How To Make Money Online Without Banner Ads

Many bloggers don’t like the idea of putting banner ads on their blogs. They are still stuck with the idea that a blog is just a communications medium and making money from it is somehow evil. Others think putting banner ads on a blog cheapens the look or makes them look like a sellout. I’m not going to debate whether you should have banners ads on your blog or not. What I want to show you is how you can make money from your blog (and a lot of it) even if you have zero banners ads.

Banner Ads Are Not This Blog’s Main Income Source

Many people look at the amount of banner ads on this blog and assume that’s how it makes money. The fact is the banner ads account for less than a third of the blog’s monthly income. If I were to turn John Chow dot Com into an ad free blog (which would require a redesign since this theme is designed to have banners), it would still make five figure every month. How is that possible?

The Real Money Is In The Backend

The majority of this blog’s income does not come from the front end advertising that you see. It comes from the hidden backend sales system. This system is invisible to the reader and doesn’t reveal itself until he subscribes to the blog. And that is the key to majority of the blog’s income.

When a new reader subscribes to this blog, he is pushed through what is know as an auto responder sales funnel. The funnel is designed to do three things:

  1. Build a one on one relationship
  2. Establish my brand and authority
  3. Recommend product that solves the reader’s problems

All this is done with the email auto responder feature of Aweber. When a reader subscribes to my blog, he is sent a series of emails that are custom written to achieve the three points listed above.

The income is made when a reader buys any of the products that I recommend. Because the relationship and trust has been formed, the reader is much more receptive to any solution that I recommend. A good sales funnel can easily make you $1 per subscriber per month.

By using a backend sales funnel that is hidden from the average reader, it is possible to have an ad free blog that makes more money than a blog littered with banner ads. To learn how to create your own auto responder sales funnel, read this post.

The Money Really Is In The List

In my post on How To Make 2011 Your Best Blogging Year, I said you must set up a mailing list if you don’t already have one. Well, this is the reason. Most of my blog income is generated by the mailing list.

Way too many bloggers concentrate on their blog front end banner advertising when in reality, that’s not where the money is. The money is in the list and the sooner you start one, the faster you’ll be in the money. If you don’t have a list, you are potentially losing thousands of dollars every month. Get started TODAY.

My recommended mailing list provider is Aweber. They are the best in the business and have much better features than any other email host (I love their Blog Broadcast feature). Aweber offers a $1 trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletter, broadcasts, follow ups and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. If for some amazing reason, you can’t make the $1 back, then email marketing and making money by blogging is clearly not for you. Send Aweber an email and they’ll give you the $1 back.

Get Aweber for $1