Note: If you got here from one of my other blogs and just want to know how to support bloggers without wading through the opinionated-pile below, this will take you there.
Normally I have to discuss religion or politics to get hate mail and make people’s heads explode, but today I think I can do it with a seemingly banal topic:
Monetizing Blogs
“Monetizing” refers to the process of earning or generating revenue from your blog. “Revenue” is synonymous with money.
Let’s face it, money makes the world go ‘round. Much as the Communists and Socialists and Utopian Theorists out there hate to admit it, commerce and money are strong motivators for most people. And the average blogger is no exception.
Commerce has existed since the day caveman-Ug offered to stay behind and keep the fire going while caveman-Ug (limited vocal capabilities in those days, there were a lot of repeated names) went hunting. Ug came home to a warm cave and something to cook his catch over and Ug got a share of the meal. I won't speculate on whether either Ug got anything further out of the deal later that night. Caveman-sex, ugh.
Even in the Socialist-Utopia of the Soviet Union, they had money (it was worth less than the toilet paper, but they had it) and where money was short, they had barter. Some Leftists I know like to point to barter as being different than Capitalism … sorry, guys, it is Capitalism. Product for product, service for service, it’s all about commerce – just because you trade me a chicken for a ham doesn’t make it less so, money just makes it easier.
What does all this have to do with blogs? Well, blogs are content on the Internet and there’s a large number of people who believe the Internet and all its content should be free. By free, they mostly mean that they can take what they want without paying for it … music and movies, mostly, regardless of the work, effort and expense that goes into producing such things. But by “free”, they also mean sans advertisement.
This segment of the population hates advertisements. They hate them because advertising is inherently Capitalistic. Communism: no companies, ergo no advertising. Socialism: State-run, ergo no advertising. Advertising, by its very nature, implies competition, which is Capitalism.
As a capital-B, Believer in Capitalism, I like advertising. Advertising gets me radio I don’t have to pay for, television I don’t have to pay for, Internet-content I don’t have to pay for and tons of free-stuff and samples … hell, advertising got us Google. Occasionally, advertising even lets me know about a product I’m interested in … rare, but it happens.
So, in what ways can one monetize a blog and what does it cost the reader? Here are some:
Note: I’m not an expert on monetizing blogs, these are just the ways I’ve found so far.
Supporting Bloggers
Taxes
What do taxes have to do with supporting bloggers? Well, here’s the thing, if I monetize my blog, then it’s a business and business expenses are tax deductible. The income from the blog is taxable of course, but only a fool wouldn’t be able to come up with enough expenses to offset that.
I have three blogs, each with a different focus: kayaking, software development and opinion (stop looking for the link, you’re already here). Virtually anything I spend on those three things, so long as I write about it, is tax-deductible. The gas to get where I kayak, software development tools, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, even the books I read and review here – all of it offsets any income from the blogs.
By writing this silly blog, I earn money, buy things I want anyway and pay no taxes on that income. Does that seem fair to you?
There are bloggers earning four- and five-figures a month (I’m not one of them) – these are the A-List bloggers and I bet everything they do is a business expense that offsets a huge amount of income – they could probably fart and find a way to write off $100. Again, does that seem fair to you?
Well, as I tell my children, you need to track down the son of a bitch who told you life was going to be fair and kick his ass, because he lied to you.
Of course it’s not fair! It’s part of the American Income Tax System, are you surprised it’s screwed up?
What would be fair is if I had to pay taxes on what I spent without being able to write it off as a “business expense”, but that’s not the case. I’m going to continue to be able to write off every dime of the whopping $10.77 these blogs bring in each month all because you haven’t written your congressmen and told them you want the Fair Tax.
What are you waiting for? Write them now and tell them you want the Fair Tax passed so all those evil, capitalist bloggers have to pay their fair share.
AdSense
The easiest way a blogger can earn money and the one that costs the reader the least is Google Adsense. These are the context-sensitive ad blocks you see around sites labeled “Ads by Google”. The blogger puts a snippet or two of HTML on the site and Google handles the rest, indexing the posts and presenting context-sensitive ads.
When a reader clicks on an Adsense ad, the blogger gets paid – that’s right, no purchase necessary. Payment isn’t a lot, typically, but it can add up. So if you’re browsing a site and see a Google ad you might be interested in, go ahead and click-through to check it out. You might find something good and the blogger will make a few pennies.
Donations
Donations do cost the reader something, but they can typically be small. Many blogs have PayPal or Amazon Honor Systems donation links. If you’ve just browsed to a blog and read an article or two, don’t make a donation … you, as the reader, probably haven’t received enough value to justify it. If, on the other hand, you read a blog daily and get a lot of enjoyment out of it, throw a couple bucks the blogger’s way once in a while -- or not, there's no obligation and you shouldn't feel bad about being a cheap basta ... about being frugal with your hard-earned money.
Affiliate Programs (product links)
Links to recommended products and books can be done through Affiliate Programs. When a blogger reviews or recommends a book and provide a link to purchase it on Amazon, a small portion of the sales price goes to the blogger. This costs the reader more, since they’ve bought a product, but if you’re going to buy the book anyway, why not do it through someone’s link and let them get paid a bit?
Affiliate Programs (links)
All those banner ads eatin’ up valuable bandwidth. The blogger gets paid if you go sign-up or buy something from the advertiser, but the advantage you get is exposure to new things.
I found out about the two greatest cat litter-boxes in the world through affiliate links (Litter Robot and Cat Genie). With seven cats in the house, I need these products. And I’m glad someone had an ad about them.
Pay Per Post Programs
This is the one. This is what separates people into camps faster than “great-taste/less-filling”. Advertisers paying bloggers to write about products or services.
One company I found that does this is Izea, which runs the Pay Per Post and Social Spark sites. The basic premise of both sites is that advertisers post opportunities and the bloggers sign up for the ones they're interested in writing about. Both sites have similar ethics and disclosure policies that require bloggers to disclose that the post has been paid for.
This whole concept has created controversy and no little condemnation from people like Duncan Riley at TechCrunch. Riley calls this shilling, but I think this opinion makes Riley an illiterate boob, since the definition of a shill is someone who hides their association from the consumer. Since the posts require disclosure, it can't be shilling. Possibly Riley should take his next AdSense check and buy a dictionary. If he reads this and follows that link to do so, I'll make a quarter ... cool.
The bottom line to me is that paid posts in a blog are much the same as paid endorsements on a radio talk show. When a commercial comes on in the hosts voice, most everyone with any sense recognizes it's a commercial and treats it as such.
What I like about it is that it's a way for the blogger to get paid without costing the reader anything.
As the reader, if you're not interested in the title of the post, you won't read it. If you're interest isn't held by the content of the post, you'll stop reading it. If you read the entirety of a paid post, but you were entertained or found a product you didn't know about, what's the difference if the blogger was paid or not?
So what's your opinion on the whole paid post thing?
2 comments:
Paid posts suck. If you want to run advertising do it. Ads masquerading as content are evil. You won't get quality hits. Do you want to make money or have people read what you have to say. You won't get both unless you get big. You won't get big if you sell out.
There is a top affiliate program being run by one of the fastest growing companies in the USA. Affiliates from around the world are making top income through them. Follow this link and watch at least half the video at their site to get a good overview of what they offer:
http://www.go2u.biz/control/redirect.php?id=6965
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