BlogForFunAndProfit.com

Day 9 - Monetizing Strategies: Part 2

Thus far we’ve discussed how you can utilize Google’s Adsense program and as well as merchant-sponsored affiliate programs to generate profits from your blog. There are additional ways to monetize your blog, and we’re going to discuss some additional methods in today’s lesson.

Chitika (www.chitika.com) is an innovative service which like Google Adsense, is a pay-per-click program. although the ads are targeted toward physical products. Like Adsense, Chitika provides contextual advertising, as it serves detailed advertisements that are related to the content and products provided on your blog or website.

For example, if your blog focuses on technology gadgets, Chitika may display advertisements for popular tech gadgets such as iPods. Chitika ads are attractively displayed with photos and tabbed folders (Details, Best Deals, etc.), thus providing a great deal of information about the product. By providing this level of detail about each product, the served ad seems more like a product review than a simple advertisement, and thus the click-through rates may be higher. You can apply for a Chitika account here: https://chitika.com/application.php?type=mm

A more recent development in contextual advertisement services is what is known as pay-per-action. An example of this type of program would be AuctionAds.com, which will display ads from current eBay auctions. Once again, the ads served will be relevent to the content on your blog, with a greater likelihood that your visitors will click and follow the ads. However, unlike Adsense, for which you will earn a commission if your visitor simply clicks on the link, pay-per-action programs will pay out a commission only if your visitor makes a purchase subsequent to clicking on the link.

In our last lesson, we mentioned several resources for participating in affiliate programs. While some companies manage their own affiliate programs, most participate in affiliate networks, the largest of which include Clickbank, PayDotCom, Linkshare, and Commission Junction. While Clickbank and PayDotCom are concerned primarily with information products (ebooks and software), Linkshare and Commission Junction focus upon more tangible services and products (phone services, computers, pet products, books, etc.). I recommend that you join all of these networks, and then select the products and services that match your niche. Start with just a few product promotions, paying attention to the commissions that you will be earning as an affiliate.

Commissions can vary greatly; for information products, they can be as high as 50% - 75%, but are much lower for tangible products and services. Payouts for Amazon.com, for example, vary between 3% and 10%. Relative to other merchants, this may not be a lot, but there are many folks who make a lot of money by selling large quantities of product. Amazon, like many other merchants, provides a variety of attractive product display options, both text links and pictorial links, all encrypted with your unique affiliate ID.

Yet another method of making money with your blog is to sell ad space. If your blog is very popular, it won’t be difficult to find merchant partners. If you’re just starting out, however, and your blog doesn’t yet draw a lot of visitors, you can still sell ad space on a per-impression or per-click basis. You can find out about the programs available by visiting http://performancing.com/node/60 .

Ultimately the most lucrative way to make money from your blog is to develop and sell your own information product. With your own product, you’re not limited to selling it yourself; you can develop your own affiliate network, potentially making huge profits allowing others to sell your product for a share of the profits. It’s not as difficult as you might think, and we’ll be posting lots of information on our blog on this topic, so stay tuned.

In this lesson we’ve discussed various methods by which you can maximize profits and earnings from your blog. In our next, and last lesson in this 10-day minicourse, we’ll talk about ways that you can develop interactions between your blog and others.

»» Day 10: Building Relationships with Other Blogs