PureBlogging

Well, it’s still Monday morning on the West Coast. For a little while longer, anyway.

37 Signals offers some great motivation (and good ideas) for finding revenue streams.

Hacker News has a great discussion on the nature of SEO.

Copyblogger has tips on managing the length of your blog posts.

Men With Pens asks the Ultimate Question: Why do we blog?

Seth Godin makes a great observation about Wall-E and the bravery of creating great content.

Has anyone seen Wall-E, by the way? For my dollar it’s the best movie of the year. If I ever make it as an actor, I’ll be able to cry like a hungry baby, on command, just by thinking of the scene where EVE is trying frantically to find a new circuit board to replace Wall-E’s broken one. See, there I go right now. Big salty tears, right in the keyboard.

Thousands of blogs are launched every single day with the intent of making money. You can see just how popular this is by observing how many “make money blogs” and blogs about blogging exist. I’m sure you’re aware that only a select few make money bloggers have actually made significant and consistent money with their blog. That’s not to say that there’s no value in a blogger who is writing about the journey. I enjoy Caroline Middlebrook’s blog where she discusses her own efforts and talks through her opinions with readers. I also enjoyed following Ben Cook’s progress through his one year Blogging Experiment before he sold it.

The truth is that very few bloggers will ever make a full-time income by blogging. In my opinion, that opportunity is very much available, but few bloggers have the persistence, patience and ability to get there. What’s more likely is a respectable part-time income, but many are let down when they conclude that this is as far as they’re going to get.

Many bloggers tend to lean on ad revenue as a source of income. Top blogs can usually make a pretty good amount from ads alone, but most bloggers are fortunate to make a few hundred dollars per month. I’m not attempting to discourage anyone from going after ad revenue, it’s certainly a major piece of the puzzle in most cases, but I think most bloggers don’t really calculate how much traffic they’ll need in order to earn a living on ad revenue.

Why Blogs are Difficult to Monetize:

People are used to getting something for free

Blog readers have gotten used to the fact that blogs produce content for free. As a result, this becomes expected and many bloggers that try to develop some revenue streams face the difficult task of convincing readers that there is something worth paying for. An example of this is premium content, membership sites, or even e-book sales. We’ve gotten so much for free that it can be difficult to create something that’s going to lead people to open up their wallets.

Ad blindness

Most blog readers visit a decent number of blogs and websites on a daily basis. As a result, they see the same ads over and over again, and they start to ignore the ads. Ad blindness makes advertisements less effective than they could be otherwise, and that means bloggers can’t make as much with the advertisements.

Affiliate sales can be frowned upon

Depending on the niche and the audience of a blog, placing affiliate links in posts can really offend some readers. When I first started blogging I put a couple of affiliate links in a post and I got a few readers who questioned the practice, including one who flat out was against it. Affiliate sales are a big source of income for many top bloggers, but if your audience isn’t ok with affiliate links (assuming they can even identify an affiliate link) it could be a big struggle to generate sales this way.

Traffic and effort has to be constant

I couldn’t even tell you how many bloggers I’ve seen over the past year that looked like they were on their way to running a very successful blog, but they gave up somewhere along the way. Not that many people are able to stay interested and motivated when it comes to building a blog, because it takes constant work. Take a month off with no posts and your traffic and income will fall, and you’ll have to build yourself back up again. Especially if you’re hoping to earn a full-time income, the consistency becomes an even bigger issue. As a part-timer you can probably deal with up and down income, but that might not be possible without another source of income to fall back on.

Compensation is usually not direct

I think most of us are programmed to expect to be paid according to the work that we put in. With blogging, you could spend hours researching and writing a post, but if it doesn’t do well you may not have anything to show for it financially. This is actually a positive, because once you’ve built a successful blog you can earn much more money for your efforts, but it becomes a discouragement to those who are just starting out.

Many traffic sources are difficult to monetize

When it comes to making money with your blog, not all traffic sources are equal. For example, social media is a leading source of traffic for many blogs, but these visitors are notoriously difficult to monetize. They’re not going to click on ads, they usually leave after seeing only one page, and they aren’t as likely to subscribe as other types of visitors. As a result, you may be able to produce impressive traffic stats and not even be able to really make anything significant from it.

