Monetizing Your Journal & Turning It Into a Business

When we began our journal, full time bloggers were not truly a thing and we never expected to make a dime. But these days blogging is a big business, with ad networks, affiliate programs, sponsored content, and many other things that allow publishers to monetize their site and, in many cases, earn some serious income.

Like SEO, this is a topic that fills whole websites and takes up days at journal conferences, so you’d be hard pressed to find a single post that covers it all, or a plain one-size-fits-all rule for earning money from your journal. But on this page we will cover a few essential questions about how a blogger can start monetizing their site – and what you should think about when considering the idea of turning your journal into a business. Some of those topics include:

• Basic monetization techniques
• Where to start
• What to expect (“can I make sufficient to cover small projects?” “can I make sufficient to buy my own island?”)
• What pitfalls to avoid
• Where can I learn more?

Q: WHAAA? You truly blogged as a full time job and made sufficient income to support your whole family?

A: Yes, we began our journal in 2007, and we began earning money from our site in 2008 (at first it was simply sufficient to cover a can of paint or a yard of fabric). It took us about another full year for Sherry to consider stepping away from her primary job (which was still quite the pay cut). And by 2010, another year later, our site was earning sufficient that I (John) could leave my full time job too, which was good timing and a fairly big leap of faith, since we had a baby coming and we both dreamed about working from home together.

As you can see, it was not an overnight process to get our journal generating a full time income by any means. We logged many many months of creating content for quite little financial return (which brings us back to rule number 1: do it because you enjoy it and the rest will come). Our first day of trying sidebar ads earned us a whopping 11 cents, but the good news is that with so many newer ways to monetize these days – and with many distinct types of social media to assist you promote posts that did not used to exist – we know many bloggers who have been writing for a shorter period of time who can support themselves (and sometimes even several employees!) through their blogs.

So it is safe to say that these days it is not only easier than ever to create a journal, it is easier than ever to make money with one. But it still likely necessitates being patient, focusing first and foremost on creating good content, and then you can layer in some of these ideas for earning money.

Q: No truly, why would anyone pay bloggers to journal? I simply do not get how this whole monetization thing works.

A: Monetizing blogging works off the same principles as traditional media like magazines or TV. If you create content that people want to consume (journal posts instead of TV shows or magazine articles) then companies & advertisers will want to put themselves where they can be seen by those same eyeballs (for example, via sidebar ads and affiliate links instead of TV commercials or print ads). And simply like TV shows and magazines work to increase their viewership/readership, the more visitors you attract to your site – the more compensation you can earn.

And to keep the metaphor going, simply like there is product placement on TV (where an advertiser pays to have their product used/worn/eaten/driven by the characters or reality stars on the screen), bloggers are increasingly getting paid to incorporate an advertiser’s product within the content of their journal posts (which legally must be disclosed so no readers feel like they are being duped). But we will talk about sponsored posts more a bit later…

Q: What are some of the main ways bloggers earn money these days?

A: The business of blogging is constantly shifting, and one form of monetizing may work strong for one blogger while another is ideal for a distinct style of journal or topic area. But here are what we’d consider to be THE TOP 3 AVENUES FOR Journal EARNING:

