Though somehoe I never had great luck with reviews.
But the goood part of my money comes with adsense and affiliate sales.
These days most of the software/product have affiliate link related to them. So I put a relevent software or product banner on my sidebar. That helps me a lot
@LoneWolf - completely off subject but just had to say that I LOVE your avatar! We are huge fans in this house and have been since about 1994!
@ LoneWolf and BruceH
Adsense can be a good way to start, but I never plan to use it. On my most recent blog, Debt-free Scholar, I got direct advertisers with in one month of starting. In addition, I only had an average of 30 visits a day, so I doubt if I would have made much from Adsense. You are right, though, that Adsense is not always bad, some of Darren's other blogs have it, but I personally think that it is like playing with fire - when you get burnt it is too late.
@ denharsh
I am not talking about payed reviews like Pay Per Post. Those are bad for a blog's reputation (normaly! - I know, I know, they could be OK too sometimes :) ). The reviews that I do are product reviews. I find a book I like. I contact the publisher. They send it to me for free. I read and review it. At first this method is kind of discouraging - I remember wondering if it really worked - but once you get you publisher network built it is pretty easy.
Debt-free Scholar - A growing college finances blog
The problem with any type of advertising, is that you need traffic. Build up your traffic first, then which ever advertising campaign you go for, you will make money. But you need the traffic first.
I haven't made use of it myself, but in my studies I've run across a lot of comments about using blogs to build email lists and then promoting more in-depth information products that you've created (or info or physical products that you are an affiliate for) based on your blog topics. I'm not currently monetized, but I think this is the direction I will eventually go.
If you're not familiar with http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com and Yaro Starak then you might also want to look there. He has a little different take on it than Darren.
thinking towards the whole at http://www.inventingelephants.com
I use paid postings and google adsense on my blogs. I make 5 to 10 month from Google Adsense and around 30 for paid postings. I would like to get away from paid postings. I get around 20 to 50 visitors a day.
Thanks
Greg Ellison
I think immediately thinking less of a website because it uses adsense is rather elitist (there are other words, but I'm not looking to start a fight).
That said, I've had adsense run across a LOT of sites for over a year now and I've made a whopping $6. Of course, I'm really not working very hard on placement and optimizing etc. because I'm way lazy and don't care that much (I'm not in this for the money, but for the experience and the education).
I just removed it from the blog in my signature because (1) it does detract from my design a bit (the background, for example, covered up my beloved flower in my sidebar), (2) it was losing visitors -- shouldn't, but was -- and with a whopping $6 in a year, it was really not helping to shrug off the costs at all, and (3) I was tired of all the work it took to filter out other web design firms... With outgoing links to web designers from my business's site... well, yeah. Conflict of interest.
"Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light." // Web Development, Marketing, PR blog
@Kathyrn, thanks! I've been a big fan of Larry for a very long time (Bob too).
@Nate I'm still not sure how you can get burned with AdSense, but I am in complete agreement with the sentiment that it really isn't worth much. The main reason that I leave it up for now is that it will be there if somehow one of my posts goes viral for a while. It doesn't take much effort and I can focus on using what little time I have available for writing and networking.
Used to use Adsense but after two years, I have made only $90.
Right now I'm using Amazon Affiliates. I'm doing book reviews and is earning enough to buy my own books for review. So far haven't been successful asking publishers for free books.
In general Adsense makes websites look cheap and crappy.
If that's elitist than I'm screwed.
It's not that I don't visit websites with adsense, but I usually find it much more appealing when they don't.
If you are careful about placement, color schemes, and actual content you can go a long way in minimizing this negative.
I would never suggest someone start a site with Adsense. In my opinion, you are better of not running ads, cleaning up your design, and focusing on building readership. Once your readership is bigger then you can move into 125 x 125 or partial banner ads, etc... They look a lot more professional and you can control advertising a lot better.
Just my "elitist" view!
Peace,
@ ManVsDebt
I entirely agree! It is not "elitist" to like asthetically-pleasing websites better than ugly websites that obviously just want to make a couple of bucks.
Thanks,
Nate
i just want to chime in on the adsense thing first - i totally agree that too many and not well-integrated adsense ad blocks on a website can cheapen it, but that's mostly in conjunction with other things, like bad design, little or no content, too many affiliate ads, etc. On a well-designed site, a few adsense ad blocks here and there bring relevent and useful content to a blog. i personally have never had great success with adsense - well, only in the beginning five years ago...i use it now on some of my blogs becuase i think it does provide some relevant information for my visitors that otherwise i wouldn't provide.
on to the original question...i have been blogging for 5 years, and blogging "professionally" for three. i make about 60% of my income from selling advertising, and 40% from affiliate sales. my two main blogs provide virtually all of my income, the other three i'm working on getting up to the level of my first two :) it did take two years of contstant blogging and building up relationships though to get to the level where i could make enough money selling advertising and via affiliate sales - reader loyalty is KEY here.
I'm going to disagree on the Adsense...to an extent. If the Adsense is blended into the site (links vs. ads is the best I've seen), then it's fine. If the owner is maxing out the Adsense and using the big gaudy (for lack of a better term) blocks, it can be a real turn off.
I use Adsense and have done very well. I also use Amazon Associates, CJ and ReadySite. I'm fairly new (February '09), so it'll take some time to see how well they really perform. But so far, so good.
Adsense is ugly, poorly targetted in most niche blogs, and since it's a low barrier to entry it says to me "I don't take monitization seriously" if it's the only obvious way of revenue generation.
