Maximize your blog's monetary potential
One thing which I love to do as part of my writing, is to encourage moms with simple things they can do to earn money from home. My first encouragement is that you learn to be as frugal as you can, as I strongly believe "a penny saved, is a penny earned." However, for those who have a free hour or two a day (Can you say, "Naptime"?) there are all sorts of ways to utilize that bit of time to help bring in a little revenue for your family.
One of those ways is to maximize your blog's monetary potential. I never set out to make money blogging, but it most certainly has been a great perk to get paid for doing something I love to do. I most definitely don't blog for the money, but, being a rather entreprenurial-minded person, I won't turn down an opportunity to earn money so long as it is moral, ethical, and do-able with my limited amount of time. If you already have a blog - especially a decently-trafficked blog - there really is good money to be had in blogging which you can earn without compromising your blog's integrity or readership's trust of you.
I've mentioned some of these before, but here are some simple ideas that work for me and could easily work for you, too:
Sell ads on your site - I recommend Blogads, though there are other networks out there. You need an invite to sign up with Blogads (email me if you are interested and I can send you one provided you have a decently-trafficked blog and regularly blog) and the best way to garner advertisers after you sign up is to join at least a few hives of similar bloggers (I'm a part of the Evangelical bloggers, Conservative bloggers, the Christian mom bloggers, and the Baby and Parenting bloggers). What I like about Blogads is that you approve or reject all ads before they run on your blog. In addition, you can choose to defer an ad in the middle of its running if you decide against running it. I've also been very pleased with the customer service at Blogads and their quick response time and the effort they put out to procure ads.
Other options for ads on your blog are Google AdSense, of course. I've tried these out a few times and had problems with offensive ads, so I don't feel I can recommend them. In spite of trying to block those offensive ads, they have so many millions of "relevant ads" that I can't keep up with them due to the variety of things I post on my blog. If you have a blog which is primarily on cooking or sewing or homemaking, you probably wouldn't have an issue with it. Just don't try broaching many subjects like feminism, abortion, or sodomy too often. Carrie has beautifully integrated GoogleAds with her blog here. By placing the ads at the top near the middle, she is maximizing her click-thrus. With GoogleAds, you earn money each time a reader clicks on an ad. They don't have to buy anything, they only have to click-thru. How much you earn per click is based upon many factors, but it is usually somewhere between $0.05 and $2.00 from what I've found, with the majority of clicks being in the $0.15 or so range.
I'm currently experimenting with a new ad service: AdBrite. They mostly do text ads (see the bottom of my sidebar for an example), similar to GoogleAds, but you have more control over it, from what I've found. You can choose to have clean, family-friendly only ads, and you can even choose to only run ads that people specifically buy on your site and you approve. You also have to re-approve the ad if the advertiser changes it. I know some people don't care too much about what ads run on their blog, but I'm pretty particular. So far, I don't know that the return is as good as GoogleAds, but time will tell.
Become an affiliate - This is about the simplest way to earn a little money off your blogging and one I recommend for everyone. To get you started, download this free ebook, The Affiliate Master's Course by Ken Evoy here. Speaking of which, did you know we have an affiliate program for our entire store? We also have a wonderful affiliate program for our ebooks.
Write an ebook and promote it on your blog - I think everyone should write at least one ebook in their lifetime and hopefully more than one. Don't know where to start or what to write on? Here's a simple article I wrote to get you going.
Submit your blog entries to Associated Content - Want to become a published author and make money doing it? Try Associated Content. They don't pay big bucks, but for most articles, they will pay at least $4-$6 and up to $15 if they are lengthier or more original. Be sure to choose to submit it with non-exclusive rights, as this allows for it to be published elsewhere. I'd recommend you sign up and then look through your past blog entries and submit all posts which would qualify. I've submitted posts on all kinds of topics and they've accepted and paid me for many of them. For a few minute's time, this is definitely worth it. Plus, it gets your name and blog out there more and it gives you more mileage for your time!
Those are few ideas which have worked well for me. I'd love to hear if you have others. Start with a few little things here and there and find out what works for you and gradually, you will begin to see a nice return on your naptime-time investment. Your husband might even get excited about your blogging when those checks start rolling in the mail!
posted by Crystal Paine at 12:05 PM
17 Comments:
These are all great tips. I'm curious, about how much per month (on average) do you make from your blog?
Thanks for sharing your ideas and the links.
I’ve posted a 12 lbs ‘til Christmas WFMW tip.
Overwhelmed - good question. It's hard to say exactly, as there are multiple streams of revenue on my site and much more than just my blog. However just directly from my blog itself (not including sales on my website, etc. which come from my blog), it's at least always in the hundreds and sometimes, there is a comma. It really depends upon the month and if I promote things, how many advertisers, etc. Whatever the amount, it is most definitely worth the 15 or 20 minutes/day I usually put into blogging. And hey, I enjoy blogging anyway - money or no money! It just makes it seem a little more worth my time to myself and to my husband if it results in "paychecks." :)
i have a new site in the works... stay tuned and these ideas are great once again!!
