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How I Make Money Blogging

Posted By Darren Rowse 15th of November 2007 Blogging for Dollars, Featured Posts 0 Comments

How I Make Money BloggingBelow you’ll find my latest update on how I make money blogging (this is something I post about every few months – although it’s been a over six months since I last did it ).

Also note – I go into a lot of detail on how I make money blogging in ProBlogger the Book.

How Much Money Do I Make from Blogging?

I get asked how much money my blogging makes me on a regular basis. These days I don’t go into specifics about it – all I will say is that it continues to be well over six figures per year (but less than seven figures). What you’ll find below are my top income streams – ranked from highest earnings to lowest.

Keep in mind that this is a summary of all of my blogs (not just ProBlogger). It does not include any income that I earn from b5media where I’m paid a salary as VP Training.

I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

AdsenseDespite not using it here at ProBlogger any more I continue to use AdSense with real effect on my other blogs. While I do use AdSense Referrals and their search feature it is their normal ads that work best for me. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design).

2. Chitika

ChitikaLast time I did this sort of summary Chitika ranked #1. This time around it has been overtaken by AdSense – not because Chitika slipped in how much it earned but because AdSense went up and because I also replaced a few Chitika ad units with WidgetBucks ones. Chitika offers a range of ad units that I experiment with. I find their eMiniMalls work best and that Related Product Units are also good. Their Shoplincs product isn’t performing as well as it once did for me – mainly because I’ve been promoting it less and have driven less traffic to it. Over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars!

3. Amazon Associates

Amazon-Logo-1
This has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it – however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (as I’ve shared previously). This quarter it overtook TLA as my third biggest earner – largely on the back of me directing traffic to Amazon from my product related sites – mainly digital cameras. While the commission on cameras is only 4% this adds up when those that you refer buy higher ticket items.

4. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

private-ad-salesThis includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a couple of private ad deals that I did with sponsors on my camera blog (including sponsorships with Canon, Kodak and Adobe). This area has jumped up since last time also as a result of the new design here at ProBlogger and our expanded sales team at b5 who now sell ProBlogger’s ads for me.

5. Text Link Ads

TlaThe income from TLA has dipped slightly over the last few months simply because I took the decision to stop selling them here at ProBlogger and most of my other blogs. This was because I wanted to focus more upon selling the 125 pixel ads instead and felt that the ads I was attracting were not as relevant to this site as they could have been. As it turns out this might have been a good move because it seems Google has been penalizing blogs that run them lately.

6. ProBlogger Job Boards

Jobboardheader The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. It hit me today that the boards are now bringing in around $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are now so low maintenance to run! I’ve just given a development team a new brief to expand the job boards in the coming month so stay tuned for some new features coming soon which could see this revenue increase and more importantly for it to become an even more useful resource to readers.

7. Miscellaneous Affiliate Programs

miscellaneous affiliate programsI run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs – most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own. These include – – Digital Photography Secrets (a camera technique series), Pro Photo Secrets (a great photoshop product) , Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program, SEO Book (Aaron’s legendary resource). This area is set to continue to grow in the current quarter with me having had reasonable conversions from the promotion of the excellent Teaching Sells course.

8. Miscellaneous Advertising Programs

miscellaneous ad networksI also play with a number of other ad networks. Some I run as tests to see if I should review them here – and some are just advertising that run in the background on some of my smaller blogs. These include AuctionAds, Feedburner RSS ads, Vizu (a poll advertising system), Kontera and Bidvertiser. Together these don’t add up to major earnings for me – not because they are not good, but because I don’t use them heavily (a blog can only run so many ads on it).

I think that that covers most of it. Since last quarter I’ve also been experimenting with WidgetBucks as well as one other ad system that is still in a closed beta test. I’m certain that WidgetBucks will feature in next quarter’s list because I am getting good returns on that so far. In fact at it’s current earnings it’ll debut at at least number 4 on the list and perhaps even at number 3.

How Much do I Spend?

As mentioned last time – I don’t spend a lot of money in order to bring in my income. I do have some basic blogging costs (hosting etc) and play around with a limited amount of advertising (AdWords and StumbleUpon) but rely more heavily upon word of mouth and organic ways of drawing income into my blogs. I also have some costs in paying writers on a couple of blogs – but these don’t make up a massive part of the overall earnings each quarter.

Want to Learn More about How to Make Money Blogging?

Check out these resources that have been written specifically for bloggers wanting to make money blogging.

  • ProBlogger the Book – where I and Chris Garrett sum up all of our basic tips about starting up a profitable blog.
  • Blog Mastermind Blog Mentoring Program – one of the best coaching and training course going around on blogging.
  • Blog Profits Blueprint – a free report on how to build profitable blogs.
About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I am using Google Adsense right now. Although Im not earning yet from that, I know this is the best start to play around in the world of blogging. Thanks for this wonderful blogsite.

  2. Great motivating article. I am not that new to blogging. I have known about it for a year now but frankly speaking never attempted to make it big money. I think it’s time for me to take it seriously now.

  3. Have you considered using Ad Brite? In some forums with lots of visitors I found them using full page display ad from Ad Brite. Right now, I’m only using Adsense and I’m considering to use Ad Brite as well.

    Thanks for sharing your money resources!

  4. Thank you for sharing your experience. It is interesting to see how you are doing. The numbers would be really cool but if I were you I wouldn’t share them either.

    Rick

  5. Thanks for all these ways on how to make money blogging. I will definitely be using them.

  6. Thanks for sharing this with the other bloggers. This post has become one of my favorites. I was wondering what are the other methods that bloggers make money of(besides google adsense).
    I’m not really using anything at the moment, but I will try all the methods that you listed here. Again, a big thanks.

