Info Carnivore has now been in existence for just over five months. I’ve been exploring different options to monetize the blog, so here are a few of the programs I’ve tried so far. Right now I’m looking forward to the day that I can change the image in this post from some coins to some bills! Some of the income sources are directly implemented on the blog and others are related indirectly. My most recent implementation is an Amazon Affiliate Store, which hasn’t earned me any money yet. I’m wondering if having an affiliate store on a blog is a good idea or not. I can’t think of a reason not to, but I’m wondering how to market it and make it successful.
In Site Advertising
Google Adsense – This was the first program I implemented. It has been largely inconsistent, some days resulting in a handful of clicks and many days resulting in none. I’ve tried various placements of ads within the blog and posts but haven’t been able to pin down a specific method that is more effective than another. To date I’ve earned $46.18 with adsense.
Kontera In Text Advertising – This program seems like it has potential, in-text ads are implemented into pages and posts. They are marked with the double underline and readers can click on them. Clicks earn money. I implemented Kontera at the end of July and to date it has earned me .90 cents! I can earn extra income by referring others to Kontera, so if you’d like to give it a try sign up with this link -> Kontera Referral… Thanks!
Off Site Advertising
Sponsored Tweets – This program allows me to tweet out ads and earn based on clicks. (PPC) You have full control over what is tweeted, and get ads which are targeted to your keyword selection. I don’t utilize Sponsored Tweets as much as I could – and for that reason I’ve only earned $5.22 with it in about 3 months. I can also earn for referring people to Sponsored Tweets so if you want to check this program out please sign up with this link -> Sponsored Tweets Referral…
My Likes – Is a program that allows you to like pretty much anything you want and share it with others. Clicks on targeted campaigns earn you money! You can share your likes on twitter, on your blog, on facebook or pretty much anywhere you want. I’ve not taken full advantage of the power of My Likes yet as it requires an investment of some time. To date I’ve earned $2.32 with My Likes. If you want to give this program a try sign up with this link here -> My Likes Referral…
Sponsored Posts
Social Spark – You register your blog and await approval. Once registered you can take a look at available offers which include paid posts and affiliate posts which will pay you per sale. I’ve only written two posts through Social Spark so far and have earned $18.50. Find out more about Social Spark.
Pay Per Post – Is another part of Izea’s network (Same company that runs Social Spark), and provides similar opportunities. Advertisers can target specific blog niches to get paid posts up. Once registered you will be notified of any potential opportunities. I don’t get a whole lot of opps through Pay Per Post, but the two I have got that fit with my blog have been good and easy to write for. So far I’ve earned $7.75 with Pay Per Post.
Affiliate Programs
As many bloggers know the real money is in affiliate programs. The key to success in an affiliate program is a strong reader base where you have gained their trust and are able to exercise your influence. I feel that infocarnivore is still young and as such has not built a wide reader base where I would have great success with affiliate programs. In addition Infocarnivore has gone through a niche change / expansion recently, causing perhaps some confusion in terms of what affiliate programs to target and what my reader are after. I have recently signed up for a few but other than simple 120×120 ads on the sidebar I’ve not really done anything to market these programs to my readers. The Amazon Affiliate Store which I set up is also brand new. Do you think having an affiliate store on a blog like this is a good idea? As a relatively new blogger, and especially new to affiliate programs I need your advice and tips. Now you know what I’ve been doing, what could I do better? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
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32 comments
SERPD says:
Oct 18, 2010
How I've begun to Monetize at Info Carnivore…
Info Carnivore has now been in existence for just over five months. I’ve been exploring different options to monetize the blog, so here are a few of the programs I’ve tried so far. Right now Iâ……
DO FOLLOW LUV says:
Oct 18, 2010
How I've begun to Monetize at Info Carnivore…
Info Carnivore has now been in existence for just over five months. I’ve been exploring different options to monetize the blog, so here are a few of the programs I’ve tried so far. Right now Iâ……
Tweets that mention How I Monetize at Infocarnivore | Info Carnivore -- Topsy.com says:
Oct 18, 2010
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by IM Posts, Daniel Snyder. Daniel Snyder said: How I've begun to monetize infocarnivore.com http://bit.ly/a46lIA […]
Thiru says:
Oct 19, 2010
Thanks for sharing your earning path with us dani. But it seems that your earning are very low via infocarnivore. why is it so?
