The majority of readers visit a blog but often don’t leave a comment or engage with it in any way. While some bloggers prefer it this way and turn off comments, fostering comments and interaction is the initial step in creating a community around your blog, and I believe this is crucial.

When it comes to comments, there are several ways to promote more interaction and participation on your blog:

Invite Comments

It has been observed that specifically inviting comments results in a higher number of comments than when they are not invited. This may be because it triggers a response in readers, even though they know that they can always leave comments on any post. Additionally, new readers who are unfamiliar with blogging may not always know about comments or how to use them, so invitations to participate in well-laid-out and easy-to-use comment systems can be helpful.

Tips for inviting comments:

• Ask specific questions: Asking specific questions in the post is a great way to encourage comments.
• Make it easy to comment: The comment system should be easy to find and use. Make sure that it is visible on all pages of the blog and that it is mobile-friendly.
• Respond to comments: Respond to comments promptly and thoughtfully. This shows that you value your readers’ feedback and that you are building a community.

Ask Questions

Including specific questions in your blog posts is a proven way to increase the number of comments you receive. This is especially true when you ask questions in your headings, as this sets the tone for the post and gets readers thinking about the topic from the start.

Here are a few tips for asking questions in your blog posts:

• Ensure your questions are specific and relevant to the topic of your post.
• Ask open-ended questions that encourage readers to share their thoughts and experiences.
• Avoid leading questions that have only one right answer.
• Use your questions to engage readers and promote discussion.

Be Open Ended

If you say everything there is to say on a topic, you’re less likely to get others to add their opinions because you’ve already covered everything they might have said. While you don’t want to purposely leave too many things unsaid, there is an art to writing open-ended posts that leaves room for your readers to be experts, too.

Interact with comments left

If you don’t use your comments section, why would your readers? When someone leaves a comment, engage with them. This becomes more challenging as your blog gets larger, but it’s especially important in the early days of your blog. It demonstrates to your readers that their comments are important, encourages a culture of interaction, and signals to other readers that your comments section is an active and valued part of your blog. As the activity in your comments section increases, you may find that you can be a bit less active as readers start answering questions and building a community. Still, don’t completely ignore your comment threads.

Whether you find interaction challenging or enjoyable, it’s a crucial aspect of your blog’s growth.

‘Reward’ Comments

You can show appreciation for valuable comments in various ways, from a simple “good comment” acknowledgment to featuring them in other blog posts you write. Recognizing readers who make insightful comments not only affirms their contributions but also draws the attention of other readers to the positive use of your comments section.

Starting a blog can be tough for beginners. Besides dealing with the technical and visibility aspects of blogging, there are challenges related to figuring out your focus, content, research, and getting readers.

You work hard every day, but you might not see much success at first. How do you stay motivated during this challenging period? Here are some techniques to help you stay on track.

Do what you love.

Staying motivated becomes much simpler when your mind is always focused on your blog topic. If you’re passionate about your subject, it’s easier to come up with content ideas, connect with your readers, and create a friendly and inviting tone that fosters a strong relationship and grows your readership.

Take it one step at a time.

When you begin blogging, it’s common to feel overwhelmed by all the tasks you think are necessary for its growth. From the start, it’s essential to understand that your blog probably won’t become a huge success overnight, so take things at your own pace, instead of stressing about what you haven’t accomplished yet, set aside time each week to review your achievements and think about how to build on them.

To prevent burnout, it’s important to be gentle with yourself. Otherwise, you might convince yourself that it’s too difficult, you lack the time, and ultimately give up.

Plan, plan, plan.

If you haven’t already, create a flexible but well-defined plan for growing your blog’s content and reach. A clear plan will help you manage your expectations and evaluate the results of your efforts.

Regularly reviewing your progress provides insights that can improve your future promotional strategies and prevents you from trying to do everything at once, which can quickly drain even the most motivated blogger.

While planning, you’ll likely discover some quick wins—tasks that are expected to be satisfying or enjoyable in some way. These could be activities that attract a lot of readers or ones you simply find pleasure in. Space out these tasks so that when things get tough, you know you have a favorite task just around the corner. This can significantly boost your motivation in the long run.

Allow for downtime.

After creating a plan, be sure to include some downtime in it. Avoid constantly working at an exhausting pace; if you do, make it only for short, manageable periods. Allow yourself breaks to spend time with family and friends, and be open to adjusting your schedule.

Most importantly, truly savor your time off—don’t spend it feeling guilty about all the blogging tasks you should be doing.

Realize that everyone has bad days.

It’s a fact that some of us have bad weeks and even months. However, that doesn’t mean you should give up or doubt your abilities. You have what it takes, but you need to learn how to manage it effectively. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you have a tough day. Understand that it’s a part of life.

