Alternatives to Advertising for websites/blogs

[smoothify]

Hey all

I am in the process of creating a network of sites and blogs, and one issue for me is how the funding should happen.

I've read the blog posts about advertising here on StevePavlina.com and other sites like Problogger.net and how it generates a good income and lets them focus on writing.

That sounds good to me, but my feeling is that advertising sucks

However this post isn't about saying to people that have advertising already that they shouldn't, i'm fine with that but i feel like i am immune to it anyway (especially using something like adblock)

For my own sites i just don't like the idea of advertising anyway, but after running them through a adsense preview tool i feel even stronger against.

For instance, certain pages on my spiritual resources site it showed ads for anti-depression drugs. Some articles mentioned depression but they gave the opposite advice, don't take these legal drugs if you can help it. Others just seem to be badly targeted.

So what other ways are there to receive income from a site than these advertising networks?

• Donations
• Subscriptions
• Ebooks
• Affiliate selling
• Targeted direct advertising (filter advertisers
• Sponsorship

Anyone had any success with any of these?

I think the donations could be good but would love for an easy to use micropayment system where people could give a dollar or less.

[Henry]

Shoemoney (Shoemoney - Skills to pay the bills) said that donations didn't work for him. I wonder if Steve Pavlina gets a ton from donations.

[jossshr]

I have been wrestling with this same problem. I keep trying to think about other ways to monetize a site, but it seems that advertising is the most consistent. I think we need to look at the television model of revenue generating, since that is very similar to what we are offering (free entertainment/news content).

I think advertising is probably here to stay. All of your methods are good. Some other methods might be freelance work and offer some of your best content for a small fee.

[birger]

Originally Posted by jossshr

I think we need to look at the television model of revenue generating, since that is very similar to what we are offering (free entertainment/news content).

Satellite television also has another method of generating revenue, licensing 10+ channels for one monthly price. This could work for some of the bigger blogging networks at least, and some are probably doing it already...

[smoothify]

Originally Posted by birger

Satellite television also has another method of generating revenue, licensing 10+ channels for one monthly price. This could work for some of the bigger blogging networks at least, and some are probably doing it already...

Yes i've thought a bit about a subscription for multiple sites/blogs - the one thing i don't know about is how you would allocate the money.

I looked at the video blog site Lulu.tv you pay a subscription to put your content on there, and that is pooled and shared. The problem with that is its the content producers that are putting in the money not the viewers.

Based on your post i searched google and found BlogIt - one thing i like about that is that payments are worked out on a per user basis, so if one person just reads one blog in a month, all the money goes to that blog (minus BlogIts 50% commission). The problem though is getting people to subscribe to that service without knowing much about the content there.

You mentioned other blog networks offering similar thing- any links?

[SamBeaven]

There's also merchandising, but that depends on what you're working in. I know it works for a few webcomics.

Also, maybe ebooks as print books and sold through Lulu? Many people still don't like ebooks for a reading experience, so an opportunity for a print book might sway them (even if print on demand books tend to be a little more expensive). And it's free.

[Caveman Joe]

A client and I are setting up a blog-type site that operates on a subscription basis - without a subscription, you can see last month's articles. With a subscription, you can see all the articles on the site.
Non-subscribing members still have access to all the content on the site - but only if they come back and check pretty well every day, before it becomes more than two months old and disappears into the Archives.
There are extras for paid members too, in the form of chat rooms, forums and an E-mail address ending in the site's domain name.

[smoothify]

Originally Posted by SamBeaven

There's also merchandising, but that depends on what you're working in. I know it works for a few webcomics.

Also, maybe ebooks as print books and sold through Lulu? Many people still don't like ebooks for a reading experience, so an opportunity for a print book might sway them (even if print on demand books tend to be a little more expensive). And it's free.

Thanks, i forgot to list merchandising - for t-shirts and other products there is of course cafepress, but also spreadshirt who have European and US bases.

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

A client and I are setting up a blog-type site that operates on a subscription basis - without a subscription, you can see last month's articles. With a subscription, you can see all the articles on the site.

Sounds interesting - would like to know how it works out...

[TheBull]

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

A client and I are setting up a blog-type site that operates on a subscription basis - without a subscription, you can see last month's articles. With a subscription, you can see all the articles on the site.
Non-subscribing members still have access to all the content on the site - but only if they come back and check pretty well every day, before it becomes more than two months old and disappears into the Archives.
There are extras for paid members too, in the form of chat rooms, forums and an E-mail address ending in the site's domain name.

Do you mind sharing what software you are using for this?

[TheBull]

Originally Posted by Henry

Shoemoney (Shoemoney - Skills to pay the bills) said that donations didn't work for him. I wonder if Steve Pavlina gets a ton from donations.

Steve has said on his blog that he gets a good amount from donations.

My second biggest income stream is actually donations. My average donation is about $10, and I’ve received a number of $100 donations too.

Which came from this post.

[Caveman Joe]

@TheBull - I'm using GeekLog, and can heartily recommend it.
To give you an idea of the versatility behind it, here are some sites I've built with it:

Twisted Librarian, my girlfriend's book review site.
Inkspotted Phoenix, a writer's community site (gone a bit quiet these days. Using the PHPBB2 forum via an integration bridge, but GeekLog has its own forum too - didn't use it in this case since it won't support a threaded architecture).
Culture Shock, my fiction/webcomic site - new this week, and using GeekLog as a comic engine! ALL of the pages you see on that site are part of GeekLog, even the ones that don't look at all like part of a Content Management System.

In the site I'm setting up, payments are sent through PayPal and then the user is placed into a special group which has access to the archives and forum. I haven't found a way to automate this process yet - but it's only one click, and I reckon it's a good thing to have some human validation in the process in order to reduce fraud.

[Mike]

Try selling links through textlinkads or linkworth. Since they are just links to other sites it doesn't look like regular advertising. Also promoting products that have an affiliate program and would like to recommend to your readers is another good source of income.