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How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs

Posted By Darren Rowse 6th of December 2005 Pro Blogging News 0 Comments

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My Personal Income Streams

As an update to this post I’ve more recently written one on How I make Money Blogging which highlights the most profitable ways that I use blogs to generate income. I’ve also written extensively on how bloggers make money in ProBlogger the Book.

How do bloggers make money from blogs?

How-Bloggers-Make-MoneyI’ve been reflecting this week about the amazing diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from blogging.

I’ve long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from blogging spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in one basket.

The wonderful thing is that this is becoming easier and easier to do 2005 has seen many options opening up. I thought I’d take a look at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.

Income Streams for Bloggers – How to Make Money Blogging

Advertising Programs – Perhaps the most obvious changes in the past few months have been with the addition of a variety of viable advertising options for bloggers looking to make money from their blogs. The most common way bloggers seem to earn money online is via the contextual ad program from Google – Adsense. A more recent addition that many are using successfully are Chitika.

RSS Advertising – The past 12 months have seen some advances in RSS Advertising also. I’m yet to hear of any bloggers making big money blogging through it to this point – but as improvements are made to the ad programs exploring this I’m sure we’ll start to see examples of it being profitable.

Sponsorship – In addition to the array of advertising programs that are available to join there is a growing awareness in the business of the value and opportunity that exists for them to advertise directly on blogs. I’m hearing more and more examples of this and have been fortunately to have a couple of ad campaigns of my own in the past month – one with Adobe a couple of weeks ago and another just completed with Ricoh for a new digicam over at my Digital Camera Blog. These are not isolated cases – as I say I know of many blogs exploring sponsorship with advertisers at present and suspect we’ll see more of it in the year ahead. Sponsorship is also happening on a post by post basis with some bloggers being paid to write on certain topics by companies – either in one off or a regular fashion – and they are able to make big money from their blogs doing so.

Affiliate Programs – There are larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.

Digital Assets – Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs. By this I mean that I’m increasingly seeing e-books, courses and tele-seminars being run by bloggers. This type of activity will only increase in future – in fact this week I’ve seen numerous examples of bloggers running courses.

Blog Network Opportunities – with the rise in popularity of Blog Networks – bloggers are also being presented with more places to earn an income from their blogging – by writing for and with others. While it might be difficult to get a writing gig with one of the bigger networks – there are plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join and who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models. While there are distinct advantages of blogging for yourself – blogging for an established network who will handle a lot of the set up/promotion/admin/SEO etc has it’s advantages also. More and more bloggers are combining writing for themselves on their own blogs with taking on blog network blogs as additional income streams.

Business Blog Writing Opportunities – as blogging has risen in it’s profile as a medium more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties – but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs. I know of a number of bloggers who in the past month or two have been approached for such paid work. Check out the ProBlogger Job Board if you’re looking for this type of work.

Non Blogging Writing Opportunities – Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non blogging mediums. Manolo’s recent coup of a column in the Washington Post is just one example of this as bloggers are increasingly being approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non blog websites. Along side this is the rise of bloggers as published book authors – this is to the extent that one blogger I spoke with this week complained to me that they were one of the few bloggers than they knew who didn’t have a book deal!

Donations – Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fund raising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke of kottke.org who through the generosity of his readership was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.

Flipping Blogs – Also more common in 2005 was the practice of ‘Blog Flipping’ – or selling of blogs. This has happened both on an individual blog level (I can think of about 20 blogs that sold this year) but also on a network level (the most obvious of these being the 8 figure sale of Weblogs Inc to AOL).

Merchandising – My recent attempt to sell ProBlogger.net T-shirts wasn’t a raging success, but it is an example of how an increasing number of bloggers are attempting to make a few extra dollars from their blogs by selling branded products through programs like Cafepress. While I didn’t have a lot of success with merchandising – quite a few larger blogs are seeing significant sales – especially blogs with a cult following. I’m not at liberty to discuss details – but I know of one largish blog which will see sales over $20,000 in merchandise for the calendar year of 2005.

Consulting and Speaking – While it has been popular for established consultants to add blogs to their businesses we’re also starting to see bloggers with no consulting background able to make money by charging readers for their time in consulting scenarios BECAUSE of the profile that their blogs have built them. Blogging has the ability to establish people as experts on niche topics and we all know the value of being perceived as an expert. I spoke to one blogger last month who charges himself out at over $200 an hour for speaking and consulting work – his area of expertise was something that he knew little about 18 months ago – but through his blog he’s become a leader in his field and a minor celebrity in his industry.

