1. Advertising Programs
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is probably the best known advertising program available to Blogger webmasters since Google Adsense can easily be inserted into your blog with a couple of clicks. Google Adsense is a good choice if you are starting out and want to earn a bit of extra cash. Don't expect too much at first though or you may be very disappointed. In my experience you will probably only get about 1 click for every 200-300 impressions. Therefore you will need plenty of traffic to make Google Adsense work for you. See my tips on building site traffic if this is an area you would like to develop on your Blogger blog. For more about Google Adsense please refer to Blogger Guide to Google Adsense Myths and Blogger Guide to Google Adsense Placement
You can also add Google Adsense to your Blogger feeds giving you additional advertising opportunities. If you haven't burnt your blog's feed at Feedburner make it a priority. That way you can have Google advertising appearing in all your feeds. Please refer to my tutorials on How to Burn a Blogger feed at Feedburner and Blogger RSS Feeds and Feedburner for help on this subject.
Other Advertising Programs/Networks
There are plenty of other advertising programs to choose from if you decide against Google Adsense. Adbrite is worth considering if you are in the market for an alternative to Google Adsense. Another alternative worthy of consideration is Widget Bucks as they claim a higher CPM than Google Adsense. Linkworth offer a range of publisher choices to fit your blog and also have a generous referral program. Yet another possibility and one which I am using on my blog right now is to try out Chitika which allows you to insert ad units along with Google Adsense or Adbrite offerring even greater advertising opportunities for your Blogger blog.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Programs are free. They provide banners you can place on your blog which when clicked on earn you revenue. Typically these programs either give you a percentage of the sale eg 5-10% or they pay a set commission per lead. Some of the largest affiliate programs are Commission Junction and LinkShare.com
. Most have a referral program too whereby you can earn revenue by referring other publishers and advertisers. For example Linkshare pays $1.50 for every valid publisher (afffiliate sometimes called vendor) signup who generates a click-through to Linkshare within 30 days.
With so many good merchant programs to choose from it is easy to go a bit overboard on banner advertising. Be careful not to overuse banners as they can detract from the look and feel of your website.
3. Place a Donation Link or Button on Your Blog
Donations can bring in a few dollars depending on the generosity of your visitors and the quality of your blog. You may have seen that a number of Blogger bloggers have a donation link or button on their blog. These are equivalent to a tip jar on a counter. If a visitor particularly likes your blog or has benefited from your help in some way they may be only too happy to slip you a couple of bucks. Offerring a Paypal link on your blog is an easy and straightforward method for visitors to make a donation large or small. See my step by step Blogger tutorial on How to Add a Paypal Donate Button to Blogger4. Sell E-Books or other Digital Media on Your Blog
One sure fired way to increase site traffic is to offer some digital product on your site that visitors are prepared to pay for. There are heaps of examples of Bloggers who have made a good return using this method such as Yaro Starak's Blog Mastermind, Rob Benwell's Blogging to the Bank 3.0 and Atomic Blogging by Alvin Phang.
5. Sell Advertising Space on Your Blog
If your blog is moderately successful in terms of the volume of traffic it receives you might consider selling advertising space to a company for its advertising campaign. The advertising slot can be leased on an ongoing basis or is good for a given number of impressions.
In this article I have discussed 5 easy ways to make Blogger blog pay its way. Do yourself a favor and start earning some revenue today.
Related Articles
Bloggers Guide to Google Adsense Myths
Google Adsense Tips for Blogger Blogs
Better Placement of Google Adsense in Blogger
Add Google Adsense to Blogger Header
Blogger Guide to Google Adsense Placement
Make Money Add Banners Ads to Blogger
Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Sidebar
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs