by Paula Neal Mooney
Back when I first delved into the world of blogging and online writing, I didn't even know folks made much -- if any -- money from it.
Boy have times changed.
The money is starting to roll in fast – the Lord delights in the prosperity of his servants! – and from so many different sources, I figured it was time to chronicle it all.
So I tallied up everything I've earned so far thru my online activities to help me and my readers figure out what vehicles pay the best online. And I also included which ones pay the worst, others that rejected me -- and still others I'm just beginning to mine.
These numbers represent what I earned from each venue since I signed up with them, all with varying start dates and levels of activity, from the most money to least.
Going forward I will begin to track my earnings monthly, and update the list to let you all know the success or failure I've had with other money-making online vehicles, so make sure to subscribe to my blog for daily updates by email so you won't miss the future postings of my revenue.
Here's how I made $4,375.75 online...
Click the hyperlinked titles below to join (or pitch that market!) so you can start making money too:
1 - Cleveland/Akron Family Magazines Earnings-to-Date: $1,230.00
Now don't get discouraged by this first one, a local freebie monthly print mag who also prints my essays online. I was amazed, and sad to say a bit unappreciative at first when I got this gig.As a condition of my unemployment, I diligently looked for a job weekly. I emailed editors my writing samples and half-heartedly asked for staff writing positions. One editor from Cleveland/Akron family mags called me back and hired me to write six or seven 800-word essays yearly, each earning $100, with the occasional extra piece thrown in.
How you can do it: Don't be afraid to pitch your local newspaper and magazine editors with your best stuff. You might very well end up with a well-paying online column!
2 - Associated Content Earnings-to-Date:$1,111.05
I first joined old AC back in August 2006. Despite a hulabaloo of complaints from some disgrunted CPs, AC holds a soft spot in my heart. They pay varying amounts per article.
To tell you the truth, I haven't submitted an article for payment on AC in a long time -- I many times publish for free just to get exposure for my blog -- but it might be time for me to try my hand at it again. I've made $4 - $50 per piece for them here and there, and they paid me $100 per month for news stories as part of their Beta News Team for a while, but that ended. Now approved news stories pay $5 per piece, AND they get listed in Google News, a high-profile place to pitch your own blog.
How you can do it: Join Associated Content if you haven't already, and if you have but went astray, think about publishing there again. They've instituted a new performance bonus program currently paying $1.50 for every 1,000 page views. For example 20,000 pageviews x $1.50 = $30.00 bonus.
I was on my knees thanking God for the unexpected payouts that ended up in my PayPal account based on pageviews from popular stories I wrote a while ago. They also have a referral program, which I saw another mommy blogger was earning money from, so I'll follow-up on how much that pays me.
AC is growing smarter, realizing that it's only fair that writers share in the ad revenue by instituting that bonus program. So I feel good encourage all my readers to join for free and write, write, write!
3 - Amazon Associates Earnings-to-Date:$573.47
Leading readers to good Amazon products is definitely a good money-maker. I kinda cringe when I see bloggers working so hard to recommend great books and stuff but don't get any cut of the action they deserve because they haven't joined Amazon Associates program. This photo gives you the breakdown of the percentages that Amazon pays its associates for products purchased thru the blogger's site. For example, just the other day someone bought a Nintendo Wii thru my blog I earned 25 bucks!
I don't think Amazon Associates has a referral program -- but I know folks also earn much money thru their aStore that I haven't fully explored yet -- please let me know your experiences with these factors!
How you can do it: Join Amazon Associates and read up on the program. And don't just throw some banners ads on your blog and forget them, but also add Omakase Links that scan your content to figure out what products your readers might buy -- like in my current blog’s header. And add an Amazon search box, so people can find their own products and you can still get paid.
Keep your ear to the TV for products that you feel comfortable pitching -- and always check Amazon first to make sure they carry it, then incorporate the product link smoothly in your blog post. Sell them softly, if people want to buy it, they will. Tell the truth - I still blogged about products I hadn't purchased, and asked my readers who purchased them for feedback.
