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.