How to make money from your blog - 2006 recap
1. Adsense
The most obvious source of income for the site has also been the least fruitful. I've been tweaking the layout for a couple of months and I've finally settled on the current setup being close to my optimal Adsense positioning.
The best performing unit is definitely the block embedded into the main article content, contributing around 70% of all Adsense generated income. Obviously not a a placement to be sniffed at - it's not terribly invasive and your thoughts on the unit will change if you implement them yourself.
Design for it
The problem with the previous design of the site was that there was no natural positioning suitable for advertisements, meaning my only adsense unit was positioned between the article and the comments (as one unit remains). While there are no problems with attempting to retro-fit ads into your site you'll never see massive gains until you take them into consideration with your design/layout.
Imagine how users use the site
I'm seeing much more revenue from my contextual advertisements ever since I took into consideration how they would use the site. The reason the embedded unit works well is because it's above the page fold and on the natural eye line. The normal place for a mouse cursor when not active is in the middle of the page - right where this unit resides.
So, say they've read your entire article; that leaves them at the bottom of the page with two choices, leave or comment. Having an ad block between the article and the comments offers users a navigation option away from your site should they need it. If a user gets this far you'd hope they either leave a comment or help you pay the bills - it's only fair.
Don't trick your users
Trying to blend your ads "too" well will make readers feel like you're trying to trick them into clicking, furthermore fuelling the notion that your content is purely a means of making money rather than writing meaningful material.
2. Google Search
Something I experimented with for a while (and will eventually bring back) is the use of a search tool that offers some financial benefit - such as Google search. I removed it from the site because I deemed it inefficient. The number of searches vs. visitors just didn't make it worthwhile but I didn't experiment enough with placements. The CTR was impressive though - around 3%.
3. Selling your content
If you're writing worthwhile content it's inevitable that at some point, someone will want to republish it and don't feel bad for requesting something in exchange. It doesn't have to be money (although that is a nice option) but you have to make sure that you're getting a fair deal out of it.
Look at the site
WHO wants to republish your article? That's the best question to ask when considering what you actually want from them. The majority of webmasters don't have decent funding so you're more likely to get published by requesting the normal things. Your name and a prominent back link to your site are good options and you're more likely to get your site spread around that way.
Build connections
If someone wants to put your material on their site it meant they liked it and that's a good start. Try and build a relationship with this person if they're connected to somewhere good because it could mean decent exposure and kickbacks. If you're serious about this whole business then you need to make some friends in advantageous positions. Exposure = traffic = money = rewarding feeling.
4. Donations
Absurd as it sounds, sometimes your content will attribute itself to donations from your readers. Never underestimate the power of the donate button (available from Paypal). Obviously the most natural content for this revenue is based around something you've made that needs further development or a tale of hardship.
Two examples of this
When I wrote this year about my LinuxBox dying and therefore impeding my use of Ubuntu, I received $200 in donations to help fund a replacement. Oli at ThePCSpy.com received around $200 in donations during the primary development phase of his KittenAuth (have a look here) captcha system. So it does show, sometimes your content may be worthy of donations.
5. Alternative advertising networks
Adsense is just one alternative, there are literally dozens of alternatives with varying entry requirements to suit your needs so you may well find higher revenues from something less obvious. I've stuck with Adsense so far because I find them to be the best option for sites that don't break into the "high" traffic category. Once you break into the higher realms of traffic the blogging world opens it's arms to you. More people want to know you, suddenly your opinion matters and this relative importance is reflected by certain media networks suddenly showing an interest in you.
Once you qualify for some of the uber-networks, you could see your income rocketing. Although your traffic would have to be fairly epic to begin with so this is quite the academic point to make.
6. Try and cater for search engines as best you can
True this doesn't directly generate money but it's commonly discussed that search engine traffic is the best because these users have an information need, so will spend time browsing your site and clicking things - which does translate to money.
Search engine traffic is an excellent and consistent thing to have, so if you manage to break into a comfortable level income (from non-time-specific search-terms) then you've hit a nice plateau. But as a wise man once said, if you live by the Google, you die by the Google - so having decent search engine generated revenue isn't a point you can then rest at. You need to keep writing, keep promoting, keep on pushing because if Google takes a disliking to you - kiss your plateau goodbye.
7. Advertise things yourself
Something I've only recently attempted on this site is to avoid third party places like Text-Link-Ads and offer advertising direct to the readers. Although you're then relying on your readers having a site that they wish to advertise you get a much better experience from it all. Not only do you develop more of a relationship with the advertiser but no one else nibbles away at your profits. Useful and profitable.
Of course I'm unable to comment on the practical benefits of this method because I've only recently attempted it but theoretically it's the best option. TLA doesn't take the lion's share of the revenue and you get to socialise more, form a relationship with the "customer" and hopefully this can increase the chance of them requesting a second month.
What Seopher.com managed in 2006
Within only a few months of serious "blogging", the site managed to bring in around $650. $200 through donations, $300 through the paid republishing of articles and the rest through advertising. $600+ dollars for a couple of months work is an ok return as far as I'm concerned but I'd like things to continue to progress. There are certain aspects that need covering in the near future:
Chitika
My Chitika ads have been massively under-performing compared to my Adsense (even when directly compared to the other ad block in the same region). This is leading me to think that there must be an alternative that offers much improved prospects. It's not that my CTR is awful but the payouts are hurrendous, $0.02 per click = don't bother. So I need to address this to help the site progress financially.
Real advertising
As approached above, the inclusion of real advertising into the site will be a big step in the right direction provided I can find the right people.
More SE friendly content
As I said above, search engine traffic is your friend but to get on Google's good side, you need a good article with some decent keywords involved (that people will actually search for). This takes research and creative thinking and I've been focusing more on the content than the marketing recently and that translates reasonably badly to SE traffic. So that would be a good idea too.
Conclusions
It's another case of "content is king" and "know the right people" as far as future is concerned but for anyone serious about bringing more money into their site the main point I'd emphasise is to take advertising into consideration when you're designing the site - if it's massively out of place it won't get any attention.
Be serious about what you do and make some good connections. Never lose enthusiasm, never stop loving what you do and don't for a second think what you have is good enough - because continual growth is a healthy aspiration. Being a succesful "blogger" is hard work and I'm yet to see the real payoffs but some hard work in Q4 of 2006 pushed the site from 1,000 visitors a month to 30,000. Seriously, if I can manage it then so can you.
Enjoy this article? Why not subscribe to the full RSS feed?
