One of the most important lessons anyone can learn with regards to making money online is to diversify your income sources. I learned this rule in the investment world, and the same goes with making money online.
A few years ago I saw what happens if you don’t diversify income earners online. About one and a half years ago my only real income earner drop drastically for a few months, and without another source to offset that earner, it was a lean few months for my blog. Since that time, however, I have been looking at other options of earning money online, and I’ll share what I currently use below.
One important thing to note about the income earners that are listed below is that they are free to join.
Google AdSense
Probably the most popular method of making money online is through Google AdSense. I have been using AdSense from the beginning and still use it today. It is by far my largest income earner on a regular basis, and I continue to experiment with where the ads are placed on my blog.
Unfortunately, the one downside to relying so much on Google AdSense for income is that if I have a bad month, it really has a dramatic impact on my earnings. This is what happened one and a half years ago, as I began to explain above. I had been receiving monthly deposits from Google. Then my income dropped below the $100 threshold for two months, and the deposits had stopped. This got me to think about finding additional sources of income, while at the same time experiment more with AdSense to increase my monthly income about the threshold again.
Since that time I have gone over $600/month in earnings, and have averaged over $400/month over the past 6 months with Google AdSense.
BuySellAds
Private advertising had been difficult for me to earn an income with in the past. The problem was I tried to offer advertising directly through my blog. While I could keep 100% of what I made, there just weren’t very many offers. I decided to look at BuySellAds to handle private advertising on my blog. They take a small fee of the ads that I sell, but I found it much easier to sell advertising, so at least I was making something.
There is a minimum number of pageviews that is required to join BuySellAds, but if you meet that requirement, and are looking to sell ads privately on your blog/site, I suggest you look at BuySellAds. After fees, I make about $60/month through BuySellAds.
Amazon Associates
I joined Amazon Associates a few years ago, but never really looked into taking advantage of the program. Once my Google earnings had dropped, I decided to try and get more out of Amazon Associates.
I began to simply add links to Amazon products on some of my posts. I went back through some of my tutorial posts and linked to the item that pertained to the tutorial. For example, if I provided step-by-step instructions on how to secure a particular router, I would link to that router in Amazon.
I also began to write more review posts about items that I have used, and also link to Amazon from those posts. So far, the review posts have been earning me some sales. The best part is that anything a visitor orders for the next 24 hours after clicking my Amazon link will count towards sales from me, meaning more commission. It is interesting to see what people have ordered.
I still haven’t taken full advantage of Amazon Associates, but it averages about $60/month in income, and I’m hoping to increase my Amazon Associates earnings over the next year.
SocialSpark
I only heard about SocialSpark just over nine months ago, and while it doesn’t provide a consistent income each month, it does provide nice income when I get opportunities. For those that haven’t heard of SocialSpark, let me explain how it works.
When you sign up as a publisher you may be provided with opportunities to write posts on various topics from advertisers. There are usually requirements that go along with post as well as specific links, images or videos. After 30 days of publishing the post, you will be paid in points, with 1,000 points equivalent to $10 USD. You can then cash out the points into your PayPal account once you reach a specified amount.
It could take some time to receive an opportunity, as it did for me. There has also been weeks, and even a few months between opportunities for my blog, but when I do get an opportunity it does pay well. The least I received for a post was $62.50 and the most was $200. The $200 post was a review I did for a shredder in which I received the actual shredder to review in the mail. After writing 7 posts for SocialSpark, I have earned $720.
One other thing about SocalSpark is that they have their own ad network that you can also use to make money online. Their ad units can be used in conjunction with AdSense so it can also be an additional method of making money. I currently don’t use their ads on my blog, but I may look at them in the future.
If you enjoy writing posts and being paid for it, then you should definitely check out SocialSpark.
Those are my current income earners on Technically Easy. I am always looking for other opportunities, and am hoping to get more into affiliate marketing, or even selling my own product or service. The bottom line is that I will continue to diversify my income sources to ensure that I don’t experience another drop in earnings if one earner suddenly drops.
30 Comments
SocialSpark thing i have never heard earlier about. I need to see into it deeply.
Adsense’s popularity is well deserved; it certainly seems to be the best way to go when it comes to monetising your site. SocialSpark is new to me (as it seems to be to many others), but from the way you’ve described it it definitely seems like something I’m going to want to check out. Thanks foe the heads up.
I have been using all of these revenue generators on my blogs except Amazon Associates, and right now AdSense is my number one income stream which is followed by BuySellAds & SocialSpark
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Those are great earnings you have.
