I have been studying several blogs and bloggers for quite some time now, some of them have only one site, some have several sites, some do not even make money from their main blogs while others make thousands of dollars from their main blog. It is very evident that I am yet to take any BOLD step to monetize this blog (which I will be doing very soon).
There are various ways to make money from your blog and online, some of which include:
1. Affiliate Marketing
2. In text Ads
3. Sales of Banner Ads
4. Writing sponsored reviews
5. Creating your own product
6. Selling your blog
7. Contextual Advertisement – Google Adsense and the likes.
There are even much more ways to make money online…
The blogs used in this case study either use one or some of the above methods to monetize their blogs – this post is just used to analyze their online business model so that you can learn some few things from them.
FYI: The example blogs used are the ones owned by the bloggers listed below.
Darren Rowse
Yaro Starak
Glen Alsop
Pat Flynn
Steve Pavlina
Tran Tinh
I want to analyze how these blogs make money online.
Many of us know Darren and we know he his a blogging King (as he is being called: The “blogger’s blogger”). In fact, he is the King of blogging, he has a great name and brand and His blog is full of great posts from his blogging experience.
Here is Darren’s latest update on how He makes money online.
Darren Makes hundreds of thousands of dollars online so he is a good fit for our case study
We will first take a proper look on his blog using the picture below.
If we take a closer look, we will discover he makes money through the following methods:
1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Banner Ads
3. Google Adsense
4. Product Creation
Banner Ads: Due to the nature of His blog – His niche (blogging niche) which has lots of competitors and also as a result of his traffic (tens of thousands of them everyday), we will discover why it is so easy for him to make a lot of money through banner ads.
His blog has lots of ads (About nine or so which he makes money from).
From this, we can discover that you can make a lot of money through banner ads provided that you are able to get enough traffic.
Affiliate Marketing: The more traffic you get, the more money you can make. It is not difficult for him to make money through affiliate marketing due to the high number of traffic he gets and the name he has built for himself – If you are a blogger (in the blogging niche) and you don’t know who Darren is then I doubt if you really are a blogger.
From the above, we will discover it is easy to make money from affiliate marketing if you can build a name and get the type of traffic. The mistake many bloggers make is to just promote any product because of the money, little did they know they are killing their reputation – Only promote what you trust and you can vouch for.
Google Adsense: Don’t think Darren makes money by plastering ad codes on his blog like many bloggers do, No!, he uses Google Adsense to sell his banner Ads.
Product Creation: Darren has created a number of books and some of them are 31 days to build a better blog (aff link) and Problogger The Book. Since he is the king of blogging, you can easily discover that you need a name and traffic to have success with selling affiliate products.
Darren Also has a paid forum which helps him make recurring income.
The above are how Darren Makes Money Online
2. Yaro Starak – Entrepreneur’s Journey
We probably know Yaro and we know he is one of the top bloggers out there. I can’t say if he makes more money than Darren but I really love Him because of His Wisdom – Which type of Wisdom? Continuity Income.
Yaro Has a number of membership sites with which he makes money online, In other words, Yaro makes money while he sleeps. His blog at Entrepreneur’s Journey helps Him make money (over $20,000 a month) through some of the methods Darren uses above. He uses the following methods to make money online.
1. Banner Ads
2. Affiliate Marketing
3. Product Creation
Banner Ads: Yaro has 14 banners on his blog and Selling Banner Ads is one of His highest income source for his blog (Note “for His blog“). As at the time of writing, he sells banner ads on his blog for the following rates:
Text Link Package – $75 per month.
125 x 125 sidebar ads – $200 per month
Standard banner ads (468*60, 250*250 and 728*90) – $200 per month
After making a rough analysis with the prizes above, I discovered Yaro makes over $2800 from banner ads alone every month.
You will notice Yaro also complies with what I said about Darren in regards to how he makes money from banner ads (that is, he has a high traffic blog e.t.c.).
Affiliate Marketing: Yaro also does the same as Darren does in affiliate marketing (read about Darren above if you don’t understand what I mean). Another thing about Yaro is that He reviews products and then makes use of His affiliate links in them.
Product Creation: If you are very familiar with Yaro then you will know that he has a number of membership sites with which he makes money online.
Glen Alsop is the owner of viperchill and he makes 5 figure monthly from his online business. You will see from Glen’s blog that it is not monetized yet it has lots of readers and subscribers.
What the fucking heck! – Then How does this Guy Make Money Online?
It is very simple, Glen makes money online but not from his main blog, he has several popular blogs in other niches and he makes money from them. Below are how he makes money online:
1. Niche Blogging
2. Website Flipping
3. Product Creation
Niche Blogging: What the heck is niche blogging? Niche blogging is a process whereby a blogger creates a blog in another niche solely for the purpose of making money from it. Blogs like this can be monetized using affiliate links or many other form of advertisements.
