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12:17 pm
December 3, 2010
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Melissa (Mom's Plans)
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Hi. I am new to the challenge, and since I installed the Alexa tool bar in October, I have seen my rank drop from 900,000+ to 389,000. Yeah! Thank you so much for all of your help and guidance.
I know it is a taboo subject, but I was wondering what are some of the best ways to monetize blogs? I do have ads running, but I make only about $50 to $75 a month, and often I don't see any of that money in a month due to the threshold for payouts with the various affiliates. (Right now I am waiting to make .51 more cents so I can get a $75 payout!!)
I love blogging, but I also need to make money. I am losing my income in January, and we will be over $1000 short each month. I am hoping blogging can make up some of the difference while my husband continues to look for more work. (We have one in school and two little ones at home.)
Any concrete guidance or advice is greatly appreciated!
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12:30 pm
December 3, 2010
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Aloysa
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Post edited 12:30 pm – December 3, 2010 by Aloysa
Why is it a taboo subject?
I am interested too!
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12:39 pm
December 3, 2010
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
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I would love to see some responses from way more seasoned bloggers than myself. I only have been blogging since February, but I have made $5200 since then (it's picking up more now - Sept was $700, Oct was $1200, and Nov was $800 – I post blog income updates at the beginning of every month at BFS).
I make most of my money through link ads and sponsored posts. I just hit $100 in Adsense a few weeks ago. Most advertisers either contact me via email or I find through the Yakezie private forums.
So, your first order of business definitely needs to be hitting an Alexa rank of 200,000 asap. I dropped from 8 million in March to 200,000 in May or June, to 50,000 in October by getting my name out everywhere I could.
I comment on at least 20 blogs a week, participate with Yakezie discussions so people can get to know me, and guest post at least once every week or two (I'm a staff writer at Sweating the Big Stuff on Wednesdays as well). I also have a weekly roundup and I try to help out whoever I can. I sincerely like to help and have tons of opinions on posts, lol, so most parts of getting name recognition are fun!
If I can help, let me know. I do need another guest poster for late December and several for January.
When you do start getting recognized by advertisers, you will have to make up your mind on what you are willing to accept. You are your own boss and can accept or reject whatever you wish. I actually have a post scheduled for next week that explains that I accept almost all advertisers. I will never write a review that isn't 100% what I feel, I won't accept pop-up ads, and all of my ads have to be rated "G", but those are my only lines.
Once you know what you are willing to accept, I'd make a form letter that you can cut and paste for replies (tweaking as needed of course). Make sure this letter states your Alexa Ranking, Moz Rank, and any other great stats you have (like a one-line interview, lol). It will save you SO much time. I also have a rate table I can send to interested parties.
Anyway, hope any of this helps. I also hope the big money-makers respond so I can learn something, lol. Good luck!
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1:10 pm
December 3, 2010
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moneysmarts
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I don't think talking about making money from your blog is taboo! :) I think it's fun, and an important thing to talk about with others if you want to make some extra dough for your family.
This year has been my best ever for blog income, and I've made enough this year to replace my wife's day job income now that she's a stay at home mom. It iisn't easy, but it can be done.
To me the key to making a decent amount of money is to diversify your income sources, write lots of content, get backlinks, and promote promote, promote.
My best income sources include:
- adsense: by far the biggest. to do well with adsense you have to write about the right topics though. Check out other successful sites to see what they write about. similar topics should do well for you.
- CPM ads: If you can find a premium ad network that will accept you – and if you have enough traffic – this can be decent income as well. You'll need to build up some traffic first though.
- Direct sold banner ads: If you can sell ad banners directly, it can do pretty well. The key is finding people who want them. The yakezie can definitely help in that regard.
- affiliate sites: sites like shareasale, flexoffers.com, linkshare.com and a variety of credit card sites do pretty well for me as well. Promoting these works best with posts usually -reviews/etc. banners in the sidebars don't tend to do as well.
- Your own info products: If you can come up with an ebook or other info product that people are willing to pay for, you can do pretty well with it. See manvsdebt.com for examples of that.
- get paid to sites: since you have a blog it's a good place to promote "get paid to" sites like cashcrate.com, swagbucks, ebates and others that will pay you for referrals.
- text link ads: I don't sell these anymore because i'm wary of offending the big G (google). They don't really like sold text links because it can be considered "gaming the system", passing search engine cred for money. In any event, if you want to risk the page rank penalty or search penalties – it can be lucrative. at one point i was making over $1000/month from them – until i quit.
