Plugins for profit
In the beginners section we covered a lot of general money making plugins however in this section we will get a little more specific. In the advanced section we will do some more however this will involve editing some of the scripts for your blog. Not hard but a little more difficult.
I found this great plugin that rotates adds on your site. Ad Rotator Download
This can be used to distribute your add impressions between various providers and to provide variety to users. It can also be used to randomly include any other code or even to randomly display images, text messages etc. The usage is limited by your imagination only.
Configuration
No configuration is required for the plugin itself. However you need to upload a file (or files) with your ad code in wp-content directory. And you need to insert code in your template files (of your theme) at location of your choice (referencing the file to fetch ads from) to display ads.
User Manual
There are three simple steps to use AdRotator.
First you should upload the plugin to your wp-content/plugins directory and Activate the plugin from Plugin Manager.
Then you should create one or more files (depending on the number of Ad groups you envision) in wp-content folder with names ending with .txt. For example: banner.txt or skyscrapper.txt etc. Each files contains a specific type of Ads, normally with the same size. If you name the file indicating the type of Ad it displays, then it will be easier for you to remember later.
You can either create them on your desktop and upload them using ftp or create them directly on the server or use the Admin interface, your choice.
Each of these files contains one or more lines. Each line contains the Ad code for any particular advertisement.
Tip: When using note pad (is the easiest) or any other text editor make sure the add code resides on one line and do not use wrap text.
What if your ad code is multi-line?
Normally Ad codes are provided in single line. However in certain cases like Google AdSense, for example, multi-line Ad codes are provided. In that case either convert the Ad code to single line manually or just take the most relevant portion of the code at the end and insert it in the file. The remaining code (which normally will be used to setup some parameters) will remain above the location (in your template file) where you would insert the function to select an ad from this ad group. So when this particular ad is chosen, then all the required code will be available and the ad will be visible. Read the AdSense discussion below for further clarification.
This can be used to display Google AdSense, LinkShare or your custom Advertisements.
For AdSense keep the top portion of the code where settings are provided, as-is in your template. Compress the last three lines (includes a javascript file) of the code, which actually inserts the Ad, in a single line and insert it in your text file.
In case you are wondering it doesn’t violate any terms of service regarding competing ads because the final HTML (at that location) displays Ads from only one source, randomly selected.
Finally you need to specify a location to display your ads. Add the code <?php echo getad(’Ad File Name’); ?> (after providing the actual ad file name without the .txt extension) anywhere in your template.
The AdRotator looks for a text file as specified in the Ad file name and with a .txt extension. So if you have a code like:
<?php echo getad(’bannerad’); ?>
Then AdRotator looks for wp-content/bannerad.txt file. If it finds it, it picks up a line randomly from the file and inserts it in your template/html.
You can alter the weight of an Ad (how often you want it displayed) by repeating the same ad line multiple times.
Note: If it cannot find the specified text file or cannot find any ad in the file then it does not insert anything.
Have a look at my http://www.msiphotoshop.com and see the add at the top of the posts and also the one on the left.
Here is a sample of my text file. Again make sure you do not have word wrap on.
This second portion of this post is from Darren Rowse
How do bloggers make money from blogs?
I’ve been reflecting this week about the amazing diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from blogs.
I’ve long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from blogging spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in one basket.
Income Streams for Bloggers - How they Make Money from Blogs
Advertising Programs - Perhaps the most obvious changes in the past few months have been with the addition of a variety of viable advertising options for bloggers. The most common way bloggers seem to earn money online is via the contextual ad program from Google - Adsense. Another two popular ones with many is BlogAds. A more recent addition that many are using successfully are Chitika’s eMiniMalls and CrispAds, Text Link Ads.
Adgenta, Azoogle Ads, Intelli Txt, Peak Click, DoubleClickTribal Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, Industry Brains, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, AVN, Pheedo, Adknowledge, YesAdvertising, RevenuePilotTextAds, SearchFeed, Target Point, Bidvertiser, Fastclick Value Click and OneMonkey (to name just some of the options - I’m sure I’ve forgotten some) and there is a smorgasbord of options. Of course there is more to come with MSN Adcenter and YPN both in beta testing and with a variety of other advertising system currently in development (so I hear).
