5 Easy Ways to Squeeze Extra Earnings Out of Your WordPress Site

1) Use a Notification Bar

I’m sure you’ve noticed the red bar floating at the top of this blog. 😉 I created it using the Foobar plugin (affiliate).

If you’re not a fan of pop-ups or floating advertisements, a notification bar is a more subtle/less intrusive way of highlighting something you want to call attention to.

With the Holidays approaching, many sites are running special offers, discounts, etc.  This is a fabulous way to promote them.

Do you have your own product?  This time of year can be slow for many niches. Boost sales by discounting your products and utilize plugins like this to promote them.

What I like about Foobar is you can rotate multiple advertisements and it’s highly customizable.  In fact, I was a tad bit overwhelmed by all the settings at first.

The plugin also creates an option on the Edit Post/Page screen that allows you to show different links on different pages.

I just started using this last week, so I’m looking forward to experimenting with different ways to use it.

The Hello Bar (no affiliation) seems to be the preferred plugin for bloggers, and there’s even a free version (unlike Foobar).  However, Hello Bar’s free version has a 25-click maximum.

The paid version for Hello Bar starts at $5/month — which is quite economical for established sites, but maybe not so much for newer/less-trafficked sites.

I chose Foobar because it has everything I needed and I prefer a one-time charge over a monthly fee.

You can watch a demo below…

2) Promote The Theme You’re Using

This tactic probably works best on blogs about blogging/design/Internet marketing, but nevertheless, it’s never a bad strategy to tell your readers what theme you’re using — even if it’s a subtle mention in your footer.

Satisfy the curiosity of those readers who may admire your theme design.  You’ll be surprised how these links can convert — especially if you have an awesome design.

Recently I added an ad for The Genesis Lifestyle theme (affiliate) at the bottom of this blog inside my footer widget. That link is now one of my highest converting links for the Genesis theme.

Not to mention, Genesis has a pretty generous affiliate program and their products convert incredibly well due to their sleek-looking sales pages.

If someone purchases their entire suite of themes, you’ll earn a whopping $122 just like that as shown below from a recent sale on 12/1/2012.

What’s interesting is I don’t even promote the bundled theme package — I only promote The Genesis Lifestyle Theme or the main Genesis homepage.

So you have to give credit to a merchant who does a great job of upselling their other products.  Gotta love that!

Plus, it definitely helps when you use the product you’re promoting.  I don’t think I’d sell as many of their themes if I didn’t.

For the first time ever this product is now my #1 earner for this blog.  The banner helps call more attention to the link, and no doubt the video link aids with conversions too.

3) Refresh Your Older Posts and Pages

Now more than ever, Google is all about fresh content.  I did a complete re-write of an old post because it was outdated.  The older version of the page was ranking #7 on the first page of Google for the targeted keyword.

After the content update, the page jumped to position #3.  Coincidence?  Maybe. Who really knows exactly what Google’s algorithm is up to these days?  But it never hurts to refresh your content.

Yes, you may earn a boost with regards to SEO, but it’s always beneficial to update older pages. You may find ways to work in new or better-performing affiliate links.

I know I keep going back to Genesis, but this old post on WooThemes and Thesis is actually converting for the Genesis theme just because of the text update at the top.

It pays (literally) to go back and make those updates!

4) Display Your Toolbox

If done right, a tools/resources page can really rev up your earnings.

Why?  Because it’s easier to convert with affiliate marketing when you actually use the products.

Also, many of your readers are naturally curious about what tools/services you use for your site or niche anyway.

Tip 1: Mix up your links and recommend both free and paid resources. It’s tempting to load up the page with nothing but affiliate links, but we all know there are some fabulous free resources out there as well.

Plus, it looks suspicious when every single recommendation is tied to an affiliate link.

Tip 2: Organize your resources into categories to make the page easier to scan/browse.

Tip 3: Show demonstrations of the products you recommend via video.  As you can see, I reference several of my videos on my resource page.

We all know that videos convert, and if you’re a YouTube partner, those added views can pad your earnings as well.

Here are some blogs with well-done resource pages:

John Paul Aguiar’s The Money Dummy Blog (I like how JP divided the page up.)
Corbet Barr’s ThinkTraffic.net (Notice the cleanliness of his landing page.)
Ana Hoffman of Traffic Generation Cafe (The equally-sized graphics add a nice touch.)

And if you want to drum up some extra attention to your page, create an eye-catching image like this…

5) Use an Affiliate Plugin

This is one of the easiest ways to monetize your WordPress content in seconds — especially if you use a plugin that automatically converts keywords to links in your posts and pages.

Now, I splurged on the Max Blog Press Ninja plugin (affiliate), but you don’t have to.  There are more economical and free varieties like Thirsty Affiliates (starts at $39), Pretty Link (free and paid versions), etc.

However, many of the free plugins don’t automatically convert the keywords in your content, so be sure to check on that.

While redirect plugins are amazingly convenient, just remember that if you have a technical issue and/or have to uninstall them, you’ll lose all your links.  This is one of the reasons I try to use these kinds of plugins very sparingly.

I hope this post offered up some tips and strategies you can implement on your own site!