Uneven playing field

Small bloggers trying to “compete” with blogs that have a full staff of writers are at a significant disadvantage. Additionally, established blogs have a much easier time than those that are just getting started. While I don’t think that this is really a negative to blogging for money, it does make it difficult for the little guy, and many don’t have the patience to make it to the other side of the fence.

What Can You Do About It?

1. Be realistic

One of the leading causes for bloggers giving up is the existence of unrealistic expectations. It’s a one in a million shot that you’ll be making a full-time income from a blog in a matter of months, yet that’s what some people have in mind. There’s nothing wrong with ambitious goals, but they should also be accompanied by some realistic understanding or there’s a very high chance of disappointment that won’t be overcome.

A part-time income from blogging can be pretty nice, but when you’re expecting much more it can be disappointing. Whatever your goals and intentions are, take some time to realize what’s involved and what others are able to accomplish. Appreciate and celebrate your small victories along the way and take a long-term approach to building an income.

2. Diversify income sources

Rather than just relying on ads to make money, why not find other ways to do so, such as selling an e-book, doing reviews, etc. While one source of income is unlikely to support you full-time, three or four may be able to do the trick. Take a look at top bloggers like Darren Rowse and John Chow. They make money in a number of different ways that all add up to a six-figure income.

3. Get creative

The income sources from your blog don’t have to be the typical ones mentioned above. Get creative and find some new ways to make money. Niche-specific job boards are getting very popular, and for blogs with a decent-sized and focused audience, this can be an excellent source of income. I mentioned Blogging Experiment earlier. When Max Davis bought the site from Ben Cook he turned around and offered a membership course on buying and selling websites, and he almost recovered his investment in just a few short months.

4. Provide a service

Many bloggers have the opportunity to sell a service in addition to their blogging efforts. Michael Martine wrote a post several months ago about selling consulting services through your blog. Services can be an excellent fit for bloggers. As you publish content on your blog you’re selling your readers on your knowledge and expertise. Once you’ve built some respect you’ll have a natural marketplace for your services.

5. Freelance on the side

While you’re building your own blog you may want to consider writing for others on a freelance basis. Freelance blogging can be a nice source of supplementary income and it may keep you motivated as you’re seeing real money coming in.

6. Build your name

Many pro bloggers earn a living by running multiple blogs. If this is the case, name recognition is very important. Once you have built an established audience at one blog you could branch out to another one and take many of your readers with you. Then you’ll have two successful blogs instead of one. We’ve seen this in practice recently with the quick success for NETTUTS and VECTORTUTS riding on the wave from PSDTUTS.

What Are Your Thoughts About Blogging for Money?

Do you blog with the intent to make money? If so, what’s your experience and what do you feel are the biggest challenges?

If you’re looking to start a profitable blog, niche research is important. Depending on your goals and your approach you may wan to seek out a niche that’s currently underserved, or you may want to identify niches that have plenty of income potential. Most of the niches that have a high income potential will also have a good deal of competition from other websites and blogs. However, to make money in these niches you don’t necessarily have to be the biggest, most popular blog in the industry. you can make a decent income in the right niche just by simply getting a small piece of the pie for yourself.

I’m sure you’ve read a lot about the need to choose a niche that has lower levels of competition, but that can be both a blessing and a curse. Personally, I don’t think either approach is right or wrong, it just depends on what you want to do, but if you’re looking for big potential, competitive niches will typically provide more.

Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Shy Away from a Popular Niche:

1 - Huge Potential

As I just mentioned, more competitive and more popular topics tend to come with very high income potential. Choosing a smaller, less-saturated niche may give you better odds of success, but they generally will not have the same potential.

2 - You Don’t Need to Dominate

In popular industries you won’t have to be the biggest or the best to make some money. You can still be profitable while being a relatively small player. In less popular niches you’ll likely have to be at the top in order to really make money.

3 - Huge Targeted Audience

One of the biggest struggles of niche blogging can be finding targeted visitors. Choose a topic that’s too narrow and the amount of potential readers will be pretty small. On the other hand, popular industries will have more competition, but they’ll also provide unlimited potential because of the huge audience.

