This ProBlogger article neatly summarizes the different ways of monetizing your blog. I’ve been trying a few of the suggested avenues here for fun to see what would click. As expected, monetization has been slow for the Tree House, but is growing! Then again, going from 0 to 10 is still a 10-fold increase…
Income Streams for Bloggers
Advertising Programs:
There is a wealth of advertising options available to bloggers, including:
Adsense, BlogAds, Chitika’s eMiniMalls, Adgenta, CrispAds, Text Link Ads, Intelli Txt, Peak Click, DoubleClickTribal Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, Industry Brains, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, AVN, Pheedo, Adknowledge, YesAdvertising, RevenuePilotTextAds, SearchFeed, Target Point, Bidvertiser, Fastclick Value Click and OneMonkey, MSN Adcenter and YPN.
RSS Advertising
So far, I’ve only tried AdSense and the results here are paltry, but certainly expected. The average click rate is 1 per 1000 visits and if your page impressions are miniscule at best (like mine), it follows that AdSense on your pages would be nothing but. You can always try out other ad campaigns to see what works for you.
Sponsorship:
Some businesses are directly advertising on popular blogs. It follows that they do so when they see there is traffic to attract to their ads. Ergo, we here have not yet earned the stripes required to be part of any Sponsorship Inner Circle. For instance, Federated Media Publishing will only sponsor your blog if you are an influencer, and goodness knows that influencers don’t grow on trees. Anyone up for free sponsorship?
Affiliate Programs:
More recognizable affiliate programs include: Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.
I just added Amazon on my sites. Retail based affiliate programs are great especially if you or your extended family love to shop online.
Digital Assets:
Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs… e-books, courses and tele-seminars being run by bloggers.
Don’t be surprised if one day some e-book springs forth from here. Only because my Dad has authored a book and is raring to get his book published somewhere. Anywhere. More on that later. And it’s good!
Blog Network Opportunities:
With the rise in popularity of Blog Networks - bloggers are also being presented with more places to earn an income from their blogging - by writing for and with others. While it might be difficult to get a writing gig with one of the bigger networks - there are plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join and who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models.
Not entirely gestalt but close. Some are hiring! Some you can explore opportunities with. And some are specific, and can even be in your own realm!
Business Blog Writing Opportunities:
As blogging has risen in it’s profile as a medium more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties - but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs.
Wonderful for interns, graduates, students or even career shifters. This could be a stepping stone for those who seek to make a career in the business they are blogging about.
Non Blogging Writing Opportunities:
Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non blogging mediums.
This is a more uncommon and esoteric option, and less likely to be adapted by your average joe blogger.
Donations:
Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fundraising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke of kottke.org who through the generosity of his readership was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.
An update on Jason Kottke’s fundraising: he has quit actively doing it but the jar’s still there in case you’re feeling generous. Not a bad idea especially since web publishing does take your money and effort to run. It probably won’t hurt if it’s inconspicuous…. I guess…
Flipping Blogs:
What in the world is this and why would anyone do it? Since blogs = cyber real estate, it’s no surprise, but it seems just so…faddy. But it’s happening. It’s not one for those who are more emotionally invested and rooted in their own little piece of the net. You’d less likely flip if your blog is an extension of yourself or if you use it for creative expression.
Merchandising:
This avenue has been showing the most promise for me. I was pleasantly surprised at the feedback and reaction received by our new store. With the resources I have in-house, I foresee opportunity and growth in this area and for me, this seems like a natural focus and fit.
Consulting and Speaking:
If you are a blogger who blogs about stuff you are an expert on then this could be an avenue for you to consider. Though this may be more applicable for subject matter experts who seek to educate and provide information, it could still work for someone engaging, enlightening and who has the gift of gab who can offer themselves, their ideas and opinions. Oh yeah, and who likes to be around people.
Technorati Tags: advertising, AdSense, monetizing blogs, ad, Chitika, BlogAds, sponsorship, ad campaign, affiliate, Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank, Federated Media, blog network, blog writing, blog flipping, Jason Kottke, blogging, blog, blogs, Weblogs, business
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USuggest.com allow the bloggers to make some extra money through recommended products directly from within their blogs, and hopefully directing their readers to the some online retailers. As such, the respective blogger would receive a commission from any sales generated through referrals!
Another great way to monetize your blog traffic is to add free chat and earn money on revenue sharing. More info at http://blog.geesee.com/?p=117
Very interesting article. I would like to recommend to your readership DealDotCom.com which has a really (REALLY) tasty affiliate program.
Its a great place on the web to find all the Internet Marketing products you really want for rock bottom prices. Anything and everything related to building an online business, increasing traffic, monetizing your websites, blogging, web design.. They’ve spent the last 4 months stalking big-name (and not-so-big-name) Internet Marketers who sell high-quality products, and convincing them to let us sell their stuff at huge discounts.
When you refer others to DealDotCom and they get their free account, they are marked in their system as having been referred by you. Anything that they ever buy from them nets you a 35% commission FOREVER. What’s more, anyone that they refer to DealDotCom goes on your second tier. Anything people on your second tier buy nets you a 15% commission FOREVER.
what about direct sponsorships?
Hi,
Great blog you have here. I am enjoying going through your archives. I have added a link to your site on my site. Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
Jeremy
There are a lot of ways to make money online, just don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can spend 2 hours a day for a few months and make millions. It takes a lot of time and effort (just like everything in life) but is worth it if you persevere.
Ed: Is that a promise?
Nice list of ‘money makers’ you’ve got there. It is very comprehensive but perhaps I’d like to add offline consulting? Since you’ve got a blog already, you could help offline companies set up blogs too!
In fact, there are a lot of ways to make money with our blog, but not much that people know about. But something important to give highlight is focus. We only need to focus one or two ways to really get money from our blogs.. or we may get nothing at all.
Now I can’t go into specifics into the McCain search campaign, but allow me to enlighten you search novices especially the ones in the political industry. If you really want a detailed explanation see this post I wrote called My Tips for Setting You Google Ad Prices. Basically your maximum bid price is NOT the most important factor in your paid click price; it is relevancy and quality score. If your ad and landing page are very relevant to the words you are buying and you make brilliant ads, you are rewarded…
You know, I think I’ll have to revive my old blog for this. You have some great tips here. Thanks.