Image by penguincakes
The response to the last Blogging Tools post was fabulously positive, so I have decided to make another detailing my current “research” and experiments in making a little money from this blog. As I have outlined in previous posts, it does of course cost money to self-host a site with one’s own domain, so my decision to place adverts in various positions on the site was made with the intention, not of carving a living from blogging (I sadly lack the time that I would need to devote to blogging in order to have a chance at making that happen) but rather to try and make some of my hosting fees back, and hopefully break even. I’ve had quite a few questions about the ads I’ve placed on the site from other bloggers looking into trying to earn a bit of coffee money too, so I hope that this post is useful to you!
I have been experimenting with different ad placements and types on my blog, and each have their advantages and disadvantages. There is very little information available out there regarding the monetisation of low-traffic blogs, so I’ve had to pretty much go in blind, but the guidance on sites such as Problogger, although mostly tailored to higher-traffic sites, has been very useful in pointing me towards advert-publishing opportunities. In this post, I will be briefly describing the services I’ve used so far, how successful they were, and also why I chose not to use some other methods.
Google Adsense
Tackling the big one first, Google Adsense has been my second highest earner so far, and is by far the highest earning of the ads that pay by clicks and impressions. It seems to be the “industry standard” in blog advertising, most people who host ads on their blogs appear to use Adsense in some way. I have also been using the Smart Ads wordpress plugin to manage ads within posts.
Pros: The money adds up quite nicely when people click the ads, I am able to stop ads appearing which I don’t think are appropriate to my content and this is something I haven’t yet had to do, since Google’s system of serving ads due to keywords mentioned works pretty well. It’s also very versatile – there are lots of different ad types, shapes, sizes and colours, and they can be placed in all sorts of different positions.
Cons: Cashout is $100, so it’ll take me a long time to reach that, you get banned if you ask people to click your ads, and click frequency is completely unpredictable.
Image by heath_bar
Adgitize
Adgitize is an interesting one. As I understand it, advertisers’ ads are placed on all blogs showing the Adgitize widget. The money trickles in consistently but in small amounts. My current earnings are lower than on Adsense, but when (fingers crossed!) my traffic goes up a bit, I think it could be a good one for consistent payouts.
Pros: Low cashout amount, money added to your account every day, very simple to use, allows you to advertise your own blog on other users’ sites.
Cons: Earnings appear to be lower overall than Adsense, there have been some long periods of downtime, though I think this was a server problem which has now been solved.
Project Wonderful
I don’t even want to try and explain how Project Wonderful‘s advert bidding system works, so instead allow me to point you towards the explanation pages. It seems quite a complicated system, but it appears to work quite well! The payout is lower than both Adgitize and Adsense, but I have been directing what I earn as a publisher directly into buying ads instead of cashing out. If you advertise on pages with no minimum bid, you can end up getting quite a bit of very cheap or even free advertising!
I’ll report back at a later date on the effectiveness of using Project Wonderful as an advertising platform for promoting my own blog, currently I haven’t used that feature enough to make a valid judgement.
Pros: You get to approve each ad so you’re only advertising sites you like (you also have the option to auto-approve every ad if you like the minimum effort approach!), so far it’s a reasonably consistent source of money, and there’s the option to advertise with your earned funds.
Cons: Earnings are small compared to other sites.
Money4Banners
This one’s especially for us UK bloggers! Money4Banners is a great system where you receive £5 a month to display a banner on three static pages on your site. Mine are situated on “The Idea“, “The Blogger” and “Contact” pages. I have already received my sign-up bonus from them, paid through Paypal, so I know this one works!
Pros: Unobtrusive ads, a guaranteed monthly payout at a great rate for lower-traffic bloggers plus the opportunity to earn more through referrals.
Cons: However much traffic your site generates, you only get the £5 a month, so may not be worth it for the higher-traffic blogs.
Methods Not Yet Tried
Many blogs have a PayPal button, usually displayed as a “tip jar” or other such concept, with which readers can donate should they wish to. I make no judgement on those that do have these, however currently the majority of my readers (at least those who comment) are other bloggers who are probably trying to earn back their hosting fees too! I may put one up at some point, should I find that hosting fees become too high or I start getting a lot more non-blogger readers, but for now it seems unfair to ask for money from those who are in pretty much the same position as me! Besides, it is my hope to break even on advertising alone this year and that is all I set out to do.
I am currently working on a few bits and pieces in the hope of starting an Etsy shop (when I have the time to make enough pieces), so look out for that soon!
I have an Amazon Associates account, but I don’t want to put too much in the side-bars. I do have a few literary-inspired posts coming up however, so I am intending on placing Amazon links to buy any books I mention, within the relevant post. I will of course, report back on whether or not I have any success with this too!
I hope this post was of use to people, and not too long and “rambly”. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or other helpful hints for bloggers trying to earn back their hosting!
I think the post has been really useful, so thanks
I am going to sign up to the UK banner site as £5 a month seems good for blogs that don’t get loads of traffic like mine!
Wow, hugely useful post! Thanks for this!!
I’m bookmarking this post. I was wondering how ads worked on blogs (especially new ones), and what kind of revenue they pulled in. Thanks a bunch!
This advice is really going to help, thanks.
Thank you for this article! My website is still somewhat under construction, but it will be somewhat similar to the way yours is run – with a focus on positivity and a policy of transparency. The write-ups in this article are better information than can be usually found about the different ad sites, since most bloggers seem to try and pretend the ads aren’t there, let alone discuss which ones are working best for them.
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