4 - More Income Opportunities

One of the major benefits of being in a popular industry is the added income opportunities that are usually associated. For example, a competitive niche will have a much larger number of affiliate programs that you can promote on your blog as compared to a small, less-popular niche. In addition to just affiliate programs, there will also be more companies that are willing to advertise on your blog to promote their products and services, simply because there are more products and services available in popular industries.

5 - Proven Money-Making Potential

Most of he popular industries are so crowded in part because others have proved that there is plenty of money to be made. Smaller niches may have potential, but more popular industries can have proven potential.

6 - Chance for a Quick Start

In a smaller niche you’ll probably have to work very hard to slowly build your readership. In a popular niche you have plenty of interested readers out there, you just need to find a way to get noticed. Getting a link from a major website or blog, publishing guest posts, or achieving success with social media can all result in a quick launch.

Easily Find Money-Making Niches with Commission Junction

Researching a niche is a very broad topic that could warrant a series of posts in itself. However, one simple aspect of researching is to find a niche where a lot of money is being exchanged. Generally, if money is being made, there is plenty of opportunity for you.

Commission Junction (CJ) is an affiliate manager, which means they’re a third-party service that provides management of affiliate programs for other companies. CJ connects advertisers to publishers (website owners and bloggers that want to make money by promoting affiliate products and services) and they handle the tracking, payment, and all the other details. You can sign up for an account at Commission Junction and apply to the affiliate programs of hundreds or thousands of companies according to your interests.

As the affiliate manager, CJ provides you with a single place to manage your affiliate programs, rather than needing to login to every program separately, plus you get commissions from all the different programs in one check.

Commission Junction has a wide variety of programs to promote, and they cover all industries, which makes their service a great place for niche research. Once you’re signed up with CJ you can do some quick research to find niches that have a large number of advertisers (CJ categorizes them, which makes this very easy).

Generally, if you see a niche with a ton of advertisers, that’s a good sign that others are making money in this niche. If no one was making money there wouldn’t be so many companies with affiliate programs targeting that audience. As I said earlier, researching affiliate programs doesn’t mean that you would have to use affiliate programs to earn the income through your blog. You can always find advertisers to directly buy ad space, but doing the research this way is much quicker than contacting potential advertisers one-by-one. In a matter of a few minutes you can gauge the potential of a niche.

What to Look for:

As you’re browsing through the affiliate programs at Commission Junction, pay attention to the following:

Variety of products and services - Does and industry have a wide variety of products and services represented through CJ? If so, there are most likely even more opportunities outside of CJ. If the only products and services available through CJ are direct competitors, you may be more limited.

Reputable companies - CJ represents a large number of very well-known companies. Are there affiliate programs for companies that you would be willing to promote?

Commission - Each affiliate program will have its own unique commission structure. Some will give you a set percentage of sales, others a flat dollar amount. Pay attention to the percentage as well as how much money that will actually put in your pocket. Both numbers are important.

Cookie length - Most of these programs will use cookies to track your referrals so that if someone clicks through your link and then makes a purchase on that site a few days later, you can still get paid the commission. Some programs will track cookies for 10 days, some for 6 months.

What is required to constitute a sale? - This may be very simple, or it may be more complex. Most of the time a sale is pretty straightforward, but always read the conditions to make sure there are no important exclusions to what you will be paid for.

Are “lead” programs available? - CJ includes a number of programs where you can make money without the visitor even buying anything. For example, you can get paid if someone applies for a credit card, or if they fill out their information to be contacted about a mortgage. These programs can be very lucrative, and sometimes they’re easier to promote because of the fact that the visitor doesn’t have to buy anything.

Types of ads/creatives available - Each program will provide you with links and different types of ads (such as various sizes of banner ads) If you’re thinking of promoting a program this can make a big difference in your success.

Incentives - Some of the programs will pay higher commissions to affiliates that hit certain levels of sales. If you’re expecting to make a lot of sales this can be extra motivation.

Stats - CJ provides a little bar for each advertiser that shows how much they’ve paid out, called their “network earnings.” Those with higher earnings are producing more income for affiliates. They also provide 3 month EPC and 7 day EPC, which shows how much is earned per 100 clicks. In other words, if you send them 100 clicks to this program, on average you will make this amount.

Why This is Helpful?

