Interesting discussion in this Wall Street Journal article about the viability of blogs making money. The discussion takes place between Jupiter Media’s Alan Meckler and Weblogs, Inc.’s Jason Calacanis. Alan’s take is that 99.999% of blogs just aren’t going to make money.

True - that’s why you’ve got to learn how to research a topic for profitability before you start your blog. Some topics just aren’t going to attract advertisers and are harder to monetize. Some topics can draw hordes of visitors but little revenue. Take computer gaming versus home improvement. My guess is that computer gaming is a more popular topic in terms of traffic but the CPM for ads is much lower. That means you need less traffic to achieve an equivalent amount of revenue with the latter topic.

Popularity: 24% [?]

I hate comment spammers. I just deleted hundreds of comment spam for pharmacy and adult websites. Now I’ll have to make registration mandatory before anyone is allowed to comment. At least for the time being until the spammers lay off my site.

Popularity: 67% [?]

I found these blog profit tips from About.com. It has some articles about how to monetize your blog including how to add AdSense to your blog, how to set up a tip jar, earning money with affiliate programs, etc. These tips are more for those who are absolute beginners to blogging.

Technorati Tags: blogging for profit

Popularity: 8% [?]

I just saw this ebook called “Blogging to the Bank” and it was quite intriguing. This chap claims to make upwards of $500 per day promoting Clickbank products. Anyway, I bought the product and I’m reviewing it now. The ebook is only 39 pages long. But it’s the content that counts, not how many pages it takes up. I wouldn’t mind paying $47 (which is how much the ebook costs) if I think the stuff is worth it.

Okay, so I think the techniques that this guy teaches are actually “spammy” in my opinion. Anyone else read it? What do you think? I’d love to hear your feedback.

Technorati Tags: Blogging to the Bank

Popularity: 8% [?]

Chitika audited earnings for January 2006 have been posted. Looking at my results, the difference between unaudited and audited earnings is about 20%. December was 4% and November was again 20%. I’m still evaluating Chitika and will decide soon whether to drop it from my network of sites. Basically, the CPM is, in a word - horrible - at least for me.

Technorati Tags: Chitika

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I just read this story that Kottke.Org which is a blog run by Jason Kottke is no longer accepting contributions from readers to support the effort.

Kottke revealed on Wednesday that he had raised a total of $39,900 (£22,800) from 1,450 donors. Most of that was received in the initial fund-raising drive in February and March 2005 when his project began.

More details about Jason’s decision can be found at his blog post. Part of the reason, to quote Jason, is:

I haven’t grown traffic enough or developed a sufficient cult of personality to make the subscription model a sustainable one for kottke.org…those things just aren’t interesting to me.

I find it interesting that there is no advertising whatsoever on Kottke.org given that it has a PR of 8 and probably a sizeable amount of traffic. Maybe he’s one of the few purists left in the blogosphere. But hey, bloggers got to eat too!

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Found this article in the Microsoft Small Business Center website on tips for making money with your blog. To summarize, the tips are:

1. Sell advertising (surprise, surprise) - you can either apply to contextual advertising programs or sell ad space directly to companies who are interested in the subject of your blog.

2. Help others sell products, i.e. affiliate marketing

3. Ask for donations - seen those PayPal “Donate” buttons?

4. Market your services - if, for example, you’re a writer or graphic designer, etc.

5. Build customer relationships - get your customers to buy more from you.

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This is an older article on rates bloggers are getting paid in several blog networks (Gawker, Weblogs). Reportedly, Jessica Coen of Gawker only makes $30,000 per year but I clicked on the link to read the article and couldn’t find it. I did a Google search and found the list here (Who Makes What?).

Here is another list of popular blogs featured by the New York magazine.

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This is a long article about blogging for dollars but it’s definitely worth a read (yes, all 6 pages of it!)

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If you don’t want the hassle of setting up your own WordPress blog, you can also use a new service provided by BlogExplosion call BlogCharm where you can get paid to blog. It’s free to sign up for an account. Right now it’s still in the beta phase and is set to launch officially on March 1st. That’s when you start to get paid.

There will be revenue splitting (50%) of sponsor ads and you will also get paid everytime your blog is shown. (I’m not sure how they are going to keep track of repeated views from the same users - maybe limit to unique daily views?) On top of that, you can still add your own AdSense code to your blog and keep all the revenue for yourself.

Check it out here.

Popularity: 9% [?]