How to monetize a low traffic blog

Everyday we read about ways to monetize your blog. There are so many ways: from contextual advertising, to affiliate programs or text link ads. There are even programs which pay you to write reviews about products, or books, or other sites. All these are great, but when you try to use them you realize that all of them assume that you get a significant quantity of traffic to your site. No advertiser cares about a review on a blog with very few readers, no matter how cheap or how good that review may be. Affiliate programs work, but the click rate and the conversion rate are quite low, so you need a lot of traffic to get some sales. For low traffic blogs, contextual advertising seems to be the good start, as they let you in, even if you are small; if you tweak well your layout, you can easily earn a few bucks which would encourage you to perform better.

Over the first few months of a blog’s lifetime, traffic from search engines is low, even though the articles are well optimized. Yet, you can do something to help your blog popularity and traffic in early stages (and not only):

• 1. Use the power of networking to attract some readers to your blog. If the content is good, some of them will come again, allowing you to get more and more visibility. Networking allows you to build links without spending money for that. Networking connects you to lots of people, whom you can ask for an opinion or for a review of some of your articles. Here you can find a list of social networking applications. Browse them and choose some to apply to and submit your best posts there.
• 2. Subscribe to forums in your niche. Start threads, give advice, share your experience. Try to be professional, treat people seriously, and they will perceive you as an expert in your field. Many forums allow a link in the signature: put your site there. If people see you have something interesting to tell them, they will go check your blog for sure. If your content is valuable for them, they will come back. If you update it frequently, they will subscribe to your blog. This is how you start to build a community around your blog.
• 3. Read other blogs in your niche and leave comments, using a link to your site in your signature. If your comments are on topic and if they show that you know well what you’re talking about, people will visit your site as they will be willing for more.
• 4. Apply for Text Link Ads. This is a text link advertising program very easy to use: for WordPress 2+ users, all you have to do is install a plugin offered to you after you subscribe. Then all you do is wait, the ads will appear on your site in the desired place.

Despite the fact that the best conversion rate comes from natural (organic) search, social networking has its advantages in terms of building popularity and credibility among your target audience.

Do you have a blog? How much time per day do you spend on social networking?