Here are some quick thoughts on how you can make more money with you blog/website.
Affiliate Programs
Don’t just join some affiliate program, paste some code and be done with it! You won’t make very much money that way. Affiliate programs are best done when you make a thorough article post on the affiliate product. I think the most successful affiliate posts are ones that compel the reader to come to the conclusion that the best solution to their problem is the product you are recommending (i.e., your affiliate product). Here is an outline of how to do that:
- State and describe the problem (that the product is designed to solve).
- State and describe each of the benefits from having the problem solved.
- Describe a product that will solve the problem partially (but not completely).
- Describe another product that will solve the problem partially (but not completely).
- Describe a third product that will solve the problem partially (but not completely).
- Describe your affiliate product recommendation and how that product is able to fully solve the issues the other products are not able to.
Google Adsense
One technique I’ve seen used that I think could be very effective is to have links to pages dedicated to displaying Google Adsense ads. I’m not talking about using Ad Unit links nor am I talking about blending ads into the navigation to confuse the reader.
Rather, create a page dedicated to a particular product (for example, “Unlocked GSM Cell Phones”) with a minimal amount of commentary (so that you’ll be able to give your Google Ads “context” to display the relevant ads). Then link to that page in your blog’s “advertising” section with the same title. Make sure it is evident that what your reader is clicking on is a link to ads.
When they click on the link, they are taken to your specialized page which then displays relevant ads. Because they’ve been “pre-qualified”, your click-through ratio should be higher than elsewhere.
Google Co-Op Search Engine
Did you know you can make money on Google Ads that users click on when they do a search on a co-op engine that you’ve created? A Google Co-Op engine is simply a “roll-your-own” search engine which is designed to either search only the sites you determine or to search the web but with emphasis on the sites you determine as having priority.
I can see an enterprising blogger creating a vertical search engine for his/her niche (with, say, a thousand hand-selected sites) and promoting that search engine to its readers to use when trying to search for information on that niche. Every time an ad is clicked, the blogger gets some money.
Sell Ad Space On Your Most Popular Pages
If you’ve created a resource that is receives a lot of traffic, you could potentially monetize that particular page by selling advertising just specific to that page. This would be separate from other advertising on your site and you can charge a premium for ad space on that specific page. For example, I can see this working well on a page that had been Digged or bookmarked on Del.icio.us or has a lot of backlinks.
Sell Sponsorships For Individual Posts
I see some bloggers selling individual post sponsorships. You would have to have a lot of traffic but you can charge, say, $15 for a permanent link in a post.
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