I have been reflecting this week about the wonderful diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from running a blog.
I have long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from running a blog spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in basket.
The wonderful thing is that this is becoming simpler and simpler to do 2005 has seen plenty of options opening up. I thought I would take a glance at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.
Advertising Programs : Perhaps the most obvious changes historically few months have been with the addition of a variety of viable marketing options for bloggers looking to make funds from their blogs. The most common way bloggers appear to earn funds online is by the contextual commercial program from Google Adsense. A more recent addition that plenty of are using successfully are Chitikas eMiniMalls and WidgetBucks Text Link Ads.
Agoogle Ads, Intelli ,Txt DoubleClick .Tribal, Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, Pheedo ,TextAds Bidvertiser, Fastclick, and Value {Click to name some of the choices and there is a smorgasbord of options}. Of coursework there is more to come with MSN Adcenter and YPN both in beta testing and with a variety of other marketing process currently in development YPN is only available to US publishers.
Lastly theres BlogAds of the first weblog specific commercial networks.
RSS Promotion : The past 12 months have seen some advances in RSS Promotion also. I am yet to listen to of any bloggers making large funds jogging a blog through it to this point but as improvements are made to the advertisement programs exploring this I am definite they shall start to see examples of it being profitable.
Sponsorship : In addition to the array of marketing programs that are obtainable to join there is a growing awareness in the business of the worth & opportunity that exists for them to promote directly on blogs. I am hearing increasingly examples of this & have been fortunately to have a couple of commercial campaigns of my own historically month a with Adobe a couple of weeks ago & another done with Ricoh for a brand spanking new digicam over at my Digital Camera Weblog. These are not isolated cases as I say I do know of lots of blogs exploring sponsorship with advertisers at present & suspect they shall see more of it in the coming year. Sponsorship is also happening on a post by post basis with some bloggers being paid to write on positive topics by companies either in off or a regular fashion & they can make gigantic money from their blogs doing so.
Affiliate : Programs There's larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very tiny.
Digital Assets : Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support & add revenue streams to their blogs. By this I mean that I am increasingly seeing e books, courses & tele seminars being run by bloggers. My recent foray in to this with the first series of the five figure walking a blog coursework that Andy & I ran a few weeks ago & have released the study version of. This type of activity will only increase in future in fact this week I have seen numerous examples of bloggers walking courses.
Blog Network Opportunities : with the rise in popularity of Weblog Networks bloggers are also being introduced with more places to earn an income from their walking a blog by writing for & with others. While it might be difficult to receive a writing gig with of the bigger networks there's plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join & who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models. While there's distinct advantages of walking a blog for yourself walking a blog for an established network who will handle lots of the set up/promotion/admin/SEO etc has its advantages also. Increasingly bloggers are combining writing for themselves on their own blogs with taking on weblog network blogs as additional income streams.
Business blog Writing Opportunities : as walking a blog has risen in its profile as a medium increasingly businesses are beginning blogs. Lots of of these companies have internal staff take on walking a blog duties but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on & run their blogs. I do know of a variety of bloggers who historically month or have been approached for such paid work. Check out Bloggers for Hire in the event you are looking for this type of work.
Non Walking a blog Writing Opportunities : Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non walking a blog mediums. Manorials recent coup of a column in the Washington Post is example of this as bloggers are increasingly being approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non weblog sites. Along side this is the rise of bloggers as published book authors this is to the extent that blogger I spoke with this week complained to me that they were of the few bloggers than they knew who didnot have a book deal!
Consulting and Speaking : While it's been popular for established consultants to add blogs to their businesses we âre also beginning 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. Jogging a blog has the ability to establish people as specialists on niche topics and all of us know the worth of being perceived as an specialist. I spoke to blogger last month who charges himself out at over $200 an hour for speaking and consulting work his area of expertise was something that they knew tiny about 18 months ago but through his weblog he is become a leader in his field and a minor celebrity in his industry.
As time rolls on there's increasingly ways that bloggers make money from their blogs opening up. Feel free to recommend your own ideas and experiences in comments below.
