There are lots of monetization methods for blogs and it completely depends on which method you use to generate revenue. An effective monetization model takes time to build, you will have no clue how to do it on day one but as you walk the path you will start “getting it”. You will understand which monetization method works for your sites and which one does not.

For example, there are two bloggers – John and Samuel. Both have their own blogs which gets steady traffic of 5000 unique visitors per month. John uses Google Adsense as the monetization model while Samuel sells his own products and services.

For John, Google Adsense is an effective model since he writes content around news, tutorials, guides and publishes only information. His niche and nature is purely focused on getting content from the web and publishing it on his own website.  Hence, Google Adsense will give him maximum returns since Google Adsense is contextual advertising and John does not have to hunt down advertisers or worry about actual sales of product or services.

However, the case is different for Samuel’s.

Since he sells his own products and services, his content is focussed around the topics that brings him targeted leads. He doesn’t want to use contextual advertising since earning a substantial amount from Google Adsense requires daily effort of producing relevant, fresh content. Samuel doesn’t want to do that. He doesn’t want to create content on a regular basis. Instead, he wants to be known for the services he offers to his clients and hence he can post only once in a while. His content is more focused around the services that he sells.

So as we can see, depending on the nature and style of the blog, the monetization method is chosen. There is no clear answer that – this is the most effective monetization model for blogs.

However, based on my experience, I can tell you the following

  1. Google Adsense is most effective when you are just starting out and have very little traffic. As you build up the traffic to your sites, the Adsense revenue increases with more content and more traffic.
  2. Affiliate marketing is very effective when you have lot of traffic and a healthy readership. It takes time to develop solid revenue from Affiliate marketing but once you have developed your content and have built on a vast audience, then Affiliate marketing can beat all the other revenue models very, very easily.
  3. Products and services is effective when you are selling a product or service which is in high demand, is very expensive and you are offering a low cost alternative. It is again very difficult since building a product is not easy (No an eBook is not really a product, I am talking about SaaS). You can sell small products like ebooks, WordPress themes, WordPress Plugins, Scripts and other small software but they won’t add up to substantial revenue, if your product is not unique and not in high demand.

Google Adsense is the most easiest one to start with, Affiliate marketing is a little harder but absolutely worth it and Product and services are hardest but builds a solid market for you.

Hence, if you are just starting out, start with Google Adsense and slowly incorporate Affiliate marketing in a couple of years. Then move on to build your own products and services which people want and will pay for. That seems like a good strategy for new bloggers, who want to monetize early on and then diversify their income streams to incorporate multiple revenue models from their websites or blogs.