It's the thing that we all want to do and it usually starts by putting up some Google AdSense.

Making money from a blog is something of a Holy Grail for the modern age yet sadly it is not very well understood by most of people trying to "do it".

I am going to debunk the myth that effective monetisation means adverts or sponsored posts.

There is a whole other field of monetisation so much more effective that they leave these common methods standing. However they require a longer term view of things and some effective branding first.


While this article is not going to cover all the tricks and tips of the effective monetisation and while it will not make you an expert in the subject it is going to share some of the lessor known tricks and hopefully get you started with something of an edge.

Before we continue you need to know that not every one will be able to use all of these effective monetisation techniques as well as others. For an unlucky few people some of these monetisation methods might not work for thier site at all. However with a little planning everyone should be able to use some of these methods.

These methods should help you get an understanding of the approach needed and will at least clue you in to what is going on.

There are some technological barriers that some blogs (especially free hosted) may not easily accommodate but if you can make the jump to self hosted it will be well worth it.

Also you should note that it is rarely worth trying to monetisation a blog that is less than a year old.

If you are willing to overcome these limits the great rewards are yours for the taking. These rewards can be very good indeed depending a little on luck but mostly on dedication and timing.

When you set out to monetise your blog your first thought is going to be adverts.

Adverts are not the answer.

Adverts are not the answer because you are now leaking. Your best source of new readers is search traffic but sadly they are the most likely to click an advert and not come back. Your readership growth is leaking away and the advert pushers have you thinking it is a good thing.

This uncontrolled leakage is not good for your long term effectiveness of monetisation.

You will be trapped like a hamster in a wheel running around and around - pumping up the back links, adding in the articles, writing the great news item, the next press release to get the top listings in the search only to have all that effort spill out others for an average of $0.08 or less.

Adverts can stunt your growth.

Do not get me wrong - adverts have their place but not until you have stabilised at your blogs "adult size" and this is some two to three years in.

So what can you do to earn some cash? Some people go for paid or sponsored posts but despite the bloggers best efforts the effect is always to "cheapen" the site and dilute the quality of the articles. This will stunt your growth too as readers can be easily turned off by an overdose of blantent sponsered posts.

The golden method for effective monetisation is to associate your brand with something your visitors can buy ideay they should buy from you.

This works because your readers (those people that come back time and again) will be drawn to the goods or services that you offer. Better still is the fact that (as long as what you sell is not a scam) they will still be your readers after they purchase. They will also be much more likely to tell thier friends if it was good and tell you if it was not so good.

The most important thing is that your readers will grow in their trust for you and will be gradually more willing to purchase new services and products as you roll them out.

This means that you can focus on your blog and roll out products, cobranded or otherwise to an established audience that will, on the whole, be interested in what you offer and even if they are not they will be there to continue reading and maybe even write about your product on thier blog.

This takes time but pays the best in the end.

Globally Local know that self hosted is vital to your success and have a Range of Plans with free Google Ad Credits at prices that are easy to cope with.

This Article was written by Lord Matt and is based on an article which has even mroe resources and can be found here. Lord Matt is a nice guy and if you ask him he would probably be willing to help you set up your new blog.