
This is the third post in our “How to Start a Blog Series”, here are the other 3 posts:
- Starting A Blog, Part 1: Getting started with a platform, hosting and plugins
- Starting A Blog, Part 2: Blogging basics and no-nos
- Starting A Blog, Part 4: Optimizing your blog
By now everyone knows that running a blog is the fast-track to easy money and a life of leisure. For just $50 a month, we’ll show you how! Ok, just kidding… on all counts. Blogging, at least frugal blogging, is a VERY time consuming endeavor. You spend tons of time just finding the deals, and then once found you have to write them up so that it makes sense for everyone else! With that said, blogging can bring in an income.
Affiliate, Cash-back and Advertising programs
There are many kinds – don’t get super caught up in this at first, if all you do is promote affiliate deals, you probably won’t have much of a reader base. Your readers WILL see through your blogging if every other post feels like a sales pitch. Here at TFF we pass on MANY deals regardless of what we might earn if we don’t believe in the product/company or if it doesn’t align with our values. This has to be a personal decision you make. On the other hand, you can also make money promoting deals you would promote anyways – a complete Win-Win situation!
Here are some of the programs we use/recommend, in alphabetical order, along with a note of some affiliates found there:
Amazon.com
AvantLink – C28, REI, Sierra Trading Post
Commission Junction – All You Magazine, Restaurant.com
eBates – Almost every online store (cash back)
Escalate – Coupons.com, lots of survey companies
Flex Offers – Starbucks.com, iTunes, Mint.com, JCPenney.com
Google Adsense
Google Affiliate Network
Impact Radius
Integrate
Linkshare – Walmart.com
Logical Media – Coupons.com, Survey sites
My Savings
Pepperjam
ShareASale
Swagbucks
Group Buy Sites
With group buy sites, each one is a bit different. Most of them offer credit for their site for signing people up under you; some of them offer credit or cash (say $5 in credit, or $1 cash); and others run their affiliate programs through outside affiliate programs like Logical Media and Escalate. Which route you decide to choose is up to you – if the payout is good, you may want cash. In some cases, you might prefer to build up some credit first. Buying stuff for free with your credit can be really nice.
Update: If you decide to get credit, be sure the site is well-established like Groupon or Living Social. It seems like everyone thinks they can run a daily deal site, and many of them are going out of business – and taking any credit you earned with them.
So here’s a list of my current favorite group buy sites, again in alphabetical order:
Deal Chicken
Got Daily Deals
Groupon
KGB Deals
Living Social
Mamapedia
Moolala
No More Rack
Plum District
Saveology
Tippr
Target Daily Deals
Selling Advertising:
This always seems to be where most people want to start. They think I’ve got a blog and there is some space on the side bar – I’ll sell advertising! NO. First of all – you have to build a community on your blog that brings a value to the company you’re going to sell ad space to. They will want to see an ROI (Return on Investment) when they advertise with you.
If you find that you do in fact have a consistent reader base then you can consider selling ad space. There really isn’t a magic number as to what you should charge – often times, it’s simply what will the company pay and whats the lowest you’d accept? We’ve spent quite a bit of time tracking our various ad spaces. We’ve monitored our click-through to the company ratio and have a good idea of what the company can expect and that’s what we’ve been able to build our prices on.
Don’t create a blank “Advertise Here” space and hope someone will bite – when companies see that they think that you can’t sell the space and so it may not be as valuable as you’re saying it is. Fill it with something, anything.
How much can I make?
This is the biggest question by far for readers and bloggers alike. The simple fact is that like any profression it’s taboo to ask someone you don’t know very well how much they’re making per year. I will say that we didn’t see a penny (well maybe a few pennies) in the first year. Sure we could have possibly made some money, but that isn’t why I started the blog – I had no idea that it was possible to earn an income blogging. Now Mr. Frugal and I earn a full time income blogging and we are TRULY blessed and honored to be able to blog for a living and provide for our family in this way.
Do we make six figures blogging? No. We’d love to though and it’s entirely possible.
This is the third post in our “How to Start a Blog Series”, here are the other 3 posts:
- Starting A Blog, Part 1: Getting started with a platform, hosting and plugins
- Starting A Blog, Part 2: Blogging basics and no-nos
- Starting A Blog, Part 4: Optimizing your blog
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