Best ways to monetize a blog?

Ha, you just listed the three best as what you don't want. The answer to your question completely depends on traffic. I have a site about dissociative disorder that makes most of its money from Adsense and Amazon (psych books). Since you don't want to do either of those I would maybe create your own ebook. The books that seem to do the best in that niche aren't directed towards the psych patient, they are the ones directed to the people that love them. IE: "living with a loved one with dementia" etc.

How much traffic do you get? There may be other ways if it is high.

Then your own product is the only way to go.

Seriously though, you are missing out if you won't consider building a list or affiliate marketing. My 7 month old blog did nearly $800 this month thanks to these two things.

Thanks guys. I'll definitely consider affiliate marketing and email marketing but I'm still looking for other ideas.

Hey,
Sharing one of my best choices here. Consider posting articles for link buyers for a price. Look around, you can find brokers like payperpost etc.. dealing these things. I haven't tried this yet but this is on my to do list.

I would suggest your own products - absolutely.

What is great about spinning out products from your own blog is...

1. You already have a source of targeted traffic coming to your blog, so you are not starting from zero in terms of having to get traffic to see your new product when you launch
2. You have existing content to use as research for spinning out your products. I am just finishing up my 13th ebook, this one was developed entirely from a blog post on one of my niche blogs that received HUGE attention, 100's of comments and lots of personal emails - you don't always get this type of response, but look at your stats and notice which blog posts are getting solid attention - even better if you are seeing some comments which shows another level of interest still
3. You can bundle some of your content from your blog as part of the product you create - I've even worked with blog owners who packaged exactly the same content as they had on their blog (around a certain sub-topic) and then TOLD their audience that it was a targeted summary and still sold a ton even though the information had largely been published freely before
4. I've always found blogging is a great way (in addition to building out other affiliates, social networking, and paid ads) to drive traffic to your ebook site - so the two go hand-in-hand

Finally - I would advise coming out with a product first and then using feedback from your customer base drive you toward a membership or subscription offering. This happens naturally in the case of a front-end product that sells.

For example, you will find that the top 20% of your buyers who use your information product will want more information, more attention, more updates, etc...which you can then turn into a membership site and have eager customers waiting to subscribe on day 1.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

If psychology/philosophy is your focus, and you are not interested in affiliate products, if you have enough information on the topic, and can present it in a unique way, you should create a product. Do the work once, add it to your blog, keep blogging, and theoretically, you, and your affiliates if you have any, will make you money.

making a list should be your top priority when it comes to wanting to sell your own product. the reason is, to build a connection between you and the people you want to sell your product to. the 2 biggest reasons that people will buy and trust you is if you are a person of authority (actually know what you're talking about) or if you connect with them on a personal level and become in a sense their friend.

list building is a great opportunity to develop connections between you and your potential buyers by sending out helpful emails, giveaways etc. Being an authority already with your blog and providing people with solid information is good already, but why not take that extra step and become their 'friend' and person whom they can trust. that will lead you to get massive sales when you do launch your own product.

just my two cents on it. other then that, if your site is reeling in good traffic, you can sell adspace.

good luck!

Thanks guys! One of the reasons why I'm not looking to implement AdSense as well as one or several other methods is because, as a psychology/philosophy blog, I intend to come across in quite a professional manner. Not 100% sure if AdSense ads will detract from other potential monetization opportunities or not. I want the page to look clean and smart and I realise with well-placed ads, this can be achieved, but unless I'm getting ridiculous traffic (which, for my niche, is not the easiest of tasks), it probably won't be all that profitable.

1) Sell some physical or intangible product

2) Offer some services

Well I agree with adsense but the rest of the ways are proven methods.
Adsense and Amazon, no matter what anyone says is for the money man who can afford to punt traffic in large quantities to there website or has a viral website.

Even if you want to make a membership site you need to think in terms of affliate linking.

You know they say the money is in the list but that is not completely correct.
You have to have the list
and the money is in the email.

You need email marketing no matter what.

If you just want a hobby and do not care about making money which your post does not say that then just build a blog with your heart and if you do a good job it will do you better.

If you want to make money then I would honestly think about affiliate linking, or whatever. I have seen some internet marketing blogs that do not do it and say they want. They peddle for donations but if you look at there site they are always promoting something, Just because you don't have ad blocks up doesn't mean your not an affilaite marketer.

From your post count I can not understand your reasoning for this.

Outstanding contribution to this thread....:rolleyes:

#1 Adsense
#2 BSA
#3 Offer Services
#4 CPA

Does anyone here feel that people have become pretty attuned to adsense where, at least to some degree, they tend to just ignore it? (I know there are alot of "it depends" here....)

Someone once said (I believe it was Chris Brogan, but don't quote me on that...), that the nature of making money with blogging has evolved into something where MUCH is expected and demanded of the blogger. Generally, in an age where people have come to expect "free", bloggers expected to give, give, give, and give some more....and, then, after all that giving, when the blogger asks his audience for one thing, the expectations and hope is that real genuine relationships will have developed to the point where the audience feels connected and will gladly purchase what they recommended.

Blogging isn't an easy road any longer. I believe that people expect ALOT from bloggers....sometimes, perhaps, a little too unrealistically, however, that's just the point where things have evolved to.

If you plan on creating a product, it would be foolish not to use both email marketing and affiliate marketing to boost your income. The best benefit to creating products is the fact you'll be building a list of buyers. You continue to contact these buyers through email to sell more of your products or affiliate products that are related to what you teach.

You may not want to use email marketing and affiliate marketing, but they are both essential for the growth of your business plan.

I find too many people find "list building" and "email marketing" as a technique to make money like Adsense... but it's more of a fundamental piece to a successful business... online or offline. Collecting information from your prospects, buyers, and affiliates for continued contact is the easiest way to guarantee growth and long term stability.

Travis

Before you try to run too far down the monetization trail, riddle us this:

Who is your audience?

"Psychology/philosophy" is so broad as to be meaningless.

Are you aiming at specific disciplines? Or going the "desperate buyer" route with a specific affliction?

Are you aiming at professionals? Lay people? Some other group (aka "niche")?

Figure that out first and the monetization opportunities will be much easier to lay out...

I think you are wrong here..

Maybe in the IM niche but niches like yours still rocks if you pick a good CPC on a high converting landing page.