Entrepreneurship in our Rapidly Transforming World

Earn A Living Online Using One Of Five Proven Blogging Business Models

December 2nd, 2008 by Fabien

1. Business Model: Authority Blog

The first business model based on blogging is the notion of the ‘authority blog‘, this is achieved by becoming an expert in a particular field or niche and truly pumping out copious amounts of remarkable content consistently. The content you output must be useful (highly), it is often good practice to optimize it for social media, so use lists and make it easy for readers to scan.

The best idea for this type of blog is to ensure that content is easily accessible, so people do not have to pour through archives – they can simply click and go. By maximizing site usability and functionality, you will retain more returning visitors and achieve higher page-views which will in turn increase revenue, advertisements are usually limited in these types of blogs but they are found in high converting locations. An example of this type of blog is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.Net.

Tip: Before Reading The Entire Post, Hear The Other Side of The StoryThe Shortcomings of Blogging As A Viable Business Model

2. Business Model: Personal Blog

The second business model revolves around opening yourself up to the world and being very personable with your audience. It also involves heavy amounts of advertisements in less converting areas, hence the requirement for increased advertisements (so more revenue can be generated).This kind of blog will usually have a crowd that is very familiar with the author and has thus developed a close and solid relationship with them. This personable rapport makes readers more receptive to the authors recommendations because they are familiar with the person recommending the product and trust them more than average.

This type of business model requires the blogger to have a lifestyle which is more active than the Average Joe so that experiences can be shared with the readers, compounding the already existing relationship. The readership are more likely to complete tasks asked of them by the blogger, they also tend to visit the actual blog instead of reading the feed (largely due to the great on-blog atmosphere), so an integral part of succeeding in this type of blogging is to ensure that your blog can be interacted with in multiple ways. An example of this type of blog is John Chow from JohnChow.Com.

Idea: Think You Are Ready To Jet Off And Put Effort Into A New or Existing Blog? Check out my post about the 5 Features of A Winning Monetization Strategy

3. Business Model: Paid Blogger

The third blogging based business model is that of the paid blogger. These types of blogs exhibit a sole purpose, to review products and services and be paid for it. The blogger may not make themselves known and it may seem quite ‘faceless’ at times, regardless of this, if the blog has a respectable Google PageRank, a working site design or theme and a solid writing style, they could end up earning thousands. A paid blogger may have ’some’ traffic and a few advertisements.

These kind of blogs are usually not interested in attaining huge amounts of traffic because their income is earned from reviewing products and services, not by having visitors click on ads, sign up to services or buy products. Being a paid blogger is highly rewarding, it is, however, very time consuming and requires you to sometimes review products you have not fully experienced  or tested previously. Some people have earned well beyond $5,000 per month by being a paid blogger.

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4. Business Model: Internet Marketer’s Blog

The fourth type of blog is that of an internet marketer. It is usually an ‘aside’ for most internet marketers, where they talk about their lives, upcoming product launches and recommend other Internet Marketers’ products. The readership is often very receptive because the internet marketer has pitched their own blog to their mailing list – thus attracting the most responsive subscribers (which means a higher chance of comments and interactivity on the blog).

To own this blog, you must first become a dedicated ‘internet marketer‘ and this often takes years to occur. So, the path to this is similar to authority blogging, but in this instance you must develop products and services (free or paid) which demonstrate your expertise in the niche or field of expertise. A good example of a personable internet marketer’s blog is Joel Comm of JoelComm.Com.

Advice: Don’t stress! It takes time to become a successful entrepreneur, so in the meantime find out why you should Stay Focused and Keep On Innovating

5. Business Model: Affiliate Marketer’s Blog (or Spam Blog)

I include the word ’spam blog’ in brackets because some people may refer to this type of blog as a spam blog because it is seen as a repository for mounds of reviews of affiliate products or services (often with lifetime residual income for the affiliate). Nonetheless, it can succeed if constructed correctly, the trick to succeeding with this is to make your blog look and feel like a real blog, including posts of real written content and links to a few pages of ‘recommended products and services’ which is where your cash will come from when people sign up to services or buy products.

The easiest part of a blog like this is finding affiliate products, places like ClickBank and PayDotCom have literally thousands of products for multiple niches simply waiting to be sold (at good commissions of 70% to 90% of the total price!).The hardest part is gathering a loyal following, you need to be able to show that you are recommending products, but you are also outputting useful and practical content which people can use to better their lives or their own sites, whilst also coming across as honest, credible and genuine (recommendations from other bloggers, gurus and accreditation from institutions help in this area).

Discover: Know How The Business Models Work? Now Find Out What Services To Use To Earn A Living OnlineLearn How To Earn Money Online


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  1. 10 Responses to “Earn A Living Online Using One Of Five Proven Blogging Business Models”

  2. Good to read an interesting article by you again! :)

  3. Stefan: Thanks, nice to see you around. There will be an article following this talking about five more business models which stem from blogging – and that one will be more related to your field of expertise. Speak soon Stefan.

  4. Each blog that wants to make money needs just 2 things. First a reason for people to visit your website and second a way to convert your traffic in to money.

    Alle design, content and optimisation should be focussing on reaching those two goals.

  5. Matthijs: Thanks for taking the time to comment, I do agree with you that these two reasons are important – but I would say that these are very broad reasons, what comes underneath these core fundamentals such as treating people respectfully, having a good blog design, creating articles which attract social media etc…

    If I went with the above reasons, I could create a site with lots of content, but if the content was mounds of content without formatting – no one would actually be interested in reading it. The point is that there is much more to it than content and traffic, but indeed they are the fundamentals of successful blogs.

  6. It’s great to see such a unique take on a “Making Money with Your Blog” article. I can’t wait to read you article on business models stemming from blogging.

  7. Gini: I will be writing them soon Gini. Thank you for commenting. The next article will focus on more technical skills which reap greater rewards because they are more long term. Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated, see you around soon.

  8. I tend to go more towards the Authority blog, I’ve noticed. I try writing personal blogs, but I’m not good at it I don’t think.

  9. I’m down with #4 and two others you didn’t mention: the self-improvement blog and the online shopping blog…

    …of course all three aim at being the thing you mentioned in #1 :wink:

  10. Tom Smith: Personal blogs really depend on your personality (i.e. if you’re open etc…) But it also relates to how much you do, like going to seminars, conferences, making videos, talking about ‘yourself’ [EGO, Hehehe] – which is something many people find easy to do and others find difficult. Authority blogs are indeed easier to create, but it is even easier if you love what you are writing about. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts. See you around soon!

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