Jerry D. Russell

The most common question I’m asked about how I make a living online is what tools I use to get paid, and I do get paid, each and every day. For those who might be skeptical of that statement, let me assure you that it is the God’s honest truth. The only reason I might go a day without seeing money deposited into my account is that I was too lazy to do something on a given day. I was paid yesterday, I’ve already seen payment today, and I’ve got several payments slated for tomorrow. I’ve gotten used to it, and it’s not something I want to live without any more.

Is it simple? To be honest, sometimes it is, at other times I end up feeling like I’ve moved mountains to get a check for the day, either way I push through and make sure that something that will make me at least a few dollars has been done. And folks, if I can do it, so can you. There’s no reason in the world that you can’t make at least a hundred dollars per month from your own hosted blog. (It may be a lot more difficult if you’re using blogger or some other hosted service.)

OK great, you get paid. Must be nice, but how do you do it?!?

Actually I use multiple streams to make an income through my blogs, and you should too. To rely on any one system of monetizing greatly limits your ability to bring in a regular paycheck and can, in times of difficulties with a given service, render you unable to make any money at all for days or even weeks. Spreading your efforts over different income methods provides not only the knowledge that there is something else you can look into on any given day to make a bit of cash, but at least for me it gives a sense of security. I know that if one of the services or companies I contract for goes under tomorrow, I’ve still got other avenues out there.

The methods available to make money through your blog vary in both type and in the amount of income they generate. Some methods are great for adding up to a hundred dollars a day to my account, while others accrue revenue more slowly over time. I use as many methods as possible, but they really break down into two categories, passive monetizing and active monetizing.

Passive and Active monetizing, my definition:

Passive Advertising:

Passive advertising is any form of advertising you “set and forget.” The most recognizable version of this type of monetizing is the venerable Google AdSense Ad. You simply set up an account, generate some code to add to your blog and forget you ever did it, while hoping that one day they will send you a check. This type of advertising also applies to ad networks such as BlogHer, TextLink Ads, Chitika Mini Malls and a wide variety of other services. The one that will work best for your blog depends heavily on your niche, bit it’s a good idea to look into as many of these services as possible.

Payment for these kind of ads varies depending on a variety of factors and the amount of income that they will generate for you is dependent largely on your audience and the sheer volume of traffic your blog receives. In a nutshell, the more traffic you get, the more likely these methods are to make you a good bottom line. There are rare cases however, where ads are so perfectly tailored to a site’s content that they generate a good deal of money even in low traffic situations.

Your mileage may vary, no warranty is expressed or applied.

Active Advertising

Active monetizing methods is the kind you actually have to put effort into each and every time you want to make money from it. The most profitable type of active advertising in my case is the Advertorial, or Paid Post. The most known companies offering this type of advertising dollar are companies like ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews and Izea. The premise here is that you write an article for or about a company that wants to generate traffic or awareness of their site in and around the bloggosphere and they pay you do do it.

There are a lot of people in the blogging community that feel this type of ad is the equal of selling out, or that posting this type of ad somehow dilutes the purity of all blogs everywhere. I disagree with this line of thinking. Advertorials are a part of every-day life whether you’re watching TV, listening to the radio or surfing your favorite blogs. They’re here to stay, and I’m more than willing to cash in on the method.

Crossover methods

Some types of advertising can either be active or passive, depending on how they are used. The most notable variety here is affiliate advertising. If you just slap some affiliate links in your sidebar, then you are using it as a passive method. (Say you toss up a few links to Amazon products.) You’re hoping that you made a good choice, and you run with it for a while, checking your stats from time-to-time.

If you’re adding affiliate links into your posts and comments, then it becomes an active method. It requires your time and attention a lot more frequently than it would otherwise. This method will generally give better results, since you can tailor what your readers have the opportunity to click on in direct relation to what they were interested in reading at the moment.

So what is it you’re using?

All of the above. If you look over my blog at Cooking, by the seat of my Pants!, you will see all of these methods in use after a few minutes of browsing around. I do a good job of keeping some of these ad types pretty subtle, but they are there nonetheless, and they’re making money.

My other blogs use different mixes of all of the above as well. some rely strictly on in-post affiliate linking, others that aren’t updated as often rely on AdSense and other passive methods, and still others make the entirety of their income from advertorials. It depends on the blog and how much work I want to put in to it.

I’m not going to tell you exactly who I go through, at least not yet. I’d rather cover that information on a company-by-company basis. It gives the opportunity to give the Pros and Cons of each on its own merit, and these companies and services deserve that courtesy. They are paying me, after all.

This overview should put you well on your way to finding a method of monetizing that works for you. Try doing a Google search for Blog Advertising Networks. It’s a good place to start.

Hi, and welcome

Let’s get the ball rolling with a short introduction and a bit of a mission statement. I’ve had this domain for quite a while, but until now I really didn’t know what i wanted to do with it. Over time my other interests have earned me a bit of money and of course other people have asked me how I did that. Instead of writing five to ten emails a week re-explaining the same concepts over and over again, I decided to turn this site into a central repository for all of the methods that I use and income generating avenues I try out.

If they work, you’ll be the first to know.

It’s all about keeping it real

What this blog is:

This blog is about realistic methods for making money online and how to optimize what you’re already doing to achieve that goal. By realistic methods I mean things that anyone can do with a little effort and a little know-how.

I’ll cover the things that have worked for me, the things that have not and concepts for making these things work for you, whatever niche you happen to be in.

Over the course of my career working in the Internet, a lot of other people have shared their knowledge with me and helped me to get to where I am today. This is my way of giving some of that back to others who just want to do the same things that we have done.

It’s a karma thing.

What this blog is not:

This blog is not about getting rich on the Internet. If I had the seret for making a million dollars per day while playing the newest Resident Evil, I wouldn’t be very likely to share it with anyone at all. I’m way too much of a capitalist for that.

What I cover may at times be controversial. I am a mercenary money maker. I don’t particularly care if there is a segment of the Internet population that does not like the way I go about earning my money, but I do not and will not cover any form of marketing or revenue program that is illegal or unethical. I work for my money and I come by it honestly. I do not promote methods that will gain you money in other ways.

If you’re looking for a get-rich quick scheme, look somewhere else.

How often will this blog be updated?

As often as I find something worth writing about. I have no intention of filling this site with fluff to simply attract search engine spiders or promote my other interests. I decided to start this for one reason and to serve one purpose. That’s all I intend for this blog to do. If there are gaps in content, it’s because I had nothing noteworthy to say.

having said that, I’ll most likely be posting something once or twice a week, as long as I can manage to cover all the bases that I want to cover on that topic. If I can’t cover them in one post, then I’ll keep going until I do.

Content is king, but only if it’s worth reading.

Will you sell out and start posting advertorials?

I’ll post sponsored articles if I feel they may be of some value, or if they pay me well enough. After all, this is about making money. But don’t worry that you’ll ever see an ad for plastic surgeons in La Jolla. It wouldn’t really fit the subject matter, would it? I would prefer that in the end, this site make money through straight advertising and affiliate sales, but in its infancy it’s going to pay the bills however it can.

Besides, I don’t feel that selling advertorials is selling out, but I’ll cover more on that subject later.

It’s all about the money. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this.

Once again, thanks for stopping by. If anything I’ve said has peked your interest, why not sign up for the RSS feed to stay updated with the most current and interesting tidbits I have to offer you?