How timely this is! Today, on Debbie Weil's '1 Minute Blogging Quiz', I put in, as my most important question "How do I make money from my blogging activities?"

Then, like clockwork, J. Veen pointed to this article from SFGate.com on "Bloggers finding ways to profit."

Here's how others are doing it...

here is a wiki on the subject:
http://www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?doc=BlogBusiness&wikiid=5030&wpid=

While I have "prostituted" my site by adding Amazon affiliate links, Google AdSense, and some small banner ads in order to create a revenue stream, I've done it with mixed emotions. And, I'm watching to see if my small, but growing, following of readers will bite on any of the various offerings.

I think I will be more at ease with the whole advertising milieu if I can see ads more as "resources" which will benefit my readers. Using Google AdSense makes that more difficult because I have less control over what appears in the ads. I'm even thinking of ditching AdSense for that reason!

As to prognostication, I think as blogging becomes more and more mainstream, it will follow similar trends as websites. Sites that have the metrics to show large numbers of page views and visitors will attract advertisering dollars.

Paul makes some good points, and in regards to being more at ease if ads were 'resources' for his readers, I think that can be achieved with amazon links... suggesting "additional reading" links to related amazon books would be valuable for people who want to know more about your post's topic.

Along the same lines - and more profitable - would be to join clickbank and see if there are ebooks or software related to any of your topics.

The commissions are usually much higher than amazon offers - often 50% - although there isn't any quality control (i.e. the ebook could stink), so caveat emptor. However clickbank offers a 90 day 'no questions' asked refund, which is easy for unsatisfied buyers to take advantage of since there is no physical product to ship back for the refund (if it is an ebook or software).

Thanks for this article Dana, I hope to find even more info about earning cash from a blog. :)