Make Money Blogging From Home -- Fun with Direct Advertising

Make Money Blogging From Home - Direct Advertising
by Jacob Malewitz

Blogging from home via direct advertising sets your personal brand on a path to success. And this is in many ways about creating a brand; sometimes it's you as a brand, other times your company.

To make money blogging, however, you need more than a cool name: you need a constant stream of income. The facts are you'll make very little money on certain ads, sometimes entire ad services, but some of your ad streams will make you more money than any other.

What does that mean? Direct advertising is one of two options you have to blog from you; the other is indirect income methods where you earn money because of your blog. Some call it direct income and passive income, but really direct advertising is where most bloggers make money online.

And what is direct advertising? This is much simpler. You are selling ad space on your blog. Here is the kind of ads you'll make money blogging from.

Adsense and Beyond:
Adsense is a contextual ad service. There are many other contextual ad programs, but most bloggers focus on Adsense. In short, Adsense makes you money by scanning the content on your blog and  automatically devising certain ads which might turn into clicks. This is pay-per-click (PPC), so the more clicks you get then the more money you earn blogging.

Contextual ads work because they're very simple to implement. Also, some bloggers earn 90% or more of their income from contextual ads like Adsense. The key here is the choice of topics. Some topics will be monetized (turn into profit) easier than others. For example, financial and medical blog topics are quite hot, which will likely continue, and PPC rates are very high for these. Earning several dollars per click is very simple. It does depend on topic, but some topics may have less material available on them, so always  choosing the #1 blog niche doesn't necessarily work.

Text Ads:
Text  ads are where you're selling links on your blog. They're quite popular for a variety of blog niches because they're simple to implement and take very little space on your blog. This system works because you can run a campaign based on ads you want, not ads Google thinks you should use (like in Adsense). For example, you might get 10 offers for text ads, but reject all but three because of pay, the type of business they are, or some other feature you don't like. Some good text ad companies include Text Link Ads and AdBrite. For bloggers at  any level, there are text ads available in volumes, many paying very well.

Impression Ads:
Different than pay-per-click, impression ads are based on the number of hits your blog receives. So instead of getting $1 per click for your financial blog ad, impression ads might pay you a few pennies per impression. That's just an example, but it points out the lesser fees you are paid. But for every impression, you're getting something. And let's be honest: many blog readers ignore PPC ads, so often using impression ads on your blog adds another income  stream.

RSS Ads:
Really Simple Syndication ads are a new trend. The point here is, if someone is willing to subscribe to your blog, they might be interested in buying products or services more in tune with their interests. If you have a book review blog, you might post some ads on your RSS feed to readers already expressing interest in your topic.

Other Ways to Make Money Blogging Directly:
Advertising works well on certain blogs, but in others the niche doesn't quite work. There are many solutions to a failed blogging project, but with the variety of advertising solution, you can likely find some service, some ad, which can make your time spent worth it. You can use more affiliate marketing sites like Commission Junction or ShareASale. Many of these work on a PPC basis, but you can also get CPC ads, cost-per-acquisition. CPC ads work if you actually get the reader to buy something; the good news is the payments are much higher, but it's even tougher than getting a click because they actually have to buy.

There are hundreds of reputable direct advertising sites online, but some of the best have been mentioned here. Adsense seems to be king in terms of PPC ads, but a little variety on your blog is always a way to get new ideas for ads.  Using a combination of text link ads, RSS ads, and impression ads, and affiliate marketing in tandem with Adsense is a proven way to make money blogging from home. And remember, you can make money blogging indirectly too, like selling your services as a professional to blogging networks.