Monetizing Your Blog: Part 1 – Some Distinctions

For anyone thinking about setting up a blog for their business, or with a blog already, “how do we make money out of this?” is not just a reasonable question, it’s crucial. If a blog is not going to help your business make money, there’s no point, right?

Well, yes.

Or rather, yes, but…

And the “but” is that there are some distinctions to be made, which in my observation over the past few years are routinely not made in this kind of discussion.

Some key distinctions are:

• direct and indirect income
• short term and long term income flows
• whether income detracts from or adds to net enterprise income

On direct vs. indirect income, many blog posts about monetizing blogs, or even whole blogs dedicated to the subject, are focused on direct income, such as from advertising. There are also possibilities for indirect income, such as consulting work attributable to the blog’s existence.

On the short term and long term distinction, the fairly obviously consideration is that it’s more challenging to generate income in the early stages and if you build consistently and well it should get easier. Some bloggers eventually make a tidy income directly from their blogs but “hasten slowly” and “don’t give up your day job” would be appropriate counsel for those just starting out.

The distinction about income detracting from or adding to the enterprise’s net income is basic: a company needs to make sure that the ways it seeks to monetize its blog or blogs actually add income on a net basis. For a simple and not far-fetched example of an income-generating decision actually detracting from the enterprise’s net income, consider the placing of ads which clash with the company’s stated purpose and values. The ads may well attract clickthroughs and generate cashflow but lose the company much more in terms of lost consulting opportunities from existing or potential customers who see a value clash in the presence of the ads.

From a monetization viewpoint, this Business and Blogging site is primarily about indirect monetization – i.e., using the blog to promote the company’s economic interests, rather than as a source of direct income, say from advertising. But with many businesses there can be scope to be focused on the indirect and even long term indirect income and still generate income directly.

The next post in this short series will be on generating income directly from blogs.

In the meantime, do you have any key distinctions to add to the three above?