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SALT LAKE CITY -- A big blogging conference called Altitude Design Summit kicked off Thursday in Salt Lake City. Lifestyle and design bloggers from all over the country are converging in Utah to network, share ideas and connect with marketers.
The blogging world can definitely be a money-making business. Two Utah bloggers sat down with KSL News Today to explain the different ways to make money.
Personal blogger Loralee Choate from loraleeslooneytunes.com and how-to family blogger Marie LeBaron from makeandtakes.com tell us most bloggers place ads these days on their site. They detailed several different types of ads that bloggers can pursue. They also say bloggers can get "paid" in products by doing reviews and end with up paying freelance jobs from their blogs.
In terms of advertising, bloggers turn to three different sources of ads.
- Sign up with Google and/or Amazon to receive their affiliate ads. When you place the ads on your site and someone either clicks on the Google ad or buys something from the Amazon store, you receive a small 2 to 3 percent from that click/sale. These ads can make some people money (like those with food or frugal blogs) but usually don't bring other bloggers a significant amount of money.
- Join an ad network, a third party that sells ads for you. They group numerous blogs together to approach companies about advertising so it's easier for them to sell. Usually large, big-name brands advertise with ad networks. Bloggers are paid based on their blog's page views. For example, with the ad network Federated Media, Marie LeBaron (who belongs to that ad network) says you typically receive $2 to $7 per every 1,000 page views per month. Compared with affiliate ads, the blogger takes a larger percentage from these ads. But for doing all the work to find the advertisements, the ad network takes a cut of your profits. You usually split the profits 50/50 with the ad network. The tough part is, some ad networks are very difficult to join. They may have a waiting list or require a certain amount of page views to join.
- Do all the work yourself and find companies on your own to sponsor your site. These private ads are usually smaller companies that have a smaller budget. This can take some time and effort. Reach out to your contacts and send them what's known as a rate card or media card. This can be an e-mail that lets them know your blogging information. Include your page views, if you have a Twitter or Facebook account you tie in to your blog, what your blog is all about, what you've been able to do with it, if you've been featured or won any awards and your rates. Rates can run anywhere from $10 a month when you start out to hundreds of dollars a month for bigger blogs. You'll have to feel out the price as you go; if it seems too high or too low as you're soliciting ads, simply raise or lower your price.
Another revenue source from blogging is doing product and company reviews. With full disclosure on your site, you can solicit products from companies in exchange for a review on your blog.
LeBaron recommends seeking out local products when you're just starting if you have no connections. Once your blog has grown enough that you have a larger audience, companies may start to contact you or you can contact companies that fit with your blog.
It's a good idea to also ask for a second product to give away on your site for your readers to win. This can help build readership, which can in turn help with your revenue.
If you're interested in reviews, Choate recommends making friends with PR firms. You will have to network and build relationships with people who do what you would like to do. To contact companies, write a pitch letter detailing your blogging experience and reputation and accomplishments. Again, include what you've done with your blog and any press you've received.
Finally, blogging can often turn into other writing jobs for other websites and companies. Both Choate and LeBaron now write for other sites as paid jobs in addition to their own blogs.
