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Monetizing a blog
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Monetizing a blog

BluBoyBluBoy Member
edited June 2012 in General

I set up google analytics and noticed that my blog is starting to get a decent number of page views now...

I was just wondering if it's worthwhile monetizing this somehow? The blog was not created to provide a source of income... But if I can get the cost of the VPS and domain name each year, I'd be happy.

Ideally, it wouldn't have a negative effect on the blog (in terms of load times and layout clutter).
Also, most of my readers would be techies, and as such aren't likely to click on any ads! Are there any companies that still do per-impression payouts? Am I best sticking to per-click payout? or something completely different? ... Whatever lowendbox.com is using seems reasonable?

Is anyone else running ads on a small blog site? How much income do you get from it?

Comments

  • ThorinThorin Member

    Adsense FTW.

  • NanoG6NanoG6 Member

    mind to share the blog address? :)

  • BluBoyBluBoy Member

    I looked at adsense, and I really don't think it's suitable...

    • Minimum $100 cash out ... Considering I am 'aiming' for maybe $50 at most to cover costs, this will be a long time before payouts!
    • Cost-per-click isn't great for techy sites... Techies have half a brain and don't click on ads!
    • I've seen some pretty slow load times with adsense... Not sure if it was a crappy host, large images or just laggy

    it's just thriftydevil.com.au ... Turns out quite a few people search for reviews of low end providers (and a moderate amount of FreeBSD/KVM type searches too).

  • vanarpvanarp Member

    @BluBoy said: Techies have half a brain and don't click on ads!

    Totally agree. I think your blog has greater potential to earn through Affiliation links than with Adsense. It may not be really difficult to fund the blog's hosting expense this way.

    In case you choose to use Adsense, I suggest to try the text link units within/between paragraphs.

    Thanked by 1djvdorp
  • heiskaheiska Member

    buysellads.com

  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    @BluBoy said: Minimum $100 cash out

    it is easy to get this... and try 1 adsense and 1 affiliate or something like that ;)

  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    @vld another troller here?

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    It's difficult.

    The only way to make any site pay is to get a lot of visitors, and ideally dumb visitors who click on ads. If you were a celebrity gossip site, you'd have a better chance.

    Adsense doesn't slow down pages, btw. But I find it an iffy program. I am curious why others say it's "easy" to get to $100 cash out. That has not been my experience but I'm hardly a pro.

    I don't care for Adsense (though I use it for lack of a good alternative) because you'll often check and see that you have $5 or $10 for a day, and then the next day it's 25 cents for that day. Your estimated earnings for the month are $25, but the finalized earnings are $3. Etcetera.

    At the end of the day, it's all about number of visitors and how often they click ads. Just displaying ads is not enough unless you're a top site.

  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    @raindog308 said: to get to $100 cash out.

    When I had my RO server, I put the ad on the loader... so, the program will check for updates, and in the meanwhile, it puts the ad for the people... they opened it 2-4 times a day, for 1200 users...

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    @netomx said: When I had my RO server

    RO = Ragnarok Online?

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    Try a donation button.

  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    @raindog308 said: RO = Ragnarok Online?

    yes. Closed it years ago, but I will open it again xD

  • buysellads or sell them witha simple contact/order form.

  • vanarpvanarp Member

    @martip07 said: buysellads or sell them witha simple contact/order form.

    If I remember well, BSA requires 25,000 pageviews/month at the minimum. If there are so many pageviews (in a natural way though), the Alexa rank will be well within the 1,000,000 mark. So it is not viable in this case.

    I still believe Affiliate links are best for this kind of site.

  • ztecztec Member

    Don't monetize until you can get a decent amount of money.
    $50,- a month is nothing if you have to spend hours debating how to get it, rather pickup an extra hour of work at your day-job.

    Value your time, money can be printed, time cannot.

    Thanked by 1djvdorp
  • BluBoyBluBoy Member
    edited July 2012

    I was just exploring my options. I'm not expecting to make money out if it, just trying to break even, or atleast be able to afford to test new VPS providers as they spout up!

    And yes, BSA requires ~50,000, which is a bit more than I am getting at the moment!
    What sort of payout do affiliate links give? Any recommendations/examples?

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