Recently I have been researching an industry to see if it would be a good opportunity to start a profitable site. One of the best sources of information was the list of affiliates provided through CJ. Most of them I will never use even when I do start the site, but this proved to me that there is a wide variety of products and services, from many different companies. If there are this many affiliate programs in CJ alone, I know there are plenty of money-making opportunities within the niche. It was very quick and productive research.

When deciding between CPA (Cost per Action) or CPL (Cost per Lead), which do you believe is more effective? To help you make the right decision, I interviewed a few bloggers who make a decent living off affiliate marketing and discovered that CPA has been the most effective for them. CPL can be effective as well, but again, according to the pros, CPA is the one that brings in the majority of their income.

After you’ve decided between CPA or CPL and selected the advertisers you want to feature on your blog, your next step will be choosing the products and services you want to promote. When you reach this step, you will want to select products and services related to your niche. If the product or service you choose does not relate to your blog, then you probably won’t do well at all.

Tiffany Washko said, “I always try to use affiliate links where I get anywhere from a 4-50% commission on the sale.”

Even though a higher commission is great, Darren Rowse from ProBlogger cautioned, “If you recommend rubbish you’ll lose the respect of your readers. Only promote quality products — every recommendation you make not only is a money making opportunity but it says something about you.”

What happens when you discover advertisers that carry the same quality merchandise at the same price? Which one should you choose then? When Michelle Madhok finds herself in this situation she said, “We choose the one with the higher CPA?”

Not sure which affiliate programs perform well? Try one of more of the following programs. When I asked bloggers what affiliate advertisers generate the most income for them, these four came out on top:

1. Google Adsense
2. Chitika
3. Amazon Associates
4. Tribal Fusion (requires a minimum of 2000 unique users per day to qualify)

Ad placement plays a big role in affiliate marketing as well. If you do not place your ads in the right locations on your blog, then they may not generate the income you’d like. According to the professionals, the best places to place ads are above the fold or near the content, at the bottom of the post, and 125×125 banners near the top of the right sidebar. Many also said that writing reviews and placing a direct link in the review performs well. You could always contact the advertiser and request the product to review. Or, another option would be to buy the product, then write a review; sometimes you have to be willing to invest money to make money.

Jonathan Volk advised, “When promoting affiliates via a blog, it’s important to outline the benefits of the program and make sure that you’re coming across as honest. On the Internet, there is so much deception that any bit of truthful, genuineness seems to convert very well.”

Darren Rowse agreed with Jonathan. “I find that readers respect when I give both the positives and negatives about a product — again, this is about creating a readership that will stick with you for the long haul.”

The above advice on affiliate marketing is sure to help you get started, but no matter what advice you follow, Joel Comm and Zac Johnson were 100% on the money when they said you have to test everything to determine what will work best for your blog.

If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing and making money with your blog, you can check out the newly released ProBlogger book by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett.

Are you great at affiliate marketing? Then please share your affiliate marketing advice in the comments area.

Would you like to make money with your blog? Following are 8 ways you can make money with your blog. If fact, these methods have been used by pros such as Darren Rowse from Problogger. Currently, Darren averages a yearly six-figure income from his blog. He’s certainly an inspiration, but I’m sure his success didn’t come overnight. I would imagine it took time and a lot of testing before Darren was able to pull in a six-figure income. However, with a bit of time, determination, hard work and testing, you too may one day celebrate your first six-figure income, and here are a few ways to help you get started:

Private Ads

Many bloggers earn an income by selling private ads related to their blog. 125 x 125 banners seem to sell the best and take up the least amount of space on your blog.

If you decide to sell private ads on your blog, the first thing you should do is decide on a price. Next, you’ll need to create an advertising page that includes your price, the type of ads you’re selling, your demographics and ordering information. If you need a little help setting a fair price, check out “How Much Should I Charge for my Advertising Space?” over at Problogger.

Affiliate Programs

Sign up for a few affiliate programs. Then, after you’ve registered, choose a few products and/or services related to your blog. Some popular affiliate programs that pay on commission are Amazon Associates, Linkshare and Clickbank.

If you have the money to invest, purchase some of the products or services you’re promoting to write a review about the product or service on your blog. Be sure you include your affiliate link in the review. I’ve read many success stories from affiliates who chose to make the investment in order to write an honest review and earn their readers’ trust.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is another program that is a popular income generator for bloggers. However, in order to do really well with this program, your blog should be pulling in quite a bit of traffic, and sometimes it depends on your blog’s niche as to how much you could earn.