1. Ads. Many say this is a dying revenue stream for bloggers, but it ain’t dead yet (we know plenty of bloggers who still make the largest chunk of their income from this revenue stream). This means putting ads in or near your content (for example on the sidebar or at the bottom of a post). These ads will earn small amounts of money every time someone loads the page, and it is one of the most passive ways to earn blogging income, since it runs automatically once you’ve implemented a little bit of code. In other words, it is straightforward and it is fairly auto-pilot. Of course too many ads all over your site can be a turn off, so try to balance site function & aesthetics with the desire to generate more ad income.
2. Affiliates. If you frequently reference or link to products in your journal (or on your social media channels), like the dress you wore in that photo or the rug you put in your living room, you may want to consider using an “affiliate link.” This is a specially coded URL that tells the company that you sent that customer their way. The company will then pay you a small referral fee or commission on the sale (without charging that buyer any more for the product). Although commissions can be small and it requires a bit more work as your write posts to incorporate those special links, sites like RewardStyle and shareasale.com are attempting to streamline that process. Our advice would be not to overuse them and potentially turn off your audience.
3. Sponsored Content. This is when a company will pay a fee to the blogger for incorporating a product or service directly into their journal posts. Sometimes called “native advertising,” this is where many experts see the blogging industry heading because companies find more value in mentions within a blogger’s content (rather than on their sidebar). These can be quite lucrative for a blogger and they frequently get to try the product or service for free as well, although all bloggers are legally required to disclose when a post has been paid for by someone. They are the least passive way to earn, since you have to generate or tailor content around the sponsor (who typically requires that they get to pre-read the post and approve it beforehand), and some readers can bristle when too many posts are sponsored, or they feel that a sponsor has caused a blogger to veer off topic or away from their natural writing style. We preferred to journal about things because we liked them without anything being sponsored – but we know many bloggers who make 80%+ of their income from sponsored posts.

There are plenty of other avenues for monetizing your site – like selling a product (think e-book, Etsy shop, an app, an e-course, etc) or offering paid content (like special subscription-only posts or email blasts). That is not to mention other paid opportunities that may come your way, like speaking opportunities, book writing, or product design – three things that we have truly had lively doing in the last few years.

Q: Strong! I am ready for the moolah to start rolling in. When do I get rich?

First, let us establish that your earning potential from your site is directly related to how much traffic you receive and how engaged your audience is (which typically correlates to how much quality content you have created – which typically builds up over time). So the truth is that blogging is not typically a “get rich swift scheme” and it is typically more of a “build up a library of content over time and slowly that will grow your following and gradually add up to an income” scenario. All of the “Big 3” listed above will earn incrementally more as someone’s readership grows – whether it is because more ads are being seen, more affiliate links are being followed, or more companies are attracted by your increased traffic (and the potential to reach more eyeballs).

So your first focus should be on creating content that is good sufficient to attract readers and earn you more traffic. You certainly can make some strong little streams of “bonus income” as you grow your journal and create content in the beginning, but do not expect big checks until you have a large number of readers stopping in. We blogged for a long time without making a dime, and when we at last began monetizing it initially only offset the cost of a few supplies.

Slowly it grew from there, simply as our traffic did over time – and it eventually became a full time job for one of us, and later a full time job for both of us. So once again, for the people in the back: blogging about something you are passionate about should be your driving motivation (not dollar signs or spiking traffic graphs). Write excitedly and regularly about something you are passionate about, and the rest will hopefully come.

Q: Ok, I will take the bonus income and go from there. Where do I start?

The easiest place to start is with ads and affiliate links. Why? Because you can implement these from Day #1 (whereas convincing a sponsor to pay for a post typically requires proof of a fair amount of traffic, which you might not have yet). You still may be blocked from some advertising sources or affiliate programs until you reach a certain traffic threshold, so two strong places that anyone can start are: Google Adsense and Amazon Affiliates. Both are free to start, straight-forward to implement, and they tap into some of the Internet’s largest markets for advertisers and products. Although they may not pay as much for ads and affiliates as other “premium” networks, they are a strong starting point and will give you a benchmark for your CPM earnings – and even offer good back-up options as your site grows (we still use both of them!)

Q: What jargon do I need to know? You simply said CPM and I was all “say what now?”

Journal monetization can feel like jargon city, so here are some good basic terms to know (and throw around to show you are no newbie… even if you are one).

Impression / Pageview: Believe it or not, the term “hit” is a fairly vague term when it comes to website statistics. The more accurate term is “pageview” which means a single time your webpage was viewed (whether by the same person or a bunch of distinct people). This is distinct than “unique visitor,” which only counts a person once whether they visit one page or click around to one hundred pages within your site. But the pageview number is typically the most essential because it relates most closely to the advertising term “impression,” which is how many times an ad is seen (whether that is by the same person or a bunch of distinct people).

