Confession: I do NOT make very much money off blogging. Not here on Indiepreneur. Not on my personal blog, A Lovely Thing. Not on newly launched Shebeezies. I didn’t set out to make money blogging, nor did I take it all that serious until recently when I reread Jane’s old post on the subject.
I enjoy writing and it gives me something to do while I’m looking for a real job. Why not try to earn enough to pay for a tank of gas or a basket of groceries once in awhile, right?
With that goal in mind, I’ve been keeping an eye out for good information that I can put into action and build upon.
Grace Bonney of the infamous Design Sponge talks about selling advertising on blogs in a very informative article.
I have to say I snickered at her warning that advertisers will make demands on you, your time and editorial (post) space. It’s nice to see that some things haven’t changed since I was a newspaper ad rep way back in the 1980s.
I find it interesting, too, that she recommends hitting at least a 4,000 daily visitor benchmark before incorporating ads on your blog. I put AdSense on my old blogspot the moment I heard about it. I’m still using it.
I’ve tried a few other ad services, settling on the Project Wonderful spaces over there —-> and put them on Shebeezies, too, because they’re set up for small time Indiepreneurs. What can I say? I have a soft spot for folks like me trying to earn a living in this crazy world.
Discovering Blogher and liking their reputation for quality blogs, I put A Lovely Thing on that network. I’m still trying to live up to all those other quality blogs.
Though I’ve gotten annoyed at some of the ads Google serves up, I’ve never considered selling the space myself. It would be nice to have a bit more control. I’ll put doing it myself on my list of possibilities.
Grace goes on to talk about setting rates, other ad networks and mentions a number pitfalls for which to be on the lookout. Well worth your time to give it a read … but Design Sponge usually is worth a read.
Are you familiar with ProBlogger? I’ve learned a lot about different ways to monetize a blog other than just selling advertising outright. While I do sell advertising on my site, sometimes it can be a bit of a headache keeping up with who is paid until when, etc. It can be a lot of bookkeeping and if you can find a way to make more passive income streams work for you (such as affiliate programs) they can pay off over time.