Don’t you sometimes wish you were a Steve Pavlina or a John Chow? These guys really got the fundamentals of blogging and of blogging for dollars. A while back I came across a list of people who were considered top 100 bloggers for dollar – I could not believe that I was not part of that list (*snigger*) hence I set out to be in one of the top list if not top 100 or 200 or 300!

There are various avenues of earning dollars from your blog, however, I personally place my bet on Google and affiliate who over payment for selling text links.

Also a warning in advance – every advertiser and affiliate have rules and regular to adhere by. So it is in your best interest to get familiarized with the rules or invest in software that will help flag potential violations of rules. If all is good and you have given your 100 million percent then there is nothing that will stop you from earning blog dollars!

Dollars from Google Adsense

This baby is driven by keywords. It is imperative that your blog is optimized for search engine and offers variety of keywords that would help bring the right people to your blog!

There is plenty of information on the Internet that shows you how to optimize your blog so that you get top dollars for each click. To share the basics there are two ways you get paid. CPC (cost per click) or eCPM (effective cost per impression – meaning, how many times the ad appears on your site). And eCPM depends on how many visitors you have to your site – which means your payment is calculated depending on the number of people you bring to the site and how long they stay on your site browsing different pages).

Most (but not all) advertisers online (recently more so) go with the CPC method because why would anyone want to pay for window shoppers? Businesses will pay for people who are genuinely interested in their product – which means, interested people will actually click on the ad – and for that advertisers will pay. And this is why it is so important that your content and keywords are a match.

Example, would you go to Dairy Queen if you want to eat East Indian Curry and rice? I think not! Do you think Dairy Queen will advertise “rice” if all they are selling is bugers and ice cream? I think not! So what your blog content offers and what you are advertising must match if you want the right people and right ads on your blog!

Business Promotion

Someone offered me a business and I, out of the goodness of my heart, created a small ad button to showcase my work and in the process, advertise their business. I did that for about a month after which, I started charging for placing ads on my blog. You can do that too. Just know, this is not a steady income and advertisers may not renew their ad placement after the initial term (30-90 days). So go out and find more people who would be interested to see their business advertising on your blog.

Banner and Text Ads

Text Link ads are my least favourite way of advertising on the blog. I find, they are best left for emails and newsletters. Banner Ads on the other hand have potential. So do your research and sign up with the right affiliates.