Unique visitor: This may simply be referred to as “uniques” – and this statistic counts how many distinct people visit your site within a given time – no matter whether they click simply one page (which leads to one pageview), or spend hours digging through all of your pages (which leads to multiple pageviews). This stat helps convey the size of your audience (since a million pageviews does not necessary mean a million fans) and can be helpful to potential post sponsors since they will want to know how many individuals your posts may reach.

CPM (Cost Per Impression): This terms means how much an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions on your site, and is the best measure for what ads (size, placement, network) are most successful for you. Plenty of factors affect the CPM you may earn – the size of ad, the placement on the page, and even the time of year – so many bloggers use this number to evaluate where and what ads earn them the most money. Let us say your site got 100,000 page views last month and you earned an average CPM of $1.00. Well, you’d simply divide those 100,000 impressions by 1,000 and multiply that number by $1.00, which means you’d make $100 that month. And say you had four of those ads on your site, well simply multiply $100 by 4, and that would mean $400 in your pocket.

Ad Placement: This refers to the place on your website an ad occupies. We have placements like our “Header” ad, which is 728 pixels wide and 90 pixels tall (a standard size, called 728×90), and sidebar ads that are 300×250 size and 300×600 size. Ads of the same size, like our 300×250 ads, earn distinct amounts based on where their placement is on our site – those that are higher on the page and closer to content typically do better. Premium placements frequently include those ads that are “above the fold” or ATF, which borrows from the newspaper world where stories on the top half of the paper (aka, above the literal fold) were more essential. Above the fold of a website means it is visible before the user scrolls. Everything else is “below the fold” or BTF.

Ads can also earn more if they are capable of playing video or have special features like expanding to be larger, popping out, or remaining in one spot as someone scrolls (these are frequently called “sticky”). But simply because a special ad pays more does not mean it is a smart choice, since overly intrusive or annoying ads can drive readers away.

Ad Network: These, like Google Adsense, are companies or services that take care of getting the ads delivered to your site. They save you the trouble of finding advertisers, negotiating ad rates, and collecting ad graphics yourself (of course, in exchange they automatically take a cut of your earnings). Some networks are content-specific and assist you get advertisers geared toward your topics (we have used one called Martha Stewart’s Circle that focuses on home/craft/food advertisers – since they’ve determined that our audience is also interested in those products) while others may be more broad. The broader the network, the less relevant your ads will be to your audience and therefore the less successful they may be for you. You can implement distinct ad networks in distinct ad placements or even use a free program like Google DFP to juggle multiple networks within one ad placement.

Premium vs Backfill: The goal is to get as many high-quality, high-paying ads served on your site as frequently as possible – ads that pay $6 or even $8+ CPM (which is no straightforward feat). In contrast to those, “backfill ads” are lower quality, lower paying ads that are easier to come by, so networks will fill your unsold premium space with them (think of them as a back-up option when premium ads are not available). Premium networks will assist you try to cut down on backfill, but ultimately you may have to accept some (especially as your page views increase beyond an straightforward-to-fill number) – so that is one good thing to remind yourself if you are still a relatively small journal. You might be making a lot more per click than a much bigger journal!

Backfill ads may be automatically provided by your ad network, or you can implement your own through Google Adsense, by using Google DFP (which can assist you tier your ads so the ones that make you the most money will be served ahead of cheaper backfill ones). Fine-tuning your ad networks can be complicated and requires vigilance, so do not stress if it takes a while to understand. We have been in this for nearly a decade and there is still plenty to learn!

Q: How do I find ad networks for my site?

You can sign up for many ad networks on your own, right from day #1 (like Google Adsense or Amazon CPM Ads). There are soooo many out there these days that it is difficult to evaluate which are best since most work better for some bloggers than others. Many are invitation-only and may require you to hit certain traffic thresholds before you will be considered, so our go-to way of zeroing in on networks to pursue is to rely on blogs we admire. Some may disclose their ad network affiliates, either on an About or FAQ page, or based on a logo on their site (sometimes in their journal’s footer). These are good indicators of networks that a blogger has liked working with. And if it is not readily visible on their site, feel free to ask them – simply do not be surprised if some want to keep the information private. Why would anyone want to keep them a secret? Well, while having more bloggers on a network may assist them attract more ads, it sometimes also spreads the existing ads more thinly – meaning more backfill and lower revenue for everyone across the board.

