Monetizing Your Blog: A Beginners Guide

I've just posted this on BlogCut and thought it may be helpful to any new bloggers amongst us. Most people here will know all this already but for anyone here that runs a blog and has no idea what ways there are to monetize it this is for you.

How to make money from your blog

So, you've got your blog set up and have a good base of readers and now want to start making money from your blog - after all you've put a lot of work into your blog and now you want to get a little extra out of it, right?

In this article I am going to cover the basic steps behind monetizing (making money) from your blog. There are literally hundreds of ways to make money from your blog, different programs and schemes all claim to be able to make you money but which is the one best for you? Let's go over the best ways that are known to make bloggers money.

Before going on to look at different ways to make money through your blog there is one important factor that I'd like to cover first as so many people get it wrong, ad placement. When first monetizing your site it is very easy to get carried away and place some-sort of advert in every last free pixel on your blog, people tend to assume that more ads = more money - this couldn't be further from the truth, let me tell you why. When adverts are over done it WILL put people off and while more ads can mean more money the simple fact is that less visitors means less money and it's much easier to place an ad on your site than it is to win back visitors!

Well placed ads can be the difference between making no money and making lots of money, how you place ads can be just as important as which ads you display. Again I can not stress the importance of this, do not overdo your ads. Your ads should not detract anything from your blog, they should spoil the quality of your content, they should not destroy the layout of your blog and they shouldn't be set out so that your readers can see nothing but ads.

There will be a more extensive article added soon that covers ad placement but now that we have got that out of the way lets look at the different methods of making money that bloggers have success with:

1. Advertising Programs

Advertising programs are one the simplest methods for generating income that you will find. They are easy to set-up and are practically maintenance free which is great as it leaves you with more time to focus on other aspects of your blog.

Google Adsense is currently the most popular method of making money for bloggers out there and is definitely the best method for new bloggers. Google offers a "pay-per-click" system which basically means that you will be paid a certain amount for each click the ad gets. The ads are easy to place on your site and google try to place ads that are most relevant to your sites content, this way your visitors are more likely to click them.

If you live in the USA you may also want to look into Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN), essentially it is the same idea as Google Adsense although people report earnings to be much higher.

If you use Google Adsense then you should probably take a look at this plugin which helps to integrate ad blocks within your post and around your site. If you want to find out more about using adsense with blogs try looking here

2. Text Links & Sponsored Posts

This is yet another well proven and increasingly popular way for bloggers to generate revenue and although the income wont be huge (unless your blog is really successful) it can still be very worthwhile.

Most bloggers have a blogroll which is great for exchanging links but what about a section for actually selling links? - If your blog has a good amount of traffic or has a high Google PR then people will pay for links on your blog. A good place to sell text links is here at TalkFreelance!

If your blog has a lot of readers then you will also have a good opportunity to get "sponsored posts" - How this works is at the start of your post under your title you will have the text 'This post is sponsored by:' followed by a link to your sponsors website. This can be a great way to generate money if you have a blog with a good readership.

3. Affiliates

Affiliate schemes have been around forever and are definitely a good way to earn extra money. However, your blog would really need to suit it. For example, if you were blogging about computer games or the latest technology this would be a good place to use affiliate marketing. Why? well you could review a game or a new piece of hardware and then have an affiliate link to the item - if the person reads your post, clicks the link and the buys the item you will earn commission. Arguably the best of the affiliate services out there is provided by Amazon.

Affiliates CAN make good money but ideally you need a blog with a lot of traffic that focuses on a specific market.

4. RSS Marketing?

Monetizing RSS feeds is still relatively new and not as "proven" as the other methods covered so far but it is possible. If you have an account with FeedBurner (which I think everyone should) and have a large amount of subscribers then there is opportunity to make money through your feed. This one really is only for big blogs though, you would need a massive amount of subscribers to make good money through this method.

If all else fails?

If you don't want to have ads on your blog but need help keeping up with hosting costs you could always do things the old fashioned way and ask for donations - hey it works for some!

I hope you have learned something from the article, there are hundreds of ways to make money through your blog we have simply touched the surface here. If your interested in other ways I can only recommend searching and experimenting. This was a very basic guide for new bloggers that want to try their hand at monetizing - over the coming weeks I will be writing articles that cover each aspect of money making through blogs so as always watch out for them!


This is also on:
BlogCut
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