Presented By The Online AcademyBlog Profit Academy
Chapter 2 - Using Adsense in Your Blog …………………………………………….5
Chapter 3 - Other Advertising Options………………………………………………..7
Chapter 4 - Affiliate Marketing…………………………………………………………….10
Chapter 5 - Review Products……………………………………………………………….13
Chapter 6 - Join a Blogging Network…………………………………………………..16
Chapter 7 – Create a Newsletter………………………………………………………….18
Chapter 8 – Create Your Own Products……………………………………………….20
Chapter 9 – Donations………………………………………………………………………….22 Chapter 10 – Picking the Best Cash Generator for your Blog…………….24
If you want to make money through blogging, creating a popular blog is the key to success. If your blog receives very little traffic, you will not have much success monetizing it. No matter which method you use to make money from your blog, you will find the most success if you have a large readership. Because of this, making your blog popular and growing readership should be one of your primary concerns.
There are many ways to make your blog more popular. The first thing you should consider is who your audience is and who you are writing for. You should always write about something that interests you, and that will interest others. You may think that your new kitten is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are probably not very many other people who want to read a blog about it. It is best to find a niche audience that is large enough to support a wide readership but not to vague.
One of the great things about blogging is that you do not have to be a professional writer to have a popular blog. You do have to obey common grammatical rules and at least be able to put together coherent sentences, but you do not have to be a highly skilled writer.
Blog readers are looking for interesting, relevant topics to read, not the next work of Shakespeare. Make sure what you write is interesting, edgy, or even controversial. Popular blogs are never boring and add value to reader’s lives either through information or entertainment. Make sure your blog adds something of value to your reader’s life otherwise you will not develop a large fan base.
Making your blog popular is a lot like driving traffic to a website. You can use many of the same techniques to drive traffic to your blog. Finding places to link back to your blog is a good way to drive traffic. Social sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and You tube provide lots of opportunities for this. You can also use social book marking sites such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg to promote your blog. Blogging on a popular blog site such as Wordpress and Blogger are also good ways to make your blog more popular as these blogging sites help to bring in traffic for your blog.
Whether you blog on a blogging network or you have an independently hosted blog, you need to make sure your blog is designed well. It is true that content is king and if a blog has great content is may receive lots of traffic even though it is ugly, having a well designed blog that is not ugly or annoying will help to drive repeat traffic. You want your blog to look unique, but not too unique. Keep with internet formalities such as blue links and use large font for headings.
You should break your post up into small paragraphs each with a headline if possible as internet readers tend to scan the screen looking for relevant information rather than reading everything word for word. Make sure your colors do not contrast too harshly and that the text is easy to read. Using good design will make your blog aesthetically pleasing and make readers more likely to come back and remain on your page.
No matter where your blog is hosted, you should try to get it indexed by all the major search engines. Some forms of blog monetization require that your blog be indexed by search engines before they will allow you to participate in your program. The higher ranked your blog is, the more visitors you will receive and the more popular your blog will become.
All forms of monetization for your blog require readers to work successfully. Before you try to implement your monetization strategies, make sure your blog has enough readers to make your efforts work. If there is no one to click your ads, visit your affiliate sites, or read your reviews, you do not stand much of a chance of making money.
Now that you know ho to make your blog popular, it is time to profit from it. One of the best ways to monetize your blog is Adsense, and this advertising program will work with just about any blog and if you receive enough traffic, it can be very lucrative.
Adsense puts relevant ads on your blog after you sign up and insert a few lines of code into your blog; this requires some basic HTML knowledge and a blog that allows you to modify the HTML. Don’t be intimidated, it is easy to do. The good thing about Adsense is that the ads are displayed based on the content of your blog, so readers only see ads that will likely appeal to them, increasing the chances that they will click on them.