If you ever feel like quitting, allow yourself to feel that way. Confront your discomfort and see if there’s a way to overcome it or find an alternative solution that can make your blog better. Remember, necessity often leads to innovation. Sometimes, it’s the initial challenges that motivate us to discover solutions that ultimately make our blogs—and our work on them—much more enjoyable.

Have you ever dreamed of making money from your blog? It’s definitely possible, and there are a number of different ways to do it. In this post, I’m going to share some of the most direct methods for monetizing your blog.

These methods are all pretty straightforward and can be implemented by bloggers of all levels, regardless of their experience or traffic. So, if you’re ready to start making some money from your blog, let’s get started!

Ways to Make Money Directly from Your Blog – These are methods where a blogger earns money directly through their blog.

Ways to Make Money Thanks to Your Blog – These are methods where a blogger earns money as a result of having a blog.

Let’s discuss the ways bloggers can earn direct income.

Advertising

There are various ways to sell ads on a blog. Here are some options:

Display Ads: These are images or text ads that show up on your blog in places like the header, sidebar, or within your content. You can use services like Google AdSense or Media.net to display ads that match your blog’s content and target your audience.

Native Ads: These ads blend in with your blog’s content and provide a seamless advertising experience. Platforms like Taboola and Outbrain offer native advertising where you can display recommended content or sponsored posts on your blog.

Programmatic Advertising: This involves using automated systems to buy and sell ad space in real time. Platforms like Google Ad Manager let you manage and serve ads from various sources, including direct advertisers and ad exchanges.

Direct Ad Sales: Sell ad space directly to advertisers to have more control over pricing and placements. You can create an “Advertise with Us” page on your blog and reach out to potential advertisers. Alternatively, platforms like BuySellAds connect publishers with ad buyers.

Sponsored Content: This involves creating content that promotes a product or service. You can negotiate deals directly with advertisers or use sponsored content marketplaces like IZEA.

In-Text Ads: These ads appear as hyperlinked words within your blog posts. A small ad box or pop-up appears when readers click on the words. Platforms like Infolinks and Sovrn offer in-text advertising for publishers.

Rich Media Ads: These ads include interactive elements like video, audio, or animations. Platforms like Raptive specialize in serving engaging, rich media ads on your blog.

Contextual Ads: These ads are based on your blog’s content. They analyze your pages’ keywords and context to display relevant ads. Networks like Media.net and Adversal offer contextual advertising options for publishers.

Sponsorship

Some bloggers choose to find their own advertisers, which is less common. The systems mentioned earlier can help you find advertisers or automate ads for your blog. But as your blog becomes more popular and influential, you might have other opportunities for private deals.

Big blog networks have people who find advertisers, often working with ad agencies. Smaller bloggers can also consider doing this. I’ve been selling ads on my Digital Photography School blog for years. As it has grown in traffic and visibility, I’ve attracted bigger companies that are willing to pay more for ad space. The blog now has programmatic ads and occasional sponsorships from companies that buy a mix of banner, newsletter, and text ads.

If you want to try this, focus on advertisers in your niche who have products closely related to what you write about. You can offer them different types of ads, like banners, buttons, text links, mentions in newsletters, and even sponsorships for individual posts. When you write a sponsored post, always be clear with your readers that it’s sponsored.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are when you earn a commission by telling your readers about a product or service, and they buy it from a company. One of the most popular programs for bloggers is Amazon, which has lots of products you can link to. There are also other programs, like Linkshare, Commission Junction, Clickbank, Shareasale, and Impact, that work with many different companies and products.

Making money from affiliate programs can take some effort, maybe even more than ads, but choosing the right program for your blog and topic can be profitable.

Selling/Flipping Blogs

The thought of selling your blog might cross your mind, but it’s not very common… yet (I think this is changing). Some bloggers start a blog with the idea of selling it in the future, but not many succeed. Instead of starting with this goal, I believe it’s better to start with the aim of building a high-quality site that has lots of readers and makes a good income. That way, you’re more likely to find buyers later on.

If, in the future, you make your blog business something you can sell, you can advertise it on websites like Flippa, Empire Flippers, and FE International.

Donations and Tip Jars

A few blogs are earning well through platforms like Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee, where readers can voluntarily donate money. To make this successful, you need a big and loyal audience (having wealthy readers can be a plus). However, most bloggers don’t have enough readers or a super dedicated following to make this work. Many others are offering extra content and value through paid subscriptions.

Merchandise

Another way some blogs make money is by selling things like T-shirts, mugs, stickers, and more with their blog’s name, logo, or slogans on them. This can be successful if you have a really cool merchandise collection or if you’re a blogger with super dedicated fans who love your blog. It works better for certain blog topics than others.

