In the beginning…
Blogging, or Web Journaling as it was originally known, really gained massive popularity in the late 1990s, primarily as a way for shy teenagers to share their thoughts in a public manner, in a journal format, with the world at large . Similar to today, many of these blogs were read only by the individual’s family and friends. Before long though, a few of these blogs slowly began to get noticed by a larger readership. As with anything on the Internet, some of these bloggers started to question whether there could be a way to start making money blogging.
Enter Google AdSense. I’m assuming that you’ve heard of Adsense, but if not, it’s a Google product where you sign up to have small advertisements that are supposedly unintrusive placed on your website or blog wherever you choose. Before long, anyone who wanted to make cash with their blogs was throwing Adsense ads all over their web pages.
Some bloggers actually made a bit of cash from this. Most, though, just ended up with a blog that had been transformed into one big ad and didn’t have much else that they gained from it.
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Denizens of the blogosphere are more savvy now than they were just a few years ago. If you can get 2% of your dedicated readers to click through, you are way ahead of the game.
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You have no say over what ads are displayed. Do you really want to take a chance on having R or X-rated advertisements displayed on your portfolio website?
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Ads make a blog look spammy. They turn off your readers and make them question your intentions.
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Every time someone does click on an ad, they are being taken away from your blog. Is sending people away really a good strategy?
There are much better ways to make money with your blog.
You could always try the product launch method, which involves creating high quality information products such as e-books, webinars, and web courses. There are a lot of bloggers who are making a lot of money this way. It requires a lot of time investment, but the results can be quite high.
Another way is to put together a subscription site. In this way, readers are actually paying YOU to log on to your site every month. Again, though, there is a large investment of time required, and your readers will demand a very high level from you.
Finally, there are methods where you can monetize their blogs for someone else. In these types of setups, you are usually a so-called corporate blogger, writing on behalf of a ncorporation on the topics that they give you.
All of these have their pluses and minuses. However, they are all infinitely more effective than plastering ads all over your precious blog. If you really want to become an expert in how to make money with a blog, you should investigate each of these opportunities carefully.