Product Sales

Do you have products related to your blog? Then sell them to your blog readers. If you don’t have a product, create an e-book or turn your blog into a blook and offer it to your blog readers for a reasonable price.

Donations

Ask for donations through PayPal. You’d be surprised how many people will pay for the information you dish out.

Teleseminars

Teleseminars are becoming more and more popular among bloggers. Join the ranks by creating your own teleseminar and selling it to your blog readers. Make sure the teleseminar you create relates to your blog and offers great advice that you’ve never mentioned through your blog.

Job Board

If your blog provides freelance writing or blogging advice, you may want to consider adding a job board to your blog. Charge advertisers a small fee to place their advertisement on your job board for X amount of days, and allow job seekers to view and apply for the jobs free. Not only will a job board add to your blogging income, but you’ll also be giving your blog readers a reason to return to your blog.

Add News Content and Videos

Finally, embedding relevant news content and videos on your blog from the Voxant Newsroom is another way to earn money as well as return visitors.

Are you using Project Wonderful to earn income on your blog?  I recently started using it on my restaurant blog, and I’ve had some mixed results, but it has the potential to bring in a steady stream of income for your blog.  For those of you with newer blogs, or are just getting started monetizing your blog, it may be a very nice alternative to consider.  It is easy to set up, and you can start earning money right away. 

One of the things I like about Project Wonderful is that you can create ad boxes and advertising campaigns for multiple sites from a single account.  You won’t have to create a separate account for each of your blogs.  That really simplifies things.

Once you sign up and create your profile, you will be able to create an ad box for your site.  Once the box is created you will be able to place it anywhere on your site, so you will want to think through the placement and what size will work best before you create the box.  The ad box setup gives you a lot of options for size, number of ads displayed in each box, the way the ads are displayed.  You can set it up as a square, banner, or skyscraper. 

One thing you will want to pay attention to is setting the minimum bid.  You can set a minimum of $0.00 or higher.  The good part about setting your minimum to $0.00 is that you will get ads on your site right away.  Without ads displayed, there will be a “Your Ad Here” box displayed, which doesn’t speak well of your ability to deliver for advertisers.  On the other hand, a zero-bid allows other sites to advertise on your site for free.

One caution about creating your ad box: Once your ad box goes live, and there are ads placed in it, you will not be able to make changes to the size, configuration, or minimum bid amounts.  If you want to make changes you will have to create a new ad box and replace your existing box. 

Project Wonderful displays ads on a highest bidder basis.  Whoever bids the most will have their ad displayed on your site.  The bid placed is how much they will pay to have their ad displayed for one day.

Let’s assume you have an ad box that allows to ads to be displayed, with a minimum bid of $0.00.  Buyer #1 places a bid with a minimum bid of $0.00 and a maximum bid of $0.02.  Because they are the only bidder they will pay $0.00 (the minimum).  Buyer #2 places a bid with a minimum of $0.01 and a max of $0.02.  Their ad is displayed at $0.01, and Buyer #1 is still displayed at $0.00.  Buyer #3 then places a bid with a minimum bid of $0.02 and a max bid of $0.05.  The ads on your site would now display Buyer #1 at $0.02 (which was the Buyer #2 max bid), and Buyer #3 at $0.02. 

If those bid numbers look low, well, they are.  But it is a good indication of what to expect if your blog doesn’t have much traffic.  I have seen more popular sites that are charging more than $5 per day for each ad displayed, but you need to be able to deliver traffic for that much money.  Even the Project Wonderful homepage is only getting $0.80 per ad.

When a buyer is considering whether to place an ad on your site they will have access to Project Wonderful’s traffic stats for your site.  When you place the ad widget on your site, PW will be able to track your traffic count.  They will display that count over the past 30-days for any potential advertiser.  If that traffic count is low, the amount they are willing to bid is low 

For Bloggers that are just getting started, this means earnings of a few cents per day, but as your traffic count grows, so will your earnings.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with Project Wonderful.  What has worked (or not worked) for you?  Please share your comments so we can all benefit for our shared wisdom.