7 Ways to Profit from a Blog
Most bloggers have a goal of making money from their blog. Of course some are content to simply have an outlet to voice their opinions and share their thoughts, but most of us have intentions of profiting financially as well. If that is the case for you, how are you going about achieving this goal? There are plenty of ways to do it, here we’ll take a look at some of them.
Selling Advertising Space
One of the most common ways to monetize a blog is to sell space to advertisers. Blogs with a significant amount of traffic can make a substantial income with ad sales. One of the primary reasons that many blogs choose to sell advertising is that it is a somewhat passive form of income once traffic has been developed. Yes, it does require work to find advertisers and maintain the ads on the blog, but those who can make a reasonable amount of money with ads are able to essentially pay themselves to write for their blog. When compared to some of the other ways to profit from a blog, selling ads can be one of the most consistent revenue streams. If you are able to keep your ad slots filled up you should have a good idea of what you will make each month.
However, there are some negatives that come with selling ads. First of all, you really need to have some established traffic in order to draw interest from potential advertisers. Trying to sell ad space without traffic can be very difficult and will most likely not produce much revenue. Also, your blog will need to target a specific audience in order to get the maximum amount of money for ad space. Obviously advertisers will be willing to pay more if your blog is a direct match with their target market.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a major source of income for many bloggers. The great thing about affiliate programs is that you have the opportunity to make money even if your blog has a small audience. The bad thing about affiliate programs is that you also have the potential to make no money at all.
New blogs often feature affiliate ads as opposed to selling space directly to advertisers. As I mentioned earlier, selling direct ads is difficult without much traffic, so affiliate programs are a natural fit for new blogs. Additionally, they are easy to maintain and take very little time.
Pay-Per-Click Ads
Google’s AdSense is of course the most popular method of monetizing a blog with pay-per-click ads. Some websites can make a significant amount of money with AdSense and others (most actually) will make a few dollars at best. Depending on the niche you are in, many of your visitors will completely ignore these ads and never click on them. On the other hand, many website owners have done very well with AdSense.
Paid Writing
There are an increasing amount of paid writing positions becoming available online. While these opportunities will not help you to directly make money through your own blog, they will allow you to make money because of your own blog. Established and well-recognized bloggers can earn good money by writing for others. In this case, your blog essentially becomes a resume or portfolio for your work.
The range of pay for articles will vary greatly, but the opportunity is there. In addition to the income, you’ll get some great exposure and networking opportunities through writing for other blogs. If you are looking for opportunities, Michael Martine wrote a post at Blogging Tips on The Five Best Pro Blogger Job Boards .
Selling Products
Another option is to directly sell your own products through your website. Product sales can be boosted by maintaining a successful blog that draws traffic, builds your credibility, and increases the exposure that the products receive. One of the best examples is Aaron Wall’s SEO Book. Aaron sells a downloadable e-book that has become recognized as one of the leading authorities on the subject of search engine optimization. Aaron’s blog at SEO Book continually helps to produce more sales and earn more money for him.
Promoting a Service
Service providers have an incredible opportunity to find new clients and increase their rates by blogging. Becoming recognized as an authority in your field will be much easier by maintaining a blog that focuses on your area of expertise. The blog will help potential clients to find you, and the improved reputation that you build, and the corresponding increase in demand for your services, will allow you to charge more for your work.
There are numerous examples of bloggers who are successfully promoting their own services. David Airey is a graphic designer based that specializes in logo design. David’s blog currently has over 3,000 subscribers and it has helped him to achieve solid search engine rankings for phrases that potential clients might use to find a designer. David’s blog is one of his primary methods of finding work.
Premium Content
The final option that we’ll look at in this article is selling premium content. While blogs are huge source of free information, not everything has to be free. Some bloggers and businesses have had success selling some of their best work.
SEOmoz, one of the leading SEO firms, sells memberships on their website that include access to premium content. Members are able to use a variety of SEO-based tools to help optimize their own websites, and there is even some written material available. Selling premium content is possible in just about any field, but you will have to be able to provide something that is worth paying for.
What Methods Do You Use?
I’d like to hear your feedback on what methods you use to profit from your blog. Please feel free to share your own experiences and opinions.
This post was written by our new resident co-writer, Steven Snell.
Thanks for the mention, I really appreciate it. You know, it’s funny: the response to that articles has been pretty underwhelming. I think paid blogging sounds too much like work for some people.
great post Adnan.
Great post Steven - sorry for the confusion guys. I didn’t realise that my theme doesn’t have an author’s name on the single post page - that’s something for a new theme
@ Michael - yeah you’re right. I myself find blogging for money quite strenuous - and I think it’s due to the constant commitment that’s needed, and the sticking to deadlines. After all, blogging is supposed to be free to do whatever you please. That’s just my take. Great to have you around here buddy, hope you stick around!
@ Aaron - again sorry for the confusion buddy.
