As a publisher of adverts, which programs would you swear by?

[Jane @ Kidzarama]

I've reached the stage where I have a few months of posts up, and am starting to think about 'monetising' my blog.

There's so many programs out there though, so I thought I'd throw the question out there and see what you've had the best results with.

So what's brought you the best success in monetising your blogs???

[Happy Momma]

I have used a bunch of paid posting places.  The one I get the most to do from is Pay Per Post.  The problem is that once you start doing paid posting you will either lose your page rank (if you have one) or see a big drop in your page rank.  Once that happens it becomes much harder to get any work to do because advertisers want people who have page ranks. 
I'm currently using:
Pay Per Post- they are great, easy to deal with and very helpful.  I make most of my money with them.
ReviewMe- when I had a PR of 3 I got quite a bit to do with them, but now I don't get much of anything.
Smorty- I have only ever had a little bit from them, and most of their advertisers seem to be gambling sites.
PayU2Blog- I get anywhere between 5-8 jobs per week with them and they always pay $5 per post.
Blogsvertise- this is the only one I have had some problems with.  Most of the time they are fine, but I have had a handful of posts I did that they did not pay me for "because the advertiser canceled" even though the post was up on my blog for 30 days.
Social Spark- a new thing owned by the same company that owns PPP.  It's still new and there's a lot of complaints about it.  But so far I've had several opportunities to write about and since I'm working with the same people from PPP I like it.

Whew.... any questions- ask!!

[Lynnae]

As far as non-pay per post ads, I love BlogHer!   I think they're closed to new applicants right now, but they should open up again sometime. Keep your eyes open.  I also run adsense and several affiliates through Commission Junction.  I use Amazon Associates, too.  Most months it doesn't do too well, but then someone bought a big flat screen TV through my link.  So you never know when Amazon will pay off for you. 

[gustygirl]

This is great to hear this information.  I was thinking about using Pay per post.  I am going to check into it.
Tracey

[Jane @ Kidzarama]

As far as non-pay per post ads, I love BlogHer!   I think they're closed to new applicants right now, but they should open up again sometime.

I looked at BlogHer first Lynnae, and they are closed at the moment. There's a email list you can sign up to find out when they begin accepting applicants again, so I did that instead.
I like the look and feel of the Blogher ads and community, so it's good to hear they pay well, too

That tv must have been a nice surprise 

I forgot to add... I signed up for Project Wonderful last night and just got the okay to publish ads with them. Linda seems to be doing well with them.
~She started a thread about it here: http://themomblogs.com/forum/index.php/topic,30.0.html

[Happy Momma]

I think the only way you will do really well with BlogHer is if you have a lot of traffic.

I know someone with average traffic who uses it and she got $15 after 3 months.  So, unless you have a lot of traffic I don't think you'll make very much using that.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

[Lynnae]

I think the only way you will do really well with BlogHer is if you have a lot of traffic.

I know someone with average traffic who uses it and she got $15 after 3 months.  So, unless you have a lot of traffic I don't think you'll make very much using that.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

That's true.  It is very traffic based.  But for ads that pay for traffic, BlogHer pays the most.  I find the best thing to do to make money is to diversify.  If you're doing a lot of different things, they all start to add up after a while.

[ArmySister]

I use a few of those that Melanie already mentioned - PayPerPost, Social Spark, and PayU2Blog or my regulars. ReviewMe didn't like me and I think I've gotten one job from Blogsvertise, but I am signed up and figure you never know - maybe one day.  One other one that I've gotten a few jobs with is Linkworth.

I don't have any of the ads (like Adsense and Blogher) on my site.  After reading these comments, I may go get on the waiting list for BlogHer too, but I really don't think I personally like the look of those ads on most blogs. 

I also do Amazon. It doesn't really make much at all, but I try to pick one or two items a month that can be purchased on Amazon and blog about them. When I do, I always put affiliate links in the post. I've also found a plugin for wordpress where you can list specific items of your chosing in one of your sidebars. I have gotten the word around to family/friends and before they buy something, they let me know and I place the item in that sidebar. They then click thru that and buy it. That has earned me a little bit. I've worked out a great deal with my brother who does the most amazon shopping. He has an amazon credit card and earns some type of reward points for using it. The best part, when I find something on amazon that I want, I put up the link, he purchases it, and I paypal him the money. He gets his rewards, I get the amazon affiliate pay. 