As time rolls on there are more and more ways that bloggers make money from their blogs opening up. Feel free to suggest your own ideas and experiences in comments below.

Update: Looking for more information on how to make money blogging? Here’s a post I wrote talking about my own experience – particularly looking at the top ways that I make money from blogs.

Also check out these resources on how to set up a profitable blog:

  • ProBlogger the Book – where I and Chris Garrett sum up all of the basic tips about starting up a blog in the one volume.
About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. A better alternative to adsense and the others would be Bidvertiser. Go to http://bidvertiser-referral.blogspot.com/

  2. hello i am mehendra i also want to earn money and got more knowledge about it,
    thanks
    mahendra

  3. Are you a comment SPAMMER?
    Seeing as my day has already been ruined, I thought why not write a reply for Darren in relation to

    巧妙なデザイナー
    September 20th, 2007 12:55 am
    Hi Darren,

    Nice blog for sure however I see that you have your links set to “no follow”…

    Not a very nice thing for contributors if you ask me…increasing page rank is an important aspect of bloggin in my opinion.

    No follow on the links from pro blogger!

    Yes I am sure Darren would agree that PR is a most important factor, so why should he give it all away for free to you?

    A good comment can do great things for your blog, but do you write a interesting rebuttal in relation to the post or simply type a few obscure words that seem to have no point or the English is far from desirable.

    Comment spamming is a pain in the proverbial, not only do you ether have to have good spam filtering often you have the task of manually deleting these far from creative comments, designed by the author to in there small hopes to get some link love or a little traffic.

    I too have started to put no follow on allot of our blogs, as they tend to be PR4 or higher they become targets for easily led internet hopeful marketers.

    If people went to the trouble and more had the respect in the first place for the blogs author maybe more link love would be passed on.

    Write good comments, make it worth while to read, and most of all recpect the authors blog.

    Don’t be a comment spammer.

    have a B L O G G I N G good day!

  4. Well, I agree with you…somehow.

    My comment was completely off topic I suppose…but not because I’m a blog spammer! I was just giving Daren some feedback.

    I surf the net and like to contribute to blogs for the PR value to my site mostly.

    Sorry but this is 2007 and I’m not a non profit organization, if I take 5-10 minutes to contribute valuable content that will enrich the blog site’s owner with AdSense, I find it perfectly natural to expect something back in return, a link is sufficient ;)

    The no follow tag will hurt a blog in the long run anyways because they will loose contributors, that’s just a fact.

    Gone are the days of DMOZ and Google “doing no evil”!

    Just my opinion of course! ;)

  5. 巧妙なデザイナー

    September 20th, 2007 12:48 pm

    Well, I agree with you…somehow.

    My comment was completely off topic I suppose…but not because I’m a blog spammer! I was just giving Daren some feedback.

    Was not directed at you, was a rhetorical statement, or question but thats cool :)

    Lose contributors well, if I am only getting contributors who are after link love then in most cases personally I can do without them.

    I love the comment that comes from, Hmm, think I’ll comment on that, or wow that really was insightful. They are the comments I wish for. I cannot answer for Darren we mat have to wait until he returns.

    Cheers and
    have a B L O G G I N G good day!

  6. Great Ideas…but how many bloggers are really going to gain enough juice and rep to get paid for public speaking?

  7. Great post Darren. I myself do not put all my eggs in one basket, I’ve tried various streams of income but due to lack of traffic have not been that successful. Thanks for the tips.

  8. Awesome list of ways to monetize your blog. I have been looking for this list for quite some time now. Thanks!

  9. Long time reader.. first time poster.Darren, I definitely think you’re posts are great, and this one is provides an awesome clean list of money making opportunities for a blog.

    Thanks Darren!
    h

  10. I’ve some successful with Adsense but I’ve recieved any affiliate money from amzon. Maybe I found the wrong way to lauch it.

  11. A better alternative to theme adsense and the others would be Bidvertiser. Go to

    http://www.cards.com.es

  12. Great article. Dedication is the key here.

  13. There’s ton’s of ways to make money blogging…but if you have not tools, or the rights tools, you’re just spinning your wheels…here let me help by giving you this great website’s link, I’ve used all types of so called software, and nothing compares to this, check it yourself and you be the judge!

    http://www.blogi360.com

  14. Nice article and thought provoking article. I seem to have a lot of knowledge about almost all the money making tools except for rss advertising. I wish i could get a fair idea of how it works.

