How would you monetize a blog?

[coolWebsites]

Hi,

I'm still learning, and figuring out a few things. I have bought a few e-books, so am learning how to monetize blogs, etc in a few different ways.

Right now, I have a blog that is making about $3-$4/day in adsense revenue (about 400 visitors/day). I'm assuming this is "pretty" good, but what steps would suggest I take to say to take it to $3,000/month? (And actually -- I suppose what I should ask -- do you think it is reasonable to *make* that site generate $3,000/month in sales/cash with the existing traffic? Or do I need to increase traffic more before I would think of that/and/or what level of traffic do you think I would need ?).

I am assuming that I have enough visitors/day that I could probably start looking to sell other people's products, what base commissions do you think are good? (I'm assuming probably $10 minimum commission/product).

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Johnathan

[Stephen Clark]

That's great news about the traffic! Way to go.

$3,000/month is a possibility, but I would say keep up with traffic generation. Don't let up on that at all.

At 400 visitors per day, that equals out to be 12,000 per month. If you converted 1% of that, that would be 120 sales. If you made $25 per sale, that equals $3,000 per month!

If you are looking to start some affiliate marketing, finding products with a minimum of 50% commission is not very hard. In fact, I wouldn't promote anything that paid any less. Unless of course it was a very specific niche where there weren't very many products for me to choose from.

Hope that helps

**EDIT** I realized that those numbers will be off some because a portion of those visitor will be returning and will not be unique. Anyways, maybe it gives you a better picture of things :-)

[aleisterone]

Put some relevant cpa.

[qkz283]

Don't stop generating traffic. Traffic = money. But if you want to increase your current income with your current traffic, you could do so by creating a subscriber list.

[raynman]

Where do you blog?

[ninja newbie]

With that type of traffic you should be able to sell flat rate ads for a monthly fee. Have you taken a look at Adbrite, Targetpoint or Chitika, there is a post on my blog about these alternatives to adsense.

hope this helps,

Terry

[Buildingfutures]

Originally Posted by ninja newbie

With that type of traffic you should be able to sell flat rate ads for a monthly fee. Have you taken a look at Adbrite, Targetpoint or Chitika, there is a post on my blog about these alternatives to adsense.

hope this helps,

Terry

I never knew about that!

Thanks for the info buddy!

[raynman]

Originally Posted by ninja newbie

With that type of traffic you should be able to sell flat rate ads for a monthly fee. Have you taken a look at Adbrite, Targetpoint or Chitika, there is a post on my blog about these alternatives to adsense.

hope this helps,

Terry

Originally Posted by Buildingfutures

I never knew about that!

Thanks for the info buddy!

That makes two of us. Ditto on the thanks!

[eightofdiamonds]

Yes keep up the traffic and the adsense money. Integrate an affiliate product but keep it subtle. An opt in list is a great way to add buyers.

[Dennis Miedema]

Here are some tips from another blog owner (some have already been covered but jsut to give you an overview):

- Subscribers list and/or RSS feed: by creating a newsletter with getresponse or Aweber, not only can you build customer relationships by doing a mailbag and tips & tricks advice...but you can also set-up an autoresponder for promotions of your or somebody else's product. RSS feed: visitors of your blog can subscribe to the RSS feed so they can view your site updates DIRECTLY from their internet explorer (giving your visitors as much ease of use as possible also strengthens csr).

- Traffic building: no matter what your business is, there are ALWAYS forums, article sites and other blogs about the subject. Post there regularly with your website address in your signature (or even blog post comment!)

- Monetization: selling products and back-end products through your subscribers list (offering a subscription for paid blog content for example with the back-end being the back issues of the subscription), endorsing other people's products through your subscribers list for commission %, putting physical ad spaces on your blog (3 small blocks for one ad per block, if your site has 400 visitors a day you could probably charge 100 bucks or more per block per month!), affiliate marketing where you do an interview with, an article by or whatever and then sell their product for a commission %

Final note: what about doing a conference call for a 100 bucks a seat? search for teleseminar services...you could do a call with 50 people and there you go $5000. That's 5000 for a couple of hours of work. Or how about a webinar? etc.

When you want, just send me a pm and we'll talk some more no problem!