[Happy Momma]

I don't have any of the ads (like Adsense and Blogher) on my site.  After reading these comments, I may go get on the waiting list for BlogHer too, but I really don't think I personally like the look of those ads on most blogs. 

FYI- if you do paid posts you can not use BlogHer.  BlogHer has quite a few rules about that, from what I have heard and will not accept blogs that do paid posting (PPP, PayU2Blog, SocialSpark, etc)

I do have Yahoo ads on my blogs (the same thing as Adsense but it's Yahoo instead of Google).  I just have a few on my sidebars.  And I actually do pretty good with those.  I mean not a lot- but I've varied between $50-$80 per month.  That's pretty good for doing nothing.

[ArmySister]

I don't have any of the ads (like Adsense and Blogher) on my site.  After reading these comments, I may go get on the waiting list for BlogHer too, but I really don't think I personally like the look of those ads on most blogs. 

FYI- if you do paid posts you can not use BlogHer.  BlogHer has quite a few rules about that, from what I have heard and will not accept blogs that do paid posting (PPP, PayU2Blog, SocialSpark, etc)

I do have Yahoo ads on my blogs (the same thing as Adsense but it's Yahoo instead of Google).  I just have a few on my sidebars.  And I actually do pretty good with those.  I mean not a lot- but I've varied between $50-$80 per month.  That's pretty good for doing nothing.

Oh wow. Thanks for the heads up. I don't think I'd be interested then as I feel like I probably make more from the paid posting than I would from the side advertising. I will probably add Adsense or yahoo at some point, but I don't think I'm quite ready.

[Jane @ Kidzarama]

FYI- if you do paid posts you can not use BlogHer.  BlogHer has quite a few rules about that, from what I have heard and will not accept blogs that do paid posting (PPP, PayU2Blog, SocialSpark, etc)

I do have Yahoo ads on my blogs (the same thing as Adsense but it's Yahoo instead of Google).  I just have a few on my sidebars.  And I actually do pretty good with those.  I mean not a lot- but I've varied between $50-$80 per month.  That's pretty good for doing nothing.

I don't think I'll be going with paid post, I just don't know how interesting I could make them. But I admire those who can.

I hadn't even thought about Yahoo ads. Don't even know if I've heard of them, actually.
But $50 a month would pay for hosting and some nice adverts to bring in more traffic, so I'd be happy with that.

Hell, I'd be happy with $20 a month

So I'm off to investiguate Yahoo...

[cloudsters]

Hullo, newbie alert here (celebrating the first month of blogging!) but if you've got people subscribing to your feed (and so not even visiting your site), there's always Pheedo, which will put ads onto your feed...

(As for Adsense, have racked up a truly minuscule amount, so something's not quite pukka)

[ardeckard]

I mentioned this in another thread too but I love CPA Storm which is an affiliate that pays you for posting links.  I primarily use them for sites I talk about already (like surveys).  I have a post about at my place.  Another affiliate I've also just joined is LogicalMedia.  They are much like CPA Storm but have different links including some links for FREE samples (which everyone loves).  I publish those on a weekly basis after I've personally signed up for them (and I only put the ones I actually sign up for).  I posted about LogicalMedia too - I'm just putting this out there because I've given more details on my blog and I don't want to put links on here to respect the policies :-)

Of course, there is Commission Junction which isn't as profitable to me since they pay for referrals versus leads (like CPA Storm and LogicalMedia), but don't get me wrong it's still good for me to use since I'm talking about the stuff they have that my other affiliate programs don't have.  And, Amazon is one that's all over the place but I don't get any money on that one since I don't push it.

I think the best thing to do is to find affiliates and other programs that have links for stuff that you personally like to do or endorse!  I want to be 100% credible for my readers and sharing the info with them in advance telling them I'm making money when they sign up on something is doing that (and the disclosure does too but it's so impersonable).

HTH!!!

[ArmySister]

Thanks for listing these. I'm going to check them out tomorrow. I want to do a lot of experimenting this summer and sort of develop a routine before school starts back as I'm so limited for time then.

[Jane @ Kidzarama]

Pheedo sounds good, cloudsters. I'll take a look at it...


@ardeckard ~

I've wondered about affiliate programs like Amazon for selling craft and children's books. I posted yesterday about a new book that Wren is loving at the moment.

It might have been good to have an affiliate link in case anyone was so overwhelmed with my persuasive writing style that they just had to buy a copy then & there...