Adsense operates by pairing relevant ads with your content. As long as your blog has enough content to support a few text ads, you will be able to run a few non intrusive ads along the side of your blog. You will need to have a blog that allows you to add a few lines of HTML code into your blog in order to use Adsense. If your blog is hosted independently, chances are you will be able to make the necessary modifications. If you blog on a network or on another site, you will have to check to see if it is compatible with Adsense, many are.
To get started with Adsense, go to www.adsense.com and sign up. It is free to use Adsense and if you have an existing Google account you can use it as your Adsense account as well. Signing up with Adsense is free, but you must provide tax information and report your earnings.
You then choose what type of ads you want displayed on your blog. You have the choice of text ads that run along the top, side, or bottom of your blog or graphic ads that display an ad with a picture on your blog, either in a size like a banner ad or in a smaller size.
Adsense is a cost per click advertising program, which means that every time that a visitor clicks on an ad in your blog you get paid. Google does not disclose exactly how much you make for each click before you sign up, but you can track your daily, weekly and monthly earnings once you have started running Adsense and calculate how much you are making per click.
If you do not have a large readership base, most types of monetization on your blog will probably not be successful and Adsense is no exception. The more people you have clicking your ads, the more money you make. Earnings will vary widely depending on how many visitors you receive and if your blog is very popular you can make a good income from Adsense alone.
There are plenty of other advertising options if you do not want to go with Adsense. A search for “Adsense alternatives” will net you a long list of other advertising opportunities.
Some work in much the same way as Adsense, others provide inline ads or banners. You should try a few different advertising programs to see which one works the best for your blog.
Some advertising opportunities are similar to Adsense and display text ads; others display contextual ads, the double underline words in the body of your text, and others work with graphic ads. Here is a list of other advertising sources for your blog, any of which may be the perfect advertising solution for you.
Clicksor – This advertising solution serves contextual ads within the body of your blog. These ads are simply words that are underlined twice and when clicked, send users to the sponsor’s website.
TargetPoint – Cost per click ads that display ads relevant to your content. They claim to pay out 50% of click revenue and offer many customizable features.
Adbrite – They have a few different advertising options including text ads, banner ads, inline ads, and full page ads.Chitika – This advertising option is designed specifically for blogs and there are different advertising programs to choose form including text ads, inline ads, and graphic ads. Most of them operate on a cost per click basis.
Veoda – They also have different ad options including text, graphical, flash and inline ads. The good thing about Veoda is that they do not require a minimum number of visitors to sign up and do not require tax information which is good for small blogs that are just starting out.
Kontera – This is another inline advertising source where ads are placed as highlighted words that display a message when they are hovered over.
Text Link Ads – This site allows purchasers to buy text ads on blogs for a fixed monthly fee. The more popular your blog is, the more your ads will cost and the more money you will make.
Affiliate Sensor – This advertising solution combines the best of text ads with affiliate marketing. You earn revenue through Clickbank, an affiliate marketing program, without having to market directly in your blog. Text ads are placed, matched to your content, on your blog that link to Clickbank products.
AllFeeds – You can display a variety of ads through AllFeeds, from contextual ads, popaway ads, and text links. You can also display news and whether right form your blog with this service.
Bidvertiser – You only display ads from the highest bidder with this advertising soloution and you can block ads that you do not want to appear on your site. The payout level is set relatively low at just $10.
As you can see, there are plenty of other advertising solutions for your blog, and there are plenty more out there besides the ones mentioned here. You can always sell ad space directly, to companies or businesses that are related to your blog topic.
There are a few things you should remember before placing ads on your blog, however. Unobtrusive ads will seldom drive traffic away, but too many tacky ads will cause visitors to leave. You want to find a good balance where you can earn income but not chase off visitors. Make sure your ads are relevant and not annoying. Make sure that they do not take up too much space or become the focal point of your blog.
If you do not want to run ads on your blog, or you are looking for an additional way to monetize your blog, affiliate marketing is a good way to make money provided you have plenty of readers to market to.