- Paid posting: I have become a staff writer at a couple of places in exchange for payment for each article. Usually in the range of $10-50 /article)
So there you go, a few options for monetizing.
Other things I've learned.
- less is sometimes more: I've found that my adsense ads do better when i have fewer ad placements on a page. I put one ad in a well placed location, and it tends to do better than say 3 ads on the page.
- Do your research: take the time to do some research as to what the popular and newsworthy items of the day are. Write about those things because people are searching for them.
- Content is king: having good content is key. The more you write, the more content that you have that gets indexed by google – and the more chances you have for coming up in the search engines.
- Do blog carnivals: participate in blog carnivals, they're free backlinks, and backlinks are like gold.
- Don't expect huge money right away, it takes time: I think it was 6 or more months before i made any real money. Have patience, it will come.
- Network with other bloggers and help each other: Sometimes blogging may feel competitive, but actually it's more of a team challenge. If you can cooperate, give each other links and promote each other's content -you all win.
Ok, so that's enough for now.. Good luck!
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2:40 pm
December 3, 2010
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Aloysa
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff said:
I sincerely like to help and have tons of opinions on posts, lol, so most parts of getting name recognition are fun!
I just want to say that Crystal is a gold mine when it comes to help and info. I am a new blogger and I have already learned TONS from her. People, if you need help, Crystal is not just great, she is superb!
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2:43 pm
December 3, 2010
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Aloysa
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@ Moneysmarts – what a great and informative response! Thank you so much!
It is encouraging to know that $ doesn't come fast. I had ads on my blog for … ehh… about 7 weeks (ranking improved from 15 mil to high 200K) and I made $13 so far… Yeah, I know what you are going to say … patience. And hard work… 
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3:56 pm
December 3, 2010
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
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Aloysa said:
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff said:
I sincerely like to help and have tons of opinions on posts, lol, so most parts of getting name recognition are fun!
I just want to say that Crystal is a gold mine when it comes to help and info. I am a new blogger and I have already learned TONS from her. People, if you need help, Crystal is not just great, she is superb!
Awww…you are pretty superb yourself lady!
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4:27 pm
December 3, 2010
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Buy Like Buffett
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I was going to respond to this but Crystal summed it up perfectly! She stole all of my answers!!! LOL j/k.
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5:28 pm
December 3, 2010
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retireby40
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff said:
I would love to see some responses from way more seasoned bloggers than myself. I only have been blogging since February, but I have made $5200 since then (it's picking up more now - Sept was $700, Oct was $1200, and Nov was $800 – I post blog income updates at the beginning of every month at BFS).
I make most of my money through link ads and sponsored posts. I just hit $100 in Adsense a few weeks ago. Most advertisers either contact me via email or I find through the Yakezie private forums.
So, your first order of business definitely needs to be hitting an Alexa rank of 200,000 asap. I dropped from 8 million in March to 200,000 in May or June, to 50,000 in October by getting my name out everywhere I could.
I comment on at least 20 blogs a week, participate with Yakezie discussions so people can get to know me, and guest post at least once every week or two (I'm a staff writer at Sweating the Big Stuff on Wednesdays as well). I also have a weekly roundup and I try to help out whoever I can. I sincerely like to help and have tons of opinions on posts, lol, so most parts of getting name recognition are fun!
If I can help, let me know. I do need another guest poster for late December and several for January.
When you do start getting recognized by advertisers, you will have to make up your mind on what you are willing to accept. You are your own boss and can accept or reject whatever you wish. I actually have a post scheduled for next week that explains that I accept almost all advertisers. I will never write a review that isn't 100% what I feel, I won't accept pop-up ads, and all of my ads have to be rated "G", but those are my only lines.
Once you know what you are willing to accept, I'd make a form letter that you can cut and paste for replies (tweaking as needed of course). Make sure this letter states your Alexa Ranking, Moz Rank, and any other great stats you have (like a one-line interview, lol). It will save you SO much time. I also have a rate table I can send to interested parties.
Anyway, hope any of this helps. I also hope the big money-makers respond so I can learn something, lol. Good luck!
This gold Crystal, pure gold. Thanks! Someday, I will monetize my blog. 
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5:31 pm
December 3, 2010
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Sustainable PF
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Awesome info folks! Thanks bunches
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5:51 pm
December 3, 2010
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Melissa (Mom's Plans)
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Thank you so much for your answers! I really appreciate the depth of your answers.
Now, of course, I have some follow up questions. Both Crystal and MoneySmarts mentioned writing other places. I enjoy writing, and my husband keeps suggesting writing at other places besides my blog. How do I go about doing that? (I am referring to writing besides guest posts, although I have guest posted for a number of other bloggers and enjoyed it.) How do I find sponsored post writing assignments?
