SEO Crunch

So you have a Blog and you’re getting a bit of traffic. Great! So next, how will you make money from that traffic? If you are John Chow, you have a lot of options, from getting people to pay for reviews of their web sites, to private ad placements, endorsements and more. But for most Bloggers, the options are a bit more limited. In this article, I will outline some of the most widely used advertising services available to you as a Blogger.

Google Adsense – Perhaps the best known pay-per-click advertising network, Google’s Adsense is easy to set up and, depending on your niche, can pay you anywhere from five cents to a dollar fifty per click. Be sure to read the Terms of Service however; there are some limitations to be aware of in order to avoid being banned. Google can either ban your web site or your entire account, so following the ToS is very important.

Yahoo Publisher Network – It’s hard to get a YPN account these days and many people complain that the ads are not nearly as relevant to your content as Google’s. We all hope to see Yahoo improve their PPC ad network one of these days! Text Link Ads – Several text link ad networks exist, including text-link-ads.com, linkxl.com and tnx.net. While they all work somewhat the same way, there are differences in how text links appear on your site. You can approve or reject links and also choose whether you want links to appear site wide, only on the home page or other specified pages. With some of these services, you can also choose to allow links to appear directly within your blog content, which makes the links more relevant to your users. Affiliate Programs – These include Comission Junction, Linkshare, buy.at and others. With these programs you won’t get paid unless your clicks convert to some action for the advertisers, usually a lead or sale. Thus, the quality of traffic your Blog or web site generates will largely determine whether or not you are successful with these services. I have some web sites that make nothing with affiliate programs, while others do very well, bringing in several hundred dollars a month. Vibrant Media – Another great earning opportunity; Vibrant Media indexes your web site and places contextual links within your content. When a user hovers the cursor over the link, he sees a small pop up ad. If he clicks on the ad, you collect anywhere from ten cents to as much as a dollar, depending on the advertiser, product or service, etc. Private Ad Placement – If you generate enough traffic, consider putting up an Advertise Here or Advertising page on your site. The alternatives are limited only by your own creativity, but common options include text links, banner ads, site reviews and selling sponsored content like articles, templates or themes, tools, games, etc.