Affiliate marketing does not have to be blatant “hey buy this” advertising, rather bloggers can subtly slip in a review or recommendation for a product and include their affiliate link in their blog.
If you can find an affiliate product that is relevant to the topic of your blog and you do a good job of slipping it in, you can stand to make some tidy profits. Affiliate marketing generally pays more per sale than you would make per click with other forms of advertising, but you have to have visitors that both click on your affiliate link and purchase the product.
The best way to make sure readers purchase the affiliate products you market is to pick products your audience will be interested in and that are relevant to your blog. If you blog about outdoor living, chances are no one will respond to your affiliate marketing attempts at selling PSP downloads.
Make sure the product you are trying sell will appeal to your readers and that you can do a good job of including it in your blog without seeming to preachy or desperate. Keep your marketing attempts natural and make sure they fit in with the flow of your blog.
There are plenty of places to go to find affiliate marketing opportunities. Many websites such as Amazon and eBay have affiliate programs. Your favorite website or company may even have an affiliate program and it can’t hurt to look, especially if they are related to your blog.
You can also find affiliate marketing opportunities on websites that specialize in connecting companies with publishers. The good thing about using one of these websites is that you have a huge list of products to choose form and the website will manage your payments and track your selling statistics. Here is a list of websites you can use to find affiliate marketing opportunities.
Clickbank – The most popular affiliate marketing website, Clickbank offers bloggers a dizzying array of products to market as an affiliate. All of their products are digital products, such as e-books and reports.
You can find things on virtually every product, arranged by category. So no matter what you blog about, chances are that you can find an affiliate product on Clickbank. Payouts range from a few dollars per sale to fifty dollars or more.
Commission Junction – This affiliate website operates in much the same way as Clickbank. Companies add their products to the Commission Junction marketplace and publishers add links to these products in their blogs. Commission junction offers a wider variety of products, however, some require visitors to buy a product for you to get paid and others require visitors to sign up for newsletters or fill out a form.
Link Share – Another affiliate website that connects affiliates with products to market. You can pick from a wide variety of products to market on your blog and like Commission Junction, you do not always have to sell something in order to get paid. Sometimes the required action is to get visitors to sign up for a newsletter or fill out a form in order to get paid.
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money from your blog. Remember to keep your marketing attempts natural and try not to “sell,” rather rate or inform. Most affiliate websites that connect you with products to market will keep track of your earnings and statistics which makes them very convenient.
Some bloggers do not participate in paid reviews and product inclusion because it can be misleading if you do not state that you are being paid for your testimonial or recommendation. If you feel as though reviewing products or recommending them to your readers without disclosing that you are being paid is dishonest, then the practice is not for you.
On the other hand, if you think the products you review are worthwhile and are worthy of mention in your blog, what better way to make money then sharing these products with your readers.
There are a few different websites that will connect you with companies that will pay you to include their product or service in your blog. The pay ranges per assignment and you may be required to write a few sentences about a specific product or a few paragraphs, or even a whole blog entry.
Generally your blog has to receive a good deal of traffic to get accepted by these websites, and depending on how much work you do for them payment can be slight or substantial. If you want to try your hand at reviewing products for payment, check out these sites:
Creamaid – While this site is not solely dedicated to reviewing products, many of their opportunities are for posting your opinion in your blog for payment.
Different “conversations” are started on the site and you pick the ones that look interesting to you. Some require you to review a product or website in your blog and other require you to post comments elsewhere; of course you can always include a link to your blog which will bring it more traffic.
Reviewme – This site is dedicated to connecting bloggers with companies who want reviews written. You submit your blog and if it is accepted, companies will request that you write a review for them depending on the content of your blog.
Reviewme states that you get paid between $20 and $200 per review. Your blog does have to have a minimum number of readers to qualify but you can always resubmit if it does not meet the criteria the first time.
Pay Per Post – Pay Per Post is similar to Reviewme. You submit your blog for approval and when it is approved you can start reviewing products and websites in your blog for cash.