To everyone, as mentioned at the end of the post, Steven Snell is our new resident co-blogger - there’ll be more about this in posts to come.
@ Steven - great post. I think the part which I used to be most interested in, was monetizing your blog through the promotion of a service. I myself ran blogLOUDER with some success - but realised quickly that it required more dedication and hours than blogging itself.
I think that affiliate marketing is the way to go if you want to try and earn quick bucks with little ongoing work and the potential for a lot of profits. Just take a look at Yaro who published his $4000 cheque for 1 blog post and 1 email to his list. Again - an email list is another great asset to build and profit from, through blogging.
I saw that post of Yaro’s. That is amazing making $4000 from one blog post, hopefully I can get there one day!
RE comments about blogging being work? Yes, it is. It may amaze some people to know that the human animal has adapted over time to include work as one of the prime ingredients of life. Some of us actually don’t mind working.
Disagree? That’s great too, just explore one of the other methods of making money aside from blogging. You won’t have a good and profitable blog without work … guaranteed.
Regarding advertising sales? Yesterday a freind was visiting and she asked me how blogs made money. She sat next to me as I surfed to at least a dozen sites, some very much A-listers.
Four, count them, 4, had a clear, concise advertising sales page which included current prices. Two had an up-to-date list of what slots were currently available. Duh!
If you want sell advertising, could I find your offerings in just one click? (note to self, go practice what you preach, Dave ;-))
Michael,
Good point about the work. That’s very true.
Adnan,
I need to work more on affiliate marketing. I have neglected that aspect… Thanks for having me as a writer here, I’m looking forward to getting more involved.
@ Thomas - yeah it’s definitely amazing - it would be very cool to get to that level of blogging expertise and earnings.
@ Dave - again, I agree with you. It takes work to make money online, just with any other form of making money offline. Hehe, yeah I’m surprised that some of the big blogs don’t have comprehensive pages of available advertising slots. I know Shoemoney managed to massively boost his earnings, just by making a more concise advertising page.
I’ve also updated my advertising page, because it makes more sense to visitors who really want to advertise - and helps to persuade them to purchase.
A lot of people follow the crowd and make the mistake of not monetizing their blog right from the start. Let’s face it, visitors judge a blog based on information, not based on the number of ads.
As long as you are publishing great information on a regular basis, readers really won’t mind that you are making money from your website. Personally, I am averaging over 1k unique daily visits after a little over a month of activity and I have monetized my blog right from the beginning. I always prefer to let my posts do all of the talking and the results are showing right from the beginning.
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
Good points, Alan. In many cases, relevant ads are actually a service to the readers, rather than a negative factor, as so many bloggers seem to think. If you’re writing about ‘Bloggong’ or ‘Celebreties’, perhaps the ads aren’t often helpful … but if you are in a niche, as we mostly should, sometimes the ads help people find new things even the blogger doesn’t know about. That’s one reason I almost always include AdSense, even on blogs that don’t make alot of money, becuase the a click may help a reader even more than the payout helps me.
I am new to blogging and your post will definitely prove really helpful to me. Thanks
@ Alan: that’s a good point. There are obvious positive and negatives to each side, so I suppose it’s a case of seeing how things go for you. I know many successful blogs now financially, that didn’t used to have ads - it’s how you handle the transition.
The number 1 priority is not letting the ads get in the way of your most valuable product - your articles.
@ Dave: You’re right as well. Ads don’t just have to be an annoying way of making money that displease the visitor. The reason why advertising sales are increasing on the net, is because they are obviously doing some good. Targeting these ads is important, as visitors don’t want to see ads for fishing on a blog about blogging.
@ Eva: no problemo!
In the end, if you make the fact that you are not shy when it comes to monetizing your website an important part of your brand (in my case, it’s all about practicing what I preach: I help others make money online and earn some worthwhile profits myself in the process by promoting products I personally find useful and believe in) and if you add the great information published on a regular basis to the equation, you simply can’t go wrong in the long run.
Alan Johnson
Thanks for the mention, Adnan!
At present my search rankings have gone to pot, but here’s hoping it’s just a temporary blip.
I hope all’s well with you.
Nice post, underlining the key features to profit from a blog.
I think if you a good designer in addition to your blog you can design products, stuff like t-shirts and have it printed and sell it on your blog using cafepress or similar online services.
thanks for this. Excellent article.
I am relatively new to blogging so for me this sound like a great opportunity to explore. I will definitly consider, thanks
Hi Steven,
Great post on the how to get profit from blogging. We need to have the right niche marketing…
Thanks
thurai
Interesting post, Personally I think for the first year or two its better to concentrate on having an excellent blog. Once your writing quality posts readers should increase and bring with them opportunities for revenue.
Ralph
Hi
Interesting post. We must have dedication on our blogs. Frequent updates on the blogs and as well comments on other blogs related to a particular niche will bring more traffic.