The best way to make money with your blog is to use monetization techniques that are uniquely tailored to fit your blog and its readership. Using the wrong advertising programs in the wrong ways can be like dumping a bucket of ice water on your visitors. You want to keep your visitors warm and happy and contributing towards the growth of your blog.

The key to making money from advertising blog is to identify the potential needs of your advertisers, to clarify those needs in the context of your blog posts and to provide advertising that promises to fulfill those needs. In this way, your advertising links and promotions are more likely to be perceived by your readers as useful and tempt them, rather than as annoyances that scare them off.

I’ve selected a batch of advertising programs that can be used to make money with your blog and have identified what types of blogs each is good for. I encourage you to sign up for them and experiment with them firsthand to see what works for your blog and its readers.

Google AdSense

Description Google AdSense is the Internet’s most popular program overall and is definitely worth trying out. The thing that makes Google AdSense so special is that the ads are automatically tailored to the content of your pages.

Great for blogs that... ... frequently talk about topics that are commonly targeted by people that advertise on Google’s networks. It generally works best on pages that are focused – such as a blog “entry” page and works a bit erratically on a blog page that has a mix of posts about different topics. It sometimes doesn’t work as well for blogs about politics and current events as the context here is often too subtle for Google to decipher For example, if your blog is political, does your readership like or dislike George Bush? It is difficult for Google’s advertisers to specify whether they are looking for negative or positive associations with a particular keyword). That being said, it is still worth trying out as Google offers a “site targeting” feature where advertisers can target a particular site – this is a golden opportunity for bloggers to obtain advertisers that specifically want to target their blog. That is usually worth at least one Google AdSense spot somewhere. If you are looking for ideas on how to best integrate AdSense into your website, Micahel Cheney has made a comprehensive set of tutorial Videos that is fairly popular.

Google AdSense Referrals Program

Description What is often overlooked is that Google also has a product referral system as part of the AdSense program. This enables you to sign up so that you can promote individual merchants and get paid a fee if the referral results in a particular action (such as a sale) at the merchant’s site.

Great for blogs that... ... want a simple, no-nonsense way to promote individual merchants and services that would be of interest to your audience. Sign up for AdSense and browse through their directory of referral programs to see if there is a good fit for you’re the topic of your blog.

AuctionAds

Description AuctionAds enables you to add a simple snippet of code on your website that ads for products that match your content that are currently being auctioned off at eBay. It can be used on the same page with Google AdSense.

Great for blogs that... ... revolve around natural product categories. Especially form hobbies and gear based professions. For example, with a blog about digital photography you’ll be able to get ads promoting cameras on auction. Really great for blogs about “collectible” hobbies where most of the trade is on auctions (baseball cards, beanie babies, etc). As an added bonus, if your blog has a “Web 2.0” style, AuctionAds have a line of ads to match.