Making Money Stuff

I took Adsense off this blog some time ago. It’s in a niche where adverts generally aren’t clicked and I had better things to place on the available space on each page. However, we also run a travel blog and that does very well with Adsense. I’m also aware that many new and learning bloggers use Adsense as their first venture into earning some money from the blogs, so I felt it was time to post some tips on how to get the best return.

“Driving more traffic to your website is the single most important way to increase your income from Adsense”

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Barter was the original currency in early times, and it still has a place today. Links and advertisements are the currency of the internet, so why not barter some in return for giving businesses the benefit of your leverage? Here are some ideas:

1/ Get your local printer to make you some business cards in return for an advertisement.

2/ Sponsor a local event – a car boot or yard sale, a dog show, a pageant – in return for publicity about the event. You’ll be able to attend, network and give out cards or flyers.

3/ Run an advertisement for your favorite coffee shop in return for free coffee three times a week.  read more »

I wrote a post about the mechanics of selling advertising on our travel blog some time ago. People were interested in how it all went, and the answer is very well, after two failed email campaigns persuaded me to start actually visiting clients. I thought I’d put together a quick set of tips, based on my experience. I should say this is based on getting local advertising from the area you live in. I guess some niches may not work for this, but many will. After all, a click is a click.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Keep your offer simple

When you devise your advertising offer don’t fall into the trap of offering too many choices. I stick with two wherever I can – it provides the perfect alternative close to a sale. I offer a comprehensive package of an advert and links, or a simple “classified” style advert with contact details.  read more »

Imagine you were going to open a small shop. Before you started, you’d write a budget for the signage, stationery, advertising, your wages and all the other things that any sensible business person would do, right?

So why is it different for bloggers? And I’m not talking about hobby bloggers here, I’m talking about bloggers who are aiming to earn or are currently earning money from their blogs. I’ve had three conversations in the last week with people in that category, and they all went very quiet when I asked them about their budgets.

I think one of the problems we face is that blogging is either free or very cheap to get into to, and for that reason, although we want to make it a business, few of us treat it as such from the beginning. Well now’s the time to change! Actually set yourself a budget, starting today. Here are the benefits you’ll get from doing so:  read more »

I’ve been running a couple of polls on this blog for some time, and now there is some decent data, I’ve decided to share it with you.

What are you currently earning from your blog on a monthly basis?

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We’ve talked in some detail about how Clickbank and E-Junkie work, and that there’s a whole host of stuff there that you can offer your readers and earn a commission from. So what do you do when you find a product on one of those and decide that you want to go ahead and offer it? Here are some tips:

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Buy it!

I would not offer to sell anything I hadn’t bought and studied myself. I know there are plenty of internet marketers who do so, and that they do well out of it, but as a blogger, I’m in the business for the long term, and I wouldn’t risk my reputation on recommending something that was not useful or value for money.

Understand the product in relation to your readers  read more »

You might be skeptical about the title of this post, but I can assure you that I did just that, simply by adding the Ultimate Footer Ad to this site and also to my travel blog. I put the UFA’s on the blogs back in April, and on this blog I’ve enjoyed more than doubled the subscriptions, and on the travel blog, they’ve increased by around 50%.

Ultimate Footer Ad is the blue sign up bar that appears at the bottom of the page when you first visit this site. Unlike traditional “Hover-over” or “Pop-up” subscriptions forms (which I hate) UFA does not interfere in any way with people reading your pages.  read more »

In a follow up to my post How does Clickbank work? it made sense to talk to you all about the other product sales and affiliate service I use, E-Junkie.

As an Affiliate

E-Junkie works a little differently to Clickbank, in that you’ll generally come to E-Junkie having been directed to join a specific affiliate program to offer a product. Once you’re signed up, as others invite you to sell their products, you simply add them to your portfolio within the E-Junkie system. It costs nothing to join E-Junkie as an affiliate.  read more »

Many bloggers use Clickbank both to sell other people’s products and to promote their own. I don’t have statistics to back this up, but I suspect Clickbank is the market leader in terms of affiliate programs, based on the number of bloggers and marketers who use the service.

The site and features are pretty impressive, but there are some drawbacks, which we’ll come to later, but first let’s have a look at how it works:

As an affiliate

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Just click the link at the bottom of this page to receive a free PDF copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think and grow rich.

The Author with Thomas Edison

Inspired by Andrew Carnegie, the author interviewed dozens of hugely successful business people over several years and distilled their knowledge and secrets into the book. It has been cited by many successful entrepreneurs and bloggers as a positive influence in their lives and success.

More than 100 million copies have been sold over the years, making it one of the most successful books of all time.  read more »