Selling Subscriptions

Charging your readers for content is becoming more common, especially in the world of podcasts. While many websites have been successful with this (like community membership sites), blogs are also starting to give it a try. However, most bloggers who have attempted it face a challenge. For many topics people start blogs about, free websites are already available. To make it work, you’d need to offer premium or exclusive content, have real expertise in a subject, and have an engaged audience that feels a strong connection to you.

Did you know that the end of a blog post is where you can strengthen your community? I’ll tell you seven good ways to finish a blog post that will help your blog community grow and get people talking.

But remember, it’s important to write blog posts that are good and that make your readers feel inspired, learn something, or enjoy themselves. That’s what makes people want to read more of your blog. Still, the very end of a blog post is the most important part.

When you finish your blog post, your main aim should be to put something that gets your reader to do something. These seven ways to conclude a blog post give you plenty of ideas to try and see what works best for your blog topic and the people who read it.

Ask A Question

One of the simplest and most interesting ways to end a blog post is by asking a question. Just make sure it’s an open question, one where the answer can’t be just “yes” or “no,” and it should be related to what you wrote about.

For instance, a good open question for this post could be: “How do you like to finish your blog posts successfully?”

This encourages your readers to interact and share their thoughts.

You can also learn about other questions they might have, which can give you ideas for new blog posts. Remember to respond to their questions and comments to show that you’re paying attention and just as interested as they are. That way, they’ll want to keep coming back for more!

Offer A Free Offer Using An Opt-In Form

Sharing a fantastic free download is a smart idea if you want to grow your email list.

This is a fantastic way to end a blog post for anyone looking to increase their email list. I like to offer something related to the topic that benefits my readers.

You can provide a file for download or invite readers to join an email course. It can also be as simple as asking them to subscribe to weekly or monthly newsletters.

The important thing is that it should add value to your blog post or be intriguing enough to encourage people to share their name and email. Use words that explain how your freebie can help solve a problem for your readers.

Request Readers to Share Your Post

Another way to end a blog post is by asking your readers to share your content with others. Some bloggers have a short paragraph that goes like this:

“If you found this post helpful, please think about sharing it with others! Thanks!”

It’s a friendly way to suggest that they share your blog post.

If someone has read all the way to the end, it’s likely they found it interesting. So why not click a button to share it on social media?

That’s why it’s important to create content that’s so interesting that readers will keep scrolling, read it, and really want to share it. It’s a great way to get more people to see your blog and increase your website’s traffic.

Add A Pinterest Pin Image

Pinterest can bring lots of people to your blog. You want folks to share your pins with others.

Pinterest pictures are usually big (around 1000 x 1500 pixels or even larger). They can take up a lot of space in a blog post. The good news is that if you use WordPress blocks, you can make them smaller.

If you put them near the top of your post, people have to scroll down quite a bit to get to the text.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t put them near the top, but a Pinterest pin is more likely to be shared if you place it at the end.

Why? It’s because someone really liked your post and wanted to save it or show it to others.

Like with requests on social media, I’ve noticed that when I put the pin at the end of my post, I have the best chance of getting it pinned by others.

Creating attractive Pinterest pins is a great way to catch your reader’s and Pinterest users’ attention.

It’s one more way to make your blog more visible and get more people to visit it.

Include An Invitation To Reach Out

How can you end a blog post and make people want to talk to you?

One way is to invite them to ask you questions!

If you run a consulting or coaching business alongside your blog, you might want potential clients to get in touch with their questions.

Giving a short but useful answer to one question for free can help build trust in you. It’s like a magnet that draws potential customers closer and helps you build a good relationship with them.

If you see a chance to offer more services, this is a great way to get someone interested to connect with you personally.

To encourage readers to contact you, you can use a special paragraph in italics or a box (maybe in a different color if you’re using WordPress blocks).

A Call-To-Action To Purchase

Do you have something like a digital download or a product that your readers might want to buy? This is where you can put a picture and a link to the page where they can buy it.

This is a good way to finish a blog post if you want to make money from your blog.

Just keep it simple and put a link or a picture that people can click to go to your online store or the page where they can buy your product.

For instance, I might share a blog post about an ebook or a course that I have on my Confident Blogger Academy website.

Another option is to add affiliate links. Some tools like Lasso are great for making galleries and showing products that you get a commission for. You can put these at the end of your post as suggested products or resources, and it can start a conversation.

A Link To Other Useful Sources

A great way to finish a blog post is by giving links to more helpful stuff.

Maybe you don’t have all the answers, but there are other bloggers or organizations with great information.

Don’t hesitate to share amazing content from other websites.

Google also notices when you link to good, highly-rated content. And your readers will see you as a valuable source of information on that topic.

They might even save your post and want to come back for more!