Monetising blogs

[ConfusedPixie]

I'm looking into this now as I'm starting up a new blog soon as I have been saying for months which I'm hoping to monetise, I just don't know how to.

I've googled it a bit and have discovered that supposedly, the best two options are Google Adsense and Amazon Affliates/Associates. I have found ways to do this easily on blogger, but I've recently switched to wordpress and can't find as much info on that that makes sense to me (I'm still getting used to it). I have seen things which suggest that monetising on wordpress is more difficult though but no exoplanation as to why.

I also want to focus my personal blog a bit more for future monetising purposes, does that kind of thing work? I have a generic blog and I'd like to focus on knitting, a knit-based business I'm setting up and chronic pain/diagnosis process. I could use categories to easily separate these but should I just have a separate blog for each? I still want it to be personal too so there will be other bits thrown in.

I'm not after a fortune, a couple of quid extra a month would be nice if the blog is going to be there anyway though! I'm hoping that they will end up paying for themselves wrt paying for the domain name essentially.

I blog about knitting via the Wordpress platform too. The only monetisation option method I'm using at the moment is Amazon Associates. It's very easy to set up an a-store or to include specific text links in your posts. I wouldn't say it's been particularly successful so far but it is very easy to implement.

If it's of any use to you, you can view my a-store here: www.fcknits.co.uk/book-store

Make a basic PHP template for it, drop in your a-store code and upload it to your server, in the same folder as your Wordpress theme files. It's quite simple but you can google for code samples, if you aren't familiar with basic coding.

HTH x

That does help, thank you :) I never really got that before. So you just link to amazon items through the associates program and it'll credit you some pennies if people click through?

If people click through AND purchase something, then you'll get some pennies in commission.

You are more likely to get impulse buys on a product that you've been talking about or reviewing - pop a direct link to the product in your blog post. Most people (myself included) aren't going to hang around a specific a-store, while window-shopping on Amazon, as it's easier to go direct to Amazon. However, a targeted link has potential as it focuses the mind on buying a specific product, right now.

I don't make very much from Amazon Affiliates either, but once in a while somebody will buy something big like a Kindle and I'll get a fiver. You get commission on everything somebody buys once they've clicked through your link.

Here's a post I wrote with different ideas for how you can make money from your blog: joannemallon.typepad.com/joanne_the_coach/2012/07/10-ways-to-make-money-from-your-blog-without-running-sponsored-posts.html

Presumably you guys are self-hosted on Wordpress.org, as it's against the T&Cs of wordpress.com to sell advertising/sponsored posts?

I can't speak for the other person but I'm self-hosted, JoanneMallon.

As far as I recall, the hosted blogs on Wordpress.com are quite limited in scope. I don't think you can edit template files and/or upload them, so my advice was specific to self-hosted Wordpress blogs. While I haven't stated that outright, I'd have thought my references to PHP coding would be sufficient to imply it.

I'm not self hosted yet, no point for this blog at the moment. I'm debating going back to blogger, it made much more sense to me and seemed much easier to deal with.

Hmm, if you value ease of use over customisation then Blogger is certainly a very good choice. Blogger has zero learning curve. However, it is very difficult to personalise and the template code is hard for laymen to get to grips with. It really depends on where your priorities lie and there is no right or wrong answer.

FWIW, Blogger does permit you to include advertising albeit limited volumes. As a Google owned product, it has direct links to Adsense - very easy to implement. Of course, Adsense has numerous pitfalls - not least of which its vulnerability to click-bombing or even just inadvertent personal clickthroughs. If you do go back to Blogger, you may still find it preferable to use other monetisation options, like Associates, because of the contraindications of Adsense.