So, two days back I get a mail from Roshni asking me how did I go about monetizing the blog. Ohk, so a long story short, content is the king whenever it comes to anything with blogging!! Now, let me start with my story.
Adsense and Infolinks
I had applied for adsense (January 2010) right when I had started blogging (December 2009). Yes, I was ignorant that the blog needed to be 6 months old and few other restrictions when it came to adsense approval of blogs from India. So, obviously, they refused.
Then, infolinks came my way and it was easy to get accepted so there it was. I had started earning money right from the start of blogging. But, don’t be buoyed, it was a measly 1$ per month or something like that and it took almost a year and half (June 2011 to be precise and I had integrated it in January 2010) to reach the threshold of 50$. But, fortunately, all time I did not falter and was very regular with blogging and slowly the traffic got better.
In the mean time, I had again tried for adsense after making sure that all the clauses were fulfilled. My blog was 6 months old and I had almost 400-500 posts up and had a decent traffic. Again I was rejected 🙁
So, I signed up with chitika. It wasn’t really a great earner so I removed it quite soon.
Finally Adsense!
And, suddenly in the start of January 2012, adsense accepted me just like that. The year had started on a good note. And, adsense is quite a good source for earning money according to me except the getting accepted business.
I have to mention that first year has been quite up and down in terms of money but it was decent.
Private Advertising Networks
And, in this year, I have been contacted by private advertising networks which are also turning out profitable. In fact, they quite compliment the adsense income. I would not mention them because I am not really sure how their application and acceptance standards are.
Final Thoughts…
After so much struggle, I have understood one thing. Ultimately, it is the content which drives traffic which drives advertisers which brings money. Also, another thing I have learned is more content you publish is directly proportional to money you earn.
This post is just about how I tried to monetize my blog. I shall in some weeks write about how to monetize your blog, some of its basic principles and other networks and ways to monetize but one thing you already know – content is the king!! And, patience the key.
What other advertising networks do you think are great to earn money? Do you know of any which are better than the ones I have mentioned, not that I have mentioned many?
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I keep getting rejected by adsense over some petty address issue. they keep saying my location address is incorrect. besides they don’t accept emails to confirm whether my address is right or wrong. unfortunately, I am stuck in this mess. And I don’t know a thing about monetizing my blog in any other way. it will be really helpful and looking forward to your posts. This post alone has taught me quite a bit.
yup adsense is kinda irritating in the acceptance issue. wait for sometime, work on the blog and then apply again. i think they reject blogs based on business strategies and give petty reasons coz they can’t really say you blog won’t bring me any money. that’s my understanding. might be totally wrong!
try out applying for media.net and infolinks. sure, will try to bring other things on the same topic 🙂
Thanks for the advice, Swati. Really appreciate it. Oh, if this just works out well…sigh
Will wait for your topics. thanks again, been very insightful.
I shall try as much as possible 🙂
Hi Swati, apart from adsense, Yahoo! Bing ad network media.net is a reputed and well-paying ad network. It’s new but catching up fast.
The biggest obstacle with Adsense is as you said, the getting accepted part. Did you make any changes to your blog before re-applying in 2012, such as deleting any posts or adding privacy policy etc.? What was the reason you were being denied Adsense for?
It was a long wait from 2009 to 2012, but you stuck it out girl, so congrats! 🙂
hi Sonal…yup i did not mention media.net because i do not think they accept everyone! its definitely performing very-well!!
i don’t think i really changed anything! i added privacy policy also last year sometime. but, yes, adding privacy and disclosure policies does help the blog look more genuine. adsense replied to me saying there was spam activity on the blog for which i could not do anything. i just started monitoring the comments more aggressively and stopped putting all kinds of banners and everything.
thanks. yup. it was a very long wait but now i feel it was worth it 🙂
Thank you for this post, Swati! Extremely helpful. I have faced the same trouble with adsense till date. Hope one day I achieve success!
I do have some questions on this. So will be bugging you with questions soon! 🙂
yeah sure. shoot them off and i shall try to answer as much as possible 🙂
Hi Swathi, It is a very nice post seriously.. Appreciate you a lot for sharing a very informative article.. Is there any website where we can register for getting sponsored posts/reviews like blogadda and indiblogger??
Hey Sundari, thanks a lot for your kind words 🙂
Ummm…I donno any other reliable blogging networks other than those you mentioned! Guess there ar. Some international ones. Google payperpost and sponsoredreviews.
Also, I can suggest consider getting your own domain in blogger. Don’t shift to WordPress.
Thanks Swati for replying 🙂 Also, My hearty congratulations for winning the Indiblogger Awards !!!
hey Sundari. glad to be able to answer 🙂 and thanks a lot 🙂
One more doubt Swati.. Can I just purchase domain alone and continue in blogspot itself for hosting??
hi can i ask for a favour pl? if poss could you pl do a detailed tutorial abt how to start a blog? i want to start one but i am clueless about it..
n ya the above article ws really good…
Hey. Actually what u have asked is something really big topic. I can start by saying that start a blog n put a post everyday at least whether u want to or not and rest will follow gradually.
Rest, I will try to do a post but I don’t really have much to say about that. And, thanks for liking the post 🙂
Looking forward for your posts Swati 😀
Will bring them asap 🙂
Hi, I liked your post because I have to learn a lot before I get there.
Glad to be of help, Poornima 🙂 and all the best and don’t worry you will reach bigger goals soon enough!!
Content is king for sure!
True Rachna 🙂
Having got rejected by adsense once (didn’t include privacy policy) I have been looking out for this information. Thanks a lot Swati!
Wow, this is really useful!!!! Looking forward to more!
hahah!! For a minute I was wondering about when I sent you an email and then I realized that there can be other Roshni’s in this world! 😀
Great write-up, Swati! Nice to know the different options in India. I definitely have been rejected in the past as well!
Oh…yes at the end of the day…it’s all about good content and should be a source of information to blog readers…rest of the things automatically come along. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience Swati.