Glowleaf

Every blogger reaches that dilemma at some point. Do I whore out my site for extra cash, or do I leave it pretty and bannerless and making a hole in my timeline with no benefits?

For affiliates I believe, the choice is much easier. Most of us are in it for the money, so it’s weird for us to see a site without at least an ad. 

Hobbie bloggers/webmasters though, the ones that actually made the internet what it is today, reach that intersection at some point, and hate the idea of flashy ads all over their pretty little snowflake.

Well, I am here today to suggest something radically different. 3 bannerless ways to monetize your blog, here it goes:

• AdBrite inline ppc ads

What are they? They are automatically selected keywords in your site’s content, which have a double green underline. When the visitor moves the mouse over the link, a banner pops up from it. The banner is discreet, and mostly relevant to the keyword. 

If the mouse is somewhere else, the ads are nowhere to be seen.

I have never seen this technique in any other site, I may even be the only one that uses it. Honestly, I have found this technique working so well, that I just drop the code in every site I make, be it normal or sploggy. A simple, clever, practical fire and forget method, just the way I like it!

How do you make it? Simple.

1. Signup for AdBrite if you are not already.
2. Create a new zone. 
3. Put your site’s info.
4. Uncheck the other boxes, leave only the inline ads checked.
5. They give you a small piece of code, and you simply put it between the body tags of your template.
6. Voila, you are done.

Practically, the links get clicked a lot despite them having small bids. The layout of your site remains untouched and pretty. And you still get some revenue. The inline ads I believe are much better than banners.

Amazon has a similar trick in their program, and I have tried that as well. My opinion is that Amazon’s script is much heavier, producing larger page load times. Also, it does not seem to convert that well, and with AdBrite you get paid per click.

• SpeakToMe, a brand new way to monetize your website.

What is that? It’s a very clever business model actually… Basically, SpeakToMe provides a service to you, through which you can give personal, one-on-one consultation, paid by the minute.

It really needs some explaining to understand it because it is so revolutionary. The idea itself is old, it is the same as those phone lines, where the caller is charged by the minute, and the receiver helps him, and gets paid his cut. 

Well, take that tried and tested business model, and put it online.

You have your online presence, your reputation, your audience, your writings etc. And people contact you all the time, asking for your advice and help. 

Well, now you can do the same, while getting paid as a consultant. If your advice is as good as you think it is, you will actually be doing your clients a favor, by giving them a cheap, easily accessible way to rent your time. And since you are getting paid for it, you will be more focused in actually giving them good advice so that you show you are worth their time and money.

On a more practical note, the SpeakToMe service basically gives you a widget that you can easily integrate to your website, for example a page named “Speak to me now”. The installation itself is a simple copy paste after you have signed up. Another benefit is that payment is accepted inside your website, so the visitor never leaves your site.

Do you want to see a demo? You can nag the creator of this service right now! SpeakToMe expert widget demo.

The service is free to signup, easy to use, and they even give a guarantee of 50$ for the first 1000 visitors. Now that is confidence.

SpeakToMe’s cut is 20%, leaving you the remaining 80%. I find it a rather logical percentage for a service. Not much to discuss on that issue.

To avoid any misconceptions on the charges of this service, here is the exact page from their signup page:

SpeakToMe’s service charge
Broadcasting on the Internet to an unlimited audience is expensive. Accordingly, SpeakToMe charges a service fee to experts of 1.5 pennies per minute. 10 hours broadcasting time, in other words, will cost you $9 in future fees generated.

Credit card processing fees of 6%
Client accounts are funded through credit cards, and we pay a 6% processing fee for this service. This 6% is charged to your gross revenues.

SpeakToMe takes a 10% cut of revenues
In addition to the credit card processing fee of 6% and the $0.015 per minute service charge, SpeakToMe takes a cut of 10% of gross revenues. The remainder (over 80% of gross) is paid to the expert. 

If you are an expert on a niche, and your audience would be glad to pay a small amount in exchange for your one-on-one consultation, it is worth at least considering this business plan. It does not fit all businesses, but it can work wonders on others, and remember that the offline version is tried and proven to work amazingly well.

• Text Link Ads inline links

The most discreet way to monetize a blog. TLA needs no introduction, you see their banners all over the blogosphere. I have mentioned this again, but it fits this “bannerless blog” issue as well.

Text link ads can pay as much and even more than banners. The added benefit is that the income is stable, even if you get a sudden traffic drop, the link is still there. Of course, if you do not provide a valuable link spot to the advertisers for a long time you will lose them as well, but there is a much larger time buffer than ppc banners for you to react.

TLA has recently opened their “secret” inlinks marketplace to the public, and in summary, they are now selling like hotcakes for 7$ a pop.

Inlinks are simply handpicked keywords from advertisers, like “texas holdem” or “seo services” for example, that are linked automatically from the TLA plugin to his site.

The links are normal, like any other link on your site, and they are as discreet as it gets.

Of course, you can still review the links and deny any dirty ones, though the ones I have are all quite clean up to now.

So, here they are, 3 ways to monetize your website without any banners whatsoever. Go. Create.

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