I've had the most success by blogging about new items that went viral. The top-earner is an expensive product, so my cut is nice and high. You may as well get paid for all your hard work finding information for people who don't have the time or skills to do so online. You're making their job easier...
4 - Google Adsense Earnings-to-date: $302.96
Google Adsense is a program that lets you display relevant ads on your blog. When people click on them, Google tallies up an amount -- how they calcuate this amount is the secret of long-ago mysteries -- but they pay you monthly via check, PayPal or bank account.
How you can do it: Join Google Adsense and experiment with the variety of ads: image, text,links and videos. Set up channels so you know the specific ad location your readers have clicked on, so you can learn what they like. Read up on how successful bloggers have pitched their referral products (which pay when someone takes an action, e.g., getting $1 whenever someone downloads Google Pack, etc.) and placed their ads within posts like mine.
Study how I've pitched mine in my sidebar, but follow only at your own risk. I believe the jury is still out over whether or not Google approves of placing pics next to their ads and products like I've done, but Google themselves are starting to test images next to their ads, so I figure we should be allowed to as well. If they ban me, I don't really care because then I can join another ad network that pays more.
5 - Ghost Blogging Earnings-to-date: $250.00
I write a blog for my dad's tax business and he pays me.
How you can do it: If you're up for it and have the time, consider ghost-blogging for people who don't know how and make money promoting their businesses or ideas…
6 - ReviewMe Earnings-to-date: $225.00
Advertisers pay you thru ReviewMe to blog about their product or service. Payment paid out on a monthly basis, no later than the 4th, sent via PayPal or check.
How you can do it: Sign up on ReviewMe and submit up to six blogs for consideration, but don't get discouraged if your blog is rejected at first. Mine was. Just keep up the quality blogging and praying for approval!
7 - PayPerPost Earnings-to-date: $169.50
Not only do you get paid per post based on your blog’s popularity, they also have a new referral program that pays you $15.00 when people sign up to PayPerPost thru your referral link and the referees first blog posting is accepted.
Also, when someone clicks on this badge and signs up with PayPerPost, a special opportunity is created just for them to review your blog and you each receive $7.50 for your efforts.
How you can do it: Look for the "Get paid to blog about the things you love" box in my sidebar -- I hate when I can't change those banner pictures! -- and click on it to join PayPerPost. Again, don't be discouraged if they reject you at first. Make sure your blog is at least 90 days old with at least 20 posts -- and make sure you haven't skipped a whole month of blogging like I did when I rushed and first applied to PayPerPost.
Eventually, you'll probably get approved and can become a postie, too. Then add the PayPerPost banner and "Review This Blog" PPP image at the end of each of your posts, and watch that PPP dough start rolling in!
8 - Writer's Digest Contest Earnings-to-date: $156.25
One Holy-Spirit filled night I wrote and submitted our "Looking for Mr. Byline" essay. It won Writer's Digest free 'Chronicle' competion, plus was later reprinted in the print mag.
How you can do it: Check out Writer's Digest list of contests and see if any float your boat. Or seek out other valid online writing contests and try your hand at winning.
9 - Swag I've Received Value-to-date: $162.65
If popular blogger John Chow can include all the free stuff people send him -- commonly known as swag -- in his revenue numbers, so can I! And so can you...
Once you become a blogger who proves they can bring in readers, companies will be chomping at the bit to send you free stuff, in hopes that you'll blog about it. This is what happened when Ted Demopoulos read my post called Paula Mooney: Wondering What to Buy a Blogger for Christmas?, which included a mention of his book Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care
Ted sent me a free signed copy of his new book, What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere (What No One Ever Tells You About...)
Then HarperCollins sent me 4 copies of Babyproofing Your Marriage: How to Laugh More, Argue Less, and Communicate Better as Your Family Grows
How you can do it: The only set formula I can give you on getting swag to come to you is to just keep blogging about good stuff, and the swag will come. After all, you never know who could be reading your blog...
