For years people have debated whether or not bloggers should have advertisements on their blogs. As someone who earns a large portion of her income through blogging, I understand the attraction, and I feel that bloggers who put a great deal of time into their blogs should in fact be compensated. As a reader I have nothing wrong with ads on blogs as long as they don’t get excessive (such as pushing all content “below the fold” or bombarding me with pop-ups).
That said, I can understand that some bloggers — even those who want to make money from their blogs — simply don’t want ads on their sites.
Why You Might Want an Ad-Free Blog
There are a number of reasons why you might not want ads on your blog. Maybe there aren’t a lot of good advertisers relevant to your niche. Maybe you blog in a niche where readers tend to react poorly to advertising. Perhaps you just don’t like the look of them and you don’t want ads taking screen real estate away from your content or other blog features. Or you might just feel ads are inappropriate, especially if you run a business or professional blog.
No matter what your reasons are for not wanting ads on your blog, they’re perfectly valid. After all, it’s your blog. Do what you want with it. But don’t think that a lack of advertising means you can’t make money blogging. You can. Let’s look at some other income sources you can build using your blog.
Blog Income Sources Other Than Advertisements
Turn your blog into a membership site to earn money without advertisements. — Credit: BigStockPhoto.com
Here are ten blog income streams you can use to make money blogging, even indirectly.
- Premium Memberships
- E-books
- Software / Apps
- Other Digital Sales (like images, audio downloads, forms, and templates)
- Book Sales
- Research Reports
- Professional Services
- Coaching Services
- E-courses / Webinars
- Donations
As you can see, most of these blog income streams involve you selling something of your own rather than advertising someone else’s products or services. There are some important benefits to that. For example, you can make sure anything you sell is highly targeted to your blog readers. Quality control is completely in your hands. And you can keep a larger percentage of each sale.
Running an ad-free blog doesn’t have to mean running a revenue-free blog. Can you think of other ways to make money through your blog, directly or indirectly, that aren’t included in this list? Tell us about your ideas in the comments.
