Making Money on Your Site

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anna (Green Talk) on October 18, 2008 at 7:26am

Barbara said:

I guess my view is that people get paid millions of dollars to wear a brand or eat a hamburger or whatever, so if you can make $25 or $50 to review a product, I say go for it. If you really don't like the product, then of course don't do it, but why can't one take advantage of a win win situation? When I read blogs with reviews I don't really care if the person got paid or not. If I like the product I might try it out. Just my opinion.

As far as the traffic. Getting traffic to your blog is a full time job these days. Trust me I am sitting here on my 14th hour in front of the computer and it is Friday night(argh). The blog world has been so diluted with junk that the quality blogs have to work hard to stand out and get noticed.

Things you can do to get traffic:
Content is key and good content is king. Submitting sites to social networking sites. Writing posts that appeal to the masses and not just your family. These are just a few things, but it does take time. Lots of time and commitment. Sometimes it also takes money to invest in PPC or other avenues to get your blog the exposure it needs.

Anna (Green Talk) said:

Barbara, I was recently asked to do a paid review and I declined to take money. Someone told me that taking the money would make me look like I was biased. Asking them to advertise would also. So, I did not know what to do.

I receive alot of request to write about products but can't take them all. The ones I like I request a giveaway. Others, I ask them to advertise on the site since it will give them more exposure. Some do it and others don't, but with $50 an ad, this is nothing.

I also use Shareasale but the commissions are low. The bottom line seems like you need to have lots of traffic to make money on your site. So, there is really the question.

How do you get lots of traffic? Anna

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Melanie Szenasi on October 19, 2008 at 4:13pm

I use my blog to market my own products that I sell online. I sell on Etsy, and have a blast featuring other sellers from that community aswell.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sangeeth Raghunathan on October 21, 2008 at 8:31am

Making money is really difficult. Blog her is a good. They pay for impressions. But if you drive a lot of traffic to your site then people will contact you to place your ad. How cool is that? You can also do some review writings, but then again for people to give you money you have to have a good traffic and a better page rank (may be more than 3).

I am trying my level best to get something.Will surely share if I come across anyother means to make money!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy on October 22, 2008 at 9:20am

I just took over as editor of NeatoStuff a shopping and gift ideas blog. Money, not yet! I am more concerned about increasing traffic at the moment..the money will follow. I announced a free traffic exchange a while ago and got an excellent response, so I will keep you updated on how that goes.

Amy
http://www.neatostuff.com

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jennifer on October 22, 2008 at 9:50am

Cashcrate is the most popular and I must say, very good on paying! I made $87.00 in the past 2 mths just from doing surveys! How it works:

Cashcrate is a Get Paid To site and is free to sign up. Companies pay the owners of Cashcrate to find people to review their products, services, and websites. Cashcrate then in turn pays you to do it for them. The payout starts at $10 so it easy to get your money quickly!

There are completely Free Offers and a few trial offers to sign up for as well as 2 daily surveys. When completing some of the surveys, I timed them just to see how long they took to complete and most surveys took about 3 minutes at most.Also, the offers that pay less, say like $.25- $.50 take the least amount of time to complete and are quick & easy.

When doing offers, before starting, be sure to clear your cookies so that you can get your credits without any hassle.

You also can earn money by referrals as well. Cashcrate will pay you $3 for each person you refer as well as a percentage of what your referral each time they earn!! So you’ll keep on earning as long as your referral earns money, its like they are working for you!!

So far I really like the site and consider it a pretty good investment of time. I’m not expecting to make a lot of money through them but a little extra money per month is definately a Good thing!

Another site I really like is Free Cash Cafe. At the Free Cash Cafe, you get paid to take surveys, order free samples, signup for trial offers, participate in sweepstakes, join clubs, and register for online services. Its pretty much the same as Cashcrate with the same benefits and pays as well, to date I have earned $55.00. Payout starts when you earn $7.00 and they pay out monthly as well! As with Cashcrate you also earn 30% commission on your referrals earnings too.

Between these 2 sites you can earn a little extra cash monthly but I guess it depends on how much time you really put into as well. The money I made has only been for about 30 minutes a day and there. Not every day

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Homemom3 on October 22, 2008 at 1:25pm

I do various things, I do get a check from time to time from Google Adsense but that's hard to do since you can't tell everyone to click on your site. But I also blog at a few different blogging networks where I actually get paid monthly for keeping things up-to-date in certain areas. I did try doing the whole affiliate thing but it never worked for me.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheryl Maguire on October 22, 2008 at 6:05pm

I read this article about Blogging for profit here

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/09/blogging-for...

which suggests you should have 500 visits a day before you try to get people to place ads on your site. Sounds like that could be soon at the rate you are going!

cheryl phillips said:

What is "good" traffic to a blog? I've consistently increased my traffic and have written without the idea that I'll make money. However, I've gone from 40 hits a day 6 months ago (with the avg time on the site at 1.5 min) to 250 hits a day with the avg time spent 3.5 min. Is that good, fair, poor? No idea!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DaniGirl on October 23, 2008 at 4:04am

I'd be careful about joining some of the big ad networks because some of them have restrictions about what you can and can't do -- can't take paid or sponsored reviews, can't have other advertisers, etc. If I would have joined BlogHer, for example, I wouldn't have been able to accept an offer for a free trip to Smuggler's Notch just for the blog publicity.

I'm a member of MomCentral, and they regularly offer sponsored reviews. You get an Amazon gift certificate, usually $20, plus free product. I'm pretty selective about what I choose (I don't blog for profit) but I'd say I've earned close to $4000 worth of freebies, ads and sponsorships over the years -- I'd have earned a lot less with an ad network! (That includes ads I took on my original blogger.com site.)

As far as being biased, I always put a disclosure note at the end of my sponsored posts, like this: "Disclosure: for participating in this blog tour, I received free copies of both the Let’s Go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle and Let’s Play Count & Cook Game, and a $20 Amazon gift certificate." It's always a good idea to do that, so people know which posts are paid endorsements and which posts are just you raving about what you like or don't like. (I tend to do more of the latter!)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kelly McCausey on October 25, 2008 at 10:26am

Sounds like many of you are monetizing your blogs - that's awesome!

I'm not part of any ad networks, rather I promote my own products and some good affiliate programs.

If you're making money from your blog I would really like to interview you on Profitable Mommy Blogging :) Shout out to me if you're interested!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Noire (L.H.) on September 9, 2009 at 12:09pm

I've been looking for ways to earn a little cash from writing, I am using adsense now, but I will try some of these ideas as well.

Noire.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy on September 10, 2009 at 7:25am

I struggle with this as well. At this point my main problem is not the affilate programs, but just generating visitors. I don't have a budget to really advertise, so I utilize all the free options I can. When my site has lots of hits, I make money, but sometimes the traffic just isn't there.

Affiliates that pay well and earn me money, besides adsense are.
1)Logical Media
2)Ready Site

Both you just sign up for free. Even get a $25 sign up with Ready Site.

▶ Reply to This

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last