I also love SocialSpark a lot and received a lot of offers from them. Btw, how can you receive the real shredder, did they contact you directly?
Hi, Tuan. With regards to the shredder, someone from SocialSpark contacted me by e-mail asking if I would like to review and write about the shredder. I agreed and the shredder was sent to me to write the review. I’m hoping to receive more of those in the future.
i was recently joined on socialspark and i m waiting for results how far it will helpful for me.
IT took a few months for me to get my first opportunity on SocialSpark. I’m hoping you will find some good success with your opportunities.
IllIm One of the Amazon associates. My income is quite good. I always hear this ‘SocialSpark,” and always positive. I wanna try this in the future. Thank you paul.
All the best,
Joseph
Many people don’t think Amazon Associates pays well, but I have made some decent money from them (especially around the holiday season). I’m glad to hear your income is good, because with the right site(s) someone can make thousands of dollars a month with Amazon Associates.
Wow, $400 a month is a lot from AdSense and my traffic is supposed to be a little bit higher than yours (yet I make around $300-ish a month only). Though I guess it’s covered by my Amazon Affiliates earnings since most traffic came to my review posts, so it’s a fair and square, I think
I hesitated to use BuySellAds because $10-15 a month for an extra banner to display does not seem to be worth it, imo.. but I guess it can still pay the bills
I have been surprised with how my AdSense has performed, considering the niche that my blog is in. I am hoping to do as well as you have done in Amazon, but I don’t write enough review posts, yet, to accomplish that goal.
I use BuySellAds mainly because it is fairly constant each month. I could always replace those ads with some from IZEA (so I don’t have too many AdSense ads) and see how that goes.
Thanks for sharing your income sources Paul … Like you, Google Adsense is the top most income source for me too. Social spark is a new thing, lemme try it
I think for many people AdSense is the top income earner, especially those just starting out. The important thing is to find ways to eventually diversify the income so having one source drop won’t have a huge impact.
I’ve tried SocialSpark but the opps haven’t been great for me. It’s not too easy to make money on Amazon. Thanks for providing an insight into how you’ve managed to do it.
With SocialSpark it can be difficult to get the opportunities, but I’m lucky in that I have had some good ones. Amazon can be tough as the commission isn’t high, but around the holiday season is when sales really take off.
I am internet marketer since 1999, things used to be easy, but today every niche is saturated and almost everybody have a website and blog. However in the beginning when AdSense was introduced, average click was about 10c, now it can go up to 90 bugs for some nice.
I haven’t had any clicks for $90, but I have read about people that can make quite a bit per click. I don’t make a lot of money through AdSense, but I still find it to be good additional income.
Very interesting information Paul. I haven’t heard about SocialSpark since now. It seems like great opportunity for people to have some extra income.
SocialSpark is a great opportunity, especially if you have a high-traffic blog.
I have been using Adsense and cj.com. I get most of my income from adsense but I do see a little cash streaming in from cj.com. CJ pays out every $50 and AdSense every $100. I think I’m going too have to try SocialSpark, never heard of them. Thanks for the tips!
I have an account with CJ, but I really haven’t don’t much with them in some time. I should look at utilizing that account more. So far I am happy with SocialSpark, I just wish there were more opportunities for me.
This is really encouraging to me. Social spark is new for me. Our environment is unique in its ability to sustain life forms. Human evolution and the development of technology has empowered every aspect of our lives.
I would agree that SocialSparks is extremely effective I was amazed of the progress I have seen after using this awesome platform.
I have also seen some nice returns with SocialSpark. It all depends on the opportunities.
Thanks paul for revealing technicallyeasy income source, this is really encouraging to me. Social spark is new for me.
SocialSpark seems to be new to many people, Mukesh.
SocialSpark rocks, been using them for 3+ years and have made thousands from them.
I heard about SocialSpark from your blog so I gave them a try. I don’t get opportunities as often as I’d like, but I am happy with how much I am paid per post.
I’ve been earning thru adsense but my problem is that when I am getting near to the payout threshold, like now, my earning drops. I can’t wait for the $100 mark. And thanks for sharing SocialSpark and BuyAndSellAds. I hope I can use them too on my sites.
Hi Kris,
I can’t say that I experienced what you have with AdSense in the past. I remember getting a little excited each time I crossed the $100 payout threshold, and sometimes it is almost unbelievable about being paid just to display the ad units on my blog.
BuySellAds does have requirements for joining, so it is dependent on the amount of traffic you receive. I do recommend that you look into joining SocialSpark as it costs nothing and there some good potential for earnings when you get opportunities.