The Money’s in the Shoe
A few years ago I stumbled upon an interesting image of a dude holding a Google AdSense payout cheque over $120,000 USD. Just Google it and I’m sure you’ll find it. Fast forward to recent history and we’ll look at the fact I hopped on board this Twitter thing. That’s when I managed to come across his site again. ShoeMoney.com has been a regular site in my daily repetoir now…to the extent I even subscribed to his email list and ‘tweeted’ a bit with him on Twitter. It was actually thanks to a recent tweet that I found out about a webinar that he was putting on in conjunction with BigMarketingOnline.com and didn’t hesitate to signup for it and boy am I glad I did.
There was a solid format, complete with Power Point presentation at the outset but unfortunately some initial audio issues. Once they figured that out they delivered some solid content on how to monetize blogs.
The most popular ways that they mentioned were:
- Contextual Ads
- Donations
- Subscriptions
- Physical Goods
- Affiliate Marketing
- Direct Ad Sales
- Text Links
- Paid Posts
Contextual Ads
Google AdSesnse would be amongst the number one most popular contextual ad program. There are lots of other ones out there as well like Kontera that will actually highlight text words within your content but is still highly contextual based.
Donations
You’ll quite often see PayPal donate buttons on sites with something like “buy me a coffee” or “help support me with ‘x'”. One of the better ways that was suggested to receive support from donations is something like an Amazon Wish List
Subscriptions
Interestingly enough this point is one that was skipped over, but was in fact a point on the presentation. Logically it makes sense that you simply offer content that only members can read or benefit from. In the case of ShoeMoney.com they offer an entire suite of different tools that are available on a subscription basis. It’s like going to the gym, you pay each month whether you use it or not and is a great way to create that passive income. ShoeMoney Tools is where their bread & butter is and where they see the future of a lot of their revenue.
Physical Goods
Again this one makes sense. Figure something out that you want to sell that people will buy. In the case of ShoeMoney.com they sell t-shirts with all proceeds going to charity. Jeremy (the guy behind the site) mentioned that years back he used to import Nextel USB cables from China for 5¢ and sell them for $30 as he ranked high for the search phrase. Again, analyze your site visitors and give them something they will use.
Affiliate Marketing
This is an easy one to get in on. Hop on a site like Commission Junction or Azoogle Ads. It’s simple in how it works that once the visitor clicks on the link and completes a transaction, in other words the advertiser is paid, you receive a commission. From an advertising stand point this would be one of the best ways to advertise as you don’t have to pay until someone has paid you. From a publisher stand point, it can take time but can be well worth it as the rewards can be high. The Visa Black Card story on ShoeMoney.com that was recently announced pays $100 for each qualified application. The process around the Visa Black Card to payout is roughly 45+ days. Something like 25% to 75% OFF All Products at VistaPrint
would be an example of an affiliate link from Commission Junction. It looks and acts like a normal link.
Direct Ad Sales
This by far is the best method of monetizing your blog and making money from your blog. The money comes straight from the client and tosses it right into your pocket. In the case of ShoeMoney.com approximately 75% of their annual income is from Direct Ad Sales, and in 2008 they generated over $500,000 USD. They recently secured big name clients like Facebook and MySpace so it’s definitely working for them.
Text Links
This method is NOT recommended as you can be penalized or even banned from Google if they figure it out. ShoeMoney.com doesn’t feel that the risk is worth the reward.
Paid Posts
This is something relatively new in the realm of blog monetization. If you have a great blog with a large reader base, then it’s easier to make money with your blog. In the case of ShoeMoney.com he’s only done it twice. And if you want to have a paid post on ShoeMoney.com it’ll run you a mere $6500 USD. Kind of ridiculous but that’s what it costs.
Local Affiliate
Local affiliates are extremely new online and there’s yet another great post on ShoeMoney.com that talks about it. There’s great information within the post and an area that I’m looking to explore a little more here in Calgary. It definitely makes sense and is a niche.
There were definitely a few other points that they covered but I think I might save those for another post. All-in-all the webinar was definitely something great and well worth the time…they even went over time on it!