Monetization Archives - Page 3 of 4 - This Week in Blogging

What is Your Blogging End Game? 5 Scenarios to Consider

July 24, 2023

When we think about blogging goals, some common thoughts begin to appear.

I want to make $[X]/month.

I want to get on Mediavine.

I want to quit my day job.

These are all great goals that bloggers can and should strive for when turning their blog into a business. But when it comes to your blogging end game, these are not the end but rather a stepping stone to a full and (hopefully) long career creating content for yourself.

In this one, we want to look past these goals and think about the end. The biggest and most likely, final goal you may have with your blog. It is only when thinking about an endgame that you can work backward and figure out the steps you need to take to get there- so let's talk about some of the biggest things worth thinking for each case!

How to Install Stay22 LetMeAllez Script and Create Maps

May 11, 2026April 24, 2023

If you have read our Stay22 review, you know how I have used the service's deep linking, maps, and POP popup (via the LetMeAllez script) to increase my earnings several times over (with March 2023 ending just over $1,000- a new record!).

In this one, I wanted to offer a deep dive into how to use Stay22 properly once you are signed up for the service. While this is one of the easiest to use networks we've ever been a part of, there are some things to keep in mind all the same.

We are focusing on three elements of Stay22 that we absolutely love- how to build a deep link, how to create a map with live hotel pricing, and installing their LetMeAllez script to utilize link redirects and the POP popup.

Note: This article was sponsored by Stay22. As always, all opinions are our own.

Modern Events Calendar Review – Event Sharing Made Easy

April 17, 2023

One question I regularly received on my Pittsburgh blog from readers and potential advertisers alike was simply “do you have an events calendar?”

For the longest time, my answer to that was a resounding no simply because I thought the amount of time that it would take to manage an events calendar would not be worth any potential return on investment (especially because, let's be honest, getting advertising on a local site can be hard!).

It wasn't until I heard of a few creative ideas to monetize an event calendar that I was sold that it was something I wanted to pursue, and after a fair bit of research I settled on the Modern Events Calendar plugin. So in this one, I thought I would share a review of the tool, how I use it on my local site, and some unique monetization ideas as well.

Buy Me a Coffee Review – A Source of Extra Blogging Income

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023

Buy Me a Coffee hails itself as “the best way for creators and artists to accept support and membership from their fans.” Today, we're going to talk about whether that's truly the case.

When we're talking about memberships, Patreon is the first name that comes to mind, but Patreon really hasn't figured out the “casual supporter” dilemma – ie. the reader or subscriber that might love what you're doing, but doesn't want to be locked in to a monthly subscription.

Buy Me a Coffee has made strides recently to become more membership focused, but at it's core what makes it worth it for creators is that it's a very easy method to give your audience a way to say thanks. As they note, “In just a couple of taps, your fans can make the payment (buy you a coffee) and leave a message. They don’t even have to create an account!”

Jeremy and I put a lot of time into This Week in Blogging and so we set up our own Buy Me a Coffee account (though you'll notice that we went for the “Buy Me a Beer” option based on what we like sipping on!). Thus far, it's been a fantastic way for us to not only bring in extra revenue to support the project, but also to hear from subscribers directly about the value they're receiving.

Besides the income, which is both humbling and appreciated, the emotional boost that you get when a new supporter takes the time to throw a few bucks your way is immense, and that's part of the reason we're big fans.

5 Blogging Business Models to Consider to Generate Revenue

October 16, 2025February 27, 2023

If you are thinking about starting a blog (perhaps a 2nd or 3rd blog), or run a site that is not monetized, you may be thinking the question we all have on our minds: how do I make money blogging?

While we will be the first to admit that there is no one-size-fits-all business model for blogs, as the field is truly quite versatile, when we stopped to think of it we realized there are five main models that blogs follow to earn revenue.

So in this one, we wanted to take a broad look at the most common business models blogs have, share some pros and cons of each, and explain why the best model of all may be doing a bit of everything!

Note: While income potentials vary, we will try and equate models with each other by using the Revenue per 1,000 impressions (RPM) term. While there is no hard and fast rule that Model [X] will always make RPM [Y], we will fill the gaps in with our experiences of what we have seen in the industry.

How to Prepare for First Party Cookies and Ad Revenue Flux

October 16, 2025November 16, 2022

Whether we like it or not, third-party cookies on Google products will be leaving us shortly (although the “when” element of this question remains to be seen- first it was 2023, now it appears to be at least 2024).

