You can start as soon as possible with these points kept in mind. Make sure that your blog is in the right place, but don’t wait to start selling. Begin with adding affiliated links to your blogs and keep working on increasing your audience.
Have faith and patience while working towards building your blogging career. Choose the most relevant and trusted products to sell to the audience. Always make helping your main reason to blog because the rest of the reasons depend upon building a strong and faithful audience.
A huge audience brings in huge revenue, and this is a fact which never has and will never change. Therefore, to bring in more audience to make your content better than others so that it can come out of the pile of content on the Internet.
Provide readers with well researched, quality content which focuses primarily on solving the problem. Selling the product and describing the pros of a product should be a secondary objective of your blogs.
Maintain a good relationship with your audience and never sell your authenticity for some quick bucks.
Hopefully, you get a clear picture of where and how to start selling products in your blogs. Make sure to let me know about the products which you would market in your blogs. I would be happy to hear about your plans for entering the next phase of blogging.