Pay Per Post has a market place where you can pick which opportunities you want to write about and payment varies according to the assignment you choose.
Sponsored Reviews – This site lets you submit your blog and then pick from a listing of review opportunities or lets companies contact you directly and request a review. Payment varies by assignment.
Smorty – Smorty is all about providing your opinion in your blog about an available advertiser’s campaign. You may not be reviewing a product per say, but you will be giving your opinion. Your blog has to be indexed by Google, older than three months, and have at least two new posts per week.
Posting your opinion or review for advertisers is a good way to make cash from your blog. You should remember, however, that like affiliate marketing blatant attempts to advertise to readers does not usually work as well as naturally including a review or opinion in your blog.
If you are just starting a blog, you should consider blogging on an established network. Most of the time, joining a network is free or low cost and can help greatly in driving traffic to your blog and with setting up advertising opportunities.
There are many blogging networks, some are more popular than others and depending on what your needs are, some may be better suited for you. Some of the most popular blogging networks are:
Weblogs, Inc – Weblogs is one of the most popular blogging networks. Sign up is free although you do have to apply for an account by submitting a few sample entries to make sure they are suitable for the site.
Blogger – Blogger is easy to use and free, and allows you to create your blog in a few easy steps. You can customize the look of your blog easily from the Blogger website and gain traffic from being a part of the Blogger network.
451 Press – Although they are still in Beta, 451 Press accepts bloggers who want to gain exposure and write about their passions. You can make money right from the site with your blog and there are plenty of blogging categories to choose from.
Joining a Blogging Network may be the best thing for you, especially if you are just starting out with your blog. You should consider all the benefits of joining a blogging network, with the drawbacks before starting your blog.
If you already have a blog, but it is not receiving much traffic, you can consider switching to a blogging network where your blog will receive more attention. If you are just starting out, a blogging network will help you to gain traffic but it may limit you in the long run if you want to make changes to your blog or if your blog becomes wildly popular.
If you already have a successful blog, then joining a blogging networks is probably not a good idea for you. You will be limited by the bandwidth your blog can receive and may not be able to carry over your existing design elements.
If you have a successful blog with a large readership, you can consider branching out with a newsletter or email campaign to make some extra cash. Creating this type of campaign will require extra work, but if done correctly can ultimately leads to more profit.
Chances are if you have dedicated readers who enjoy your blogs, you can profit from giving them an interesting opt in newsletter or email campaign. This list can then be used for other marketing promotions or you can monetize your newsletter.
If your blogs offer something of value to your readers, chances are they will expect your newsletter or email campaign to do the same. This is a good thing because you will attract subscribers, but if you don’t deliver you will find that many of your readers end up unsubscribing. Add value to your email correspondences in the same way you make your blogs interesting to retain and attract subscribers.
Make sure you give readers something of value in these emails and give them a reason to read them so that your advertising methods have the greatest chances of being successful. If you promise little known tips or hard to find information, you better deliver or readers will unsubscribe.
A good way to drive subscriptions is to include extra information in your newsletter or to conclude a blog entry in an email for subscribers only. Readers will be eager to get the whole story and will be more likely to subscribe to your newsletter if you give them a reason. Free incentives are also a good way to get subscribers, it doesn’t have to be something fancy, a free e-book or list of tips is all you need.
Monetizing a newsletter or email campaign is similar to monetizing your blog. While you cannot use Adsense and other similar advertising methods, you can directly sell ad space, and depending on the size of your subscriber list you can charge a hefty sum.
You can also use affiliate marketing in your newsletter, just be sure to have the bulk of your newsletter contains relevant content and not just ads or else your readership will fall. Make sure your affiliate marketing is related to the content of your newsletter or email and that your audience will be interested in what you are promoting.
You can also sell your own merchandise through your newsletter. If you have created merchandise with your blog logo or related slogans, adding a link in your news letter asking readers to check out your store or merchandise won’t hurt, just make sure it is paired with good content.
