How Do Bloggers Make Money

I get asked how do bloggers make money fairly often. Most people don’t have a clear understanding of the process so I’m going to give you a top view overview of how it works.

The first assumption would be that advertisers pay bloggers to display their banners. While some people do this, most banners are part of Affiliate Programs offered by the merchant. If you, the reader clicks on a banner, a code will tell the merchant where you came from. If you buy something the blogger who referred you gets a commission for that sale.

You may not buy the first time you go to the merchant’s site, so the merchant makes not from where you came from for a time and gives credit to the blogger should you return and buy. This time anywhere from 7 to 120 days depending on the agreement.

Most people think that sites without the banner advertisements aren’t built to make money, but surprisingly many of them are. Many sites without banner advertising make more money than the sites with banner advertising.

Readers are more comfortable clicking on text links than they are clicking on banners. They feel the text link is more credible, especially when it resides inside post or article content.

For example, I build my blogs with a theme package that runs on top of WordPress. The text “theme package” is also a link that connects to Studio Press, the theme package I use. It is also an affiliate link. If you were to click on the link and buy a theme package, I would receive a commission.

I’m going to Las Vegas for the Affiliate Summit during January. I have included affiliate links for the term “Las Vegas”, which is a link to Priceline.com and Affiliate Summit which is to the convention. The links go through an Affiliate Management company. The link “affiliate management” goes to a company called Shareasale. If you sign up with them, I get a commission.

When you think about it, you get paid to rattle on when you blog if you put the right links in the right places. Not a bad deal at all is it?