14 Ways I Make Money from My Blog

Making a living from blogging is tough, and a very small percentage of all bloggers manage it. I'm lucky enough to be one of them. Of course, by "make a living" I'm talking first-year teacher's salary, not law firm partner bucks.

How have I done it? Time, effort, and a bit of good luck along the way. The level of a blogger's income is directly related to the blog's readership. The way to build readership is not through clever SEO tricks, but through months and years (in my case) of producing innovative, engaging content. Focusing too much on dollars before you've got the traffic it takes to bring them in can quickly lead to burnout.

That said, at the risk of being unladylike, I've listed all my income streams from Baby Cheapskate. You've no doubt heard of several of the sites and companies below. But maybe a few of them are new to you. Here's hoping you'll discover a new way to add to your blogging bottom line. I've provided links to articles with more info on each or to the site itself.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me (and 250 other bloggers) over on the BlogCoach Community Boards.

14 Ways I make money from my blogs

Blog Networks: CPM. With CPM networks, you're paid according to how many times an ad is shown on your site. More traffic = more moolah.

• BlogHer Ads (temporarily closed to new applications)
  
• Jambo Video Ad Network: just came out of beta a couple of months ago

Pay Per Click (PPC): Not directly traffic dependant, but the more traffic you have, the better the chances of a reader clicking on an ad.

• Adsense for content (text and graphic ads)
• Adsense for search (works with your custom search engine)
  
• Adsense for feeds (text or graphic ads in your RSS feed items)
  
• MySavings.com (lots of offerings for you frugal bloggers)
  
• Chitika (shown only to those reaching my site via search engine)
  

Affiliate Companies: Readers click through to another site via a special link or banner you put on your blog. You're paid a percentage (1-20%) of any money they spend there. More on affiliate programs

• Linkshare
• Google Affiliate Network
• Commission Junction
• ShareASale: smaller boutiques and online retailers
• Amazon Associates: a great starting point if you're new to affiliate advertising.

Pay for placement: you set the rates

• BlogAds: the more traffic you have, the higher you appear in BlogAds' directory
  
• Project Wonderful great for beginning bloggers. You set the minimum. Advertisers place bids according to how much they're willing to spend to place an ad on your site. Simpler than it sounds.
  

Other monetization ideas (that I don't use):

• Privately sold ads: You set the rates. You make the deals.
• You could also do those in text ads, but I hate those. Kontera
• More pay for placement options: Performancing Ads, BuySell Ads
• Ad networks: Logical Media, Doubleclick, Azoogle Adbrite, others
  
• More Pay per click options: Netklix

Related:
Money 4 Mom: Starting a Blog? @Freebies 4 Mom
How Much Money do Bloggers Make Blogging @ProBlogger

photo by a.drian via flickr