    MIchael Boateng

  15. Quite interesting. Why, I am spellbound!!! Tops Darren.

  16. My experience with Blogger.com and even WordPress.com is that they really don’t want people making money with their blogs. That’s why I’ve been moving toward Squidoo lately, because they are much more receptive to people making money with their free websites. Click on my link to see what a Squidoo website looks like. squidoo was developed by former blogging guru Seth Godin.

  17. Its been almost 2years that i follow this blog by Darren, and Darren all i could say is, you the best, not just only that you have given a great guide but also a great help to all of us, from newbies to pro.

    All the best and 1 last thing, WOW!! just look at those comments, its up to 366 and still rising.

  18. Well for the blogs who are new and don’t have much readership, adsense or chitika or other income generating sources are not sufficient. To my own experience, until you get a good amount of exposure of your blog, you cannot rely on any of the income stream.

    I have earned from writing reviews at one of my blogs. And despite of the fact that my blog was not getting much visitors, but due to some other positive sides, it got page rank 5 at google, and I could get opportunity to review at a good rate.

    For new bloggers, this post is a must read, but for beginners they should also think about participating in “blogging networks” blogs. As you can get a good exposure of your writings.

  19. Bloggers can also earn money with online music stores that offer free music as a part of promotional program. This way you attract traffic, get more returning visitors and get paid if your visitors register with music sites. So as you can see it’s slightly different from ordinary affiliate program.
    Click on my name to visit my blog where I described how to start this and earn good money.

    Look at blogger-earn-money.blogspot.com

  20. What about Pay Per Post sites like… well… payperpost or blogvertise. I received, I think it was 10 Dollars for two posts from Blogvertise… but I haven’t heard from them since. Good list though I appreciate it!

  21. I first started using and trying to make money from blogs in January of this year, and let me tell you it’s not easy. Trying to do it all by yourself is no way to win at this game. I was lucky I had a mentor and a leader.

    It was about two months into creating submitting and adding backlinks religiously before I started seeing any money come in. However I did make one sale from clickbank and I thought to myself WOW this is it, I’m going to be rich, but you know what I never saw another sale again for 6 months.

    During all that time though I managed to make 60 blogs all bringing income in. Some do better then others but it was completely worth all the hard work. I am glad that I actually had someone to teach all the fundamental steps one needs to take inorder to be successful at this game.

    My blogs make me on average $900 – 1,000 a month now. By next year this time I’m hoping I can double that, at least that’s my goal.

    Paul
    http://watch-dogreviews.com

  22. Dedication is everything here. You are not going to make a million overnight!

  23. Yea I agree, making money online takes a lot of time and dedication, I guess the philosophy of the net is duplication, so you spend a lot of time doing what works over and over again.

  24. Great article! I agree creating a successful blog will take lots of hard work and dedication! Thanks for the tips on how to monetize a site after putting in the effort needed to build traffic!

  25. I found that your blog is such a wonderful one,can you tell me how much money can you earn per month.

  26. The really hard part seems to get the word out and market one’s blog over the net.

  27. I try to sell text links, adsense and affiliate programs but if I have small number of visitors I have small effects (unfortunetely).

  28. Hi Daren,

    Almost everyone (blogging guru) says that if you want to make money blogging then you have to start where your passion lies.

    I am not really sure about this.

    I would like to know what is your opinion on this.

    Thank you

  29. All webmarketers are liers! I have read an article about how webmarketing really works. can anyone here agree?

    But that marketing is all about… right?

    For some reasons, I like webmarketers. I like how people are being motivated to get going. Its more important than money alone. Helping others, motivate them to fulfill what they desire is a great help for many.

  30. Great article. For startup blogger as I am these information are truely appreciated.

    Thanks.

  31. I have been blogging for about 5 months now and have just started looking at adding some advertising, so this article has been a great help. Thanks

  32. TextLinkAds TLA, seems to be fav, but I’ve not seen their ads displayed on my blog after I’ve installed the Plug-in on my blog. Am working hard on this and I hope to get it and other methods mentioned here soon.

    Thanks Daren for these tips.
    Please let us have an “updated version” of this post because am sure there would be more now, after 2 years of this post.
    Thanks a million.

