How do you make money with your blog? I don’t generate all that much actual cash. I get free things for review here and there though. I have sold a couple of sidebar ads- the 125×125 squares- by the month.
I generally won’t take a review/giveaway unless I get something worth my time to write the post- I won’t do it for free. As for the Amazon store, they are free to open. I’ve only really made a few cents (34 to be exact), and from my mom.
Google ads seem to do a little better. I have them at the bottoms of my posts and also in my feed. They don’t pay out until $100 though, and I haven’t gotten there yet. I’m at about $50 for that, so at this rate I can cash out in about a year.
Sometimes I’ll take sponsored posts. Those are ones that have links to another site in them- and they pay me. But they don’t tell me what to write, just that they want certain linked words. I get to babble about whatever I want in those- I like doing them.
Where do you get the products to review? I pitched companies that I really wanted, and got a lot of NOs but a few yeses here and there. Out of 20 pitches, I heard back from maybe half. Out of the half I heard back from, 7 said no, 2 said come back later, and one would say yes.
What is a pitch? It’s an email to the company (you can find their email addresses on their sites usually) stating who you are, linking your blog, and why you think their product would be a good fit for your readers.
As you can see, I’m not exactly rolling in the cash or getting amazing review opportunities at this point. But that’s okay, because I want my blog to be about my family primarily. The other stuff is just an awesome bonus. However, there are a few non-blogging sources that anyone can do where I pull in a few dollars here and there.
- Sponsored Tweets. I don’t know if you use twitter, but I get paid $1.50 per ad tweet, and that ads up fast. http://spn.tw/r2cF5
- Swagbucks. I use them as my toolbar instead of Google and I’ve earned $135 in Amazon gift cards so far. http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/outofmana76
- Crowdtap. I have earned $20 so far from them, just answering questions- and also I’ve product tested jeans from Old Navy with them. http://crowdtap.com/invitations/4ca502006589af30d4000409
Just a note- the links above are my affiliate links.
Also not blogging related, but I also do my local Macaroni Kids newsletter. I pay the monthly hosting fee, BUT any ads I sell, that income is all mine. If anyone wants more info on that I’d be happy to share that as well.
Related posts on blogging tips: Visual Aesthetics, Content and Reader Interaction.
I haven’t tried swagbucks yet, maybe I should!
Swagbucks pays for my kindle book addiction LOL
I’d love to do Swagbucks, but most of my internet browsing is done @ work and I can’t install the Swagbucks bar, GRR!
Very interesting post, Jayme. Even for an non-blog-writer like me.
I’m glad it wasn’t terribly boring for non-bloggers
how interesting, but way more work that I can handle. I have SO many things I Need to do, like sort my photos, get rid of the ones I’ve taken but don’t want to use. Move photo folders from the hard drive to the external huge terra drive, clean up the apple tv……….all sorts of housekeeping tasks on my computer. My computer looks like a hoarder home, and it’s just as uncomfortable. haha
I keep dumping all my photos onto our external hard drive… without sorting.
I love swag bucks. I’m saving up for the big gift cards though!
I’m a big fan of sponsored tweets and crowdtap too. Way to spread the word (and get those affiliate links in there, too!) about great sites.
I like the instant gratification of the $5 ones LOL I have no patience to wait for the big cards!
have you pitched on profnet? i get lots of product reviews there. lots of junk too. but i guess i won’t do ads since it’s not instant money. lol.
I have never heard of profnet!
The only ads I’ve done are the button ones, and they’ve paid me up front for X amount of months. I always get payment ahead of time- I haven’t done any of those cpm ads or anything.
What a great post, love all of the info you share. Swagbucks is on my list of things to try!
I love Swagbucks! It’s so easy.
I do sponsored tweets but haven’t made much I think when I reach my cash out point I’m done BUT I know other people who have had great success! I need to start doing swagbucks again, maybe that’s how I can BUY my kindle
And I stopped using crowdtap but not sure why. I think I’m going to go there now
On my organising blog I actually hired a blog coach last year to find out what I was doing wrong because I was making almost no money for the amt of time taken to blog.
I took 6 months worth of earnings ($75) to pay for the 45-min session!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! are you shocked yet?
Well… turns out I was doing just fine, blogging is just not a way to make a lot of money.
I’m actually seriously thinking about the direction of that blog – I do like writing it but it’s so darn demotivating to make ZILCH!
I haven’t made the big bucks either- I made $60 last year total for side bar ads, and the other stuff where I actually cashed out (SponsoredTweets, Swagbucks & CrowdTap) are all things that have nothing to do with the blog LOL
I have received some fun stuff to review though. Generally I won’t take a review if it’s not something I would buy or use anyway, and if it’s worth less than like $20 I won’t take it either- not worth my time to write it up.
I don’t even worry about it though- because I’d be blogging without making a dime, so anything I do bring in is just a fun bonus
Jayme, I sell a few spots (ie squares) through CJ.com and I make good money off of them. But for the others that dont come through that… Do you go to the company or is there a site where you can go to them?
They’ve come to me, I’ve never pitched for an ad.