RSS Advertising - The past 12 months have seen some advances in RSS Advertising also. I’m yet to hear of any bloggers making big money through it to this point - but as improvements are made to the ad programs exploring this I’m sure we’ll start to see examples of it being profitable.
Sponsorship - In addition to the array of advertising programs that are available to join there is a growing awareness in the business of the value and opportunity that exists for them to advertise directly on blogs. I’m hearing more and more examples of this and have been fortunately to have a couple of ad campaigns of my own in the past month - one with Adobe a couple of weeks ago and another just completed with Ricoh for a new digicam over at my Digital Camera Blog. These are not isolated cases - as I say I know of many blogs exploring sponsorship with advertisers at present and suspect we’ll see more of it in the year ahead. Sponsorship is also happening on a post by post basis with some bloggers being paid to write on certain topics by companies - either in one off or a regular fashion - and they are able to make big money from their blogs doing so.
Affiliate Programs - There are larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.
Digital Assets - Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs. By this I mean that I’m increasingly seeing e-books, courses and tele-seminars being run by bloggers. My recent foray into this with the first series of the six figure blogging course that Andy and I ran a few weeks ago and have just released the study version of. This type of activity will only increase in future - in fact this week I’ve seen numerous examples of bloggers running courses.
Blog Network Opportunities - with the rise in popularity of Blog Networks - bloggers are also being presented with more places to earn an income from their blogging - by writing for and with others. While it might be difficult to get a writing gig with one of the bigger networks - there are plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join and who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models. While there are distinct advantages of blogging for yourself - blogging for an established network who will handle a lot of the set up/promotion/admin/SEO etc has it’s advantages also. More and more bloggers are combining writing for themselves on their own blogs with taking on blog network blogs as additional income streams.
Business Blog Writing Opportunities - as blogging has risen in it’s profile as a medium more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties - but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs. I know of a number of bloggers who in the past month or two have been approached for such paid work. Check out Bloggers for Hire if you’re looking for this type of work.
Non Blogging Writing Opportunities - Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non blogging mediums. Manolo’s recent coup of a column in the Washington Post is just one example of this as bloggers are increasingly being approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non blog websites. Along side this is the rise of bloggers as published book authors - this is to the extent that one blogger I spoke with this week complained to me that they were one of the few bloggers than they knew who didn’t have a book deal!
Donations - Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fundraising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke of kottke.org who through the generosity of his readership was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.
Flipping Blogs - Also more common in 2005 was the practice of ‘Blog Flipping’ - or selling of blogs. This has happened both on an individual blog level (I can think of about 20 blogs that sold this year) but also on a network level (the most obvious of these being the 8 figure sale of Weblogs Inc to AOL).
Merchandising - My recent attempt to sell ProBlogger.net T-shirts wasn’t a raging success, but it is an example of how an increasing number of bloggers are attempting to make a few extra dollars from their blogs by selling branded products through programs like Cafepress (although I have to say they’ve lost one of my own orders and are being quite unresponsive to my requests to follow it up at present). While I didn’t have a lot of success with merchandising - quite a few larger blogs are seeing significant sales - especially blogs with a cult following. I’m not at liberty to discuss details - but I know of one largish blog which will see sales over $20,000 in merchandise for the calendar year of 2005.
Consulting and Speaking - While it has been popular for established consultants to add blogs to their businesses we’re also starting to see bloggers with no consulting background able to make money by charging readers for their time in consulting scenarios BECAUSE of the profile that their blogs have built them. Blogging has the ability to establish people as experts on niche topics and we all know the value of being perceived as an expert. I spoke to one blogger last month who charges himself out at over $200 an hour for speaking and consulting work - his area of expertise was something that he knew little about 18 months ago - but through his blog he’s become a leader in his field and a minor celebrity in his industry.
As time rolls on there are more and more ways that bloggers make money from their blogs opening up. Feel free to suggest your own ideas and experiences in comments below.