With this comes a lot of uncertainty about just what happens after that, as third-party cookies are used for so many things. For bloggers, one of the biggest uses of third-party cookies revolves around all things ad revenue, as these cookies are used for targeted advertising on our sites based on user's search history. The better the targeting, the higher ad rates you have historically achieved (and we're talking serious money here- my single best day was $83.90 RPM).

The shift to first-party data will change a lot of this, and ad services, like Google's exchange, are testing a variety of new targeting methods to help deliver ads to users while keeping their privacy in mind.

Naturally, this will impact earnings. Google tests have shown that there could be a collapse in ad revenues upwards of 60%, while others, like Mediavine, counter that first-party cookies will only impact Chrome traffic (as other browsers have already phased out 3rd party cookies) and that Chrome accounts for roughly 63% of market browser share outright (although it is 35-50% on our sites). So that 60% drop may be more like 20% to 40% for most of us once the dust settles.

The good news is that these figures are all based on cookies disappearing and no other solutions coming about. Ad networks, like Mediavine, are working hard on first-party solutions to help protect member revenue (and even improve it!) after the switch. The bad news is that the same may not be able to be said for those on other ad networks, as it will likely take time for everyone to settle on what is the “best” solution.

In this one, we wanted to mostly ignore what ad networks are doing for a minute and instead focus on what you can do as a blogger to be prepared for the first-party cookie switch. The solution to this revenue problem is on us as much as on our ad networks!

3 Ways to Find a New Affiliate Program to Join

October 3, 2022August 29, 2022

We've talked a fair bit about affiliate marketing here at This Week in Blogging, ranging from how to improve your affiliate marketing to product reviews (like the Pretty Links Pro link cloaking plugin), and so much more.

But for this one, we wanted to take a step back and answer a rather pressing question- “how do I find affiliate partners to begin with?”

Thankfully, there are numerous ways to do this that we can discuss today including direct programs, 3rd party affiliate networks, and via customized partnerships!

AdSense vs Monumetric – Which is Better For Your Blog?

March 4, 2026July 18, 2022

When my wine blog, The Grape Pursuit, started to grow, I was hesitant to monetize it too soon. Partly because I didn't have to (my other sites earn enough revenue for me daily), but also because I was holding out for when I qualified for a premium ad network, like Monumetric or Mediavine, in order to make any user experience hit worthwhile.

But for the sake of understanding the state of the advertising market, we decided to put together a little test and turned on AdSense just a little bit before we qualified for Monumetric to see how the two networks compared.

So, what were the results of our AdSense vs Monumetric study? Read on.

Note: RPMs as discussed in this article are based on a page view basis to be in line with AdSense's reporting structure. Some networks report session and page view RPMs, which may be confusing if not clarified upfront.

Monumetric Review – A Premium Ad Network For 10k+ Page View Blogs

October 16, 2025July 18, 2022

When it comes to premium ad networks for blogging, there are no shortage of options out there.

Some, like AdSense, accept blogs of all shapes and sizes and pay out accordingly (read: low RPMs- revenue per 1,000 views). Others have higher barriers for entry be it on page views/sessions, audience demographics, and more and often can give you higher RPMs proportional to how strict their barrier for entry is.

When my wine blog, The Grape Pursuit, hit 10,000 page views per month, I was able to ditch AdSense and make the leap to Monumetric– a premium ad network with one of the lowest entry requirements out there.

After my first month on this one, I thought I'd share a bit of a review of what the network is like, pros and cons, and of course my earnings outright!

3 Lessons Learned in Tracking Blogging Income for 400 Weeks

July 21, 2022May 6, 2022

If you ever have the ~~misfortune~~ luck to ever meet me at a conference, you will quickly find out that I am a data nerd. I love analytics, the technical side of blogging is my favorite part, and yes, I even enjoy SEO (something virtually no one anywhere ever says).

So it should be no surprise that when it comes to tracking blogging income, I have a spreadsheet for that and I update it every single week.

As it turns out, I recently passed my 400th week of tracking my blogging income (which for those who don't want to do the math is nearly eight years), and I thought it was time to share some insights I've learned along the way.

Some of these insights are helpful to bloggers outright, and others are reasons why you, too, should track your income at a set interval (if not weekly, at least monthly). So let's dive into them now!