There are several ways to make money with a blog:

1.  Cash from Advertisers

2.  Affiliate Marketing

3.  Promoting your own products

4.  Swagbucks

5.  Free stuff from advertisers

The key to making money with a blog, is traffic. Traffic is worth money–a lot of money, to advertisers. It is possible to build a huge following in just a few months by word of mouth. In order to do this you need to give away top notch information daily or twice a day. That takes time, but it can be worth it. Three examples are: Ana-White, The Nester, and The Lettered Cottage.

Ana-White formerly Knock-Off Wood gives away free furniture building plans that are based on Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware store pieces. The plans are all free, complete and geared toward the beginner wood worker. She grew her site to amazing proportions in just a few months because the content got a lot of people excited. All of a sudden the designer looks that were out of touch before were in reach for middle class families. She has been featured on TV and in popular home magazines. She makes money from ads, but is hoping her blog will be a springboard to her own TV show or a book deal. I hope she gets it–She deserves it!

The Nester writes a home decorating blog that gives magazine worthy results for very little money spent. Her motto is: It’s doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. Her real personality and permission to make mistakes makes the world love her. She earns money by selling ads on her site and by a few affiliate marketing relationships. Her small ad spots are $100 per month. Currently she has 9 small ads (includin mine) and several large ads. I estimate she brings in around $2,000 a month just from her blog sponsors. She adds benefits to her advertisers by sponsoring giveaways for her sponsors several times a year. This brings targeted attention to each small business driving even more traffic their way.

The Lettered Cottage is also a home decor blog. Their home is very small and started out very average. They took it from yawn to eye popping–with mostly elbow grease. We love their personalities and willingness to take a risk. Layla sells an ebook, but the bulk of their income comes from advertising.

Advertising isn’t the only way to make money with a blog. There is also affiliate marketing available. For example, you can sign up with Amazon. By using specific links they provide to talk about a product on Amazon (could have been one you wanted to tell everyone about anyway) you earn a comission every time someone buys through your link.   There are lots of other affiliate relationships available.  I currently have 3, but I’m really picky.  I make sure that the affiliate is something I would personally do before offering it to other people.

Also Swagbucks is something anyone can do. By simply using their search bar to search the internet, you earn points.  (I average 12-22 points a day just doing the research necessary for this blog.)  You can trade your points in for prizes.  My favorite prize is 450 points for a $5 gift card to Amazon.  The giftcards never expire, and you can save them up for a big purchase.  If you sign up using the link here, I earn a point every time you do, and it helps my family a lot.  You can also encourage others to sign up under your affliate and really increase your earnings.  I know moms getting all their diapers free this way.  I’m saving up my swagbucks to get my son a dresser–right now his clothes are stacked on the floor.

Just because I have a blog with a reasonable amount of traffic, CSN stores gives me gift cards just to mention their latest product in a blog post.  When I do that, I reveal that I’m being paid.  And I can use the cards to purchase household items that we need.

There is also a free opportunity with blog owners at www.Booksneeze.com You can select a book to receive for free with the expectation that you write a review about it on your blog.  Currently Darren and I are reading our free copy of When Couples Pray. 

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the best ways  to drive traffic to your blog so you can grow your money making potential.