If you hop onto Google and attempt to search for ways to make money off your blog, you’ll inevitably come across such giants as Darren Rowse, John Chow and Steve Pavlina. These behemoths of the blogosphere boast earnings well into the six-figure range. Most of this comes through the direct sale of ad-space on their blog (as opposed to using a 3rd party to connect the blogger and the ad purchaser,) services such as ReviewMe or affiliate programs they’ve directly negotiated with the product’s creator. Well, that’s great for them, but what about us small guys?
Secerets of WallerBlog.com
Over the life of this blog, I’ve tried dozens of text link ad services, sponsored posts, banners and affiliate programs. Let me tell you, most of them flopped. I’d let a program run for months only to go find that I’ve made some paltry sum for my labors. The reason this happens is that the majority of these programs are designed for the big-dogs. There are very few programs that will work on blogs that only get a few dozen visits a week.
There’s three programs that I am in love with. My money-makers are:
LinkWorth – This is, hands down, the biggest money maker on this blog. I consistently earn $30-$40 per month with this program. This service is similar to the more popular Text-Link-Ads but they seem to do a much better job of finding advertisers looking for links from smaller blogs. Text-Link-Ads currently generates a phat $1.50 or so per month for WallerBlog. Obviously LinkWorth is the winner here. Check out my shameless affiliate banner at the top of this post.
Google Adsense – This one’s kind of a no brainer. Google Adsense is present on sites of almost all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, earnings can vary wildly and is based heavily of traffic. However, WallerBlog.com tends to earn a modest $10 – $20 per month with it. Its a keeper for now.
Kontera -You may or may not have noticed the Kontera links on this site. (If you haven’t, hover your mouse over any of the words with a double blue line underneath them) Some people don’t like to put these on their blog saying that they’re too intrusive and interfere with the reader’s experience too much. I say, meh, if it makes money and people aren’t leaving over it, then keep it! Kontera is also somewhat based on traffic flow, but not as much as Adsense tends to be. Kontera generally nets 5 bucks or so per month here.
So there you have it! Three great ways to generate some extra flow on your blog, even if you aren’t generating as much traffic per day as Yahoo.com!
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jeremy, great info…i was denied by TLA when i first launched a little over a month ago, but i guess i’m glad i did b/c as u said, it’s more geared towards the bigger blogs…i will def give linkworth a try, thanks!