I just finished week 6 about monetizing the blog.  Monetizing my blog certainly sounded exciting but this week was very dull.  You might remember that last week I registered, updated in my case, at Google Adsense.  You have to wait for Google to accept your application.  I did get an acceptance after several days.  First, you receive provisional acceptance and told to put some Google ads on the site to receive full acceptance.

DON’T CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADSENSE ADS

There is a plugin to facilitate using Adsense.  The plugin is GARD.  GARD is an acronym for Google Adsense for Responsive Design.  I installed and activated GARD.   Once activated, GARD connects to Adsense using my account ID.  Adsense and GARD have two modes – basic and advanced.  Basic mode displays small ads with minimal text.  Advanced mode lets you choose from a variety of ad shapes and sizes.  The two modes are mutually exclusive.   You can use basic or advanced but not both.

DON’T CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADSENSE ADS

John emphasized over and over to not click on your own Adsense ads.  Google will know and delete your account.  I am not sure using blog space for Adsense ads is really worth it.  You get paid each time someone clicks on one of the ads.  That is a good thing.  But you don’t actually get paid until you reach $100.  If you don’t have a high traffic blog, reaching the $100 minimum could take a very long time.  I can always remove the ads.

DON’T CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADSENSE ADS

The second method for monetizing the blog is to include ads for products that pay commissions.  The training video demonstrates this method using a ClickBank product called Simple Traffic Solutions.  This is a product developed by John.  There is no requirement to advertise this product.  It is just the product used in the video training.  I used STS for now but I will search for a different product soon.

There are several websites that have commission based products.  To sell the products, you have to join, find a product you would like to sell, and promote it.  Some products require that your approval by the developer.  Commission percentage varies with each product but is usually at least 50%.  Here are a few affiliate networks and marketplaces you can check out.

Commission Junction
ClickBank
JV Zoo
Deal Guardian

Week 6 concludes with instruction on how to ad advertising banners to the blog two ways.  First method is adding banners in code view.  This method requires retrieving the HTML code containing the graphic image link and your affiliate link.  Copy the code and place it in a text widget.  That’s it.  Drag the widget where you want the ad and you are done. You may have to tweak the HTML code if it doesn’t behave the way you want; e.g., center it or open in a new window.  This method works great for blog locations where widgets are allowed.  Other locations require the second method.  The second method is using media functionality.  This method requires you to find the graphic you want. use “save as” to save the graphic on your computer, upload it to the media library.  Once there the graphic is available for use with the OptimizePress, modules, advertising functionality.  This method provides many more locations for the ads.  I think this topic needs a separate post in the future.

Remember

DON’T CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADSENSE ADS