Blogging Revenue Models

I’m part way through the implementation of a new blog. Yes, I know I do that fairly often and then abandon them, but they have been personal pleasures whereas this one will be a more professional project. One that I’m serious about and that I hope to make a little cash from.

Of course the first thing that springs to many peoples minds is the Google Adsense programme. However with the global economy being the way it is currently I’ve been reading on lots of blogs that this model is no longer profitable. Companies are tightening their financial belts and therefore cutting back on advertising spending, or at least looking at alternative methods which give them better value. The other downside to Adsense is that I think it provides little value to readers. Yes I know they’re supposed to be context sensitive but very often they’re not. Plus, a lot of people use ad blocking scripts these days so it’s kind of a moot point anyway.

The other obvious choice is affiliate advertising. I have no experience at all with this so I can’t say whether it works or not but I have heard it’s successful for many people. The great advantage with this is that it enables you to pick and choose affiliates that are highly relevent to your topic, and therefore your readers.

Affiliate advertising is a strong contender for me but I wonder if there other ways of gaining income for a new blog. When I say income, I’m not expecting fortunes. At least not to begin with, say for the first 6-12 months. My expectations regarding finance are very rough and although I will be working hard I’m seeing my initial outing into the world of professional blogging as kind of experimental. If within 6 months I can start making enough to pay the hosting bill with a little extra left over I’ll be happy. Anything over that I’d regard as a bonus.

Which brings me to my last choice.

I could not have any advertising at all, and take an ‘open source’ kind of approach, in the hopes that I may gain some paid blogging jobs elsewhere as a guest poster or regular contributor. I can see some problems with this though. Firstly, I could work my ass off for months and months with no gain at all. Secondly, if I allow my content to be used elsewhere (even with a link back to source) it might massively hurt search engine rankings. On the other hand I’m a big supporter of the open source ethos and I know it’s successful in many other fields, but I’m not at all sure how it would work with online content.

My research into this is ongoing, but I must admit I’m leaning more toward non-traditional methods. Times are changing and I think bloggers need to change and adapt with them. I’m just not quite sure how yet.

If you’re reading this and have any experiences to share, or know of anyone who has taken the open source model and adapted it to blogging, I’d love to hear from you!