Thanks so much for sharing this information Crystal. It's useful for me not only in the idea of making money from a blog but also provided me with some food for thought in regards to advertising my own business (currently in development stage!).
Thanks again and God bless you and your family,
Diana
Crystal,
What would you consider a decently trafficked blog? Thanks for the tips! I am always looking for ways to help me get out of debt and be a better steward.
Take care,
Leigh
Thank you Crystal. This is great information and I think it's a wonderful blessing of you to share.
If you submit to AC do you still own it? Or if they pay you for it they own it and you can't use it anymore?
I'm confused about that one.
Thanks
www.adustyframe.wordpress.com
Crystal,Can you please talk more about how you get products to try out either for free or at a reduced price (product reviews).
Thank you,
Mrs.Garcia
Crystal, great tips! I would like to do a lot more with my blog ~ especially since there are so many products I've purchased that I've been so pleased with. I would really like to do more with my blog, however I am quite HTML illiterate and I don't foresee me having time to learn it in the near future. What would you suggest? By the way, I haven't forgotten the article you requested! I'll get it to you soon! :-)
Hey, thanks! I made $.78 from your reference today. :) The thing I like about Google Ads is that is really hands-off - I haven't done much of anything with it since I put it up a few months ago, but I've made over ten dollars. Not much at all, but considering it takes very little effort I'll keep it up there and make a few pennies a day!
I need to re-read your post when I have time to think. I would like to do some thinking on how to use the traffic I get from Frugal Friday, Works for Me Wednesday, or just a general link like the one in your post to make a little money.
Hello Crystal,
Thank you for sharing and encouraging your readers. I too am curious about the number for a well trafficed site.
Take care,
Trixie
Homemakerang: Can't wiat to hear about your new site. You have a package coming in the mail soon. :)
As far as a what I would term a "decently-trafficked" blog: Blogads basis their traffic reports upon how many pageviews you have per day. Usually, you have about 1.5-2 times as many pageviews as you do actual visitors. But since Blogads will be on every page, that will mean an ad will be shown as many times as you receive pageviews. Thus, that is what advertisers are most interested in upfront.
If you have at least 150-200 visitors per day (which would be around 300-400 pageviews), you can probably expect to make a decent amount with Blogads alone - perhaps maybe $40-$75/month. Not anything huge, but something for sure. Less than that, you can still make something, it just probably won't be as much. The more traffic you have, the more it will go up. Since you set your prices, I recommend you start out with them quite low and gradually raise them as the demand is raised.
A Dusty Frame: By submitting articles to AC with non-exclusive rights, you can get paid for it, but still retain the rights and submit it elsewhere. If you submit it with exclusive rights (which you should never do), you retain the rights, but you can't submit it for publication elsewhere.
AC is one of the easiest ways to make money off your blog entries. The sign-up is super easy and submission is very simple. And, provided you aren't a bad writer and submit fairly good entries, you can expect to make at least $20-$30/month off of this, if you submit 10-15 entries/month. And it probably would only take you a total of 10 minutes to submit all of those. I recommend you just go through your blog entries at the end of every month and submit those which could be considered articles. It only takes a few moments and they pay in Paypal usually within a week or so. Not bad, in my estimation.
You see the multiple streams of income mentality going here?
Another idea is to pull and remake some of your blog entries into an ebook that you offer on your blog. You could probably come up with 10 or 15 of these ebooks on different topics after blogging for a year or so (especially if you blog pretty avidly). Ebook topics such as saving money, making money, simplifying your life, scheduling, homemaking, cooking, tips on almost any subject, all sell well. Ebooks on really practical subjects are the ones which sell the best.
There are so many options and when you start thinking outside the box, it's amazing what you can come up with.
Mrs. Garcia:
Product reviewals are really simple. I never even considered it when I first started blogging and I don't remember how I stumbled upon it. I think someone asked me to review something and the light bulbs started going off. Since then, I've been asked to do more product reviews than I could ever do or ever want to do and have had to really be particular in which products I'll agree to review. I try to do one review about every 2 weeks or so.
Most of the time, I'm approached requesting a review, however, I don't hesitate to ask if it's a possibility if I see something which I think would work great for me and you all might be interested in it, too. I try to be cautious in this, though, since I'm not just out to get something for nothing. I also want you to know that anything I review will be a fair and honest review
Usually, when I do a product review, the response is quite good and the companies will often write and ask if I'd do another review for them since they got so many orders/traffic because of it. I'm always happy to hear that, especially if I thought it was a really great product. :)
To get started doing product reviews, you could put up a product review policy or write and ask a few companies about possibly reviewing their product on your blog. Most of the time, they are happy to comply.
Laura: If you can get into your blog's template to add a link or change a link, you should be able to add affiliate links. Most of the time, when you sign up as an affiliate, they will give you the actual HTML to use and you can just copy and paste it where you want on your sidebar. After a few tries, you'll get it and it won't take much effort at all.
Great tips!
Post a Comment
<< Home