Glen builds blogs in other popular but less competitive niche and then monetizes it using Google Adsense or other advertisement methods. Here is his post on how he does that.
Website Flipping: Glen also builds other websites which he eventually sells for huge prizes, a good example of this was when he sold plugin id. Here is a great post on how he does that.
Product Creation: Glen also has an ebook called Cloud Living (aff link), the ebook explains step by step how he makes money online – The ebook made him $30,000 in a few weeks.
You will also notice that Glen has thousands of people visiting his blog everyday and also has a name, he also has a unique writing style almost everybody would love which makes him gain more readers to his blog.
4. Pat Flynn – Smart Passive Income
Pat is a great and wise blogger and he makes money online by applying wisdom. He is also unique on his blog due to his transparency. Pat also makes tens of thousands of dollars every month and below are the methods he uses to make money online.
1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Product Creation
Affiliate Marketing: You will notice some banner ads on Pat’s blog, you will also notice His resource page. Pat makes thousands of dollars every month using the methods I just outlined, The banner ads on his blog are not sold but rather affiliate links to products he uses, trusts and recommends.
Pat is also a popular blogger and has a name – which is very important to make lots of money through affiliate marketing.
Product Creation: Nay! Nay! Nay! But we don’t see any product on his blog, you say. Pat has a product but not in the make money online niche, it is in another niche entirely. The product also helps him make thousands of dollars monthly.
You will noticed I said Pat is a wise blogger earlier on (I haven’t swallowed my words lol!). My reason for saying so is because of His wisdom in tapping from another niche – Pat is an architect by degree so he created a product in that niche and that his making him money every month.
Here is one of pat’s latest income report (as at the time of writing this post).
Who is this guy? Steve is an hero, even though you might not find some of his latest posts interesting, he has written what we call killer flagship content which will still be relevant in years to come – I also love his writing style and let me tell you a secret – His post Inspired me to start blogging (the right way).
Steve makes hundreds of thousands of dollars every month as a result of his online business
How does Steve make money online.
1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Conferences
Affiliate Marketing: Steve Pavlina makes money online by linking to affiliate products, he only links to very useful and trusted affiliate products he uses. He gets hundred of thousand of visitors and also has a great name which helps him easily make money online.
Conferences: If you have been reading Steve’s blog then you probably know what I am talking about. Steve Pavlina makes money online by organizing paid conferences for people, he posts about the conference on his blog which gives it more traction. Steve charges hundreds of dollars per person and the conference is done offline, he gets hundreds of thousands of visitors every month which makes this process more easy.
6. Tran Tinh – Eblogtip
The truth is, Tran makes thousands of dollars every month and he has several blogs, He is a great blogger I really love because of many things – How his people behave and his kind gesture.
Tran made almost $2000 from one of his blog (eblogtip) last month.
Why I included Tran?
Tran got a little over 5,000 visitors in may and I know that of this month will be a little over that. If he could make this much with less than 10,000 monthly visitors then why can’t you?
How Tran makes money Online.
1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Banner Ads
3. Contextual Ads and in-text ads- Google adsense, Chitika and infolinks
I will not talk about Banner Ads and Contextual Ads since you have read about them over and over in this post.
Affiliate Marketing: Tran made a large percent of his income through affiliate links, how does he do that? – By using banner ads and also making reviews of products he uses. Tinh really reviews good and useful products and he is an hardworking blogger. He tries to write on his blog everyday.
PS: You will notice that all the bloggers listed above are popular, have a name and only review quality products, if you want to make money online through affiliate marketing then don’t do it at the risk of your readers.
I will also advise you to join my list get my free ebook on how to build a better website because I send many useful tips to my subscribers most of the time.
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4 Pings on "What is Your Online Business Model?"
34 Comments on "What is Your Online Business Model?"
Hey Onabalusi,
Great in-depth, detailed article!
You really made the effort to review these 6 big bloggers. Thank you!
“The mistake many bloggers make is to just promote any product because of the money, little did they know they are killing their reputation..”
I completely agree with this statement. It is so true.
It is so important to promote a product in which you actually BELIEVE in!
Kindest,
Nabeel
Hi Nabeel,
Yeah! You are absolutely right, many bloggers just promote any product they like instead of only promoting trusted products.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
So sorry again!! It’s Onibalusi not Onabalusi!
Hey Onibalusi,
Super-awesome post. I think affiliate marketing is best way to make money online.
.
Btw. You forget rob, he makes 5-6 figure income online every month
Thanks for sharing this great Post. Rock on..
!!
~Dev
Hey Dev,
Yeah! Affiliate marketing is really great especially if you don’t want to launch your own products.
Yeah! Rob really makes great income online (I forgot to include Him while writing this post, He is really living the internet lifestyle – at 16).
