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Monetization and Direct Monetization – Blogging Profits

Monetization and Direct Monetization – Blogging Profits

Julianne Wish, Member Contributions

What’s The Difference and Which One Is Right for You?
Many blog owners blog with the intention of earning money. If you intend on or hope to profit from your blog it pays to understand your options. You can chose direct monetization, indirect monetization or a combination of both.
What is Direct Monetization?
Direct monetization simply means that you directly monetize your blog. You profit directly from your blog. In most cases this means you either:
* Sell products on your blog – for example, socks or supplements.
* Sell information products on your blog – for example ebooks or online courses
* Sell services on your blog – for example, copywriting services
* Sell space for companies to advertise – the more traffic you have the more you can charge to place an ad on your blog.
* Place pay per click ads on your website and earn money each time someone clicks on an advertisement.
* Host a membership site on your blog and profit from selling memberships.
As you can see you can choose several of these profit models for a single blog. For example, you might sell information products, sell advertising space and participate in a PPC program like AdSense.
What is Indirect Monetization?
Indirect monetization is where you profit indirectly on your website. The most common type of indirect monetization may be affiliate sales. With this profit model you earn commissions on products or services that you promote. This is a very common way to profit from your blog and it integrates well with direct monetization methods.
For example, you might sell ad space on your blog as well as include affiliate links in relevant posts.
Another example of indirect monetization is to profit from your email or subscriber list. Many bloggers offer you the opportunity to sign up for other lists. In this case they’re then earning money by renting or selling your name to other relevant companies.
Finally, membership site was mentioned in the direct monetization model however you can also profit from it indirectly. You can offer a free membership but then charge companies for access to your members. A very simple example of this might be if you allowed a gamer to market their products on your gaming membership site/blog.
Through widgets and plug-ins a blog is capable of offering just about any type of online experience. You can simply provide information or you can take it to a different level and offer memberships, an ecommerce store or an online chat room.
Choose your goals and then create a monetization plan to achieve them. Keep in mind, while planning your profit strategy that your visitors are ultimately who you want to consider first. Offer them value and benefit and the profits will come.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

How do you really make money with a blog?

How do you really make money with a blog?

Julianne Wish, Member Contributions

Have you ever wondered how other bloggers are making so much money?  What is their secret?  How can you make money with your blog?
Here are three ways you can make money with your blog.

  1. Affiliate commissions.  Many bloggers use their blogs to promote the products and services of others.  They are affiliate marketers.  You can create quite a successful business by choosing a blog topic that interests you.  The more specific the topic, the better.  For example, if you love reading mystery novels, you can create a blog that reveiws mystery novels.  Each review could include an affiliate link so your readers can buy the book.  You might also include ads in your sidebar that advertise ‘how to write mystery novels’, and writing programs.  The foundation of a successful affiliate business is content and there is not better content tool than a blog.
  2. Advertising Revenue.  Many profitable blogs earn all of their income from advertising revenue.  There are two ways you can earn money from advertising.  You can participate in programs like Google’s AdSense.  You simply sign up and paste the code on your blog.  Google inserts the ads.  You can choose the ad category so they match your visitor’s interests.  Each time someone clicks on an ad, you earn money.  You can also sell space on your blog.  The more readers and subscribers you have, the more you can charge for ad space on your site.  In the meantime, consider placing affiliate banner ads in the sidebar.  This will get your readers accustomed to ads on your blog.  It might earn you some additional income in the meantime.  It may also help your readers visualize their ads on your site.  You should also place an ‘advertise with us’ or ‘your ad here’ link somewhere on your blog so anyone who wants to advertise on your blog can contact you easily.
  3. Your own products or services.  You can use your blog to sell your own products or services.  If we continue with the mystery novel example, you might decide to write a ‘how to write a mystery novel’ downloadable course.  You can use your blog to promote your product and earn a nice profit.  You could also offer manuscript critique services.  You could help aspiring mystery writers get published while earning an income.  Again, you can use your blog to promote your services. 

There are a number of ways to use your blog to profit.  Decide which monetization model best fits your needs and profit goals.  Create a plan to make it happen.  Always remember that the secret behind any profitable blog is the content.  Always focus on creating the best content possible!
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.