Monetizing My Blog: A Closer Look At the Options

I've gotten a lot of feedback from readers lately to the effect that they want to see me posting here more frequently--every day, preferably. I'd love to do that--I think it could have all sorts of benefits for my blog--but I have to give my paying clients first priority on my time. So for right now, this blog has to be a part-time deal.

Of course, if this blog became a paying client itself, that could all change.

As part of my 2008 Big Blog Overhaul initiative, I'm looking into ways to monetize. Some of these monetizing techniques could have an effect on the design I choose. I'm also aware that some are more annoying than others, and I don't want to drive readers away. Personally, I feel that great content more than makes up for ads--but I'm not the only view out there. So here's an overview of the monetization techniques I'm considering--and their pros and cons, as I percieve them.

Using your blog as a platform to sell information products. This is my favorite so far. I love the idea of selling e-books on my writing blog, and I've already got some outlines hammered out. The pluses include the fact that an e-book can promote your business as well as making you money in sales; and I can see all sorts of nifty ways to market one. It's also not horribly intrusive or cheesy like some other methods can be; and they help people. The drawback, of course, is that it takes time to write an e-book--and it's not something I can have finished by the time my new site is launched.

Google Adsense. I've already got Google Adsense up on this blog; it's in the top right-hand corner. So far I've made a grand total of $0 from it (come on, people, help me out! Let's see some clicks!). Anyway, I realize I should play around with it a little more--experiment with putting it in different places; mess with the font size or headline color--and I've been woefully neglectful of that. But I've spoken to several bloggers who've told me they don't get much more than a trickle from Adsense anyway. I'll probably put it in my new design somewhere, but I'm not counting on it being a major revenue source.

The donation button. I've seen a few blogs--Inkthinker and Freelance Writing Gigs come to mind--that have donation request links. I'm not sure about how much money this brings in, although I heard on ProBlogger that this guy actually got to quit his job and blog full-time through his donation revenue. On the one hand, I like the idea of readers contributing to keep a blog going. On the other, I'm a little squeamish about asking for money, and I've heard some readers say it's tacky. Still, I'm willing to try it.

Selling advertising space. Some blogs--Men With Pens, ProBlogger, and quite a few others--sell advertising space on their blogs for a monthly fee. I like the idea of this--it seems like more dependable income than something like Adsense, which pays per click. But I'm a little nervous about too many graphics cluttering up my blog and making things run more slowly.

Selling my blog posts. I've already started making some money from my blog by selling my posts to other publications (thanks to Susan from The Urban Muse for the tip!). The upside is that it's not too hard once you find buyers--you've already written the articles, after all. The downside is that you still have to put some time into finding publications, crafting queries, and all that. It's not passive.

I realize I'm only scratching the surface here--I could do other things such as become an affiliate for Amazon or for another product I really like (Peter Bowerman has an affiliate program for his Well-Fed Writer series, I've noticed). There's also text link ads and other advertising programs. It's so much to sort through--and I only have a certain amount of space on my blog.

So now I'm throwing the question over to you. If you're a blogger, how do you make money from your blog? What's worked for you on this list--and what hasn't? Is there anything I'm missing here? And for all readers: what methods of monetization do you like the least--or the most?