Daniel Snyder says:
Oct 19, 2010
Well Thiru I don’t know. I have nothing to gauge or compare with so I don’t know if they truly are low, or average or what? Likely the reason they are what they are is because of my lack of time to invest in blogging. As a married man with two kids who works a regular full time job, blogging sits down the list on priorities in my life. Also I’m still learning so there are probably a ton of things I could do differently. Any tips?
Thiru says:
Oct 20, 2010
you are great Dani, at least you have earned this much with huge family and office commitments.
Thiru says:
Oct 19, 2010
Thanks for sharing your earning path with us dani. But it seems that your earning are very low via infocarnivore. why is it so?
Bayercharles says:
Oct 20, 2010
Hi Daniel, from my experience that’s as good as it gets. Like you I’ve tried numerous affiliate programs and with the exception of Google Adwords ($9.98 to date) none of them have made me any money. I’m still running with my Amazon Kindle offer but nothing as yet and I’ve had it on my blog for over six months now. My problem is that because of my location and topic I’m not expecting anything huge. In fact, I only keep Google Adwords on my blog because it keeps it fresh — sad isn’t it. Anyway, don’t want to sound negative but as they say tracking is the biggest benefit of having a blog or website, cheers Charles.
Anonymous says:
Oct 20, 2010
Hey Bayer,
I just had a quick look at your site.
As someone who has never visited it before I just skimmed through the content to get an idea of what it was about.
I saw a couple of pictures of cars and a decent bit of female flesh/kissing (nice!) but I had to get to the bottom of the page to really know what it was about.
Perhaps you could put a paragraph at the top of the page to really describe the content you have – that would probably please the search engines and get you more targeted (and potentially buying/clicking) traffic.
Anonymous says:
Oct 20, 2010
Hey Bayer,
I just had a quick look at your site.
As someone who has never visited it before I just skimmed through the content to get an idea of what it was about.
I saw a couple of pictures of cars and a decent bit of female flesh/kissing (nice!) but I had to get to the bottom of the page to really know what it was about.
Perhaps you could put a paragraph at the top of the page to really describe the content you have – that would probably please the search engines and get you more targeted (and potentially buying/clicking) traffic.
Anonymous says:
Oct 20, 2010
I’d be interested in hearing how Kontera works for you over the longer term – I tried it years ago and it was good, until the value per click steadily dropped to about 1 cent. At that time I just didn’t feel it was worth it versus the intrusiveness of the links.
Daniel Snyder says:
Oct 20, 2010
I’m feeling the same way, the value per click is ridiculously low with Kontera. And what you say is true the program in itself is intrusive, I get frustrated on sites when I unintentionally mouse over a in-text-link and that pop up box appears, and then it won’t go away unless I close it…
Anonymous says:
Oct 20, 2010
As to your last point, affiliate marketing, I say go for it as you have nothing to lose. The trick is to incorporate links into a post that sells the benefits of the product you are promoting – putting 125×125 ads on your sidebar won’t yield any sales whatsoever I would imagine.
Daniel Snyder says:
Oct 20, 2010
Good advice, thanks Lee. Yeah, I feel the sidebar can get easily cluttered with ads which detract from the minimalistic feel of the blog. Gotta look at that.
Anonymous says:
Oct 20, 2010
I’m obviously not your average visitor whose arrived via a search engine query but I look at your sidebar and I see adverts rather than anything of interest that I might want to learn more about…
Daniel Snyder says:
Oct 21, 2010
Thanks Lee your feedback is valuable to me! I want to take a look at changing that sidebar up and putting some content that people would find valuable over there…
Anonymous says:
Oct 20, 2010
I’m obviously not your average visitor whose arrived via a search engine query but I look at your sidebar and I see adverts rather than anything of interest that I might want to learn more about…
Suresh Khanal says:
Oct 25, 2010
Thank you for spreading the word, would like to see the progress. hope you’ll keep informing the development and your judgement.
Oh you forgot those 125 ads on your right bar? How are they performing?
I’ve not started to monetize my blog yet. Looking for some methods but I don’t feel it good with Kontera type of in-text-ads.
