Chris Cobb

Make Money Blogging With Chris Cobb

If you haven't started blogging yet, you definitely should be!You see, ever since I discovered just how powerful this technique is, I have created blogs in each of the markets that I operate in…

And the reason for this is because a blog, when done correctly, can create a content-rich website that gets FREE visitors, repeat visitors and will even help you to build your list, promote your product or even allow you to sell other people’s products for commissions…

It’s incredibly powerful stuff… and the BEST THING about blogs is that Google loves them!

In fact, all the search engines love them, simply because of the way they’re structured, the amount of relevant content they contain and the fact that they’re constantly updated. And a website that’s constantly updated with content that’s relevant to the search term in question will ALWAYS appear very highly in the organic search results…

Therefore, if you set-up a blog, using the right keywords and targeting the right market, the search engines will start sending you traffic – each and every day. And this is where it gets interesting… because this is FREE traffic – the very best kind of traffic that you can get!

All you then need to do is to steer this traffic towards your product offer, your own website, your squeeze page or even your affiliate offer, and what you have then is 100% PURE PROFIT!

So how exactly can you make money from a blog?

Well, there are actually many different ways of generating income through your blog, and below are the most effective methods I’ve found for doing so:

CPC Ad Networks (AdSense, Kontera, etc.)

CPM Ad Networks (AdBrite)

Affiliate Programmes

Writing Reviews

Donations

Merchandise

Flipping

Of course, which of these techniques you choose to run with is entirely down to you, and you’ll need to look into each option to decide which one is best suited to your particular blog. But to help you understand each option a little better, here’s a breakdown of how each method can be incorporated into your blog…

CPC Ad Networks

Chris Cobb says...

One of the most popular methods of monetizing a blog is to use CPC (Cost-Per-Click) Ad Networks such as Google AdSense (google.com/adsense) or Yahoo’s equivalent, Yahoo Publisher (publisher.yahoo.com).

In short, these programmes scan the content of your blog (specifically the keywords used) in order to ascertain your blog’s topic. They then place “contextually relevant” ads (text and image) onto your blog, and each time someone clicks on that ad, you receive a commission. CPC Ad Networks (like AdSense) are generally very easy to use and simply involve pasting some code into your blog’s templates, which will be given to you when you sign up.

When you’ve done this, the next step is choosing the right AdSense units and positioning them effectively. Google itself states that the most profitable ad units are the 336 x 280 large rectangles, the 300 x 250 rectangles and the 160 x 600 large skyscrapers, so I’d strongly recommend that you stick to those options.

As for positioning, it’s been shown that ads blended with the blog’s content perform much better than ads isolated in the sidebar, so I’d also suggest that you follow this principle if you want to achieve a high CTR (Click-Through Rate). I find that the best combination is typically the 336 x 280 unit on top of your blog posts, right below the headline. However, if you want to opt for something a little less intrusive, try placing it between the post and the comments section, or try using a 160 x 600 unit on the sidebar.

Finally, if you don't want to annoy your loyal visitors with the AdSense units, you can use WordPress’ Search Ads plug-in to display ads only to visitors coming from the search engines.

Text Ads are another increasingly popular way to sell ads on your blog and make money via commission. They work by taking words of existing content and converting those words into “link adverts”.

The beauty of this technique is that it doesn’t take up much room, and depending on the company you choose to run them, you can have quite a lot of control over which advertisers you accept or reject.

Two of my favourite text link sellers are AdBrite.com and Text-Link-Ads.com Both of these companies allow you to set your own prices and approve the ads you use on your blog, while they also have a pool of advertisers already so you don’t have to go looking for your own. Three more useful text link ad companies that I recommend are Kontera.com, LinkWorth.com and Adzaar.com.

WordPess also has a text-ad plug-in called WPTextAds.com that will allow you to sell text link ads directly to advertisers. This is a fantastic plug-in because instead of having to find ads via a company, advertisers pay you directly through PayPal (or your preferred payment method). And because no fee is paid to a middle man, your profits are higher, even if you set lower ad rates.

CPM Ad Networks

Chris Cobb says...

While Google AdSense pays on a Cost-Per-Click basis (CPC), there are some other ad networks that pay by the total number of impressions (CPM) you receive. In case you weren’t sure, CPM represents Cost-Per-Thousand (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000), so you’re basically paying for every 1,000 impressions your page receives. An impression, by the way, is a single instance of an ad appearing on a website or blog.

CPM ads are really good for blogs that have high page views but low click through rates. This is the scenario for most tech blogs as the tech savvy folks don’t usually click on ads, so they normally opt for CPM over CPC (AdSense). As a result, if you find that your blog isn’t receiving a lot of ad clicks or the payout per click is particularly low, then you might want to consider replacing your AdSense units with CPM ads, as this could result in an increased monthly ad revenue for you.

