A blog is one of many ways to get your pet business out there.
It helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
It brings traffic to your website.
But one of the best things about blogging… You can make a lot of money through it.
And thanks to the wonders of technology, there are actually a few different ways you can do that.
So if you’re not yet blogging for your pet business, I hope this post inspires you to reconsider.
Because when it comes to blogging, it really can help your pet business grow.
This post is inspired by a question one of my members asked inside the Pet Biz Thrive Online Club. So I thought it’d be a good one to answer here on the blog too.
Lay the groundwork
Before you think about monetising your blog, you need to pin down the basics first.
The most successful blogs have a niche.
They discuss a very specific topic of expertise.
If your business already has its own niche, start there. It’s always a good idea to align your blog with your existing business niche.
So think about the overarching topic of your blog.
Think about the goals you’ll set for your blog.
Think about who will manage your blog and how often you’ll post.
Lay down your strategy to give you that initial direction.
Create content your readers will love
Next on the list is the topics you’ll cover that will be of interest to your readers.
Consider the kind of questions your existing customers ask you, that you can answer.
What are the common problems and challenges they face?
What would they love to learn about?
Draw from your existing expertise as potential topics for your blog posts.
Get these down. In just 30 minutes you can easily have a bunch of topic ideas you can write about.
Leverage SEO to drive traffic
Before we even think about making money from our blog, we need to start driving traffic to it.
One of the best ways to get traffic, is to start search engine optimising your blog posts.
When you optimise your content for specific keywords and phrases, you can rank higher in the search engines.
So whenever a potential customer types in their search query into Google, your blog article comes up top.
If your website is built in WordPress, use the Yoast SEO plugin. This will give you suggestions and improvements you can make around the keyword you’ve selected to ensure they rank better in the search engines.
Leverage social media to drive traffic
For an added traffic boost, you also want to share all of your blog posts to your social channels.
This should be standard practice every time you publish a blog post.
Make a checklist of where you’ll share your blog posts each time.
It might be to your Facebook page, a handful of relevant Facebook groups, Instagram, your email list too.
Without having a strategy in place to make your content visible, you won’t have the traffic to make sales.
So always start here first.
Sell your products or services
If your pet business already sells products or services, you can use blogging strategically to sell more of them.
You do this by recommending specific products or services within your blog content.
These products or services should relate to the topic of your blog posts, so when you present your offer, it’s the next logical step for your reader.
Perhaps you have a book they can buy to learn more.
Maybe you have a dog training package that can help them further.
Maybe you have an online course or workshop for sale that digs deeper into the topic.
Whatever it is, be sure to mention it so you give your readers the opportunity to become a paying customer.
Just check out the graphic I’ve created below as a good example of this.
Become an Amazon affiliate
Besides selling your own products or services, you can always earn more by sharing other people’s products.
By becoming an Amazon affiliate, you can earn commission simply by recommending products to your readers.
Say for example, you share a blog post on crate training a puppy. You can then link to a crate you recommend on Amazon.
If that person buys the crate or any product through your affiliate link, you earn commission on that order.
It’s a simple but effective way to earn a little extra on the side, with zero effort on your part.
Sign up for an ad network
This option isn’t for everyone, but if you don’t mind having a few ads on your blog, ad networks are an option.
This allows you to place ads from other people on your blog and earn money when people see and click on your ads.
Ad networks do allow you to display ads from certain types of businesses. For example, you might be able to choose categories like hobbies and interests or family and parenting. But you don’t have full control.
You have options like Mediavine.com and media.net. With Google Adsense the pay is poor, but it can be a good one to get started.
You need to bear in mind the minimum requirements to be approved. With Mediavine, you need to attract 50,000 visitors a month to be approved.
So you need to really think about whether this would be a good option for you.
Shareasale.com is another great option and gives you more control over the ads you can display. This is where you can sign up to display ads from specific businesses. You simply search for the business you want to display ads for, and include them manually within each blog post.
I hope this has opened your mind to the different ways you can earn money through your blog. If you’d like expert advice and guidance on how to grow a blog that supports your business growth, consider becoming a member of the Pet Biz Thrive Online Club.