Everyone talks about how blogging is hard work and that you need to be extremely dedicated in order to make a decent income from your blog. I definitely agree with that form of thinking if you are attempting to make one or two great blogs, and are spending all of your own time updating them. But what if you want to make 100 not-so-great (but not spam by any means) blogs that collectively make a nice income?

I have been working on this concept since October 2005 when I started the first of many niche blogs that I own, Engolfed. This site is actually a little different than the others I have, but it is still a great example (for a couple reasons). First, let me state the two aspects in which Engolfed differs from the other sites in my little network:

  • It uses MovableType. I quickly switched to WordPress as my default, but didn’t want to bother migrating this one.
  • I started out writing posts myself, which was actually less beneficial than not writing them.

There isn’t really anything wrong with MovableType, it is a nice blogging platform, but WordPress is just so much more convenient.

Next, why would writing posts myself be less beneficial than not writing them? Because although I am an occasional golfer, I am not an expert golfer and I am not an expert researcher. Additionally, I don’t enjoy writing about Golf. I wrote “news” posts for a period of time in the beginning, then quickly transitioned to not writing posts at all. The benefits of not writing the posts become even more obvious when you get into a niche that you know nothing about, like with my latest blog about pregnancy :shock:

Instead of writing posts, I outsource content. The most efficient method I have found is to purchase posts in bulk from providers at eLance. If you order up 100, 200, 300, etc short posts (150+ words) you can get them for about $3-$5 each. Just make sure you hire someone who is native in English (from USA, Canada, Austrailia, UK, etc) and is passionate about the subject. When hiring such freelancers, I almost always receive articles ranging from 200-600 words rather than the 150+ that I was quoted for. They love writing about thier topic and sometimes, once they get started, they can’t stop writing ;-)

Note: To get the benefit of the writers enjoying to write about their topic, you must pay per article, not per word.

So anyways, you set up your blog, install and customize a theme (or create your own), and get some backbone content created (about, contact, sitemap, welcome post, etc).

Next, decide on your posting frequency. Start out with a higher frequency, such as every other day. You won’t have to post at this frequency forever, just until you get some popularity. Load all of your articles (from the freelancer) into the blog and use the timestamp feature to have them posted automatically.

Don’t think about making any money yet. You basically have to let the blog “marinate” for a few months before you can start adding it to your income portfolio. In the meantime, you must build links. You can do this by leaving [meaningful] comments on other blogs, submitting to directories, using some of your articles for guest blogging, asking for link exchanges (I know they are outdated, but they can work in this scenario), and any other common blog promotion methods. You don’t have to go all out in the promotion, you simply need to get some PageRank, some search listings, and a trickle of traffic.

After a few months of [hopefully] easy promotion, you should have a blog with some popularity. Now you can start making some cash from it. My goal is to make just $100 per month per blog. You can also start slowing your posting frequency to increase your “profit.” On many of these blogs, I post once per week; on some, I don’t post at all anymore. The great thing is that they still bring in at least $100 revenue per month and are costing me $12-$20 per month in content.

The secret to making money from these blogs (and any blog for that matter) is to really diversify your revenue streams. On average, one of these sites will probably bring in 10-100 uniques per day, so only having one form of advertising isn’t going to make enough money. You should include the following:

  • Text-Link-Ads – This is my second favorite (for these blogs) next to direct ads. For the first several months after getting accepted, you will probably only sell a couple links. Over time, however, you will likely have consistent sellout months, providing a very steady income source. You can also increase your revenue further by offering their post level ads. Most advertisers who purchase this inventory are only interested in getting backlinks, so your traffic and posting frequency won’t be an issue.
  • Google AdSense – Test it out and see if the revenue that it makes is worth it. I set a benchmark of $30/month. If the blog can’t get enough traffic to reach that level, I leave AdSense off.
  • Kontera ContentLink – These are pretty non-invasive and provide a nice trickle of income when used on multiple blogs. If you don’t have a large site to apply with, you will need to register under John Chow.
  • AuctionAds – This doesn’t usually work for me, but it is worth testing. Depending on your niche, it could provide a big chunk of the revenue.
  • ReviewMe / PayPerPost – Using these services would require some additional work because you have to actually write the posts, but if you are up to it, they can provide a large income boost.
  • Direct Ads – These are my favorite. I get a ton of advertising inquiries for text ads and other campaigns. The great part about direct ads is that once you develop the relationships, you can usually keep them going and possibly sell them advertising on other blogs in your network. Be creative and you can always find room for “one more advertiser”

Those 6 different monetization options should be more than enough to push your blog over the $100/month mark. Don’t worry about putting up too many ads, your number one priority at this point should be to generate revenue because you probably won’t have many (if any) loyal readers on these blogs. The posting frequency is just too low to build repeat visitors.

That’s pretty much all there is to this strategy, just rinse and repeat. Since October 2005 I have created 23 of these blogs. I wish I would have built more because they are only providing about $3000/month. I am, however, always adding to my portfolio with the goal of reaching the 100 blog mark. For some reason, $10,000/month for any single venture seems very satisfying to me :mrgreen:

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