On Fridays, I host (and record) a live Blab with a fellow freelancer. For those of you who can’t catch it live, want a review or just prefer reading a blog post to watching a video, here’s a recap of my recent chat with Angie Nelson of The Work at Home Wife.
This past Friday I talked with Angie about blog monetization, specifically around repurposing blog content.
Thanks for joining me for the chat, Angie!
Angie, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m Angie Nelson. I’ve been working at home as a virtual assistant since 2007. I started blogging in 2008 as a way to get clients for my virtual assistant business; however, I found that most of the people following my blog wanted to learn more about being a virtual assistant.
Today, I own TheWorkAtHomeWife.com that was launched in 2010. I help people find legitimate work-at-home jobs and home business ideas. I also share a few blogging tips from time to time. That’s how I make my income.
What were you doing then for promotion versus what you’re doing now?
What were you doing then for promotion versus what you’re doing now? When I started blogging, Twitter and Facebook were literally just getting started.
Back then, blogs weren’t even on Facebook, so you were relying on SEO and getting out in the forums. It was totally different.
One of the things that have been an advantage was that back then you had to rely on your email list. You didn’t have people following you on social media. If anybody was going to come back to your blog, it was because they were on your email list.
Let’s talk about self-hosting. Why is having a self-hosted site so important?
It’s important to understand the difference in a WordPress.org site and a WordPress.com site.
A WordPress.com site is free. You’re very limited in how you can monetize because it has strict rules about what you can and can’t do. When I decided this was something I wanted to make money from, I immediately got off that side of WordPress.
When you start getting into affiliate marketing, the majority of the affiliate programs are not going to approve you if you have a Blogger.com address or a WordPress.com address.
Also, with the free accounts, you don’t own your blog. They can delete your blog if they find you’ve done something wrong.
You’re really limiting yourself if you’re not self-hosted.
I know you’re currently repurposing your blog’s content. Can you share with us how you’re repurposing your content?
There are a lot of different ways to repurpose content. One thing that’s going like gangbusters right now is the content upgrades. Each of your individual posts has something unique about it. For example, I have a list that’s 101 ways to do something. Nobody’s going to pop on that list and go do 101 things. So I just turn that blog post into a PDF that the readers can take with them. It’s like a welcome gift or a thank you gift for signing up to my email list. Another great way to repurpose content is by using video. Video is huge right now. You’re going to have a whole new set of people watching you on video than are reading your blog posts. Anything that’s meaty content is something you should consider turning into a video. Product creation is a third way to repurpose content. If there’s something that really struck a nerve with your audience, consider how you could turn that into something bigger, whether it’s an eBook, a course or a free report you can give away to new subscribers. You can also do a series. If there are some categories on your blog that could easily be run together, send those out. That’s also a way to get another income stream going. You can turn your content into a book or video tutorials that you can charge for, even if it’s a small amount. It’s passive income potential.
I know you’re an Amazon affiliate and are an affiliate for a hosting site. What other more favorable hosting relationships do you have?
That’s one of the main reasons I started theworkathomewife.com. I was lucky that in the first month I had my blog, I made 50 dollars. That was a huge thing that kept me going. Of course, it wasn’t always that consistent and it won’t be. Bonus resource: we recently put together a series of articles designed to help you design and brand your site in 7 days or less. You can download the entire tutorial by clicking on the box below: 
The majority of my affiliate income comes from promoting courses and eBooks.
My audience is looking for information, so that’s where a lot of my income comes from. In fairness, I have a disclosure that’s permanently affixed at the top of every post so that I don’t forget to include it.
It says something like: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click through, I get a commission.
Thank you for joining me for this chat, Angie!
Watch the full video and learn more strategies to monetize your blog:
