Any ideas besides doing a paid substack on how I can monetize a tech blog?
Just curious how other people do it. Only thing I could think of was to do adds on the site for a store where I sell tech related tshirts.
Thanks :)
I long for the early days of the Internet, when you published because you wanted to, and things didn't have to be "monetized".
Yes, you do have to make a living, but let's be honest: you won't make a living "monetizing" a tech blog anyway.
- Small ads on the right side of the site. Can be standards ads, even better if you can get "sponsored" directly by companies with no adtech middle man.
- Store of probably-not-actually-worth-the-price merch that people might still buy if they like you.
- Be content with not monetizing everything. I personally don't follow any monetized blogs (besides substack and minor sidebar ads, which pays the server bills) because I don't trust opinion from monetized bloggers. That trust is hard to gain, easy to lose, and poor monetization is an easy way to lose it.
https://maxrozen.com, where I write about React, and sell an extremely condensed book on a single function that few understand (useEffect), I use Gumroad for this.
https://onlineornot.com/articles, where I write about common issues webmasters have and ways to improve your team's incident management, and sell a SaaS product (via Stripe).
In both cases, I have a newsletter that folks sign up to, and I slowly convince folks that I know what I'm talking about by sending them my articles, and eventually pitch for a sale. Folks that don't like this approach opt-out by unsubscribing, and the newsletter gets stronger for it.
You could look at other payment providers - no reason to pick the ones I used.
1) ads on the site or via email
2) subscriptions
3) build a rep via the blog then sell high value consulting and/or build an agency around it
4) affiliate links or lead generation
I think that’s all there is. So the list of possible options is pretty small.
One thing I will say is that whatever you think you might do, start building an email list today.
- Sell weekly/monthly sponsorships directly (https://daringfireball.net).
- Write an ebook about a topic you are an expert in.
- Curated job posts if you are blogging about a niche.
- Affiliate links for products / services.
I'm not sure regular display ads would work well for a tech audience just because of the amount of ad blockers you'll encounter.
- As the product. Sell access, early access or extra partial access to it.
- As a loss leader. Use it to establish credibility and influence, then advertise for and sell consultancy services using your demonstrated insights through blogging as your pedigree.
- As a generator for qualified traffic. Choose an advertisement format that makes sense for you and your audience. Depending on the exact nature of your blog, this could be standard exchange-served ads (broader audience), direct sold ads (niche but valuable audience), sponsored content (with very clear disclaimers), job boards, affiliate links, etc.
But then I realized that why am I making my fun little hobby product (the blog) worse, by putting shit on it, that I wouldn't want to see? So it was not worth the two benefits.
Later, someone asked in a comment if they could donate some bitcoin as a "tip". Sure, I created a wallet for it, and got a little tip.
A few years later, when I'd thought more about cryptocurrency, I felt too disgusted to hold any of it. Holding it would mean being part of the problem. So I cashed out my tipjar. It was the same feeling as when I got ad revenue. In both cases was it "magical internet something" turning into real cash in my bank account.
So in both cases it was just a gambler's high. And at risk of sounding like General Ripper, I was able to interpret these feelings correctly, and got a better understanding of why cryptocurrency advocates can get so delusional.
Not on my blog, but on my opensource stuff page I've had a paypal donation button for maybe 15 years. It's gotten me maybe $15 per decade. But it's not intrusive.
Anyway, my blog isn't much, and I'm sure yours are much more popular. I would not try to monetize until it got bigger. Don't put ads until it can pay like a job. Patreon maybe, if you think it could help your community-building. Donation buttons are unobtrusive, though.
Kurzgesagt has a breakdown of their revenue: https://youtu.be/1x-i9z617z4. It's more merch than you might think.
But really what the internet needs is quick and easy microtransactions. If it cost $0.10 to click a "like" button I'd still click it if I like the content. It shouldn't be hard to make, but we don't have it. Probably mostly because bootstrapping problem.
Prompt:
I run a successful blog about software engineering and get about 250k unique visitors per month. What are the top 1-5 options I should pursue to monetize the blog? I'd like to generate $15k USD per month within the next year.
ChatGPT:
Congratulations on running a successful blog with high traffic! There are several ways to monetize your blog, and here are some of the top options:
Display Advertising: You can place display ads on your blog, such as Google AdSense, which pays you when a user clicks on an ad. The revenue generated from display ads depends on factors like ad placement, ad format, and the number of visitors to your blog.
Sponsored Posts and Reviews: You can write sponsored posts or reviews for companies or products related to software engineering. Companies pay you to feature their product or service on your blog. However, it's essential to ensure that the sponsored content aligns with your blog's theme and interests your readers.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing involves promoting products on your blog and earning a commission for every sale made through your affiliate link. You can promote software development tools, software courses, or books related to software engineering.
Digital Products: You can sell digital products such as e-books, courses, or templates related to software engineering on your blog. This requires creating high-quality products that your readers are interested in purchasing.
Consulting and Coaching: With your expertise in software engineering, you can offer consulting and coaching services to individuals or companies. You can promote your services on your blog and generate leads.
Generating $15k per month within a year is a reasonable goal, but it depends on various factors such as the monetization strategies you choose, the engagement level of your audience, and the competition in your niche. It's crucial to experiment with multiple monetization strategies and measure their effectiveness to achieve your income goals.
The product could be just a higher quality version of the content (e.g. book, course, etc.), or it could be something in the space, like a SaaS that helps your audience solve a problem the blog talks about.
This is a good way to upsell the people willing to pay without upsetting any of your readers. Also, positioning it as a different product breaks the "blogs should be free" mental block many people have.
Applied to a tech blog, this advice is: focus on writing great content. Choose the most basic, standardized way to get paid for it. That seems to be Substack at the moment.
Alternatively see it as community building for your next idea to bootstrap on top off
That said, one blogger did tell me his "desk setup" blog with affiliate links made more money than the rest of the blog combined. So throw in a post or two that you wouldn't normally write about.
2) Package your content as an ebook (add illustrations, exercises, online/offline support, etc to make it more featured than your blog posts)
Ads are an unethical business (thus should be blocked anyways imo) where only a small part of the cost will end up on your bank account