Probably the Hardest Way to Make Money Online

Blogging is something that I started doing because I am a tech enthusiast.  I love anything that deals with computers, video games, and the internet. So basically, for fun. But like I’ve said previously, I soon realized that there was money to be made in blogging.

There are several different ways to try to monetize your blog, and I’ve tried a lot of them. To be honest, I haven’t made a whole lot of money, but I have made a little. At the same time, my effort to get paid blogging has been very casual, and my blogs are still fairly new so that’s a hurdle to overcome.

When I first started, it was tough to even get accepted to a lot of programs you can use to monetize your blog. Some require you to have a certain Google Page rank, Alexa rank, and/or Technorati rank. So I had to try to put out content and build those requirements a little.  This is one I’m still dealing with. Once you get accepted into different money making programs, you then have to build up your readership even more. You have to actively do this yourself by creating interesting content, making sure your blog and individual blog post are represented in the search engines, and sometimes advertising. It’s tough but as your page rank and readership gets higher you’ll start to see more opportunities open up.

So what programs have I used?

In short, I’ve probably sampled just about all of them. Of course I’m not going to leave you with just that answer. I’ll break it down a little bit better in case you’re interested. (Also note the money I’m listing is a rounded off estimate)

  • Google Adsense: This one is a no brainer, probably the easiest one to get into and pays pretty well if you have a good traffic stream. I think it’s pretty fair and a must have for anyone trying to monetize your website.  Money made so far: $220
  • Yahoo publishing network: I don’t use this right now but I did try it out for a minute, seems to be about the same as Google. Money made so far: $70
  • Adbrite: When I first started over at Jonzee.com, I had Adbrite text ads on my blog, it seems like it’s a pretty good place to make money but you need a lot of traffic to attract advertisers, which I didn’t have. I have since taken them off my blogs, maybe to try again later once I get more readers. Money made so far: a pitiful $7 bucks.
  • Kontera: This is one program that I just started using, thanks to John Chow. I still haven’t made up my mind how I like this service yet. Money made so far: less than a dollar
  • Auction Ads: This is another fairly new addition to my money making efforts. To me it looks like it would work out well for websites that have a lot of traffic. Not working out that well for me presently though, been considering removing them from my blogs. Money made so far: less than a dollar.

There are other things I’ve tried such as Amazon, Chitika, and Text Ad Links but right now, those aren’t a good fit for me (interpretation: haven’t made one cent).

One such area of advertising that I have seen very good potential are those sponsored blog post models, I go back and forth on those though, sometimes I think they are bad for your blog, sometimes I don’t (by the way, this is a sponsered blog post). I’ve tried a few of them but haven’t been too aggressive at all at getting gigs from those programs. Here are a few I’ve tried.

  • Reviewme.com: Every since I first heard about review me, I’ve been trying to get my blog accepted to the program with no success. After I received a page rank of 4 on both my blogs, I tried again and got accepted (Want a review? Click here). Since then I’ve only fiddled around in the new “blogger marketplace” area of reviewme.com. Money made so far: $15
  • SponsoredReviews.com: This is another paid review program that pretty much accepted me from the beginning, very similar to review me. Money made so far: $10
  • PayPerPost: This is the mack daddy of paid review programs. Like all the others the better ranked your blog, the better the opportunities. Has been some controversy in the past due to not requiring disclosure of paid blog post (think they changed that since then). Money made so far: $40.50
 

Other sources of income I have received came in the form of donations. Those amounts include $260 through PayPal and $65 through chip in.

As you can see, I’m not burning down the house or anything like that, but I have been able to somewhat maintain enough money to help with hosting and various other small blog related expenses.

 "this is a sponsored blog post"