Kindest regards,

Dennis

[coolWebsites]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your message. Actually my conversion (at least with google ads), is about 6-8%. I'm assuming that is pretty good?

[coolWebsites]

HI Ninja,

Thanks -- where is your blogpost? I am checking out chikita right now, what types of commissions do they pay? (Is it similar to adsense?) With adsense I usually get anywhere from $0.01 to $1.00/click. (Average is about $0.25)

[coolWebsites]

Hi Dennis, thanks for the replies, I'm considering that and seeing what I can do. I may PM you soon.

[bgmacaw]

What to do depends a lot on the niche.

Given the Adsense numbers you mentioned, this doesn't sound like a good Adsense niche. It's more like 'just OK' given your traffic level.

The question is what kind of traffic are you getting to your site. Are they looking to buy something and arriving there via Google or are they coming to your site based on referrals from other blogs, social networking sites or forums?

For search traffic, you may want to consider using eBay or Amazon affiliate programs or some Commission Junction programs, especially if your site is oriented around a type of product. This can easily out-earn Adsense by a factor of 10 of more in many niches.

For referral traffic, selling yourself is the best bet. Build a list and find niche oriented products or create your own products to sell to them.

[coolWebsites]

Hi BG,

Ah, what do you mean by "ok"? Do you mean money wise ($0.25/average?). Yes, I was thinking that as well. (I was reading apparently some people can do $2-$3/click). And, actually at the moment the traffic is mainly organic (haven't really done any forum postings, directory submissions, etc yet -- actually not sure what the best software for that is).

As for list building, I'm fairly new at that, so not exactly sure what the best way to go about that is. (I've done it the 'old-fashioned' way, I.e., writing a web app to manually e-mail everything out, but takes too long, it wasn't really a big focus for me in the past). I'm actually just looking at CJ right now, reviewing the TOS, and seeing what I can do about that.

[ninja newbie]

Originally Posted by coolWebsites

HI Ninja,

Thanks -- where is your blogpost? I am checking out chikita right now, what types of commissions do they pay? (Is it similar to adsense?) With adsense I usually get anywhere from $0.01 to $1.00/click. (Average is about $0.25)

You can find that post here:
Using Alternatives to Google Adsense to Monetize Your Website BlogEvolution 2.0

Chitika is taylored more for search traffic which can be great if that's where your hits are coming from. Adbrite would probably be a good place to start for flat rate ads.

Terry

[coolWebsites]

Hi,

Thanks, checking it out now!

[soffell]

if you interest with PTR program, Blog is one media to get your monthly earning

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by coolWebsites

Hi,

I'm still learning, and figuring out a few things. I have bought a few e-books, so am learning how to monetize blogs, etc in a few different ways.

Right now, I have a blog that is making about $3-$4/day in adsense revenue (about 400 visitors/day). I'm assuming this is "pretty" good, but what steps would suggest I take to say to take it to $3,000/month? (And actually -- I suppose what I should ask -- do you think it is reasonable to *make* that site generate $3,000/month in sales/cash with the existing traffic? Or do I need to increase traffic more before I would think of that/and/or what level of traffic do you think I would need ?).

I am assuming that I have enough visitors/day that I could probably start looking to sell other people's products, what base commissions do you think are good? (I'm assuming probably $10 minimum commission/product).

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Johnathan

Hi Johnathan,

The way to monetise your blog can be:
1. selling our own products
2. selling affiliate products
3. advertisements such as text links, banner ads, blog posts reviews

So how you are going to monetise now, depends on what type of traffic you are receiving now.

As for me, I make $3K per month just purely based on advertisements.

If your blog is about fulfilling a certain need, you should be able to identify if the keywords are from people who are buying and willing to spend money.

Then, you can match the type of products to the traffic that is coming in.

Hope this helps.

John

[Jeff McCall]

I think a more financially viable long-term strategy is to use a blog to build value and a relationship with your blog visitors. Not just to chase the money.

Blogs that chase the money tend not to add anything positive to the Internet.

Use a blog to build a list of people who trust you to provide real value. Soon enough the money will find you and in much larger and more regular amounts.

Just my view.

Be successful,

Jeff.

