There’s going to come a point you’re going to explore opportunities to make money through your blog. You have to remember blogging is a business so your ultimate objective should be to profit through online marketing. Even if you’re blogging for a passion, you’re going to find ways to monetize from the high levels of traffic flowing through your website. However, finding the right profit channel can be very difficult because you want to make sure you’re getting a high ROI in return. It’s often said NOT exploring all the marketing channels, you have will harmed your blog in the following ways…

• Advertisements taking away visitors
• Poor quality ads hurting credibility of your blog
• Poor quality ads hurting overall blog design
• You’re getting peanuts ($) in exchange for advertising a competitor’s products/services

However, advertising can be very lucrative and I suggest everyone to give it a try after testing out different platforms. The problem is NOT displaying ads on your website, but the lack of testing you do before adding them that hurt your conversion rates. If you decide to try selling advertising space on your blog, then here are some methods to help you get started…

Banner Advertisements

The concept is very easy and you’re selling banner space on your blog for either a PPC or fixed price for the month. It’s important to make sure you have a designated space for your ads like either sidebar and/or below content. There are two networks with a solid track record of providing you with a great selection of advertisers…

BuySellAds.com – Awesome selection and completely moderated. You’ll find bloggers looking to advertise on your blog from every niche. They take 25% of all earnings, which is very high, however, they handle everything and all you need to do is approve advertisers.

I’ve used BuySellAds.com and the response is awesome, but the marketers you get will be depend on your niche.

Here’s an alternative,

BlogAds.com – I haven’t used them and the interface is NOT as clean as BuySellAds.com. However, if you don’t get approved on BuySellAds.com, you can always try this network but you’re going to be dishing out 30% of all income earned.

Pay-Per-Click

Unlike banner advertisements, where the advertiser pays for the placement no matter if someone clicks or not, PPC has a slightly different structure. With PPC, the advertiser is ONLY paying when their ad is clicked and the rate will be determined by several factors. Google Adsense is a great example of PPC advertising, as you’re aware, you’ll only pay if someone clicks on your ad. However, the PPC can be very high depending on the niche and in certain professions, I’ve seen it go as high as $12.00 per click. Here are “3” awesome networks to get started with…

InfoLinks.com – A PPC network that converts words within your content to ads. For example, if someone wants to advertise for “link building”, this phrase in my content will be a clickable ad. However, I’ll only get paid when someone clicks on my ad. They use a structure consisting of different types of in-content ads like: intext, infold, intag, and inframe.

Media.net – An awesome network and is considered an alternative to Google Adsense. It’s gaining popularity because it’s powered by the Yahoo Bing Network. The structure is contextual, with the main focus being based around keywords just like Google Ad network. If you’re looking for a quality ad network, then Media.net is perfect because it’s screened and controlled by Yahoo Bing. The minimum PayPal payout is $100.00.

Chitika.com – An alternative to both those above and is toward the lower scale. I’ve used this network and haven’t been too happy. Very low payout and lacks customization so ads look ugly.

Sponsored Reviews

This will obviously depend on the type of website you have and if you write reviews. SponsoredReviews.com will connect bloggers with product and SEO marketers looking to build brand awareness. For example, if I’m a blogger who has been around for several years with a massive following, writing a product Review for someone can be lucrative. I’ll not only get FREE access to the product to try out, but will also be able to write a review. I’ll get paid for the review and any possible commission off sales directly through my blog. The main reason this strategy is so effective is because it connects successful bloggers with beginners looking to build their brand.

However, it’s important to…

• Set a minimum price per review, which should be based on blog popularity
• Always write and honest review
• Always write a quality review

Here are some benefits when using SponsoredReviews.com…

• Direct relevant traffic
• Create a viral buzz quickly
• Get feedback on product and/or service
• Benefit from search engine rankings.