TentBlogger

[This is a part of the Make Money Blogging Series.]

Zelda Ring via Etsy

One of the best ways that a blogger can make money is by taking their expertise, either within the scope of the content that they create or some other unique skill and craft, and packaging it up into a product.

Sometimes this might just be some of the content that you’ve created but now formatted a bit differently (eBooks are a great example) or sometime entirely different that may or may not be related to blogs and blogging.

Here are just a few examples of successful products that professional bloggers have sold via their blogs:

• eBooks
• Traditional books and writing
• Artwork, arts, handmade crafts (Etsy is an amazing example!)
• Collectors items
• Tshirts and other related items
• Software (desktop/mobile/web apps)
• WordPress Themes
• eCourse Training Material
• Toys
• Music and CDs

And more. The list could go on and on and is as wide and diverse as the people that blog! There is probably something that you could sell today that could instantly put you on the road to paying for those hosting bills, right?

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[This is a part of the Make Money Blogging Series.]

Will blog for money?

Another strong and very popular way of making money as a blogger is leveraging the many blog networks out there that allow you to publish content for them via their network and/or marketplace of businesses.

In fact, this is very similar to that of Sponsored Posts and Paid Reviews (some would consider it within the same category completely). I’ve separated the two for clarity and ease of understanding.

Practically this can be done on select properties that the networks own themselves or on properties that you manage as well. The bottom line here is that you’re getting paid to post about specific content that is either solicited through the network or offered as an opportunity.

A close cousin to the blog network opportunities is simply direct guest posting on other properties that you do not manage and in exchange for some model of compensation.

As I’ve noted in the previous examples of how bloggers make money there are a number of pros and cons to this, but in this case there’s a far greater amount of the former than the latter.

Take a look:

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[tentblogger-vimeo 16442877]

[This is a part of the "Getting Started with Blog Advertising" blog series.]

The bottom line is ultimately this: You can start advertising at any point in a new blog’s life and it is completely up to you. You can justify your reasoning all you want or you can just throw up your hands and say “Hey, that’s what I’ve decided to do, ok?“.

But there’s definitely some wisdom in taking the time to consider the two camps of thought as they are typically understood.

As I’ve summarized in the above video, here are the two mainline camps and some of the distinctives:

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[This is a part of the Make Money Blogging Series.]

A penny for your thoughts?

This one might be obvious but you may be surprised to know that some professional bloggers have explicitly made this a significant part of their monetization strategy – in other words, they make a full time living simply reviewing products, services, and businesses that solicit them and subsequently throw large marketing dollars at them!

Now, wouldn’t that be nice!

But there’s been an on-and-off debate about whether or not this is a “legitimate” source of revenue and there are an equal number of people on both sides of the fence of the argument with some saying that bloggers who blog sponsored posts are “sellouts” while others extol the benefits fervently. It’s been a large enough issue that even the WSJ picked up on it at one point.

Ultimately you’re going to have to decide if accepting paid reviews and/or sponsored posts is acceptable from both a personal, professional, and community-perspective.

Here are some key things to keep in mind:

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Affiliate marketing works... when done well.

[This is a part of the Make Money Blogging Series.]

A large portion of many professional bloggers income is found in affiliate marketing and affiliate sales. Some full time bloggers have seen financial windfalls in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, per year through this very basic system.

Essentially, affiliate marketing is where you, the blogger, markets products or services for companies in exchange for a commission. The commissions and compensation can range from a few pennies (literally) per sale to hundreds of dollars and can be based on a percentage of the sale or a fixed rate.

Other affiliate programs are based on some type of action that is achieved through the blogger’s marketing efforts, like signing up for a newsletter, or passing through a number of webpages to a particular destination.

These affiliate business or affiliate networks provide the blogger a specific URL or “affiliate link” that connects the buyer to the store; this link recognizes your important role and relationship in this buying process and rewards you upon a completed purchase.

Here’s a great visual of how this practically happens:

A visual of how this all works.

Of course, what sets apart those that have a full time living off of this type of financial model are the ones that spend just as much time building strategy around their efforts as they do executing on it.

You could honestly spend most of your day (and some do!) building your campaigns, tracking clicks, conversions, and returns, and more. It’s an exciting world with tons of potential, even for the newer blogger.

Interested? Here are some more things to consider and learn about:

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[This is a part of the Make Money Blogging Series.]

A very close cousin of using direct advertising sales is the advertising networks that many bloggers opt to use instead of doing it themselves.

On the outside it looks nearly the same as the direct advertising sales model since it’s trading space (and other options) on your blog for advertising, but behind all that is a different beast altogether and the differences can be considerable.

Essentially an advertising network is an organization or service that connects advertisers to bloggers who want to sell advertising space.

Some people think of it as simply being the relational arm of your inventory so that you don’t have to go searching for buyers for your advertising spots and so that you do not necessarily have to spend the time, energy, and know-how to market yourself and your blog. This can be a good and bad thing, naturally.

Here are a list of things to consider as well as some examples of well-known advertising networks:

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Direct ad sales = mucho dinero.

[This is a part of the Make Money Blogging Series.]

This one is pretty obvious and you already see it being executed on everywhere you go.

If a blog has any traffic and any community to boot then direct advertising sales is something definitely to be considered, and is most likely the first place you want to start when beginning your adventure into monetizing (the art, craft, and strategy of making money off of) your blog.

Direct ad sales is simply trading space on your blog for another organization’s information, which is typically an image or text link. This image and/or text link could be advertising a particular product, service, business, or even another advertising service (which always makes me chuckle a bit).

The thing to remember with direct ad sales is that you are in control of advertising and thus keep 100% of the sales and revenue generated from the transaction. Keeping 100% of the profit is always a good thing to consider!

The space on your blog could be in your header (top part of your blog), footer (bottom part of your blog) or sidebar (very typical to see it here) or within the content of each blog post (very strategic). The size of the banner depends on the size of the available space provided as well as the number of advertisement slots that are being served.

Of course there are some advantages and disadvantages to this model as well as some other considerations. Here they are:

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Have to pay for that coffee somehow...

Over the course of this week I’m going to be writing a series of posts that simply list out the various (and exciting!) different ways that bloggers make money.

These techniques and strategies are used by both the casual blogger (or TentBlogger) and the Professional Blogger alike, so you will probably learn a thing or two.

Most importantly, you’ll begin to naturally brainstorm on how to begin executing on some of them yourself!

Remember that a blogger is never necessarily limited to these particular ways of executing on these strategies and techniques and that the more creative, focused, and dedicated you are to your craft the better your results and return, for both you, your community, and your partner organizations.

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The largest hole in the world.

Part of what I want to do with this blog is begin to share how one goes about making money through their blogging efforts in the most wise and most strategic ways possible, especially since most TentBloggers have a limited amount of time and resources to begin with!

So I’m going reveal as much as I can with how I do it and how I’ve been able to thrive under some tough conditions so that you can learn a thing or two and perhaps learn especially from my mistakes, which are numerous!

I’m not sure how I want to present the information so I’m sure it will evolve over time, and if there’s anything in particular you’d like to know or if you have a suggestion on how to better present the information I’m all ears!

In any case, let’s just get started!

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