How Bloggers Can Cash-In With Adsense
There are some who are trying to capitalize on this new phenomenon where anyone can participate and chip in a comment, suggestion, criticism, personal opinion, expertise, and so on. The key, as usual, is the number of participants converted into prospects to buy services and products. When the number of the participants of a given blog reaches a certain critical mass, there are businesses that want to advertise their ware on the blog with the hope that some of the bloggers will be interested in what they are offering. And for rendering the service, which could be a per-click-through payment or a commission on a closed sale, pay-per-performance, the owner of the blog could earn money.
The key again here, as usual, is the number of participants, and there has to be something good going on to attract a big number of visitors on a daily basis. Creating some kind of interest that will attract people to participate on a regular basis does that. The number of blogs that are showing any kind of success rate are very few, but the potential is there. Once the size of the traffic starts getting higher, like an average of 100 visitors on a daily basis, there are advertisers that will take interest in working with the blog.
One of the earliest pioneers that saw the potential of blogs or that wanted to make blogging worthwhile was Adsense, introduced by Google. One interesting aspect to take a note of about Google here is, as one of the major search engines, there are a few things webmasters are advised to do in order to get quick indexing, and a good page rank in Google’s search result. One of them is to start blogging using Google’s blogger format or any other site that accommodates blogging. It is evident that it definitely speeds up the indexing process reducing it to days or weeks instead of the few months it could take. Moreover, what is known as power linking can also be put to work in order to create an incoming link, a measuring rod Google and the other search engines are using to rank sites.
That aside, what the Adsense does is put ads on the blog that have relevance with the content of the blog, and for every click through by visitors, the advertisers pay money to Google, and Google shares that money with the bloggers. Even if Adsense is popular, the money generated in most cases is just a pocket change to cover minor Internet related expenses like ISP costs, and the like. However, for those who have a high number of traffic, whose number is not high, the potential is there to make money with the Adsense program.
There are a few things that have to go hand-in-hand in order to make Adsense worthwhile. According to some experts high traffic, high paying ads, content that can generate high paying ads, the design of the blog itself in relation to how the ads are placed around, and how easily navigable the blog is make a big difference. In most cases, as long as there is a high volume of traffic, the most difficult part of the job is complete, but with the same token, it requires exerting some effort to attract the high paying ads. What this means is if bloggers want to make money, they will have to do things at a pro level, and they have to go out there to find out what has interest and demand among the participants.
This will create two or even more kinds of blogging styles and it depends on individuals which one to choose, because since blogs have become so popular, and when they were started no one, per se, intended them to be income generators, it would mean that their generic nature should not be trampled upon. Yet, the fact that those who had seen the potential of making money on blogs have ushered in the second generation of blogs should not be overlooked either.
There are a few things to be familiar with before applying for Adsense program and those requirements could be accessed form the Adsense site, but to touch on them here, the key issue is traffic, which means blogs have to stay a few months until they generate enough traffic before they apply, otherwise Google will decline them. In addition, the Adsense program is not allowed for personal blogs of any nature, which means the blog has to deal with a given niche market that is suitable for advertisers. This clearly draws a line and it only deals with the new generation of blogs, or the Adsense program is deliberately rearing blogs that are pro in their content.
Adsense is not the only one that is facilitating blogs to make money. There is another program called blogads.com that will find advertisers on behalf of bloggers and what it will cost to work with them is they take a portion of the revenue, 30 percent to be exact, which is a fair deal because they do all the legwork. What is required is to become a member of the network, which requires a recommendation by another member.
Another program worth looking at, not only for blogs, but for any site that wants to generate ad revenue is adbrite. com. After joining the program they advertise the blog site for advertisers, and if advertisers are interested in what they see, they will advertise on the blog in a form of a text and they get 25 percent of what is generated.
Another similar program is offered by fastclick.com, which is more or less similar with the above, with one minor exception of a 35 percent take. Amazon.com is another program with similar offer worth visiting. What this shows is even if the work involved will be phenomenally high when compared with the bloggers that are doing it for fun or as a hobby, where a good number of hours will have be put in as any good paying job, the opportunity of making money is there.
There is one individual known in the blog circuit for making good living from blogging and hires others to write for him. He runs four fairly popular blogs through what is known as Gawker Media and his name is Nick Denton, a fascinating individual who had been up and down, and he is cited as one of the few individuals who had managed to make blogs generate money, even if it is not that much by any standard. At least he manages to pay a $2,000 a month salary for the individuals he hires to write the blog for him. The four blogs, Gawker (gossip), Gizmodo (gadgets), Fleshbot (adult), and Wonkette (politics) are worth visiting to see how the new generations of blogs are striving to make money from their blogs.
Aside from what is touched on, affiliate programs come next in generating income where putting ads of businesses that will pay by pay-per-performance basis in most cases, where if a clicking through customer on a banner, text, or button ads placed on the blog site buys a product, the sellers pay commission. Even if it is a tired method, there are some that are making money on it, and as anything else it depends on the volume of traffic and the percentage of the commission is high in some cases.
Another way of generating money from blogging is by placing a donation tip jar on a site and for those who are advocating a cause, this is a good way of doing something worthwhile for the cause they uphold. There is one famous individual who is generating up to $80,000 through fundraising just from donation only. His name is Andrew Sullivan. The individual writes on varied subjects and anyone who likes what he is writing about, and wants to support the site andrewsullivan.com to continue doing what it is doing is asked to donate between $20- $50. The outcome shows many people donate.
Again this reveals that all depends on the individual’s creativity to make a blog generate money in a time like this where the Internet is inundated with information. What makes the difference is packaging, putting useful and needed information in one place where people are willing to come and get it, interact, and have their say too. Nevertheless, it requires a much higher effort than the ordinary, where hobbyists are musing and having fun, while at the same time building a network. It might require taking it as a full time job.