Below is a list of the most popular CPM ad networks:

Adsdaq.com

CasaleMedia.com

AdBrite.com

Adify.com

VereMedia.com

BuzzLogic.com

BurstMedia.com

ValueClickMedia.com

TribalFusion.com

RightMedia.com

Affiliate Marketing

Chris Cobb says...

Despite the appearance of CPC and CPM advertising networks, affiliate marketing remains one of the easiest and most effective ways to monetize your blog, which is why so many blog owners still use it.

Naturally, in order to be successful as an affiliate, you need to select an affiliate product that’s highly relevant to your blog, and you need to have good levels of targeted traffic flowing towards it. If you can achieve these two pre-requisites, you should be able to earn a fair amount of commission. To become an affiliate you can either contact individual product owners within your niche and ask them to provide you with some banners, or you can sign up to an affiliate network, where you’ll be able to find a wide selection of potential products that you can promote on your blog.

Here’s a list of some affiliate networks that I’d recommend:

CommissionJunction.com

ClickBank.com

ClixGalore.com

LinkShare.com

AffiliateWindow.com

PayDotCom.com

You should be able to find a number of relevant niche products using any one of these networks, which will then allow you to start monetizing your blog in the simplest way possible. Oh, and don’t forget some of the privately run affiliate programmes either! Amazon, for instance, has a huge range of products in a variety of different niches that you could start promoting on your blog.

If you want to take this route you can sign up here:

affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk

Finally, when selecting and promoting affiliate products, make sure that each one is highly targeted towards your niche and offers value to your readers…

And NEVER promote a product simply for money.

If your readers suspect that you’re only interested in profiting from them, they won’t trust your judgments in the future, they’ll stop purchasing the products on your blog, and they may even stop visiting altogether. Always remember that a well-read, successful blog has good quality content that exists to help its readers and provide a useful service. If you bear that principle in mind when selecting affiliate products, you will make money.

Write Reviews

Chris Cobb says...

Another way of boosting your blog earnings is to write product reviews in the form of permanent blog posts. This method can generate some easy money and is probably best suited to intermediate bloggers whose traffic levels aren’t yet high enough to utilise any of the other methods that we’ve spoken about.

In order to make money from this technique, you’ll first need to sign up to a review company. That company will then decide whether or not to approve you based on how credible your blog is (they will look at your Alexa ranking, Technorati ranking, Page Rank, link popularity, RSS reader, number of subscribers, the blog itself, etc). Depending on the company you use, once you’re accepted onto the review site, you can either start bidding on “jobs” that are most relevant to your blog, or alternatively the advertisers themselves can search the database and then potentially select you to write the review for them.

The amount of money you earn from the review is naturally dependent on the topic your blog covers and the number of visitors it gets, but a single review can earn anywhere between £10 and £100 a time, so you can clearly see the income potential that these sites have.

The three most popular review companies I’ve found are:

ReviewMe.com

Blogsvertise.com

SponsoredReview.com

Donations

Chris Cobb says...

Not every blog-related income opportunity involves promoting goods and services. Asking for donations is a great way of monetizing your blog even further, and many bloggers use this technique! All you have to do is place a payment button (like PayPal) on your blog and then request that readers donate money to you to help keep the blog running…

In fact, you don’t even have to claim that the donations are for the maintenance of the blog. A friend of mine has a PayPal donation button on his blog that simply says; “I’d really like a bigger house. If you’d like to help me with this goal, please click here and donate whatever you can”.

And amazingly, because some of his most loyal readers love his blog so much, they actually do it! (Remember though, people will only donate to you if they’re receiving something valuable (and free) in return, so your blog needs to have good levels of traffic and be well-read before you can start asking for donations!). The blogs that use this method successfully are normally those that support a positive cause in some way, like health-related topics or money-saving advice, for instance.

However, even if your blog is centred on something like internet marketing, sports or games, you may still have a group of regular readers who enjoy reading your posts, and therefore may be willing to underwrite their loyalty with a little financial assistance.

As well as the methods listed above, there are also some less obvious ways of monetizing your blog…

Merchandise

You could sell your very own merchandise, for example, such as t-shirts, hats, mugs or stickers with your blog’s name and logo on them! Of course, this method only really works if your blog has a cult-like status with an army of loyal readers who demand such items.

Flipping

Selling or “flipping” your blog is another way of monetizing it. But again, this isn’t something that the majority of bloggers will be able to capitalise on because in order for you to make big money from this method, your blog will need to be in a red-hot market and generating huge levels of traffic.

However, it may be worth considering in the future once you’re more experienced at creating blogs, filling them with quality content, generating targeted traffic and monetizing them with ads.

So there you go…

That’s a lot of ways for you to make money with your blog!

And I’d recommend that you try to implement as many of them as possible. However, it's crucial that you get the basics right first, and that means including good quality and relevant CONTENT that people will want to read in the first place.

After all, you won't be able to make money if no one is reading your blog!

Good Luck!

Chris Cobb