When I explain to people what it is I do online, the first question I always get is “How do you make money from a blog?” Not everyone is familiar with how advertising on the internet works, so their curiosity is expected.
What really shocks me though, is that there’s also a ton of bloggers who still don’t understand exactly how to make money from their own blog. They’re usually stuck using Adsense alone, wondering when pennies will turn to dollars. If you want to earn six figures (or more) from blogging, you need to diversify.
Here’s a number of ways to make money from your blog (both directly and indirectly):
1. Pay Per Click – Joining a ppc network such as Google Adsense is probably one of the easiest ways to start off as a beginner. With Adsense, you can get started right away, with very little traffic. Once you get the ad code on your website, it’s pretty much automatic. Related advertisements are placed on your website, and you get paid everytime someone clicks on those ads. The amount per click varies, depending on a lot of factors (save that for another article).
Starting off, you’re not going to make much money with Adsense, but it’s always good to start somewhere, and watch your earnings grow with time.
2. Pay Per Impression – After you’ve built up a decent amount of traffic, you can start applying to site representation companys such as Tribal Fusion. They help to sell your ad inventory, and you’re paid based on the amount of impressions advertisers get on your site.
3. Affiliate Marketing – This involves selling other people’s products or services for a commission. The advantage of this is that you don’t need to come up with a unique product to sell. Instead, someone else takes care of that, and you simply use your leverage in the niche to promote the product. There are plenty of affiliate networks to join (Commission Junction for example). If you run a authority blog, chances are you’ll get quite a few offers to partner up and become an affiliate.
Commissions can run as high as 75%. However, the trick is understanding your audience, and promoting products that they find interesting. This not only makes you more money, but also keeps your readers coming back.
4. Direct Banner Advertising – An advertiser usually pays you a flat rate to place a banner on your website for a certain period of time (usually 30 days or more). This is the type of advertising that most bloggers aim for, as it is usually the highest paying when it comes to advertisements on the blog.
However, in order to get a potential advertiser’s attention, you need to have a decent amount of traffic coming in. Depending on the niche your blog targets, you should be getting around 30,000 to 100,000 unique visitors a month, before you even attempt to wheel and deal directly.
5. Reviews – Reviews work extremely well with a highly targeted audience. For example, if your blog is about music, a service that allows users to download music would be smart to purchase a review on your site. You can offer reviews direct, or you can sign up with a network such as ReviewMe.
It’s best to publish honest reviews, even if it isn’t necessarily a good one for your advertiser. Building trust with your readers is more important than making a quick buck. Just be sure that the advertiser is aware of how you handle reviews, before accepting payment.
Reviews are also a great way to score free stuff. A lot of times, companies will email you asking if you’d like to review a product of theirs. Sometimes you can arrange for them to send you free stuff, and even send extras to give away to your readers.
6. Plugs – Plugs work a lot like reviews do. The main difference is that the advertiser writes the article (or snippet). Very few blogs are interested in selling plugs, as it allows the advertisers to publish a lot of exaggerated hype.
7. Text Links – Text links can be sold directly just as banners can be. Advertisers usually pay a flat rate to place a text link on the sidebar of your blog. Make sure that the advertisers are aware that you’re selling the ad space, and not Pagerank juice. Google penalizes websites that sell dofollow text links.
You can also sell in-text advertising. Just sign up for a network that offers this service, install the code on your blog, and then the system automatically takes words from your posts, and links them to related advertisements. For example, it might link the word “car” to an advertisement sponsored by cars.com.
8. Sell Your Own Products – Ebooks, t-shirts, stationery, coffee cups…the list goes on and on. Get creative – don’t just slap your logo on a t-shirt. Come up with a funny line, or place a stunning graphic on the shirt so that people will actually purchase and wear it (free advertising anyone?).
9. Publish A Book – A lot of popular bloggers are getting book deals these days, and for good reason. Popular bloggers are writing articles that people want to read. Whether it’s to inform, educate, or entertain, a popular blog is likely to become a popular book. There’s a lot of money to be made here.
You don’t have to be famous though. You can easily self publish your own book, and sell it through your blog. The profit margins aren’t as large, but you can still make a decent amount of money, assuming people are willing to purchase your book.
10. Memberships – Memberships are an excellent way to create a residual income. The challenge however, is creating a membership program that is valuable to the members. Valuable enough to keep them coming back for more, month after month.
You could offer something such as custom avatars on your site for a very small monthly fee, or you might create a massive training program that teaches something to your readers, for a very large monthly fee. The options are limitless, but you need to find out what your readers are willing to pay for.
11. Job Board – With a job board, you basically charge advertisers to post a job description in which they need someone to fulfill. If you’re a well known problogger who educates other bloggers, people might come to your job board to look for talented bloggers/writers.
If you find that your blog becomes sort of the central hub in your niche, it might be time to start a job board. Even if your blog hasn’t quite taken off yet, if you think that there’s a need for services related to what you write about, a job board could actually bring attention to your site. Just keep in mind, a job board is like a forum. If it’s obvious that nobody is participating in the community, then there isn’t any motivation for anyone else to begin participating.
If you’re using Wordpress, your best solution would most likely be the JobPress theme, which offers most, if not all of the features you will need to make money with job boards.
12. Consultations – Consultations can be a huge money maker. If you’re confident with what you have to offer, and you’ve proven to readers that you’re an authority in your niche, $100-500 an hour isn’t unheard of. Of course, you’re going to want to start off at a lower price point.
This will allow you to get a feel for the demand of your services. It will also allow you to practice and polish your presentation, while finding out exactly what your clients want from a consultation.
13. Donations – Very few bloggers succeed in making donations work, but there are a few that have. If you’re eager to try, all you need to do is place a Paypal donation widget on your blog, and hope that your visitors are feeling generous. Some bloggers even go as far as to ask for donations in their posts.
Be careful though – many see this as begging. Producing great content that is free, being in a niche that tends to attract wealthy visitors, or having close relationships with your readers will all help to increase your chances of getting donations.
One method that I personally feel would work best, is to ask for donations towards something that would benefit both you and your readers. For example, you could try using the ChipIn widget, in an attempt to raise funds for a new blog design. If you provide quality content for your readers, then they may be more than willing to contribute to a blog that they visit regularly.
14. Build Your Brand – How do you make money blogging? Brand yourself and/or your company. As you build your brand and gain leverage, your blog will gradually become a reference for others who are interested in what you write about. You will begin to notice more and more opportunities that come along, simply because of your reputation for being an expert in your niche.
Whether it’s getting paid to give public speeches, becoming a guest blogger on other websites, or doing a joint venture with another entrepreneur – building your brand with a blog will help to increase your income…sometimes exponentially.