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Over 90% of people who read posts that have dropped off your front page arrive at these pages from search engines.  Any experienced blogger will know that traffic from search engines tends to have a much higher click through rate for ads.  That’s why monetizing your old posts could be one of the most effective strategies for making an income from your blog.

In fact some bloggers don’t like to monetize new posts at all, particularly on a new blog, for fear of putting off regular and loyal readers.  Once they download a free website builder such as WordPress, they often wait a few months before they begin monetization.  So for these bloggers creating an income from old posts is even more important. 

This article will show you how to effectively monetize your older blog posts to ensure you’re maximizing your income from your free website builder program.

The Value of Old Posts

As your blog grows, more and more people will arrive at your site from search engines.  They will have searched for something in particular using either Google or Yahoo and will arrive at a specific page with the relevant keywords for their search.

This gives you a great opportunity to successfully monetize these older pages.  By placing ads and affiliate links that relate to the content, you’ll be giving your visitors exactly what they’re looking for. 

Find Your Most Popular Posts

The first step to maximizing income from older posts is to install a stats plug in, such as Google Analytics or SiteMeter (both are available to download for free from our resources and plug ins page).  These plug ins are really useful to download as soon as you’ve installed your free website builder program, because immediately you’ll understand which are your most popular pages and where your visitors are coming from. 

If you’re using Google Analytics look at your Top Content to see which pages are particularly popular.  On SiteMeter the Entry Pages show you where most visitors have landed from search engines.  You can also check out Visitor Details to see the search term they used to arrive, which hopefully may be a product.  This gives you a clear indication of the type of ad or affiliate link you’ll need. 

Once you’ve decided which pages are your priority, you can then place ads, affiliate links or use advertising networks with targeted content that is specific to the post.  Make sure you are offering products or services that the reader will be interested in because you’ll get a much better click through rate.  Don’t be tempted to plaster your posts with ad banners.  Instead use them strategically in prominent places that will not adversely affect your content. 

Other Ways to Use Your Old Posts

When using a free website builder program there are also a number of other key strategies you can use to improve monetization of your old content and drive traffic around your site. 

1. Update Your Old Posts:  if you’re going to monetize your old content you need to keep an eye on it and make sure it’s up to date and current.  For example, if you’re talking about your favorite music or TV shows in an old post, make sure they are still current and keep updating them.  You can then provide ads or affiliate links for people to buy the CDs or DVD box sets.  Or if you’re talking about gadgets, keep your old posts updated with some of the latest information and ads with new gadget technology.
2. Link to New Posts:  very often if your blog has been running for a while you may find you get more traffic to older posts.  You can capitalize on this traffic to create interest about your newer posts by adding links between the two. 
3. Try Something New:  if you are not getting a good click through rate for your old content, don’t just accept it.  Try something new.  It may be that you haven’t yet found the right ads or affiliate links for your blog, or you may need to change the position of your ads.  Keep trying something new until you achieve a good level of income.