If you build up a large subscriber base, you can also use it to send other email campaigns and promotions for your merchandise, book, or affiliate products. A word of caution, however, no one likes unsolicited emails so you should be sure that you have permission to send additional emails and that they offer something of value and are not just viewed as annoyances.
If you have a popular blog, especially one that deals with topics that are important to others, you can earn money by selling your own products from your blog. People are always willing to buy merchandise that makes a statement, or support a cause they believe in. If your blog is popular you should consider making merchandise to sell on your blog.
You do not have to create merchandise that is branded to your blog, you can sell things that are relevant to your blogs topic and that relate to the content of your entries. Just make sure that your audience will be interested in the merchandise you create or you may find that you make few sales.
For example, if you blog about gaming, creating merchandise that relates to games and software will probably sell on your blog. You can also create merchandise that contains your blogs logo or other graphics, and get some free advertising every time a reader wears it as well.
Creating merchandise to sell on your blog is not as hard as it sounds. There are a few websites out there that allow you to create tShirts, mouse pads, mugs, hats, and other things that you can personalize any way you wish and sell for a profit.
Most websites handle orders, payments, and shipping, leaving you to do nothing but design your merchandise and profit. Here are some websites that you should consider if you want to create merchandise to sell on your blog:
Cafepress – This is a very popular website and allows you to create a variety of merchandise to sell on your blog, or anywhere else for that matter.
Basic membership is free and even includes a simple online store hosted on Cafepress. The merchandise you create has a base price and you mark it up to the price you wish and keep the profit. They handle orders, payments, and shipping.
Printfection – Printfection is relatively new and is similar to Cafepress. They have less merchandise you can create, limited mostly to different styles of shirts.
On the other hand, they offer a free online store that is comparable to the one you have to pay for on Cafepress. They also print with high quality and offer many color choices.
Zazzle – Another print on demand company, although they are more geared toward individuals rather than people trying to sell their products online.
The payment structure is different form Cafepress and Printfection where you set your markup. At Zazzle, you earn a fixed percentage. Prices are slightly higher at Zazzle than at Cafépress and Printfection as well.
Each of these websites allows you to create merchandise that you can sell on your blog, either with your blog logo, slogan, or something related to your blog’s topic.
Another thing you can consider to make money from your blog is to ask for donations. This method is not for everyone, but if your blog provides information to readers, especially if this information is not readily available in a free format, readers will not have a problem donating.
If your blog is opinion based, you may not get as much of a response, but it can still be worth a shot. Likewise, if your blog is monetized with many other advertising and affiliate opportunities, readers will be less inclined to make donations.
You may want to consider giving readers a way to donate if your blog is just starting out and you offer information of value to your readers. If you do not have a huge readership, donations may be a good way to make enough income to continue your blog until you can utilize other monetization methods that require more traffic.
You may have dismissed donations on your blog because it seems tacky or dishonest, but many bloggers rely on donations for all or part of their income. Your time is valuable, and unless you are happy to write simply as a hobby and not get paid, you have to start somewhere.
Not everyone will donate, but those who do will do so from their own free will because they enjoy reading your blog and wish to see it continue. Most readers will not be put off by a donation button, those who do not wish to donate will not and those who do will. Very few blogs end up loosing traffic as a result of adding a donation button.
There are a few places you can go to set up an account to take donation. Companies such as Pay Pal and Amazon make collecting donations easy and only take a few minutes to set up.
If you already have a Pay Pal account, you can go to their website and look into setting up a donation request. It doesn’t take long and you simply insert a button into your blog that users can click and then make donations via Pay Pal.
Amazon also has a similar donation program called the Honor System where bloggers can sign up and insert a button in their blog to accept donations. You can get the information you need from amazon.com by clicking the Honor System link at the bottom of the home page.
Remember, like any monetization method having a good amount of traffic and offering quality content is the key to being successful. You will not collect many d
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