10 - SponsoredReviews Earnings-to-date: $65.00
This puppy just launched and I jumped in feet first with my first post, SponsoredReviews.com Launch - How Much Money Can You Make? -- which garnered me a cool $16.25 bucks for writing it. Tomorrow's post that I plan to publish about The Secret will pay me $48.75 for my cut.
How you can do it: I like that Sponsored Reviews pays bloggers bi-weekly (instead of monthly) via PayPal. And I also like that you can haggle over your own price and advertisers accept or reject your bid. I don't like that Sponsored Reviews doesn't yet have a referral program, but their CEO Jarrod Hunt promises me that one is coming soon.
"Depending on the size of your readership and the quality of your blog posts, you can earn anywhere from $10 to $1000 per review," says the Sponsored Reviews site. "If you are a major site, you might be able to get even more." So sign up with Sponsored Reviews and tell me how much money you've made!
11 - Blogsvertise Earnings-to-date: $35.00
Blogsvertise pays bloggers via PayPal 30 days after your post is accepted, approximately $5 to $10 per post. I'm pretty sure I read that a revenue sharing program is coming, which is what would make me return to this one and make it a lot more worthwhile.
How you can do it: Sign up with Blogsvertise and see if any of their available posting opportunites strike your fancy. Then plop a link and pic on your blog and "refer new advertisers to blogsvertise and earn even more income," says their pitch. Their "advertiser referral program pays you 20% of what advertisers you refer spend on advertising with blogsvertise. For example if an advertiser you refer spends $500, you will receive $100 of this transaction."
12 - Text Link Ads Earnings-to-date: $25.00
Make money with text link ads three ways: 1) Selling ad space, 2) Monetizing your feed, 3) Become a text link ad affiliate.
Initially rejected for blog ads, I was sent this nice email: "Paula, we recheck sites every other month so hopefully you will receive an email from us soon, thx!", better than the "This domain has been previously submitted to our publisher program and has not been approved yet. Please note that we re-evaluate all submissions monthly and you will receive an email as soon as your submission has been approved. You do not need to submit your site again. Thank you." response I get online every time I type in my URL anxiously.
And in typing this post I just learned that you need to install a WordPress plugin in order to take advantage of their "FREE Feedvertising technology to run text link ads in your RSS feed" program, so guess I'll do that once I get a WP blog going.
How you can do it: Don't know who you have to kiss to get approved, but you can start earning $25 a pop per referral that you send on over to Text Link Ads. That's how I just earned my first 25 bucks with them -- thank you Fredric Mitchell! -- so sign up with Text Link Ads right now and study my sidebar to see how I've pitched their program so you can do the same!
13 - Swag Blogging Earnings-to-date: $20.00
Harper Collins agreed to pay me $20 for my post called No Sex After Having Kids? Try Babyproofing Your Marriage about the new Babyproofing Your Marriage: How to Laugh More, Argue Less, and Communicate Better as Your Family Grows
How you can do it: Agree to set terms up front regarding blogging about swag, then meet the deadline they set for you. And follow-up -- which reminds me, it's about time for me to shoot someone an email about my promised check...
14 - creamAID Earnings-to-date: $16.00
I earned my first relatively easy and fun 10 bucks from creamAID for this post called I'm lovin' it too much...
I loved that I could take my kids with me to snap the pic of McDonalds, and I love that creamAid had the money in my PayPal account within 24 hours after they accepted my post, like they promised. (Just post your blog entry using theirinstructions, and they'll automatically know that you've got that widget on a post. This confused me at first.)
My next post for them was This is me and my energy... and it got me another 6 bucks.
How you can do it: Sign up for creamAID and "receive email when a new conversation begins, participate, and if your post is selected, the money will be sent to your PayPal account within 24 hours," they honestly promise. "Receive referral fee when people who click on your widget has their CreamAid post accepted."
I like creamAID's nifty widget, but lately a lot of scuzzier sponsors with a lot less deep pockets have been participating. As soon as I get the email and click on someone's widget to participate, all the slots are already full. And they usually pay a lot less than 10 bucks, with only 1 or 2 or 3 bucks for the payment, so the only reason I might return to a post or two for them would be to gain blog traffic.