I've sold five per-post ads that get me a total of $20/month. It's not much but it's better than I'd get through adsense and looks better.
I'm having trouble finding other strategies that don't overlap with search engine marketing. Yaro and a couple others tend to favour clickflipping and selling affiliate products, which I'm not comfortable with. Too much campaign testing and adjustment. Much higher gains but too much work when I've got a job and school to worry about.
I'd like to get review copies of books (preferably ebooks actually) but the B&N link is only for Americans. Any similar sites for Canadians out there?
I'm always on.
Blog: im addicted / Twitter: lance_
@ _lance
I have always gotten review copies by contacting the publisher directly. To start read this article on ProBlogger, that is how I got started: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/14/how-to-get-free-books-to-review-on-your-blog/
That article is an excellent, thorough introduction to book reviewing.
Hope this helps,
Nate
Thanks Nate. I've given it a look and I'm pondering what my letterhead will look like now.
I do not have an "official" logo (My "S" gravatar is an unofficial logo), so I simply wrote my site's name, DebtFreeScholar.com, and the current date in big letters for my letter head. As a footer, I wrote my address, domain (again), and email.
Thanks,
Nate
I'm working on building my unique visitors so that I can sell ad spots on my sites BUT I'm also going after existing feed subscribers by putting out an eBook. I'll let you know how that goes!
Only Adsense for the moment. Maybe an Ebook sale soon !
Website : http://geekandtech.net/
Twitter : @rainbowgeek
I disagree on removing adsense but not a fan of putting adsense units all over. Most of my blog posts have 0 adsense units but I do not mind putting a 300*250 or 250*250 unit in the top right corner of a blog post. I have changed the colors well to match it with my overall blog theme and I actually received few compliments from my readers about the way I have used adsense in my site.
One thing we have to keep in mind is there is no way that we can trick a reader now a days like in the early 2000's.
May be because of the lack of exposure I am only earning around $175 - $200 a month from adsense.
My other main income sources are,
CJ - Average $700- $900 a month
Retail fx in house partner's program - Average $500-$750 a month
Private ad sales- Only one 300*250 ad box for $125
I am considering to add one of my own product for sale in the near future.
Stay away from pepperjam , click booth and adbrite. ( My personal opinion due to various reasons.)
Have tried click bank and Never blue ads with not much success. ( You can try your luck.)
I think that inbound marketing is the way to go. You create great content via your blog, then promote it via social media sites after you have established yourself as a knowledgeable, helpful community member. People are inclined to read and trust your content that way. Once that audience is successfully built and constantly supported, you can begin to sell your services and/or products. One way is directly, via your blog itself, and another way is more indirect, attracting people to specific landing pages with real offers that bring value to your followers. Personally, I find that PPC goes against the grain in the new Web 2.0 world. I know I never click on Adsense ads, so why should I expect my clients to do that?
Anyone have experience with blog networks for advertising? Things like Foodbuzz or Blogher (I don't know others). I am exploring that option right now, because they have nicer ads than Adsense. But they pay based on traffic numbers, and the CPM is still only half of what I make from Adsense, so I am hesitant to commit.
Thoughts?
Summer Tomato - Upgrade Your Healthstyle
@ antharjalaya
I agree that Adsense can sometimes be made to look better if you edit the colors and make it blend in.
@ summertomato
I have never used a blognetwork to advertise, but I know that b5media (Darren Rowse helped start this) has some sort of a blog network.
Hope this helps,
Nate
Hello! I am user of adsense with blog. I want to ask one question here. Is this website is good for google adsense or harm for adsense?
Free reader or visitors from this site. Please check this should I use this site or not?
Thanks
summertomato - I'm debating on removing the blogher ads from Luna Fab... I get minimal money and they have a TON of restrictions... you can't show their ads on ANY product review posts, you can't show any other ads above theirs, and theirs has to be in the top 768 pixels of your page... it's getting kind of ridiculous with them. I'm making about $10 a month and it's just not worth it when I know I can get so much more from direct ad sales.
Of course, when I get as big as Dooce.com, I'll be glad to use FederatedMedia to serve my ads... lol (They're reallllly exclusive - you have to have insane amounts of traffic before they'll even breathe in your direction - but its worth it... Dooce makes six figures a month in advertising!)
I make money from blogging through these methods -
1. adsense. 2. freelance writing 3. I co-founded custom wordpress theme design service.
I believe that its way to simpler to make money if you are offering a service or product from the blog and that in order to make any substantial income through ads, one should really need to have millions of readers every month. nice thread :)
What I hate about adsense is the dating and "test your IQ" "predict this and that" - slips in although all my keywords and content are not related to any of those ads, not to mention flash ads and animated ads! I will reconsider now that they have category block in beta testing. Not making much money up till now. :(
@lara Thanks for the info. Foodbuzz seems to be the same way with the restrictions and it really turned me off. Oh yeah, and they want me to commit for 2 years!! By my calculations, even megablogs wouldn't make that much money using them and I was wondering if anyone here had found a better way. I'm sure it's a nice bonus for someone who hasn't thought much about monetizing. But since I'm taking it seriously I don't think it will work.
@Annaleen I used to get really bad Adsense ads all the time, and the first few weeks of my blog I filtered over 200 websites from advertising. Now my ads seem to be a lot better and more targeted/less embarrassing. I only have to blacklist 2-3 per week. Maybe it is because I have better traffic or more content now (only 5 weeks in), but I'm happy that problem seems to be going away.
10 Important Business Lessons by Aaron Wall about monetizing. :)
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