10 Simple Ways to Make Money Blogging

by Franklin Bishop on September 20, 2008

There are hundreds of blogs being created every day. Why? Because it is becoming one of the easiest ways to make money. Problem is bloggers don’t make money right away and they give up. Well, you do not have to have a lot of traffic to your blog to make money. It is just a matter of finding the right way to make money from your blog. Marketing your blog to get traffic can easily be done because search engines like Google love blogs.

The reason why search engines like Google love blogs because blogs continually have new content. Pinging your blog whenever you do a new post, commenting on related blogs with a link back to your blog, and social bookmarking your blog posts are all effective ways to market your blog. Once you just do those things you can begin to make money by these 10 easy ways:

Ad Units:

Monetize your blog with ad units. You can get ad units from Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher, Revenue Pilot, and other contextual ad sites. Contextual ads sites show ads on your blog that are related to your blog niche. Every time one of these ads is clicked you get paid for it. The amount you get paid for every click varies. This used to be one of the more popular ways to get paid online but it’s becoming more difficult as Google (the most used contextual ad site) changes its rules and policies.

Sell Ad Space:

Selling ad space on blogs has been popular for some time. Usually you can find people in your niche who will pay for ad space on your blog. There is many ways to go about this but the easiest way is to just setup an advertise page. On that page you will want to talk about the different sizes of the ads you offer and how many page views and unique visitors you receive every month. The more information you give to possible advertisers, then the better chance you will have making the sale.

Write Paid Reviews:

Paid reviews were really popular a year ago but have died down a bit. However, if you are looking to make some quick cash than they are one of the easier ways to make money on your blog. However, the one problem you may have is that many of these web sites require that your blog be at least three months old or have a certain pagerank. Some of these sites are the following: PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews, Blogsvertise, Smorty and others. You will review a service or a product on your blog and get paid for it. Word of warning though, Google does penalize you if they happen to catch you doing this.

Sell Your Products:

If you have a product then blog about it. You already have people interested in your niche or topic so why not offer your product to them. They probably won’t hate your product if they already like your blog. You have to make sure to take advantage of any money opportunity you have.

Sell Other Peoples Products:

This goes in the category of becoming an affiliate. Selling affiliate products on your blog is as simple as signing up for a program and advertising it on your blog. You do not have to do anything besides selling it to your readers. Writing a post about something you are trying to sell can always help too.

Sell An E-Book:

This basically goes with selling your own product but it deserves its own category. Like I said in a selling your own product section, people are already interested in your niche or topic so why not sell your product to them. In this case you are selling them an e-book you created. Lots of people make some good money creating and selling their own e-book. Your e-book doesn’t have to be real fancy. As long as you give them information that you tell them is in your e-book you should be ok.

Ask For Donations:

Asking for donations is one of the simplest ways to get some cash. However, there are a lot of people that just do not like to hand out cash so they probably will have to be a very religious reader if they are going to donate to you. To get religious readers it is going to take you quite a few months. So don’t look to get money right away.

Sell Your Service:

If you have some service such as graphic design, web site design, story writing, financial consultation, or some other service then offer it from your blog. It would just be another way to make money for your service.

Sell Your Café Press Items:

This is a web site where you can create your own T-shirts, coffee mugs, calendars, posters and other stuff that you can sell. You get a percentage of the sale so why not create some products and sell them on your blog. Create products that are related to your niche or topic and you should be able to sell some of your items.

Point Blog to Your Paying Article:

If you are one of the people that write articles for a site that pays you a performance fee like Associated Content, then you should introduce your blog audience to those articles and make money. Even though this is not a popular way to make money anymore, you can still make money writing articles for these kinds of web sites.

{ 5 trackbacks }

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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }

Eric September 19, 2008 at 4:58 pm

Okay Franklin! I am sorry to say this, but I have seen this list a thousands times over and over, recycled, reused, and redistributed. I mean seriously I am not trying to blast you on this post. But come one, if you have looked at anyone other “money making” blog before you have seen this this over and over. Maybe make it more practical for us the readers to fully understand and how’s and what you do.

Just my two cents!

Eric

Erics last blog post..$200 For Being a Commentator It’s Just That Simple – Keep it SEO Simple

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 2:36 am

Which one do you want to know more about?

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Eric September 20, 2008 at 3:07 am

The most practical for me current would to learn more about the ins and outs of really how to go about selling ad space. Meaning practical study cases or step by step of what you have done in the past that was success or even a failure that you learned from. I just heard the other day each failure is what keeps there business success.