15 - Blogitive Earnings-to-date: $15.00
Underwent a rehaul, site still seems a bit amateurish with no revenue sharing, so not much to keep me coming back till they do, not even the couple of blogging jobs listed on their job board right now.
How you can do it: Sign up for Blogitive if you wish. I've got a $5 offer out there right now about gold coins that I need to decide to accept or reject. This site doesn't hold much promise for me.
16 - LoudLaunch Earnings-to-date: $10.00
When LoudLaunch launched, I wrote LoudLaunch.com Launches...and I'm Sure the Blogging-Purists Will be Up in Arms... and they paid me 10 bucks for it. And maybe the disgruntled commenter who had a bad LoudLaunch experience soured me against them. Since then I've logged on and haven't seen many advertisers I've wanted to write about. Mostly plastic surgery stuff...
How you can do it: Sign up and submit your blog(s) to LoudLaunch for approval, then get paid via PayPal agreed upon amount. There's no referral program from what I've found -- a big turn-off! -- so I just emailed Chris at LoudLaunch to ask if he'd be creating one. I'll update you all if they do...
17 - AdBrite Earnings-to-date: $5.45
I had the AdBrite ad code on my blog for a little while, but took it down since I didn't want to crowd it even more, and thought it was earning too slowly. But I really like AdBrite InVideo concept that I blogged about in my post called AdBrite InVideo Ads: Raising my $5.45 AdBrite Balance and really really REALLY tried to get it working this weekend but got errors.
I tried BlipTV, but to no avail. I believe it will be a great money maker, so I just shot the DB guy who left a comment about AdBrite an email. Hopefully it will work soon...
How you can do it: Once again, sign up for AdBrite and at least build a campaign and give their ads a shot. At the very least, refer people to AdBrite and earn "On all buying and selling activity referred by your site, you earn 50% of AdBrite’s profits for the first 3 months, 10% of AdBrite’s profit for the next 9 months," says AdBrite.
I'll let you know how much more I make once the video deal is resolved and more referrals sign up.
18 - AuctionAds Earnings-to-date: $3.42
This is an exciting new ShoeMoney venture that pays bloggers monthly via PayPal to display eBay ads. "When your site's visitors click on an Auction Ad listing and take an action on eBay you earn cash," explains the site. "Actions are defined as a Winning Bid, a Buy-it-Now or a confirmed user registration."
“There is no need to sign up for our affiliate program because our affiliate program is built right into the ads you display!" their site claims. "If a user clicks on the "Ads by AuctionAds" that is displayed and signs up for our service you earn a bonus 2% of all revenue generated by that user for the 6 months."
How you can do it: Get in on the Auction Ads deal and create a campaign to display some eBay items like the ones shown in my sidebar. I used the term "clean" in my campaign because I wanted clean ads, but it turns out lots of seller list their products as clean, so I have a nice rotating, differing stream of products. Take that tip, run with it...
19 - Orble.com Earnings: Zilch
Lured by the possibility of a $40 per week blogging scholarship, I joined Orble. Supposedly they share a 50% split ad revenue once bloggers enter their Google Adsense IDs and blog. Couldn't find any earnings anywhere, I ended up parking my pages.
20 - Chitika eMiniMalls Nothing…yet…just added the code
A good money-maker for bloggers like Darren Rowse, Chitika holds promise. "You'll earn 10% of what your referrals earn -the more friends you refer, the more you make!" they say with exclaimed excitement!
How you can do it: After joining Chitika eMiniMalls and promoting your referral links as much as I am right now (HINT, HINT!), "you're eligible to earn commissions for each referral for 15 months following each referral's approval date," they say. "Chitika will pay you 30 days following the end of the month that your commissions are earned provided that your total revenue has exceeded $10 (for PayPal) and $50 (for check where PayPal is not available).
Chitika ad units can be used along side Google Adsense.
