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[KAMJ79]

Hi Everyone

I have been running a personal blog about living in Turkey and my life in Turkey. I hadn't planned to really to monetize the website as its more a personal site.

However recently my blog has been increasing in traffic building to about 100 to 200 hits per month and it seem to to be increasing each day.

I was wondering what the best way forward without putting my readers off. I have some google ads and I recently did an article with links back to amazon for books etc.

I have other blogs which are affiliate blogs but for some reason I have a little bit of a block when it comes to the this blog.

The site is http://www.earthlaughsinflowers.info/ it's not page ranked by google yet but is index and I am building backlinks to the site.

Any help and advice on what is the best way to monetize the site would be appreciated.

Kerry

 

[BinaryHaiku]

Hi Kerry,

I'm no expert at monetizing a blog, but Darren Rowse from ProBlogger is. You might take a look at this article to start with. While it doesn't have a ton of information on how to monetize a blog, it is a great article about the mindset to have when monetizing a blog for the first time.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010 ... lling-out/

Have a fantastic day!
Todd Wallace

 

[michellerana]

It is important to give your readers what they want and establish a relationship with them. Join forums related to your niche, find out what they are interested in, write about it and market your blog site. I believe you'll find the tips on this article useful: Essential aspects in cooking up a successful blog marketing and SEO

 

[jmpruitt]

the 3 ways I monetize my blogs are affiliate programs related to my blog topic,amazon products are great, adsense ads for more general blogs, and email lists. Since I read a lot and I get a lot of stuff from amazon, I can find stuff that I am already talking about anyway and add an affiliate link to it.

Also, Adsense works for personal blogs. since you really dont have a niche, Clickbank products probably won't do real well.

it really comes down to what are you blogging about, and where can you find products that relate to that? having a niche helps with that. frankly most personal blogs like this don't make any money.

 

[KAMJ79]

Thanks for the help and replies. The blog is about Turkey so the main area would be holiday and travel. I agree James that personal blogs are not money makers, but would like to to be able to get a few $ a month from the site.

I really was looking for ideas or suggestions on the options.

 

[jmpruitt]

really your best bet for a really general personal blog like that is adsense, although I am not a big supporter of them, the more general a site is, the less options are available. Another thing I have seen some people do is banner advertisements for local businesses. I know people that sell advertising space on their blog to local businesses for a monthly fee, based on how many visitors they get, and an estimate of click throughs, but not sure how well it actually works myself, since I mainly do really niche specific blogs and monetize them with affiliate products.

 

[KAMJ79]

Thanks James for taking the time to answer. I think those are really my only options. Thank you for your help. I always find your answers a great help.

Kerry

 

[Oliviabest]

I may suggest to use contextual advertising, that is considered to be the most effective way to monetize a blog. Also you can sell your own content, that is video, ebooks, etc, but on the assumption of the compelling and value content for others.

 

[Cecille L]

Hi Kerry,

Great suggestions from everyone! To add to what all the other members have suggested, you might want to start with AdSense. Since your blog is travel-related, you might want to check Clickbank for travel-related products that you can promote. You can write reviews on these products on your blog and suggest them to your readers.

My two cents. Have a good day!

 

[KAMJ79]

Thanks to everyone who has given me some ideas. You really have all be so helpful and it's nice to have a place to come and ask a question when your hitting your head of a brick wall ;)

I just read this new post on problogger this morning and thought I would share it with you all. Along with all your help and suggestions this is also a good post on how to monetize your site. http://networkedblogs.com/gigYQ

Thank you everyone x

 

[SethCzerepak]

Have you thought about building a list and marketing to them instead of marketing on the site? I've had some success with that approach.