Make a Splash in the Blogosphere

Making Money Blogging

There’s certainly money to be made blogging, and Problogger Darren Rowse has put together an overview, which is paraphrased below.

• Advertising Programs: The last few months have seen the addition of a variety of viable advertising options for bloggers. No longer are bloggers only presented with the Adsense and/or BlogAds choice - instead they now have a massive array to choose from.
• RSS Advertising: The past 12 months have also seen some advances in RSS Advertising. It is unclear if bloggers are making big dollars through it to this point - but as improvements are made to the ad programs I’m sure we’ll start to see examples of it being profitable.
• Sponsorship: There is growing awareness in the business community of the value and opportunities to advertise directly on blogs. Sponsorship is also happening on a post by post basis with some bloggers being paid to write on certain topics by companies - either in a one off or a regular fashion.
• Affiliate Programs: There are larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.
• Digital Assets: Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs, for example e-books, courses and tele-seminars.



• Blog Network Opportunities: With the rise in popularity of Blog Networks - bloggers are also being presented with more places to earn an income from their blogging - by writing for and with others. While it might be difficult to get a writing gig with one of the bigger networks - there are plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join and who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models.
• Business Blog Writing Opportunities: As blogging has risen in its profile as a medium, more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties - but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs.
• Non Blogging Writing Opportunities: Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non blogging mediums. For example, bloggers are increasingly being approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non blog websites.
• Donations: Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fundraising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke who was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.
• Flipping Blogs: Also more common in 2005 was the practice of ‘Blog Flipping’ - or selling of blogs. This has happened both on an individual blog level, but also on a network level.



• Merchandising: Bloggers are attempting to make a few extra dollars from their blogs by selling branded products through programs like Cafepress. While small blogs probably have not a lot of success with merchandising, quite a few larger blogs are seeing significant sales - especially blogs with a cult following.
• Consulting and Speaking: While it has been popular for established consultants to add blogs to their businesses, we’re also starting to see bloggers with no consulting background earning money by charging readers for their time in consulting scenarios because of the profile that their blogs have built them. Blogging has the ability to establish people as experts on niche topics and we all know the value of being perceived as an expert.