21 - AzooleAds Earnings: Nothing yet…rejected because…
"Your Affiliate Website and Affiliate E-mails must each be represented by a legitimate second-level domain name (e.g. yoursite.com is acceptable; however, a shared server, e.g., sharedsite.com/yoursite, is not acceptable)”
Are they saying I gotta ditch the blogspot? I'm going to try and reapply with a plain old dot com I have some day...
22 - Clickbank Earnings-to-date: A big fat goose egg…
I've only promoted a couple of products like Day Job Killer: Who is Chris McNeeney and Should I Give him $77? post thru ClickBank, and obviously not well enough to sell anything yet. But I'm still learning and growing...
How you can do it: Sign up for FREE with Clickbank, and once people you refer choose to activate their account, you'll "Earn 20% of the $49.95 activation charge when your referred publisher activates their account," says ClickBank. I'm assuming the people paying the $49.95 are the ones who have a product to sell therein.
"Additionally, earn 5% of ClickBank's typical markup of each sale that your recruited publisher makes for one calendar year. ClickBank's typical markup on every sale is $1 + 7.5% of the sale price, so you earn about $0.09 to $0.99 on every sale.
23 - Yahoo Publishers Network Earnings: Nada! Rejected because...
..."Thank you for applying for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. It is currently in beta and we are accepting a very limited number of new publishers, but we will let you know when we launch to the general public or if we are able to invite you to join the beta before then. To maximize your chances for approval, please make sure:
* You have a valid U.S. Social Security or Tax ID number, and web site content that is predominately in English and targeted at a U.S. user base.
* Your site provides a good user experience. Please see our complete list of guidelines for a positive user experience here: https://publisher.yahoo.com/legal/prog_policy.php .
* Your site does not contain problematic content. Please see our guidelines for displaying our ad results here: https://publisher.yahoo.com/legal/prog_policy.php .
Don't know if I'm supposed to ditch AdSense before I apply for this puppy, but will let you know when I find out...
24 - AGLOCO Earnings-to-date: $0.00 (I just joined…)
The company rhetoric says, "AGLOCO collects money from those companies on behalf of its members. (For example, Google currently pays AOL 10 cents for every Google search by an AOL user. And Google still has enough profit to pay $1.6 billion dollars for YouTube, an 18-month old site full of content that YouTube’s users did not get paid for! AGLOCO will work to get its Members their share of this and more.
How you can do it: I don't fully understand it, but join AGLOCO for free and let's see togetherif they pay!
25 - Performics Earnings: $0.00 (Haven’t used it much…)
26 - Burst Media Earnings-to-date: Nothing…rejected…for now…
"Thank you for your application to join the Burst Media network. We regret to inform you that after our review, we have rejected your request for membership. Our sales efforts are not extended to sites hosted on free page providers.
Please refer to https://www.burstmedia.com/publisher/index.asp?page=eligibility for more information regarding our current eligibility requirements.Please feel free to reapply when your site complies with Burst's requirements."
One more reason for me to get that other dot com up and running well!
27 - AdVolcano Earnings-to-date: $0…on the way to more…
"Set your own prices," goes the schtick. "Unlike other networks, AdVolcano allows you to set your own pricing. After all, it is your website...Control all aspets of your ads and seamlessly integrate them into your website...AdVolcano pays a generous 75% revenue-share on a NET 15 basis. Receive your checks on time, all the time."
Advertiser Screening - Protect your brand and audience by controling which advertisers run on your site at all times.
Signed up, then got this email and never called him, "Thanks for signing up to the AdVolcano network! I'd love to hear more about your website and business goals. Feel free to contact me directly so we can talk about moving forward." Just placed ad space at the bottom of my blog today, selling a 7-day ad for 50 bucks. No referral program found yet.
All in all...$4,375.75 worth on online income!
Whew! That ought to get you some money by Christmas, and be enough to get the folks started who ask me, "How do I make money blogging?"
I've learned that making money online can happen, but it might take time to build up good revenue streams going. It helps to diversify. Don't put all your hope in one Google Adsense basket -- you might be disappointed with the slow growth.
