Sadly, many people find themselves disappointed by the results. One of the key reasons for this is that they approach blogging monetization differently than pro bloggers do.

The difference in traffic is a huge factor of course, but the RPM (Revenue Per Mille, or per thousand page views) among pro bloggers is also much higher than your typical blogger. So all things being equal, the big guys tend to milk their traffic far more.

In this post, I’ll discuss how pro bloggers make money by doing essentially the opposite of what most bloggers do.

The wrong approach to blogging income

An overwhelming majority of bloggers who try to monetize their blogs, will take the path of least resistance and opt to simply place AdSense ads on their blogs. Doing so doesn’t take much effort and in turn, it typically leads to… not much in return. Perhaps a few dollars a month, unless they have monthly six-figure page views or they cover a very specific niche that happens to have extremely high advertising costs (and therefore payouts).

A smaller percentage will then seek higher RPM ad networks (either because of the nature of the ads or because it’s a network specific to the topic covered in their blog). This will typically improve one’s blogging income a little, but it will still be quite limited for sites that don’t receive massive amounts of traffic.

Another small percentage of bloggers will try their hands at affiliate marketing, typically with a program like Amazon Associates or eBay. Assuming they are accepted, and they do a good job reviewing or discussing specific products in their blogs, these bloggers will generally start to see some extra revenue in the form of a percentage commission of every sale generated by their referral within a given period of time (e.g., 24 hours).

Some, but not many, will seek high paying affiliate programs where the commission will be substantial (e.g., $50+) or recurring each month if the buyer remains a subscriber of whatever product/service the referral was made for. Having huge traffic becomes less necessary when a single person buying the product (e.g., a hosting package you recommend) can generate $50 or more for you.

Whether people visiting your blog have the right intention (e.g., are they looking for hosting recommendations?) and whether you are a credible source of said recommendation, become much more important factors. But of course, the more traffic the merrier still applies.

A tiny percentage of bloggers will end up creating their own product that appeals to their audience. Think an ebook for $39, for example. Those who do a good job by creating a genuinely useful product and then market it correctly to their readers, can start to see income that would take decades to accrue with AdSense at their current traffic level. Think five (and more rarely six) figure income, depending on how successful they are.

An even smaller percentage of bloggers will add a final high ticket item to their marketing funnel. This is typically an expensive course (in the $397-$1,999 price range) or some exclusive, direct mentorship offer for an equally substantial fee. The sky’s the limit here in terms of income.

The inverse pyramid of blogging income

There is an obvious correlation between the effort required, the economic reward, and how popular each approach is.

The least rewarding, AdSense, requires the least effort, produces the least amount of revenue for the blogger, and in turn is the most popular monetization method among bloggers.

The most economically rewarding option, creating your own high price items, requires the most amount of effort both in terms of creating something of so much value, and marketing it (e.g., $397 is definitely not an impulse buy for most people). But you can make scary amounts of money from it.

The real problem is that most bloggers looking to monetize their blogs tend to follow the pyramid as presented above. Many will stop at the first four steps, at best, never venturing into making their own product.

The secret to increasing blogging income is to invert the pyramid and focus your efforts and priorities accordingly.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t have AdSense, but you should prioritize the high reward items, as they are the ones that are most likely to make you serious extra income – even if you only get a few thousand visitors a month to your site.

In fact, I’m reminded of Stephen Covey of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame (killer book, by the way, for personal growth). In it, he argues that if you try to place large rocks last in a jar filled with sand and pebbles, you won’t be able to. But if you prioritize the large rocks first, you’ll always be able to squeeze in the pebbles and sand. He was talking about time management and prioritizing goals and tasks, but it applies here as well.

In our analogy, your own products are the big rocks, affiliate commissions are pebbles, and ads are sand.

How serious bloggers make money

That’s how serious bloggers make money! They create what is essentially a funnel that’s laser-focused on getting readers to buy the useful product they’ve made.

They attract a lot of visitors with great free content that is relevant to their blog topic. Content that both helps people and establishes the blogger’s authority on the subject at hand. Then they will typically offer some sort of valuable freebie, like an email course or a PDF guide to turn their site’s visitors into email subscribers (this freebie is known as a lead magnet).

They’ll continue to provide value to their subscribers with great content, for free, as well as making them aware of some kind of offer related to their products (remember, people love sales). Some will even first sell the inexpensive product (e.g., a cheap ebook or course) and then upsell true believers to their more expensive products and/or services. If you are familiar with Tony Robbins, that’s what he does. But pretty much anyone raking in big bucks through digital sales adopts a similar strategy.

There is a reason for the common mantra, the money is in the list. Nothing beats having regular readers you can continue to communicate with directly. You’ll be able to provide them with useful information on a regular basis and sell them valuable products that will help them, and in turn, help you achieve your financial blogging goals in the process.

It’s worth noting that depending on the reasons that you personally blog, direct monetary gain might not be your main interest. And that’s okay. Your career itself might be the high ROI “product” in that case.

It’s important to understand that in most cases blogging is a content marketing tool for business, but it is not the business itself.

It all boils down to this. If you want to maximize your blogging income, sell a product through your blog. That product can be an ebook, course, private membership, or software, as long as it’s extremely useful and relevant to your readers.

The post The Inverted Pyramid of Blogging Income: How Pro Bloggers Make Money appeared first on Technical Blogging.

If you’re looking for ways to make money from your blog, you should consider affiliate marketing. In a nutshell, affiliate marketing allows online publishers to earn commissions by referring customers to a merchant.