  33. I’m starting to hear a lot of good things about WidgetBucks. Might be worth a look.

    http://www.earnmoneytoblog.com/

  34. Greetings all,
    We have a on going review running on widgetbucks at managedspaces and a how to make money from widgetbucks at PatrickRyall.com the latter is running behind due to work restrictions but I invite you to keep an eye on the process as it will turn into a good resource.

    We can say only good things about widgetbucks with high CPC and RPC, so we urge you to take a look for yourself.

    have a B L O G G I N G good day!

  35. I Think adsense is still the best way to make money in the internet, at least for beginners. And if you not sure if Adsense is the right choice for your website check out my page: AdFlora.com. Its a simple Adsense-Preview-Tool!

  36. Great post! I have found that adsense does the best for me but affiliate programs tend to work in the long term.

  37. Thank you for sharing this cool info about money earning at blog. However, my blog have still marginal traffic, with using your tips hope it will be better.

  38. Ok, so here‘s the point. While browsing through the various forums and blogs I stumble upon the message saying that you can make money just using e-gold account and investing only 6$. Yeah, right…. However, „what do I have to lose“ I tell myself.
    So, the idea – I have this e-gold account that I use for buying stuff on the net. In that message it says that I have (of course if I want to) to transfer 1$ to each of the following e-gold accounts:

    1. 2928337.
    2. 3308977.
    3. 3685287.
    4. 4228614.
    5. 4883297
    6. 4883433

    Only one dollar – what kind of risk is that. But, the point is that, after the transfers are done, I have to delete the first account number from the list, and because at this point the list moves by one step up, I have to enter my account number as the last (step 6). Then I have to spread the news! I mean – tell everyone about it on every blog. The more people sees my message and gets hooked up on the idea and starts transfering one dollar to each of these accounts and after that enters their account number in the list and starts spreading the message in their own forums and blogs all over again – i get paid. Why? Because everone who‘s involved in this game gets paid, because everyone‘s transfering that freaking one dollar. I think what they want to say is that the more people gets hooked on this the more money you can receive. You get the idea, right?

    My question: Is this thing possible?? Or is it just another scam?:)

    Maybe I should go and try

    Afterall – 6$.

    Cheers

    Saul.

  39. Thanks for post. I waiting for my first Google AdSense cheque. My current main aid is to increase traffic of my sites and earn at least $200/month.

  40. Thanks for the ideas. AS a new blogger I am doing tons of research on how I can Max. my blog and audience!

  41. It’s not easy to earn money through blog. What I suggest is that take it easy first, get a stable job, blog for leisure, then subsequently increase the frequency of bloggin. More importantly find a topic that interest you and blog. The money that you will earn from blog most likely isn’t going to be significant.

  42. I recently started to blog about money and meantime was checking whats there on web – way way to go for me.

    Reading your blog is a good help for starters like us.

    Take a look at http://www.alltimemoney.blogspot.com and pass a comment

    thanks

  43. I have just recently discovered the exciting world of blogging, and am really looking forward to getting started!

  44. There are many ways to monetize your blog..and Problogger never lets us down. Great stuff Darren, I know you helped my blog out over the past few months,..And I Thank You. Your Biggest Fan.

  45. Francis says: 11/04/2007 at 8:37 pm

    I spent time researching how to make money through blogging. I always wanted to make one but like others I lack capital. I don’t even have no personal computer, no money to buy one. Yet I am trying. Good thing you are sharing your ideas Daren. It is a good help! Thanks!

  46. I only had AdSense in my blog to monetize it, but I see there’s a lot more for doing that, wonderful blog! I’m learning a lot from this blog

  47. Blogs seem to always have a way of generating income for me and the best part about it is telling things like they really are. If your honest about the information you bring to the table, your readership will increase over time. Keep up the great post and as you can tell, if you write a great post like this one – it’ll last equally as long, if not longer!

  48. I think a blooger cannot earn money easily. You must work for your blog to make more popular firstly. I think, it is the most difficult part of it. I believe, I will never earn money from my blog. Actually, I can, but not much.

    Great article :) I will try, thanks :))

  49. Hi Darren,

    Nice tips and suggestions.

    Thanks for all the input. I request you to kindly review my blog and provide some inputs as I am new and excited about it and wanna improve and I believe the best way is to ask some established people.

    Anticipating your feedback.

    Thanks and regards,
    Vabs

  50. Darren why does it seem like alot of bigtime bloggers are from the land down under?

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