I have long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from running a blog spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in basket.
The wonderful thing is that this is becoming simpler and simpler to do 2005 has seen plenty of options opening up. I thought I would take a glance at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.
Advertising Programs : Perhaps the most obvious changes historically few months have been with the addition of a variety of viable marketing options for bloggers looking to make funds from their blogs. The most common way bloggers appear to earn funds online is by the contextual commercial program from Google Adsense. A more recent addition that plenty of are using successfully are Chitikas eMiniMalls and WidgetBucks Text Link Ads.
Agoogle Ads, Intelli ,Txt DoubleClick .Tribal, Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, Pheedo ,TextAds Bidvertiser, Fastclick, and Value {Click to name some of the choices and there is a smorgasbord of options}. Of coursework there is more to come with MSN Adcenter and YPN both in beta testing and with a variety of other marketing process currently in development YPN is only available to US publishers.
Lastly theres BlogAds of the first weblog specific commercial networks.
RSS Promotion : The past 12 months have seen some advances in RSS Promotion also. I am yet to listen to of any bloggers making large funds jogging a blog through it to this point but as improvements are made to the advertisement programs exploring this I am definite they shall start to see examples of it being profitable.
Sponsorship : In addition to the array of marketing programs that are obtainable to join there is a growing awareness in the business of the worth & opportunity that exists for them to promote directly on blogs. I am hearing increasingly examples of this & have been fortunately to have a couple of commercial campaigns of my own historically month a with Adobe a couple of weeks ago & another done with Ricoh for a brand spanking new digicam over at my Digital Camera Weblog. These are not isolated cases as I say I do know of lots of blogs exploring sponsorship with advertisers at present & suspect they shall see more of it in the coming year. Sponsorship is also happening on a post by post basis with some bloggers being paid to write on positive topics by companies either in off or a regular fashion & they can make gigantic money from their blogs doing so.
Affiliate : Programs There's larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very tiny.
Digital Assets : Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support & add revenue streams to their blogs. By this I mean that I am increasingly seeing e books, courses & tele seminars being run by bloggers. My recent foray in to this with the first series of the five figure walking a blog coursework that Andy & I ran a few weeks ago & have released the study version of. This type of activity will only increase in future in fact this week I have seen numerous examples of bloggers walking courses.
Blog Network Opportunities : with the rise in popularity of Weblog Networks bloggers are also being introduced with more places to earn an income from their walking a blog by writing for & with others. While it might be difficult to receive a writing gig with of the bigger networks there's plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join & who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models. While there's distinct advantages of walking a blog for yourself walking a blog for an established network who will handle lots of the set up/promotion/admin/SEO etc has its advantages also. Increasingly bloggers are combining writing for themselves on their own blogs with taking on weblog network blogs as additional income streams.
Business blog Writing Opportunities : as walking a blog has risen in its profile as a medium increasingly businesses are beginning blogs. Lots of of these companies have internal staff take on walking a blog duties but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on & run their blogs. I do know of a variety of bloggers who historically month or have been approached for such paid work. Check out Bloggers for Hire in the event you are looking for this type of work.
Non Walking a blog Writing Opportunities : Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non walking a blog mediums. Manorials recent coup of a column in the Washington Post is example of this as bloggers are increasingly being approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non weblog sites. Along side this is the rise of bloggers as published book authors this is to the extent that blogger I spoke with this week complained to me that they were of the few bloggers than they knew who didnot have a book deal!
Consulting and Speaking : While it's been popular for established consultants to add blogs to their businesses we âre also beginning 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. Jogging a blog has the ability to establish people as specialists on niche topics and all of us know the worth of being perceived as an specialist. I spoke to blogger last month who charges himself out at over $200 an hour for speaking and consulting work his area of expertise was something that they knew tiny about 18 months ago but through his weblog he is become a leader in his field and a minor celebrity in his industry.
As time rolls on there's increasingly ways that bloggers make money from their blogs opening up. Feel free to recommend your own ideas and experiences in comments below.
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