Once you know who you are interested in pursuing, find a contact email and let them know you’d be interested in learning more. You can also tell them a bit about your site/stats and inquire about next steps to test them out on your site.

Q: Should I do sponsored posts on my journal?

Back in 2010 we chose to run a site without any sponsored posts, simply because we thought it would simplify things for us and because we chose that sponsored content might sway how the authenticity of the rest of our content was perceived (ex: “Are you simply gushing about that because you were paid? And if you were, how can I trust anything you say?”). So ultimately it was not a monetization strategy that we felt comfortable pursuing, but we know many fellow bloggers who do (and enjoy!) sponsored posts, and many readers who seem to be simply fine with them – especially since they are a lot more common these days.

Sponsored content has become WAAAY more prevalent in the blogosphere (as well as sponsored social media posts, etc), so both bloggers and readers are much more familiar with seeing sponsored content in their feeds. And many bloggers are able to create helpful, entertaining, and inspiring content out of a sponsored opportunity (as opposed to it seeming like a commercial break to talk about something random).

Before you decide to attract sponsors, take some time to read a bunch of sponsored posts by other bloggers. Take note of what you liked about it and what you did not, as well as what you think the sponsor appreciated (or did not appreciate). You can also check the comments to see if readers offered any constructive feedback about the way this sponsored post was presented.

Q: How do I get sponsors for my journal posts?

The best case scenario for having post sponsors is when they are companies you already use and mention regularly. This means any paid content you write will feel like a natural extension of your usual content, rather than a forced pairing (think a food blogger who writes a sponsored post about her go-to cookware vs. a sponsored post about her go-to shoes). So the best way to plant the seeds is by blogging honestly and enthusiastically about the products and services you are already paying for, using, and loving. We know many bloggers who have developed lucrative sponsored relationships with companies they had been blogging about for years, simply because they enjoy them and their product.

It may assist get you noticed if you occasionally link to them when you mention them (so they might detect incoming traffic) or tag them in social media posts when it is pertinent – but you want to strike a balance that does not feel weirdly forceful. If it comes off as “brand-stalking” it might compromise your integrity and be a turn off to your most essential audience: your readers.

You may be lucky sufficient for those companies to take note and reach out to you directly, but if not, try searching for an appropriate contact on their website. You may also be able to get a referral from a journal-friend if you notice that they are already working with them (but again, do not be surprised if this is information they’d prefer to keep private). Then simply try making the case for your site to this potential sponsor by sharing your traffic stats, examples of posts that feature them already, and proof of your social following.

Other ways you may find journal sponsors is through your ad network (many premium ad networks also pitch sponsorship opportunities to their advertisers) or by attending a journal conference where companies that already see the value of journal partnerships may be in attendance (ALT, Haven, BlogHer, etc). That is a strong way to earn face time with the companies that support bloggers like you.

Q: Okay, but I hate those disclosure statements about sponsored posts. Cannot I make money without telling anyone?

In fact, you cannot. The FTC released guidelines several years ago that require bloggers and other online publishers to “clearly and conspicuously” disclose when any of their content – whether it be a journal post or social media share – was paid for. This frequently comes in the form of a brief statement at the top of a paid post (ex: “This post is sponsored by XXXX. All opinions are my own.”) or a hashtag like #ad or #spon on Instagram or Facebook. Not doing so can get both you and your sponsor in hot water, so it is also a good litmus test to see if a potential sponsor knows what they are doing based on whether or not they address this with you. If they do not double check that you will be using a disclosure statement, you (and that company!) could get in serious hot water, so it might be a sign that they are not a reliable brand for a collaboration.

Q: How can I take my journal to the next level – like with a TV show, magazine feature, or book deal?

