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How can a writer make money from a blog? Blogging for promotional purposes to help increase book sales and heighten name recognition are the two main reasons most writers create and maintain blogs. But there’s another way, a direct way, to utilize your blog to plump your bottom line. Advertising. In this article, we’ll take a quick overview of your advertising options.

Wait a minute. Did I say advertising? Yes. Yes, I did.

But advertising is so….tacky! No. No, it’s not. If you’re too genteel to make money from your blog, this article isn’t for you. But if you like money and want to find out how to make more of it passively from something you’re already doing, keep reading.

Writing is often an erratic income. If you’re a writer and you have a blog, you can build a regular, monthly, passive side income using advertising. Sound good? Here’s how:

1. Investigate and register for various advertising income streams.
2. Blog regularly–daily if possible.
3. Blog well–write quality content in your blog.

Oh, you thought it was going to be complicated? Making money with advertising on your blog is a simple equation. Regular content + valuable content = traffic, and when it comes to making money from advertising, traffic = $$$. The only complicated thing about making direct money off your blog is figuring out which income streams work best for you. Here are four recommended income streams available to bloggers:

1. Page impression advertising. Blog advertising networks such as BlogHerads provide advertising based on page impressions on your blog. Every time a viewer hits a page on your site, you get paid. The more page impressions (traffic) you have, the more you earn, with a few caveats. Since the advertising is based on page impressions rather than clicks or purchases, you will be required to place the advertising above the fold in the most prominent position in your sidebar. And not every ad shown will be a paid ad. When an ad is not available for your site, a “default” ad will be shown and you will not be paid for default ads. However, in spite of these downsides, page impression ads, for the beginning or medium-level blogger, can be your best and most reliable source of income. (Note: BlogHerads is temporarily closed for new applications, but bookmark the site and check back. They’ll be accepting new bloggers again soon.)

2. Flat rate advertising. When your traffic warrants flat rate advertising, your blog can be accepted into major advertising networks such as Federated Media. You will also be required to place these ads above the fold in the most prominent position in your sidebar, but unlike page impression ads, you will know in advance how much you will be paid for each ad before it’s placed. In most cases, flat rate advertisers demand high traffic, so this type of advertising isn’t available to most beginning or medium-level bloggers. There are some sources for flat rate advertising available to lower-traffic sites, such as Adbrite and Text-Link-Ads. The rates for these ads are often quite small, but in a strategy combining income streams, it’s worth experimenting with to see how they perform on your site.

3. Pay-per-click. Adbrite and Text-Link-Ads also provide pay-per-click ads, as does Google Adsense. Pay-per-click advertising means you are only paid if people click on the ads. The key to earning money with pay-per-click advertising is relevance. With Adbrite and Text-Link-Ads, you have the option of approving individual ads. Google Adsense uses content scanning to provide the most relevant ads based on what you talk about in your blog. Some bloggers find that Adsense provides their highest regular advertising income stream.

4. Affiliate advertising. Affiliate advertising is based on a percentage of purchase going to the blogger if the consumer clicks through to the affiliate’s website from a link on their blog. Amazon is one example of affiliate advertising, and the one seen most often (and often solely) on writers’ blogs and websites. (If you aren’t a member of Amazon Associates and don’t have every one of your own bookcovers on your website linked to your own Amazon Associate code, go to Amazon and sign up right now!) But there’s more to making money off Amazon than linking your own bookcovers. You can build widgets and choose products or categories to place on your blog to broaden your opportunities to make money. There are also other sources of affiliate advertising. At Commission Junction, you can scroll through huge lists of affiliate advertisers, select the advertisers you want to promote on your site, and even choose the size and look of the graphic.

A few more things to remember about using advertising on your blog:

1. Consider placement carefully. The right sidebar is better than the left because a web page loads from left to right. If your ads are on the right, your content will load first, allowing your readers to view your content while the ads are loading.

2. Experiment! Try various income streams. Don’t expect every type of advertising to work for your site, and don’t expect overnight results. Your blog is unique, and building an advertising income takes time (and traffic). Play around, switch out advertising, try different positions for your ads, and build your traffic with regular, quality blogging.

3. Don’t be a sissy! If you’re going to advertise, advertise. Don’t hide your advertising at the bottom of your sidebar and expect to make money.

And let me know what works for you!

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Tags: How to Blog, Marketing //