  7. The is easy money and good money, what had been explained here is the easy money (pay per click). however the good money come from affiliate programs and affiliate networks where clicks can converted to sales and you can earn 100 times the pay per click value

  8. This takes hard work to earn money and feed your kids

  9. Hi,

    I’m reading your blog since last few days, and I am very impressed with your ideas. I’m new to blogging and I started google adsense and have earned $37.45 in 23 days. I am very happy with my earnings with in 23 days. Soon I will implement advertising campaign and amazon affiliates. I am very thankful to you for your valuable blog.

    Thank you once again.

  10. If adsense works well, why do you not use it in your problogger site?

    Tom
    Retro Watch Blog

  11. $250k from just chitika? Wow, are you a millionaire yet?

  12. Its Really great of you to tell us how you make money from your blog and I will use some programs you mentioned here.
    ———————————————————–
    Mohammad Afaq
    Free Blog Traffic

  13. Thanks for this awesome tips –
    I have followed a few of the links and have registered, now waiting to see how it fares…

    Nice blog by the way :)

  14. Some good tips there. It is best to generate some decent traffic first before trying to make money from your blog.

  15. I started off blogging about niche stuff (ancient history, hidden history) i made $0.32 per month. I changed to multiple blogs, blogging about technology etc. I now make $10 – $20 per day. Thanks for the tips, great article.

    http://how2blog4money.blogspot.com/

  16. Thanks for spelling out exactly how you make money from blogging. This is a very useful post because of all the specific tips you provide.

  17. Great Post Darren. The information you provide is fantastic whether you are a ‘newbie’ or have been in the ‘biz’ for awhile. You mentioned RELEVANCY. You have to be relevant with your information and with what ads you list. Relevancy is extremely important. Thanks again.

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  19. Nice stuff, I haven’t monetized my blog yet but I’m considering it. My personal favorite is affiliate marketing due to its simplicity, just drive the traffic.

  20. I am a relative blogging newbie, 3 months so i need all the help I can get from people who know what to do. I set up Leeds Photo Daily because I could but now am looking at ways to see if there is money out there.
    Thanks for the info.

  21. Ronald says: 04/21/2009 at 1:28 pm

    Thanks for sharing this Darren Rowse. I have a one suggestion for you, recently I join smartappsportal.com a few weeks ago and have been marketing it online. It has been going good for me.

  22. Thanks for sharing this. I’ve just signed up for Amazon Associates. But I think it’s still hard for me to earn through Amazon Associates. My blog is still very low for traffic. Hope I can increase it faster.

  23. shabareesh says: 04/22/2009 at 3:41 am

    @Yanto , Even i tried that buddy , seems its very hard to earn through that. Anyways i signed up a portal called smartappsportal.com . And also I got my first month payout. Seems to be very interesting site. We get entire support from the company itself , just half an hour a work a day n we can earn decent amount. Just give a shot. I m pretty sure you will like it. :)

  24. Very Motivative Darren.
    I liked the way which you have mentioned there.
    But I will like to introduce one more service. It is smartappsportal.com and I am using it since three months.
    I have got a lot of money from its help and Now I can say that I have a successful web business.

    I think you should see this also.

    Thanks Again for this Post.

  25. Imraaz says: 04/22/2009 at 12:24 pm

    No dobt about it…blogging can make you some pocket money like mylot.com….but recently i’ve been in smartappsportal.com and i do make real money….real money ma homy…lol:)

    by the way great article bro

  26. sallygreat says: 04/22/2009 at 10:13 pm

    You must earn a lot of money in internet with all that.

    Me too, I do google adsense. Google does what he wants with and I can not control my earning.
    But 3 months ago I found smartappsportal.com in other blog . I signed up and I can tell you that I am more than satisfied. Everything is clear and the payment is very quick.

    Darren, try smartappsportal.com , I am sure that after two months you’ll write a great article about this company ;-)

  27. Imraaz says: 04/24/2009 at 6:36 am

    i agree smartappsportal.com helped me get a PS3 , iphone and a Mac book…..:)

  28. It is a nice post ! I too want to make such posts ! But no income right now from my blog, since I consider money and blog different aspects ! :)

    Cheers !
    HellBound Bloggers

  29. Thanks for the insight. I believe in multiple streams of income as well. It’s fine to have one in the beginning but for the long term it’s best to have many.

  30. Nice tips and great blog! Your ideas really helped. I am earning too, and I hope it’ll grow bigger. Im expecting to have a great change of it every now and then. Cheers for your post. I know you’ll be a successful one someday :)

  31. Darren, you are really great! Your articles are very helpful. It is nice to know that AdSense, affiliate marketing programs and advertising programs bring in a lot of money to you and other bloggers.

  32. I’m a beginner blogger. I would like to make money by blogging but I don’t have any earning. This adventage for me to improve my blog.

  33. You’ve helped me out loads dude, really really useful information. I’m just starting out as a blogger (haven’t even been indexed by google yet), so any information I can find that saves me time and resources is invaluable.
    *adding bookmark*

    I’ll be back to reread later I’m sure.

  34. Great summary – I’ve found Google is my #1 also, followed by Ebay and then Amazon – but I’m only earning well into the 3 figures per month! :)

  35. How many blogs do you run and do you outsource any of the content that you place on your blogs.

    I’m not a writer and writing endless post’s would be very hard for me.

    I look forward to hearing you response.

    Thanks John

  36. I recently started adding addsense. I was using more affiliate programs.

    thanks for the information

  37. Thank you for this informative article! It’s nice to see a real breakdown of what works!

  38. hhhmmm…i see now..nice tips
    but in order to make money from our blog, we will need to have a good audience and regular traffic to our blog.
    can you give me more tips about that?

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