There are three basic methods to make revenue blogging. There are variations of each one, but when it comes down to it most blogs take at least one of these routes. I have been able to make revenue online first-hand... Not as much as I want to, but a significant amount, which makes me think that those people who wave their hands stating that making a passive income is impossible using these methods are just cynical.

Method 1 - Sponsorship

The most common and least effective method of monetizing a blog is using advertising. It is almost impossible to make a full-time income from advertising income alone, unless you have something so unique that it could become the next "FaceBook" social networking phenomenon. I have about 20,000 unique visitors each week to a blog I run at the moment and it makes less than $100 a month in advertising revenue.

The most common advertising approach is Google adsense. There are alternatives out there but most of them offer the same or similar levels of revenue and compensation. I have tried dozens of them and it ends up not being about what advertising site is the best, but rather what advertising option is the best for YOUR BLOG.

On one site adsense might generate $100s in revenue and on another site about a different topic with the same month traffic might generate no more than $10. It is all about the topic and content of the site that advertising is being placed on. So if using advertising shop around and experiment with different agencies rather than just settling for what other people are using.

The second method is much more effective to monetize blogs. However it requires a bit more work than just researching different ad agencies. There are specific products out there that people who read your blog are interested in. It is your goal to find places where these products are available that have a good affiliate program.

Look for affiliate programs that offer a lower minimum withdrawal and higher commission rates. The success of affiliate programs is 100% based on context. You can earn hundreds of times more using the right affiliate program instead of using traditional advertising. Yet you could earn nothing at all using the wrong one.

A good rule of thumb is asking yourself whether you would buy the product you are promoting. After all, if you expect people to read your blog to be interested in the products you promote, then you should also be interested in it because you and your readers share a common set of interests that overlap on your blog. If that wasn't the case - then they wouldn't read it in the first place!

The third method is not often used but is in fact the most powerful approach to creating a passive income. If you are serious about blogging then it might be worthwhile going on extra step and releasing your own product. This can seem quite difficult, but after all in the modern age selling digital goods is a piece of cake compared to traditional business operation.

If you are willing to spend 30-40 or more hours on developing a product such as a well-written e-book you can then promote and sell it on your blog as an extra resource for readers to be able to access. Since e-publishers do not have the costs associated with traditional business models, returns are much higher. Plus it is a lot easier to sell your own product than it is to promote other people's products.

You can use a service like E-Junkie to upload digital goods that takes care of the entire process. I often use this service since it costs just five dollars per month and provides secure storage and download for the digital products that I have released. There is also a great book titled Smart Blogger that runs through the entire process of creating and promoting a product associated with a blog.

Conclusion

I hope that this article shed some light on the misconception that it is possible to earn lot of revenue from advertising alone. Remember that doing some extra research and promoting more specific products is a much more effective method of monetizing a blog.