A: Many bloggers (us included) are quite lucky to have had our online presence lead to other real world opportunities like books or product lines or television gigs, etc. There is not one specific path to follow that’ll guarantee that you will achieve these things, but here are some suggestions for giving yourself a little boost in that direction:

Think about your goal: This may sound like “The Secret” where you are told to visualize what you want to come true, but it truly is useful in this application. If you make intentional goals – like “I want to write a book” or “I want to design clothes” – it is a lot easier to steer your work in that direction. Plus, pinpointing your goal then gives you the opportunity to evaluate it: what enjoyment will I get out of this beyond any monetary gain? What negatives might result in pursuing this? How will I have to allocate my time differently in order to achieve or manage this? Are the choices I am making now leading me towards that goal – or taking me further away from it? All good things to consider.

Steer your content towards that: We are friendly with many bloggers who have goals of landing a TV show, so they (smartly!) start making more video content – either on YouTube or short clips on Vine or casual chats on Periscope. It gives them more practice in front of the camera, plus it demonstrates their skills in those areas to any potential producers. Similarly, if you want a book deal or magazine column, truly focus on your writing (or photography, if it is a photo book) and start aligning your content with what you might put in a book. The more your journal reflects the talents you will need for that next step, the easier it will be for the people to clearly see that – especially the people who might be able to make that dream of yours become a reality.

Say it publicly: Not only will stating your goal to your audience assist you commit to it, it may assist the right people recognize those skills in you. Who knows what connections your readers may have to the industries you want to be in, but unless they know you want it they may never reach out to assist.

Ask for advice: Try to locate another blogger that you are friendly with who has achieved that step and ask for some advice or mentoring. Or even reach out to a non-blogger who works in that field and ask for suggestions for breaking into it. We have put numerous good friends and trusted colleagues in contact with our book agent – so we are glad to vouch for them and assist them get a foot in the door. Sometimes all you have to do is ask :)

Q: So I read all this, it is been 3/6/9/12 months, and my journal has not taken off yet. What am I doing wrong?

A: Without being able to diagnose every journal individually, the most likely culprit is simply time. Unless you are fortunate sufficient to break a story or experience a post going viral, it is unrealistic to expect journal success overnight (or even over a year). The journal world is cluttered right now and standing out can be difficult, but here are some last thoughts to try to bring renewed energy to your efforts:

• Try a new audience: What might be a secondary audience for your journal? If home design enthusiasts are not as interested as you had hoped, what about moms? If foodies have not stuck, what about bakers or restaurateurs? By thinking about a related sub-group that might find your content interesting and searching for the places (Facebook groups, Pinterest boards, message boards, etc) that they go to for information, you will still get to write what you are passionate about – simply think about it as distributing it to a secondary audience.
• Share in a new place: If sharing links on Facebook and Twitter have fallen flat, have you tried pinning to Pinterest? Or sharing short videos on Instagram or YouTube? Create content that fits these other networks and see if you can catch distinct eyeballs.
• Mix up your content: If the lengthy walkthroughs you are posting are not gaining momentum, challenge yourself to make swift posts – perhaps bite-sized pointers or straightforward-to-share graphics. Or the other way around, try diving deeper into the topics you’ve been sharing with more robust content if you typically simply graze the surface.
• Take on something timely: Is there a news story or popular trend that you could offer your insight or opinion on? Look for topics that are trending on Facebook, Twitter, or even Google to see what areas might fit your journal’s area of expertise. Do not start chasing fads and being click-bait-y, but if you enjoy a topic and something newsworthy is going on in that niche, talking about it could attract new readers who feel the same way. For example, if cronuts are a big thing and you are a food blogger, whip up a recipe – or try three and share your go-to (and why you think it is the best).
• Make new friends: Seek out new blogging peers in a few Facebook groups or message boards. Become active on another site’s comments or social media where you might find like minded people. Do not roll in trying to being all business, simply make friends and assist each other out. These organic connections can lead to excellent blogging collaborations, sharing ad network info, etc, etc.

This post is Part 3 in a three part series, so click either of the banners below if you’d like to read more about:

Still want more? You can also check out a roundup of additional posts by clicking on the image below, which will cover more information about: how our journal grew, how it makes money, how we schedule posts, what a typical day in the life of a full time blogger looks like, the top ten things we have learned about blogging, our top traffic numbers, and all that other stuff that seems to come up when we say “go ahead, ask us anything!”