The way affiliate marketing works is that you get access to links or ads that you can add to your blog (or website, social networks, mobile apps, etc). By integrating these affiliate links alongside your content, you’re able to show your readers items that appeal to their interests. Each time one of your visitors clicks through one of your affiliate links and makes a purchase, you receive a commission.

If you’ve decided that you’d like to try affiliate marketing as a way to leverage your expertise to monetize your blog, you’re going to want to start by researching program options. There are many out there and you may choose to work with just one program, or with several. How do you determine which program will work best for you? Here are a few factors to consider.

1. Fit with your content

Making sure your blog content closely aligns with the items you’re promoting to your visitors is one of the most important components to consider when selecting an affiliate partner. For example, if your blog focuses on interior design, it would make the most sense to partner with a merchant that sells home renovation and decor products.

2. Product inventory

Another consideration that corresponds to the products you’ll be promoting is the depth of inventory. Does the merchant have a wide range of desirable items, and are they available at competitive prices? Will your visitors be enticed to buy? You’ll want to be able to provide your readers not only with the right product for their needs, but also at the right price for their wallet.

3. Reputation & trust

If a visitor clicks through your affiliate link and is met with an offer from an unknown retailer, what are the chances that they will feel comfortable enough to make a purchase? It will be easier for your visitors to make a purchase decision if they are already familiar with the site where you are sending them. Take a look at established programs like eBay Partner Network to get started.

4. Tools & creatives

Affiliate merchants and networks offer a variety of ways for you to promote their products. This could include premade creatives like web banners, or tools for you to create customizable widgets or generate text links, as well as access to product feeds or an API. Make sure you know what your prospective partner has to offer, and that the solution fits well with your goals and technical abilities.

5. Payment structure

Of course, commission rates are a very important factor to consider. Make sure you fully understand the compensation structure, such as if there are variable rates or tiers for your promotional efforts. For example, eBay’s affiliate program provides a bonus to affiliates who refer purchases from new or reactivated buyers. Also be sure to take a look at how often you’ll be paid, and how payments are delivered.

There are many more factors that go into choosing an affiliate program, but these five areas should provide you with a good start. By researching up front, you’ll be better prepared for long-term affiliate success.

The post How to Choose an Affiliate Network appeared first on Technical Blogging.

Sadness aside, what’s remarkable here is that their number of page views grew while revenue went down. That means that their RPM (Revenue Per Mille, so per thousand impressions) has gone down.

In fact, here is the motivation behind their decision:

Why would a well-known site, dearly loved by its readers and coming off a year of record page views, be sunset by its owner?

In one word, revenue. Four years ago, when I came to Dr. Dobb’s, we had healthy profits and revenue, almost all of it from advertising. Despite our excellent growth on the editorial side, our revenue declined such that today it’s barely 30% of what it was when I started. […] This is because in the last 18 months, there has been a marked shift in how vendors value website advertising. They’ve come to realize that website ads tend to be less effective than they once were. Given that I’ve never bought a single item by clicking on an ad on a website, this conclusion seems correct in the small.

What does this mean for much smaller online publications like bloggers? Ads have historically been the easiest way for bloggers to earn some income from their blogs. You’d embed some code obtained from a network like Google Adsense, and collect royalties at the end of the month. [1]

Google doesn’t allow disclosure of specific numbers about their program’s RPM so that’s not a conversation we can have. Nevertheless, if you Google it (boy have we come to depend on them) you’ll find that it’s not uncommon for blogs to sit somewhere between $1–4 per impression, depending on subject matter, ad position, ad network, etc. [2]

In general you’re allowed up to three ad placements on a page, so you could in theory have an RPM per page between $3 and $12. That means that a blog achieving 100,000 page views per month could be earning between $300-$1,200 solely from a single ad network.

Now, 100,000 page views per month are far from easy, but entirely possible after a while. And $300-$1,200 is a nice amount of extra pocket change for the occasional or even dedicated blogger. That’s not however the case if blogging is your day job or if you are a larger company with staff and writers to support.

Ads are not dead as far as bloggers are concerned, but those interested in maximizing their revenue must realize that advertising on the web has its limits. They are part of a healthy meal, but not the whole meal.

The reason for that was explained by the Dr. Dobb’s quote above. Advertisers have found web ads to not be as lucrative as other options. Ask anyone who’s tried their hand at Google Adwords and they will all tell you how easy it is to lose your shirt if you are not extremely careful, and how hard it is to make a profit.

People have learned to ignore ads. Banner blindness is as real as it ever was. For technical audiences, AdBlock plugins are also something to contend with. [3] The truth is that what’s good for advertisers is good for publishers, and ads have not been serving advertisers too well. [4]

Your blog revenue strategy shouldn’t count on ads alone. Sponsorship, directly negotiated with the right companies, are already more rewarding. However, I contend that affiliate marketing, done through genuine reviews, recommendations, and mentions is far superior both in terms of revenue and service offered to advertisers. Furthermore, if the recommendations are authentic and not done just for a quick buck, they serve your audience as well. It’s a win-win-win situation all around.

You’ll also want to consider being your own advertiser. Selling your own products and services through your blog can be extremely lucrative and doesn’t generally come across as disgraceful to your audience in the way that excessive advertisement can.

Finally, remember that a lot of value can be extracted from your blog in ways that are not directly translated into a dollar figure. As I stress in my book, blogging can open the door to new job opportunities, partnerships, the ability to promote your own projects or startup, increase your authority within your field, and many other indirect benefits.

The post Don’t Count on Ads appeared first on Technical Blogging.