In this article we will discuss some ways to monetize (make money) from your blog. If you have been reading and following along and have seen all the work it takes to start a blog and then you have probably realized that you are not going to get rich quick from blogging. It is very possible that you could make a few dollars if you offer something helpful to people. That is why writing good articles is so important. People will keep coming back if you give them something they are interested in. The exception to this is if you plan on doing Niche sites which are all about good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and driving people to your sites with keyword searches and then getting them to click on whatever advertising you have set up. But for most of us, it’s going to be about quality, writing about things that people are interested in.

Monetizing

We took our first steps toward monetizing the blog when we installed Adsense. Google Adsense is a proven program but it only works if you have readers who also click on the ads. I have done some research on Kontera. Kontera is a provider of In-Text Advertising. You have probably seen this on blogs that as you reading the blog you can roll your mouse of underlined test and you get a screen that advertises a product related to the the text. If people click on the ad you can get some money. You may want to check Kontera out (www.kontera.com), but at this time I have decided not to use that type of text advertising. I am adding a nice way to receive donations from PayPal.

PayPal Donations

There are several PayPal plugins available at the WordPress.org plugin directory. We are going to add one called Buy me a Beer(Coffee). If you don’t have a PayPal account you will to set one up. The process is pretty straightforward. Start by going to the PayPal website. If you don’t have an account click on sign-up.

I chose the Premier Account. It’s free and allows me to accept Paypal and credit cards. Once you choose your option you will be required to fill out information and then you will have a PayPal account. In order to verify the account PayPal will make to small deposits into your bank account. Once you have seen the deposits you type in the amounts at the PayPal site and you are good to go. This process can take a few days so you need to get on it. The plugins we are going to install won’t work until your PayPal account is up and verified. Here are the plugins I am using with PayPal.

Buy me a Beer Coffee

The plugin is called buy me a beer, but you can change it very easily to buy me a coffee once you install it. I like this plugin because it is more directed then just saying please contribute. I set it up as a $5.00 cup of virtual coffee. Sometimes I buy myself a cup just to feel good about the blog. Why don’t you buy me one? Or even two. You can see how this plugin looks on the sidebar to the right just above the tag cloud. It’s is really pretty easy to get running. Download the Buy Me a Beer Plugin and then install it in the Wordpress Plugin Directory. Activate the plugin and then go to Options and Buy Me a Beer.

Make sure your PayPal email address is entered in. Enter in the type of currency. Enter in an amount. This is optional but I like the idea of having a set amount so I put in $5.00. I gave it a title “Buy Me a Vitual Coffee” and a brief description “If you are enjoying this blog, click on the coffee mug to buy me a virtual coffee”. I then changed the image from a beer to Cafe. You can also set it up to appear after each post but I decided not to do that. Press Update Options and you are good to go. If you are like me you will have to check it out by buying yourself a cup. Once you do go and check your PayPal account and you should see some money. I hope it is just the first of a lot of money you see in your PayPal account! Another How to Create a Blog question answered.