Also, both of you mentioned selling private ads and that the Yakezie forums could help with this. I am still fairly new here; could you explain how that works?
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7:17 pm
December 3, 2010
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Derek@LifeAndMyFinances
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Thanks for the info everyone! Especially Crystal of course! I started my website in September 2010 and have made $28. It's coming along, and it's fun too! I love that there's a forum here where we can talk about stuff like this.
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8:09 pm
December 3, 2010
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
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Post edited 6:35 am – December 4, 2010 by Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
Melissa said:
Thank you so much for your answers! I really appreciate the depth of your answers.
Now, of course, I have some follow up questions. Both Crystal and MoneySmarts mentioned writing other places. I enjoy writing, and my husband keeps suggesting writing at other places besides my blog. How do I go about doing that? (I am referring to writing besides guest posts, although I have guest posted for a number of other bloggers and enjoyed it.) How do I find sponsored post writing assignments?
Also, both of you mentioned selling private ads and that the Yakezie forums could help with this. I am still fairly new here; could you explain how that works?
I actually got my staff writer position through the Yakezie forums - SBS posted that he was looking and I threw my hat into the ring. I wasn't actually looking, so other Yakezie members probably have a better idea on how to actively search. I have seen a few other Yakezie members advertise here too.
Once you complete the challenge and post your member post, you'll have access to the Yakezie private forums. That's where the ads and other opportunities are usually posted. That's why I suggested kicking the challenge's butt first and foremost to open up as many opportunities as possible.
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8:10 pm
December 3, 2010
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
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LifeAndMyFinances said:
Thanks for the info everyone! Especially Crystal of course! I started my website in September 2010 and have made $28. It's coming along, and it's fun too! I love that there's a forum here where we can talk about stuff like this.
I'm a forum addict! I love it here. :-)
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2:41 am
December 4, 2010
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uhnw
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I've had my site in its current form now for 2 months and got my Alexa ranking down to 350,000 and falling rapidly. I've got what I thought was a great adsense ad placement and guess how much income I've generated in the last 2 months. About $1.50!!!
So, don't feel too bad about only making $50 per month. I'd love to be making that much! Luckily I do it for the love, not the money.
Any suggestions on my site would be appreciated.
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4:07 am
December 4, 2010
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Frugal Confessions
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Hello Melissa!
I am a paid staff writer at another blog as well (My Dollar Plan), and I got the position by applying to a post they had put on their website. I am sure there are many blogs out there who could use good writing; if you are a semi-loyal reader to a few where you can offer some suggestions and ideas, I would say go ahead and pitch yourself to them. I make $20 per article, just fyi.
Good luck!
~Amanda
Frugal Confessions
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8:12 am
December 4, 2010
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Invest It Wisely
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Amazing info, Crystal! I think the PR of > 0 helps too, as you have 2 IIRC? I have decent Alexa/etc… but people see PR0 and they think I'm being shat on. Sigh… keep up the mozRank posts! :P
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9:46 am
December 4, 2010
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Buck Inspire
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Wow amazing responses from everyone! This place is great. So much support and openess. I think society kind of made us treat money as a taboo subject. Wow Yakezie is breaking down society taboos, too? Amazing. I also like the wonderful positive attitude, $1.50 in ad income, no big deal, doing it for love. Great energy here. I read long ago if you do something you love, it's not really work. I'm sure if you work hard enough the money will come soon enough. Have a great weekend all!
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11:35 am
December 4, 2010
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
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Invest It Wisely said:
Amazing info, Crystal! I think the PR of > 0 helps too, as you have 2 IIRC? I have decent Alexa/etc… but people see PR0 and they think I'm being shat on. Sigh… keep up the mozRank posts! :P
I'll keep adding all MozRank post links to my own as long as people keep writing them! I personally think that if my Moz is 5, my PR should be higher than 2…
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11:44 am
December 4, 2010
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Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
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uhnw said:
I've had my site in its current form now for 2 months and got my Alexa ranking down to 350,000 and falling rapidly. I've got what I thought was a great adsense ad placement and guess how much income I've generated in the last 2 months. About $1.50!!!
So, don't feel too bad about only making $50 per month. I'd love to be making that much! Luckily I do it for the love, not the money.
Any suggestions on my site would be appreciated.
Up until 2 months ago, my Adsense account was making 2-5 cents a day – it takes a while to build up!
BTW, I like your site! A few more seasoned bloggers may know some specific things that may help, but I like the uncluttered look.
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