Thanks again,

Eric

Erics last blog post..$200 For Being a Commentator It’s Just That Simple – Keep it SEO Simple

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The Almost Millionaire September 19, 2008 at 5:50 pm

Franklin,
Have you used Goodle in the past? What type of revenue numbers were you able to achieve with Adsense? How many readers do you think you need before you can make lets say, $200 a month? Thanks!

The Almost Millionaires last blog post..Where Is Your Cash In An Emergency?

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 2:38 am

Probably around 300 subscribers.

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Chelle September 19, 2008 at 6:39 pm

Anyone not taking advantage of associated content is missing out. I’ve been doing very well with them! You probably won’t get many readers or pageviews from linking to articles directly, but it will help you get up their in google for your keywords if you do it right :)

Chelles last blog post..5 Ways to Change Someone

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James September 19, 2008 at 8:56 pm

Well, it is certainly useful to have all of this compiled into a single list. I am sure that you could make at least one full blog post on all of these. This post would be a great candidate to turn into a static page – then you could link to other blog posts that cover each individual topic. Just a thought!

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 2:42 am

Pretty nice idea! I think I’ll go more in depth on each of them.

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Jonathan September 19, 2008 at 10:04 pm

I must agree with Eric, this list has been done to death. Which tells me two important things. (a) Maybe we should spend less time looking for the magic fix and focus on the boring (read it already stuff). OR (b) Realize that if everybody is doing it – maybe it is time to re-invent a new system (but that is for another day) ;-)
From this list I think there are only two ways to make money, real money:
(1) Sell a product.
(2) Sell a service.

Jonathan

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Kal September 19, 2008 at 11:50 pm

Great post Frank, neat info. There are many more ways to make money from blogging and websites and you have touched on the most common methods that most of the top bloggers adopt. So thanks for picking the top 10. At some point in the lifespan of an emerging blog it’s inevitable that a blogger will adopt at least two or three of these methods. I have only just started and hope to become more of a regular blogger from next month. I have already adopted a couple of the methods and will definitely be keeping an eye on your blog however :) .

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 2:39 am

Thanks for enjoying!

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Jamie September 20, 2008 at 12:11 am

I’d like to see more information on paid reviews, if you need a topic for a future post. Just to add my two cents, not just any eBook is marketable.

EBooks are so overdone and of poor quality that consumers feel jipped. Interesting, well-written eBooks with graphics are the best. Re-selling someone else’s drivel is simply not acceptable. :)

Jamies last blog post..9 Steps to Clearer Writing: Keep it Flowing

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 2:44 am

For sure. I’ll make a post about each of them.

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Ryan McLean September 20, 2008 at 12:16 am

This is a great post. How many readers do you believe that you would need before earning a full time income online (even if it is the minimum wage). It is my dream to earn a full time income online.
This was a great post, really basic and simple

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 1:06 am

Depends on what you consider full time income? 2,000 subscribers=$1,500 usually. Just depends.

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Jamie September 20, 2008 at 1:22 am

Just an FYI, Sites like Associated Content are good for advertising your blog or business. It’s also a good place to post those articles that a client orders, but never pays for. However, it’s important to write interesting, grammatically correct pieces for showcasing. If you’re looking to make money off these sites, be forewarned that most articles pull in under $6 initially(for 500 words), and unless you get massive traffic, that’s your only compensation. :)

Jamies last blog post..9 Steps to Clearer Writing: Keep it Flowing

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Ryan McLean September 20, 2008 at 1:33 am

@ Franklin – What do you think would be the best way to achieve $1,500 per month? Would it be just blogging and selling advertising? Should I create my own products? Should I sell other peoples products?
Also how much money do you make per month online?

Ryan McLeans last blog post..How NOT to Make Money Online

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Franklin Bishop September 20, 2008 at 2:33 am

Best way to achieve this? Private ads and a product. I’m back to making $50 because I sold my other 2 blogs. I was making $30,000 a month when I had them. Taking the time to create Blogging School (looking to make money) now and slowly building this blog (not looking to make money).

