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Placing ads can be an excellent source of revenue for your blog. With "pay per click" (PPC) ads, you get paid when visitors to your blog click on ads that lead to other clients. You usually need to already have a strong readership and high visitor counts for ad buyers to be interested in your blog. Here are some examples of websites that pay you to place ads: Google's AdSense program is the most widely used PPC program because it has the power of Google Search behind it. Google will read your article and find "ads that are relevant" to it and display them next to or within the article. It will also use your readers' cookies to display ads that are relevant to their recently visited websites on your blog. You can also sign up for "cost per impressions" (CPM) ads. These function similarly to PPC, but they pay you based on units of "impressions" (views) the ad gets, even if the visitor doesn't click on the link. Usually, the units are sets of 1,000 impressions. If you don't have about 10,000 unique visitors to your site every month, you aren't likely to make much money from ads. That's why it's crucial to build up your readership through marketing and quality content. Affiliate marketing is a very popular way of monetizing a blog because it capitalizes on your readers' trust of you. If your posts always deliver quality content, then your audience is more likely to trust product or service recommendations. You can provide links or recommendations to relevant products and get a commission from any sales driven by your blog. Amazon Associates lets you place a banner on your website with products targeted at your audience, such as diapers for a parenting website or art supplies for a creative website. You earn a small commission when people buy something through your link. Amazon pays a commission ranging from 4% to 15%. Amazon is the giant in the industry, but it's also a good idea to reach out to small companies and even individuals who make products or services that are related to your blog. For example, if you have a popular cooking blog, you might contact small BBQ sauce companies to see if they'd be interested in setting up an affiliate marketing program with you. You earn a portion of the sale through your blog, and they get free marketing. You can also check out other affiliate programs at big "clearinghouse" sites such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, and ShareASale. These sites offer huge lists of programs, from which you can choose the ones relevant to your blog. An affiliate aggregator service, such as VigLink, will automatically insert monetized affiliate links into posts for you. They keep a higher percentage of the commission than other services, but the convenience may make up for it. If you already have a high visitor count, you may be able to get other companies to pay you to "sponsor" a post. The advertiser may contact you directly, or you can check out online "sponsorship marketplaces" such as "themidgame". Be careful about sponsors who want you to place an article to increase their own page rank. This violates Google's policy and could hurt your AdSense revenue. You can also check out websites such as Blogsvertise, Social Spark, and Review Me for listings of paid or sponsored posts. Don't allow sponsored posts to overtake your own content. Remember: your readers visit your blog to read your content. Make sure that you only post sponsored posts that still benefit your readers in some way. You don't want your blog to seem like a corporate shill. Working directly with a company to help with a promotional campaign can be a good way to boost traffic and revenue for your blog. Many companies, particularly ones like publishers, are happy to pay you to participate in things like Twitter parties, blog-based "book tours," and giveaways. For example, if you run a popular blog where you review romance novels, contact various romance publishers to see if they're interested in paying you for a review or other promotional event, like an author interview. Signing up with third-party connecting agencies can be helpful. Blog Friendly PR, Blog Insiders, and Brandfluential are popular networks. This type of revenue comes from providing sales "leads" to other companies who partner with your blog. You don't actually have to sell a product or service to generate these leads -- you just need your blog visitors to provide their information and opt in to being contacted by your partner. For example, if you run a popular DIY blog, you could partner with a home supply store. If your visitors agree to be contacted by the home supply store, you could get paid by the company for generating that "lead." You may be able to use your blog to create freelance income by using it to showcase your work. Don't use your blog only to sell products, but having a "portfolio" section on your blog can let readers see what you're good at. For example, if you run a photography blog, keep a portfolio of your very best photographs and market yourself as a freelance photographer. Readers will know exactly what they're getting because they can see your passion and expertise. Blogs can also be very helpful even if you have a full-time "day job," such as an attorney. For example, writing blog posts that offer helpful law advice and information will demonstrate to readers that you know your field. It will also give a sense of who you are personally, which is very important to prospective clients. Once you have a loyal following and have demonstrated your trustworthiness, you can consider adding "paid content" to your blog. For example, you could host a special podcast or write an e-book and charge visitors a small fee to access it. Paid courses, consulting services, and advice are other popular types of products and services you can use the reputation you've established to sell. You can also use a service such as Zazzle or CafePress to create branded items like t-shirts and tote bags for sale. The Bloggess creates new items weekly, usually playing on a humorous post from the week before. Consider memberships, where you charge a small monthly fee for users to gain access to exclusive content, video content, or possibly direct access to you through Q&A or live events. WordPress has many plugins to help you add membership services to your blog. Consider "bonus content." For example, if you run a podcast on your blog, you might consider having the standard episode available for free but a longer version or additional content for a small fee. Dan Savage's extremely popular "Savage Lovecast" runs on this model, where standard episodes are free and "magnum episodes" (longer, with no ads) are available for a subscription fee. Many bloggers parlay their blog's success into books. The "Cake Wrecks" blog has several popular books of disastrous cake photos, and The Bloggess now has two books about her life adventures. The "Tom + Lorenzo" bloggers wrote a tongue-in-cheek "how to guide" to becoming a celebrity. Remember: anything you can offer that's valuable to your readers might be worth them paying for. Just don't let your blog become so paid-content-heavy that it doesn't seem like a good value to your audience anymore.
Sign up to place ads on your blog. Sign up for affiliate marketing. Write sponsored posts. Work directly with a brand or company. Generate leads for other businesses. Use your blog as a portfolio. Create paid content.