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Those guys are really making huge bucks… However, they are also investing a lot- a very strategic thing to do when you are about to see the results optimistically.
Hi CTB,
Yeah! You got it. They are investing real-time.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Hi Onibalusi,
I enjoyed this post, so thorough!
I am familiar with Steve Pavlina, Darren Rowse and Glen Alsop. The interesting thing about Steve Pavlina is that he uses the old skool WordPress theme on his blog yet has drawn a massive following while becoming a multi-millionaire. Why? He kills ‘em with content. A great lesson to be learned there.
Thanks for sharing your insight buddy
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
You are absolutely right.
Steve has killer content and still attracts traffic (I might also do a case study on that line), that proves the truth “Content is King”.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
A valuable post. You have perfectly reviews 6 big bloggers. AA detailed report. Great job man
Hi Mukundan,
Thanks a lot for your nice words, I really appreciate it,
-Onibalusi
You did a lot of research on these bloggers for this post. Thanks!
I focus on selling my own products and affiliate marketing. But of course, the mix is and should be different for each person.
Hi John,
Yeah! Selling your own product will really be great and it is what makes you the most. Affiliate marketing is really great but selling your own product beats it all.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Awesome case study Onibalusi! When I first ventured into making money online, Steve Pavlina’s “How to Make Money from Your Blog” post is what inspired me as well
I’ve heard of every single one of those bloggers, with the exception of the last one, which I found the most interesting… mainly because that one can be related to other bloggers who are just starting out. Thanks for adding that last one in, it really brought a new level to this whole case study.
I read his income report for May and found it amazing. He didn’t have an amazing amount of sales from one single source, but combined helped him earn almost $2,000, and that’s a great starting out goal for many bloggers.
Hi Jonathan,
That particular Steve’s post is really great and is what we call “Pillar Content”.
Yeah! Tinh is really great and hardworking. You will be surprised to know he has about 4 blogs or so (all making money online).
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I am really lucky to be listed even the last one but it is a great honor while other bloggers are my idols.
Frankly, there are many other bloggers who have done better than I have done but to become one of 6 bloggers in your case study would encourage me work harder and harder.
Thanks a million friend! I really appreciate your case study with in-depth analysis.
Hi Tinh,
You really worth it and I respect you.
You make the impossible possible for we bloggers and I and my readers really appreciate it.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Hi Onibalusi! It is amazing! This post is a great post to be read. I think you have put a lot of efforts to write this article. Thanks for your sharing! I really learnt a lot from your description to every successful bloggers above. Keep it up!
Hi Kok,
I am very happy you gained from this post.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Why you didn’t monetize your blog when you already grab much traffic to your site?
Is there anything in your mind?
But anyway, thanks for sharing this great information from you…
Regards,
- Felix Albutra
Hi Felix,
I just feel like not monetizing it now, I will be doing so in the near future.
The reason (as you asked) is that I don’t want money to overpower my love for here.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I like the way you began this post, that this blog has not been monetize so far and I think it a very important lesson for, I also read from one of Yaro’s ebbok that until you have a steady of readers you should not consider monetization, that lesson might not be very popular but it will make you blog if it your passion and not necessarily the money and I try to do that with one of my blog, just a way to test if all these “gurus” really know what they are talking about and I find out the blog I have not monetize so far I post more on it, because I started that blog because I wanted to blog on my passion and it has been wonderful so far…you can only imagine that I was truly happy when I saw a comment on the blog…meaning somebody took out time to visit my passion blog
Hi NJ Rumour,
Yeah! Blogging with passion is really great.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Hey what about John Cho? Isn’t he way up there when it comes to making money online?
Hi Welt,
John Chow is really up there and even making more money than some of them but I forgot Him when writing this post.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I like the list of blogs you put up there.
I am currently trying affiliate marketing to see how that’s going.
Mostly because my adsense account got banned. Lol.
You should of included John Chow and ShoeMoney
Hi Stefan,
That is great.
I forgot to include them.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I think the first thing to put in place after your blog is Google pageRank and traffic. Once this is in place, I think lots of advert will come directly to you.
I dont like Google Adsense account, because of the way Google use to ban users. Unless you having being using it before and you know the in and out of Adsense and TOS.
Hi Luqman,
Google pagerank is really important if you want to be selling ad space on your blog.
Concerning Adsense, you are right on this.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
woow
I never dreamed to earn money from blogs like them, maybe 20 or 30 buck, every day is good enough for me.
i m happy to see this site because this is given me good information for leagal resources thanks for sharing good blogs legal aid
Another great post. Thanks. Even though I should know by now how these bloggers monetize in the ways they do, it never did sink in for me–until you made it clear in this post. You gave me a clear perspective on how they do it. Thank you so much.
I really like your post hope to read more from you.
Regard,
Angel
How about Tim Ferriss of the 4HWW site?