How Bloggers Make Money

In the interest of transparency I’d like to share with all my readers the different ways I make money blogging. There have been several articles and television interviews lately about mommy bloggers “selling out” to sponsors in order to earn a buck. This perspective arises out of ignorance of the facts. So on behalf of myself and all mommy bloggers everywhere, I want to show you how I earn.

#1 Affiliate Advertising
There are several companies known as affiliate networks. These companies act as a middleman for advertisers (like major cereal manufacturers, cleaning products companies, national chain stores, online stores, etc) and publishers (bloggers, website owners, etc). The networks have contracts with the big companies to create and distribute ads throughout the worldwide web. They allow publishers to apply to the network to gain access to these ads. Each network has different qualification criteria for choosing publishers. Once accepted, you are able to use ads on your site according to the specified rules.

Now on to concrete examples.
::If you’re a subscriber, you’ve seen offers on this site to sign up for free coupon booklets by mail from several major manufacturers. Often, these booklets include a coupon for a free product, along with other high value coupons on items you use every day. When you sign up for these, I earn $.15-$.50

::When there is a great printable coupon available from one of the major online coupon printing sites and you print it by following one of my links, I earn $.25-$.35.

::Several times manufacturers will offer you a free sample of a new product, snack item, contact lenses, etc. A few of these offers earn me $.25 – $.60 when you get your freebie.

::Several times per week, I visit amazon.com and search out the best bargains and share them in a post called Today’s Amazon Deals. Most of this stuff is 40%-80% off with free shipping. When you purchase through my link, I earn.

::There are dozens of online stores that offer affiliate relationships. I search out the biggest bargains and discount codes and share them with you and when you buy, I earn a percentage.

::Occasionally there will be a free trial offer that gives you a really great introductory deal. When you cancel within the trial period, you owe nothing more. Many of these are also affiliate links.

::Online communities for moms, expectant parents, health and fitness, environmental awareness often pay us $1-$2 per sign up.

If you were able to see the thousands of affiliate offers available to me, you’d find that most of them are high paying but not in the best interest of my readers. Get rich quick stuff, “As Seen on TV” stuff, credit card offers, mortgage refinance, debt consolidation, and just about everything you’ve ever seen in your spam folder. These things pay as much as $100 per sign up. If mommy bloggers were dishonest product pimpers, we would shove these deals on our sites. You can see from the list above that the links we choose to share are only the ones that will benefit our readers…it’s truly a win-win situation.

Product Reviews and Giveaways
There are occasions when a company offers a product sample in exchange for an honest review and giveaway on my site. Recently I was given a 6 week trial of an online learning community for kids. I let my kiddos try it out and then shared our opinion. I wasn’t paid, but I was given a free subscription. A couple times I have been sent a DVD or food product to try out and share with my readers. I wasn’t paid, and my readers were offered an opportunity to enter a giveaway for the same product. It makes sense to me that if there is a product I am unfamiliar with, I should try it out before I share it with you. In the 7 months that I have been blogging, I have only ever received four free products. You should also know that there have been at least 15 that I have turned down. Either I didn’t think the product or service would benefit you, or I didn’t think the company would make money promoting it here. While I love to offer you giveaways, I also know that the person on the other end of the giveaway is an entrepeneur struggling to earn in a difficult economy. If I don’t think the promotion will benefit them, I won’t do it. There have also been a few giveaways I’ve done where I have turned down the opportunity to get a freebie first, because I was familiar enough with the product or service that I could intelligently share it with you without having to get something free.

How to spot an affiliate link:
If you want to know which links are earning money for your favorite bloggers, check the URL. If you are being led to a free sample site for Brand X, then the URL should be something like www.brandx.com/freebie. If it is an affiliate link, it will usually look something like this at first: www. jdckorb.com/aff=blog321. Sometimes they are quite long. In other words, it will not look like what you expect. You can click on a few links from this blog to see the difference.

I have a lot more I’d like to say about this. I’d like to take a few paragraphs and talk about how discerning my readers are, and how insulting this mommy-blogger/product pimper theory is to their intelligence.

Then I’d take a few more paragraphs to talk about how many hours per week I put into finding ways for folks to save money. As much as I love it, I’m afraid I couldn’t dedicate much time to it if I were not being paid something. The very people writing about this fallacy are being paid, and we all know dirt sells – even fake dirt (Enquirer anyone?). If there is a pimp around, they might wanna shake that pointy finger at themselves. I’ve never been to journalism school but I’m guessing they teach you a thing or two about research. Howsabout using some of that know-how to actually do some?

As Dave Ramsey says, decisions made out of fear are usually wrong. So the mainstream media flashes foreclosure notices in our face, repeats the phrase Swine Flu about 50 times per hour, and does a dozen other things to perpetuate fear in the hearts of the American consumer. But hey, ratings are good, right? How many dozens of positive stories ended up in the shredder today in favor of bad news? So yes, I blame the media for extending this recession. The paid media…who are getting paid (did I mention they earn a living by doing this?)

We recently had to move from Michigan, the only home I’ve ever known, because my hubby is in construction and there was no work. In addition, manufacturing jobs are going to Mexico. There are big time job losses in the auto industry, mortgage lending, banking, financial planning, and retail. Moms are required to get creative in our couponing and money management in order to make it. So now those of us who are sharing this information cannot make a living either? Okay, so what’s left Mrs. Reporter? If we can’t make a living in any of the aforementioned ways, how then? Should I go after your job?

Yes, I’m a little mad. Mostly because I think this economy calls for a pull-together type attitude. We should help each other succeed. Why would I buy my lip gloss at Target when a fellow mom is an Avon representative? Why would I book a trip online when there is a struggling travel agency down the road? Why wouldn’t I want to click on and sign up for anything that benefits me if it also benefits another mom? Where’s the downside?

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