The New York Times reported that blogging is not only paying the bills, but supporting whole families. The mom of Couponmom.com covers the expenses for her family of four, and Darren Kitchen, creator of Hak5.org makes around $5k a month selling the merchandise from his video blog. To a blog profitable, besides making it entertaining and enjoyable to look at, you need to incorporate one or several strategies to get the cash rolling in.

1. Optimize Your Content

• Contextual Advertising – Turn a few words in your posts into hyperlinks, linking them to advertising. Heard of Google Adsense? If not, you should. Enrolling in this application allows blog owners to generate revenue based on a per-click basis. While Adsense may be the lion as far as PPC advertising is concerned, other companies such as Amazon.com offer in-text advertising as well.

• Product Post Reviews – Your posts themselves can turn into an advertisement,  by selling affiliate products you approve of or have used. Write a review on a product in a post. Include some graphics within your post, hyperlink ‘em and you have just generated a money maker. Be careful here though. Only talk about products that relate to your niche that you personally know works. A bad product or service will come back to bite you if your glowing review doesn’t live up to reality.

• Use Multimedia – Podcasting, vlogging (video blogging) and twittering can work as a springboard to talk about your blog. Use a service such as YouTube or Vimeo to upload your sound or video bytes. Once you have gained a following, apply for advertising through the host’s site. When viewers click on an ad that pops up before, during or after your video, that is another cha-ching you can put in the bank.

 

2. Use More Ads

• Impression Based Ads – Place ads on a post page that relates specifically to the topic you are discussing. An impression based ad works well for post pages because you will make money each time the post or page is viewed. Also known as “Cost Per View Advertising” or (CPV).

• Cost Per Thousand – Phrased as CPM or “Cost Per Mille”, advertisers pay a specific amount of money per thousand impressions. So if you have an ad selling pencils on a page in your blog, every one thousand times a visitor looks at that page with the ad selling pencils, the advertiser pays you money.

• CPC Advertising – As stated earlier CPC or “Cost Per Click” advertising nets the blogger money every time a visitor clicks on an ad. The ad can be hyperlinked within the text, shown as a graphic within the post or can be displayed as a banner or pop-up ad.

 

3. Sell Merchandise

• Create Your Own Product – More upfront time is required when you intend to develop your own product, but it can pay large dividends. The key to making merchandise sell well is by solving a problem or answering a question that your followers have. Jump-start your brain with these ideas.

• Ebook – create a PDF or Epub file packed with much-desired info, slap an attractive cover and you are good to go.

• Hard copy book – check out Lulu.com or xlibris.com for print on demand services.

• Guide book – turn that posting series you did a while back into a product by compiling the information together in one, easy-to-read format.

• DVD or CD

• Other merchandise – Got a cool idea for a bumper sticker? T-shirt? Beer cozy? Use a site like Goodstorm.com or Cafepress.com to create personalized retail products.

• Sell Affiliate Products – If the thought of creating a product is too time intensive, consider going the affiliate route. Clickbank.com or Mycashjunction.com lets bloggers sell digital and physical products similar to the above named list. Make sure you read all the fine print before advertising a product on your site.

• Create an Event or Seminar – Gurus and experts can cash in by creating a webinar or private coaching event. Create an email blast, describing what information you plan to offer, how much you charge and when the event will take place. Send it to your list of dedicated followers, and those who have the most pressing questions will enjoy the benefits of your personal time.

 

4. Ask For the Money

• The Tip Jar – Nothing like a simple “Donation” button at the bottom of your home or about page says it clearer: you need money in order to provide your followers the content the voraciously devour. A simple description and call to action on your home page might get your request noticed more, but don’t create an entire page begging for money. It looks tacky and unprofessional.

• Subscriptions to Premium Content – Another way to request money is by offering elevated content. Information has a price, and the much sought after, “This is what you need to succeed” content will fly off your virtual shelves when you create a sense of allure and mystery. Price it, talk it up and then offer a limited time for those to act.

 

5. Become a Flipper

Get rid of your blog. Yes, selling your blog can provide you cash. Build your blog, give it a theme, add graphics, a cool logo, sell it off and then rinse and repeat. A few web and blog selling sites such as the ones listed below allows sellers to display their ideas and built blogs where buyers can congregate and learn about your offerings.

• Flippa.com
  similar to a classified service such as Craigslist or eBay, this site offers listings where buyers see a brief description, price and listing time. 
  

  Flippa Logo

• BuySellWebsite.com – not as easy on the eyes, but simple to use, this site offers buyers a chance to purchase start-ups, established blogs or sites or domain names.

• Tycoontalk.freelancer.com – a water cooler setup for all things web-related, this forum website allows people to buy and sell for a monthly fee.

 

Debra Wilson is a blogger helping entrepreneurs apply for a business credit card at CreditDonkey.  She reminds you that more than pretty words and pictures on a page, a blog monetized the right way will keep you in the green. Incorporate the use of advertising, merchandise and other listed techniques to make your blog stay on the map.

How do you monetize your blog?