Blogging for a second income - does anyone else here do this?

daz501

b1505 wrote: »

In just over a week I've had 265 people viewing my blog, but how do you get them to click on the adverts? Seems a bit useless atm

One of my websites averages 80 visitors a day, and that particular site rarely gets any clicks. You need traffic of thousands of unique visitors a day to start making any sort of income.

Adsense clickthrough rates have dropped over the years. Some sites convert better than others and this depends on your niche. There are other sites I have put up as experiments and the Google Ads serve up bizzare ads that aren't really relevent to my topic whatsoever. So even with good steady traffic, visitors may not be clicking those adverts.

Another way to make money from your sites is try targeting a niche in your local town or city. Target a niche which is useful to the offline community, and think about advertising to local businesses for a flat fee.

Case in point: I have created a network of takeaway menu websites. I have scanned and uploaded colour menus that I have picked up from the pizza shops 10 minutes walk from me. See, not everybody is into "Just-Eat" and "Hungry House". They do however want to print off up-to-date menus and take their time choosing what to order including the option to pay cash on delivery.

See where I'm going with this?

I advertise the menus free of charge, but I do create flashing animated .gif banners placed in prime positions on the front page. I can charge for these - a few quid a week - and link through to a specially created profile.

I would post the link here as an example but I believe it would be against forum rules. Any body who wants to see a working example if what I've done can send a P.M. if they need inspiration.

Just make sure you aren't competing in the same town as me if you decide to copy! *cocks rifle*

b1505

daz501 wrote: »

One of my websites averages 80 visitors a day, and that particular site rarely gets any clicks. You need traffic of thousands of unique visitors a day to start making any sort of income.

Adsense clickthrough rates have dropped over the years. Some sites convert better than others and this depends on your niche. There are other sites I have put up as experiments and the Google Ads serve up bizzare ads that aren't really relevent to my topic whatsoever. So even with good steady traffic, visitors may not be clicking those adverts.

Another way to make money from your sites is try targeting a niche in your local town or city. Target a niche which is useful to the offline community, and think about advertising to local businesses for a flat fee.

Case in point: I have created a network of takeaway menu websites. I have scanned and uploaded colour menus that I have picked up from the pizza shops 10 minutes walk from me. See, not everybody is into "Just-Eat" and "Hungry House". They do however want to print off up-to-date menus and take their time choosing what to order including the option to pay cash on delivery.

See where I'm going with this?

I advertise the menus free of charge, but I do create flashing animated .gif banners placed in prime positions on the front page. I can charge for these - a few quid a week - and link through to a specially created profile.

I would post the link here as an example but I believe it would be against forum rules. Any body who wants to see a working example if what I've done can send a P.M. if they need inspiration.

Just make sure you aren't competing in the same town as me if you decide to copy! *cocks rifle*

Thanks for that! I noticed that the adsense ones didn't really relate to the content as I had adverts for double glazing on my beauty blog.

I really like your idea though! I'd definitely want something like that in my area!

**Juice**

b1505 wrote: »

Thanks for that! I noticed that the adsense ones didn't really relate to the content as I had adverts for double glazing on my beauty blog.

I really like your idea though! I'd definitely want something like that in my area!

Have you looked into affiliate advertising rather than adsense, you can tailor the advertising to be much more relevant that way? I've got a beauty blog too and have fashion and beauty retailer ads on mine.

daz501

b1505 wrote: »

Thanks for that! I noticed that the adsense ones didn't really relate to the content as I had adverts for double glazing on my beauty blog.

For Adsense, think about keyword density on your page. Make sure it doesn't sound spammy though. In your opening few paragraphs repeat your keywords a couple of times.

And yes, as the other poster said in their reply, consider affiliate networks. Affiliate Window and Affiliate Future are good places. I recently also joined Commission Junction which has a few good ads.

With regards to the takeaway menus - Just Eat are now actually in the Google Ad network, so if your site is well optomised and you have low ad impressions and high click-throughs, you might earn a lot per click on Just Eat ads.

lucystardust

Hi knowledgable bloggers!

I've just started blogging in the last week, so this is all very new to me. My question is - on Blogger, will adding labels/tags to your posts help users find them via search engines? Or does it just mean when someone clicks on a post that you've labeled as, say, 'recipes' it takes them to other posts which you have labels as recipes.
So far I havent bothered with this - should I?

scaredofdebt

**Juice** wrote: »

Have you looked into affiliate advertising rather than adsense, you can tailor the advertising to be much more relevant that way? I've got a beauty blog too and have fashion and beauty retailer ads on mine.

Adsense is quite clever, it recognises what you've been looking at (using cookies presumably) on the computer and serves adverts relating to that - not necessarily the content of the actual website showing Adsense adverts.

Just because you are seeing fashion and beauty ads, it doesn't mean all your users are!

Arfa__

Also agree that Adsense is no big earner. My two main sites generate around 100 and 350-400 unique visitors a day. I used tall banners down one side of all pages. Combined, over the last 3 months, they've earned me the grand total of £6. Better than a kick in the teeth, but it won't make me rich.

StaffsSW

Another problem with adsense is that they are the first thing blocked by people using browser plugins like Ad-blocker.

I've found conversion rates are far better by using text links within the body of the article, rather than banner ads or creatives. These may look pretty, but it's pointless if fewer people are seeing them.

Using text links also helps with long-tail google searches, but it does take a little more work & effort to get them integrated into the content, but let's face it, google now wants engaging and unique content, rather than just simple pictures.

Another problem faced by bloggers has been the recent Google Penguin update - given that many blogs use templates with link exchanges on every page of their site, this has in many cases penalised those sites that appear on 1000+ pages of the same blog.

Like everything though, those that work harder at it, and stay on top of their game will always reap the best rewards.

red_devil

ive started a facebook group page how can i attract new members?

montymouse

I have made money not through my own blogs but by writing for other people's. A few years ago I made about £5-10 per post, then more recently about £40-60. Gave it up to focus on other stuff though, but will no doubt start it up again at a later date.

I wrote mainly about travel, though also covered science and tech stuff. Have also diversified into: dogs, weddings, quitting smoking, and other stuff!

Have also done proofreading for clients in Thailand, Russia, Czech Republic, etc. It helps that I was once an English teacher ...