[coolWebsites]

hi Jeff,

thanks for your message.yes, I totally agree that it is much better to provide value. I know a lot of people who are simply rewrite in articles in an attempt to get keyword traffic, but I don't think that's absent a real value. The blog entries that are made, are designed to actually help people. Money from advertising is a bonus.that being said, if there is a way to generate extra income, I'm definitely open for that. :-)

[coolWebsites]

hi John,

thanks for your message. Could you please let me know what your blog website is? Also, if you don't mind sharing, what kind of traffic, visitors to you get? Also, have you been doing this for while, or just a few months? For me, it has actually only been a couple months (actually about three months). Anyways, thanks!

[coolWebsites]

Hi soffell,

What is a PTR program?

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Jeff McCall

Use a blog to build a list of people who trust you to provide real value. Soon enough the money will find you and in much larger and more regular amounts.

"Build it and they will come", yeah, right.

EDIT

Sorry, having a little too much 'Christmas' after a visit to Walmart.

What you're saying, what I call 'schmooze marketing, will work, maybe, eventually, if you do things exactly right. But there is also value to be found in plain old advertising too. And, while somebody nurtures a wonderful, content rich, schmooze marketing blog and list for a year and finally makes more than $8 and change in a month, I'll have built 100+ niche marketing sites each which will have been making $50-100 a month for a while.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by coolWebsites

Ah, what do you mean by "ok"? Do you mean money wise ($0.25/average?). Yes, I was thinking that as well. (I was reading apparently some people can do $2-$3/click). And, actually at the moment the traffic is mainly organic (haven't really done any forum postings, directory submissions, etc yet -- actually not sure what the best software for that is).

25 cents might be good for your particular niche but it's on the low side so far was what you can do with Adsense in general. I prefer to build niche blogs around niches that will almost insure $2.50+ clicks. Otherwise, I use affiliate products or my own products because they're more profitable.

[absolutelee]

Originally Posted by Jeff McCall

I think a more financially viable long-term strategy is to use a blog to build value and a relationship with your blog visitors. Not just to chase the money.

Blogs that chase the money tend not to add anything positive to the Internet.

Use a blog to build a list of people who trust you to provide real value. Soon enough the money will find you and in much larger and more regular amounts.

Just my view.

Be successful,

Jeff.

Agreed! In other words, the long-term strategy needs to be to add real value. Another thing you need to be doing is collecting email addresses. You can do this via a giveaway and an opt-in box. (I prefer light squeeze pages.) That way, you start building a customer base.

[Hesaidblissfully]

1. Go to Internet Business Blog - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

2. Download Yaro Starak's free Blog Profits Blueprint report.

3. Actually do what's in the book.

And no, I have no relation to this guy. I came across his free report recently and he has some great ideas for people looking to promote and monetize their blogs. And it' free

Hope that helps!

[coolWebsites]

Thanks re: the info for a giveaway... Do you have any good suggestions on 'automated' ways of e-mailing/a good set of 'autoresponder' letters/offer? It's an interesting idea...

[Zachary R. Skinner]

Do you have an opt in form on your site?

Are you currently doing any product reviews?

Where is your traffic coming from and how long did it take you to build your traffic to the level it is at now?

[coolWebsites]

Hi,

Don't yet have an opt-in form. Not (yet) doing any product reviews, and it took about 2.5 months to build it up to that level. (I'm not sure if that is considered high, but leveraged it with a few other sites I have to help build up traffic to that level).

[ninja newbie]

Originally Posted by Hesaidblissfully

1. Go to Internet Business Blog - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

2. Download Yaro Starak's free Blog Profits Blueprint report.

3. Actually do what's in the book.

And no, I have no relation to this guy. I came across his free report recently and he has some great ideas for people looking to promote and monetize their blogs. And it' free

Hope that helps!

I agree 1000% about Yaro Starak's stuff so much so, I featured him on my blog here 10 Traffic Tips For New Bloggers BlogEvolution 2.0. He and his partner Gideon have also put together a free video series to beginners how to create and run money making blogs. Oh yeah and the x-factor videos are real nice also.

Terry

[coolWebsites]

actually, yes, thanks for the link, I am already reading his e-book.

I actually do know most of the stuff, but I have found a few tips that I did not know, so thanks for the link!