Instead, take advantage of the programs I've listed here, and let me know of others that you use to make money!
And please subscribe to my blog for daily email updates about not only making money blogging, but how I pitch my products and also to see how I get the search-engine traffic that like to buy and click on stuff!
Be blessed and prosperous, Paula
Bookmark http://www.paulamooney.blogspot.com/ or 
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Tags: helping bloggers make money ,make money blogging ,paid blogging ,get paid to blog ,the Lord is with thee ,blessed art thou ,adbrite invideos not working ,creamaid ,my blogging salary ,my blogging income ,blogging salary ,blog for living
death
Wanna make $7.50 to blog about this post? Click the following image to sign up with PayPerPost and check out their Review My Post program:
Comments
BTW, I tagged you for a meme (Simply Successful) over at my blog.
Hey Tara - I guess the Lord just has something else in mind, 'cause you've got that new fabulous gig coming up and...hm...what else? Now you've intrigued me...
I need to diversify....my problem is time....I'm still busy working and have tiny time blogging
Hopefully you'll get more time to blog and have fun with your beautiful family like you do...
Are you back on Digg? Is this post? I would like to Digg it if you are.
keep up the great work, we need you!
:-) peace
I'm so grateful to God that this post is helping people. I worked on it for two days and nearly cried when I thought I'd lost it, but of course our Lord led me to a copy and got everything to work out.
I really pray it helps all of us make good money thru blogging, to be used for good purposes and for His will.
And yes, I'm back on Digg, so if you click the Digg This button, it should let you submit the URL.
Thanks a billion!
I gotta remember to Digg it too!
Much love,
Paula
Thanks for the inspiration!
Lots of nice options for making money online here, some I haven't heard of.
Ive been the most successful with Adsense so far. Some of the ones Ive tried I just think I dont have enough traffic yet to make money, such as adbrite, amazon, etc.
question, have you ever tried commission junction?
Hey Davey Jones - You know, I was on Commission Junction last night playing around again. I'd signed up long ago, but I never really promoted much stuff thru them.
I'm still trying to figure them out, kinda. Do you use them?
I'll probably try two of your suggestions; I recently added Amazon already.
Interestingly, I discovered that my blog from last year's been generating a "few coins," despite my not dealing with it for a year. I have to see what the old AdSense is doing... I have a feeling I won't bother with Google's ad sense for my current blog.
I'll check into AC soon. And I'm already formulating a marketing plan to give area businesses some online visibility. Maybe I'll approach some local papers, as you suggest, too.
Thanks!!
They have a lot of different choices when it comes to who you advertise. Too many for me to sift through them all. Haven't even checked my account in a long while. (I'm lazy lol)
Terrific overview & no nonsense no BS advice on all the Options out there for Bloggers to Earn a Little $$$.
To my mind Traffic seems to be Key but also writing about Topics like U have here that are gonna produce the Adwords*
I also find that when Making Money $$$ is the object of the Blog - it just becomes 1 Big Ad & also how to Play the Game & basically Beat the System*
I too am curious whether Agloco will deliver any Real Money*
Thanks Paula!!
Cheers! Billy ;))
Peace*
p.s. www.memwg.com Make Easy Money with Google using AdSense is an excellent source of Info for Bloggers too*
thanks for the tips. my friend ebonymommy sent me to check out your blog. i'm so glad i did!
Nice hard working to earn.The details about earning also great from different sources.Yeah,any one can easily pick up the details for earning through this article.I have some interesting info on this topic about Jeff Mills who became a 7 figure money earner.
regards
http://heartmates.blogspot.com
Once upon a lifetime in kerala
I just found your site and i have to say that your site full of useful information for a blogger. I Just tried to sign up with Associated Content , but unfortunately its only available for us residents.
Excellent info about writing for a living online. I've been looking for sources to do just that and you have definitely steered me in the right direction. You've given me hope when I wasn't even sure I should pursue it. I will most definitely check out some of these options.
Thank You!
Rosemary