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sam September 20, 2008 at 2:18 am

A good site to make a little extra cash on the side(maybe to pay the monthly for your blog or w/e) is MyLot . They will pay you to basically blog, make discussions, and answer questions. Join with this link. http://www.mylot.com/?ref=thesamsmart The sign up button is at the top left.

sams last blog post..MyLot Claiming

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Ryan McLean September 20, 2008 at 2:44 am

@ Franklin – Why did you sell your websites if you were earning $30,000 per month? Wouldn’t you have kept it and be earning an awesome income for years and years to come? Then your income earning would continue to increase

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James September 20, 2008 at 3:13 am

This of course assumes a steady and reliable income. If one thing is certain on the internet, it is that nothing is certain on the internet. It is quite possible that Franklin could have maintained a $30,000+ per month income from his websites for years and years to come. However, it is also quite possible that, for numerous reasons, tastes, fashions, or other factors change and that income could rapidly decrease. At that point it would be impossible to sell the sites for nearly as much. The lesson here, and maybe Franklin can write more about this, is that it is always best to sell a business – if you are looking to do so – during the peak of its success. That way you can cash out and have the capitol available to fund other projects.

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Chelle September 20, 2008 at 5:25 am

Jamie you can make lots of money on associated content. you don’t have to write interesting or good articles…they just need to be carefully researched with the right keywords. The upfront payout is usually pretty pathetic – $3 or so is what i get if i even bother to submit for review. The performance payments is where the money is :)

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Bill Masson September 20, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Patients are a virtue my friends and i believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, only it’s not in my back yard YET!
There’s some great comments from likeminded people; wasn’t aware of Google’s stance on paid reviews, have to check that one out, I wouldn’t bother doing reviews yet as i am still building my blog, It would be nice if you broke some of these options down a bit and explain in more detail the process and if it’s really worth doing.

Bill Massons last blog post..The Structure of your Product Launch

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MyFavTvShows.com September 21, 2008 at 3:37 am

huh…most of us always think there are money buried in the net…keep thinking and doing some searches finally you will

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Suhail Algosaibi September 21, 2008 at 6:43 am

Thanks for the great content. I love your headlines! I’m getting better at adding my own direct-response type headlines to my posts. Thanks for doing what you do.

Suhail Algosaibis last blog post..The Seven Books That Changed My Life – Part 2 of 7

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Donkeyblogger September 21, 2008 at 2:15 pm

I agree. This list has been done to death (and then some). However, I can’t resist having a read whenever I see one! Call it habit. Call it curiosity. But I do tend to skim through to see if there’s possibly a different take on it.

Though there is nothing new on the above list, one or two of them served as reminders for me.

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digerati September 23, 2008 at 7:26 pm

Hey Franklin thanks for writing this. While some seem to have seen something similar over a dozen times, I being new have not and enjoyed the read.

I too desperatly want to make money online. Currently my pathetic blog has netted me about $4 for a month. Its just a personal blog though.

I will venture out later once I learn more.

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Tiffany Silvers September 23, 2008 at 10:20 pm

I didn’t even think about some of these techniques so I can say that this list isn’t overdone. I think it just depends on who you ask. For me though I will use some of these.

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Keep It SEO Simple September 26, 2008 at 10:26 am

I would have to agree that I have seen many of these ideas elsewhere before. Nevertheless many of them are still viable options and it’s good to see them all complied in one page. Maybe an in-depth look at each one of them would be a good idea?

Keep It SEO Simples last blog post..Application Letter For Copywriting Position

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goldfries September 29, 2008 at 11:46 pm

My thought on MAKE MONEY ONLINE blogs – articles are generally recycled, everyone takes from some place, hash, bash, and mash it to something else and published at another point of time…….. not referring to you in particular, Franklin.

I just got to know your blog today and I’d say you’re probably one of the handful that I come back that is actually a MAKE MONEY BLOG that’s talking from experience.

Many MAKE MONEY BLOG blogger I come by are just new and barely even make money. :(

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Keep It SEO Simple September 30, 2008 at 4:35 am

The ebook idea is one that I am particularly interested in. I have tried this out myself in the past and while it did not really give me the results that I was expecting, I remain optimistic about its potential. In any case I have a lot of ideas for a few more, and I look forward to more posts about this in the future.

Keep It SEO Simples last blog post..Wikiweblog Covers The World

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danywealth-easy money online October 6, 2008 at 11:09 am

If you create the blog then if you update your blog new or latest information time to time then your blog will become a first position in the google page rank. It gives the more money for you from the online.

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Franklin Bishop October 6, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Overtime it is likely you will become the first position in the Google rank. A lot of times bloggers do not stick with it but if they can get over the six-month hump then they will be fine.

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Cashcoach December 17, 2008 at 1:03 pm

I have heard a lot of good things about ReviewMe for getting paid to blog as well. There are so many ways to monetize your blog, but this is a nice list of the essentials.

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joe May 11, 2009 at 12:28 pm

very inspiring post. thanks

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