I don’t fully understand the magic that earns money from blogging. With ad revenue, it’s the sweet spot of online freelancing. Since 2008, blog ads have supplemented my income–not just a little, $200-$800 a month. Here are free ad sites to monetize blogging. These aren’t click fraudsters. They’re Google-approved sites.
* Blog-Freelance Win-Win: First a word on how that sweet spot I mentioned works. Write articles for upfront pay (or performance only). Earn performance payments on page views. Several content sites pay upfront and performance. Others, one or the other. Companies form, disband or change, so search opportunities regularly. If company terms of service allow and you earn page views, blog snippets of articles with links back to original. This earns page views plus ad revenue if readers click ads while on your blog. I have blogs on Google Blogger and WordPress.
* Google Adsense: Adsense and Blogger are Google siblings. Enable Adsense from dashboard under “earnings.” It’s free (unlike Adwords). You can put Adsense for content on up to three slots. I use leaderboard, left-side wide skyscraper and large rectangle on blog posts. I use Adsense for search and mobile. Here’s how it looks on my lesson plans blog. Mippin Mobilizer makes blogs mobile-ready. To create mobile ads, use Google-partner Admob (earnings will be reported on Adsense). Adsense was my best ad revenue earner till Google updates (Panda, Penguin) changed search results indexing. My earnings dropped–but that’s life in online freelance. Be proactive, find out what to change and adapt.
* Infolinks: This site rivals Adsense for earnings. You can use both. I use Infolinks’ full suite of products: Intext, InSearch, InFrame and InTag. Fellow bloggers do likewise and report good income. Install by enabling Blogger on Infolinks.
* Chitika: I use Chitika’s Mega-Unit, installed after the last homepage blog post. Use Blogger’s “Add HTML” to install code.
* Amazon Affiliates: I’ve not earned much here, but fellow bloggers have. It depends on blog content. Install on Blogger from “Layout” then select from “add gadget.”
* Google Affiliate Ads: Install from Blogger dashboard “earnings” tab. Match ads to post content (advertise backpacks on posts about school supplies, for instance). I tried a few but didn’t make anything. You might do better depending on blog content.
* WordPress. To earn ad revenue on WordPress, you need a paid .org blog. WordPress.com blogs are free. I’ve not found it worthwhile to pay to blog at WordPress. Free wordpress.com blogs still generate traffic to articles.
Happy blogging and earning!