Daniel Snyder says:
Oct 25, 2010
I’m considering ditching Kontera… the 125 ads on the sidebar are all affiliates, I’m also feeling it is premature to be pushing affiliate stuff strongly. Those ads are not performing at all – but then again my focus has not been on the affiliate marketing at all (yet)… Still working out my plan (which you can read about here)… http://www.blogengage.com/blogger/successful-blogging-requires-a-plan-a-big-plan/
Mark Bell says:
Oct 26, 2010
Hey Dan,
I actually use a number of the same methods as yourself.
I have adsense on a few other sites, but bloggers journal is primarily got affiliate products on the side bar. I have tried sponsored tweets, but I couldn’t really get my head around using it. I never got any products worth promoting. The same could be said for mylikes. Maybe it was my niche 😉
I think for many of us, if our websites break even, and cover their costs we’re happy – at least I am..
Daniel Snyder says:
Oct 26, 2010
Yeah for now I’m okay with covering costs, but I have a long term goal – and I’d like to eventually make some money! How’s your affiliate stuff doing? What are your tactics for marketing it?
Adry Bright says:
Nov 1, 2010
I actually started with Adsense for now, im not even sure what my niche will be so a sponsor or affiliate may be out of the question. But could my disapointment be that i dont have enough traffic?
Daniel Snyder says:
Nov 1, 2010
If you’re brand new to blogging I think affiliates are not the way to go (yet), your focus at first needs to be on building content and developing your niche. Learn to promote and network, those are keys. Money is a ways off, so don’t be distracted by it. No one makes money blogging in their first year (practically no one), not any kind of money that could be considered ‘worth it’… so relax! Just enjoy the journey. Traffic builds over time to, depending on how you market and promote. Also relax. If you’re brand new (less than 6 months old as a blog) then you can’t expect a ton of traffic yet… you gotta get your name out there! That takes time.
MMA Bart says:
Nov 1, 2010
Personally, I hate in-text advertising. I prefer doing amazon affiliate products that are relevant, but don’t force their use either. I feel that if you build a trustworthy narrative for your niche, people will buy through you and check out your sponsors. People know when you’re cluttering the page to make a buck – you better have a ton of traffic if you’re planning to juice that fruit.
Paul says:
Dec 14, 2010
I have been a little successful with AdSense, to the point where I do get a cheque every month. With technical sites, it can be hard to make money with AdSense since many of the keywords are low paying (a few cents). Maybe in the next year I will start to focus on affiliate marketing, but first I’ll do some research.
BTW, with the picture you displayed I was looking for an explanation on a “loonie” and “toonie”, but couldn’t find one. 🙂
Daniel Snyder says:
Dec 14, 2010
Wow Paul, getting a cheque every month means you are earning over $100 with Adsense monthly! That’s great I think – the vast majority of bloggers are not doing this. Want to share some secrets?
Bryan says:
Jan 9, 2011
Hey Daniel,
I’m checking out PayPerPost and SocialSpark right now! Not having too much luck with Google Adsense but getting there though 🙂
Kontera doesn’t work at all for me and neither does Chitika. Anyway, thx for the share!
Daniel Snyder says:
Jan 10, 2011
Hey Bryan, let me know how the services go! I’m with you about Kontera, and am considering dumping it all together. People just don’t like in text advertising, and it can be invasive.
Rajesh@Hack Facebook Account says:
Feb 25, 2011
Hey Daniel, why dont you try out Infolinks instead of Kontera. I have worked with both of them for more than a year and found Infolinks converting great.
Just my two cents…:) All the best.
Daniel Snyder says:
Feb 26, 2011
Thanks Rajesh. I’m seriously disappointed in Kontera. Though I’ve made a little money, I’ve not enough ($50 minimum) to cash out, so if I bail on Kontera the money is thrown away…. not a big deal to me at this point, but it is frustrating. Infolinks sounds promising and I will research it for sure!
Astro Gremlin says:
May 5, 2012
Appreciate your revealing your monetization methods, Daniel. My fellow bloggers (probably wisely) don’t click much on AdSense, and my search engine traffic doesn’t either. I’ve been casting about for other advertisers recently. Would really like to put up some ads that actually interest visitors!
Daniel Snyder says:
May 5, 2012
A couple years have past since that article was written, and I can say that adsense is my biggest earner. Second to that is purchased advertising. Kontera is a joke, and though sponsored tweets has earned me a few dollars, it is a pain t maintain and really more of a gimmick than anything in my opinion. I wrote some sponsored posts, but it is not worth my time for the dollars.