How to make money with your blog is a question that comes up all the time. Most bloggers know about AdSense, but they turn down a lot of blogs. And it doesn’t pay anywhere close to what it once did.
Finding AdSense alternatives is fairly easy, but figuring out which solutions will approve your blog and what will make you the most money is a lot more challenging.
Easy to Qualify and Get Paid
The average blog doesn’t qualify for some of the coolest choices because they require 50,000-500,000 minimum page views a month. But there is one easy method that almost all bloggers can use: Infolinks.
I asked the 2,669 bloggers in the Learn to Blog Hangouts Facebook group how Infolinks is working for them. Here are some of their comments and what type of Infolinks ads they use.
Jennifer Hughes at TheJennyEvolution.com said:
“Infolinks is my best regular source of income. Google ads – nothing. Went to Infolinks and I think I’ve used them now for a year. As far as the money, I can’t complain. I remember doing Google ads and I didn’t get diddly. Changed to Infolinks and got paid the first month. I use the pop up from the bottom and the underlined words in the text.”
Erlene at MyPinterestVentures.com added:
“I still use Infolinks and you can customize if you want the pop up on the bottom of your site or not. If you have 100K+ visitors a month or more, you will make ok money off of them.”
You can go to their blogs to see Infolinks in action. Both Jennifer and Erlene use several types of Infolink ads so we’ll cover the ones they run first.
This video shows how many of these ads display and why these new types of ads are more likely to generate traffic and income:
Types of Infolink Ads
InText
The original Infolinks are underlined words within your content. They call those InText. You can choose any number of text links per page between 1 and 12.
The more links you choose to display, the more opportunities you have to earn an income. If twelve seems too overwhelming, turn the number down.
It is easy to choose between links with tiny dots underlining them or double-underlines. You can see both styles by comparing them on this site and on the two sites I mentioned above.
InFold / InSearch
Of the newer types of Infolink ads, InFold / InSearch are the most popular. (The video calls these InSearch, but the dashboard calls them InFold.)
If someone arrives at your site from a search engine, an ad that matches their search pops up at the bottom of your site.
This is said to beneficial for your site’s search ranking because it keeps searchers from bouncing off your site and back to the search. Instead, they either stay on your site or go on to another site related to their search.
When a visitor has recently searched for a product, these ads are likely to be more relevant than the default ads they may see otherwise. It is easiest to understand these ads by watching this very short video:
InTag
InTag ads are another popular option. You can see these in action on the bottom of this post. Under the author bio and regular post tags is an area that says infolinks (on the right side). When I checked there were are six links a visitor could choose to click on. Pointing at any of them opens a box containing an ad.
Note that these ad links appear just below the author bio, social sharing buttons and tags and just above the comments.
InFrame
One of the newer types of ads Infolinks offers are the InFrame ads. These appear on both sides of your content in an area that is most likely unused.
It could take some time for Infolinks to decide what to display in these areas. I’ve seen images of tall image ads that are attractive there that could work on some sites.
Other times I’ve seen the same text ad on both sides repeated more than once. I’m sure you’ve seen MFA (“Made for AdSense”) sites that run ads like that. You would have to test to see if they would work for you or not.
Speaking of AdSense:
Yes, you can use Infolinks and AdSense on the same page.
And Infolinks can be added to Blogger blogs.
InScreen
InScreen ads appear when visitors are moving between pages. These are known as “interstitial” ads. You’ve probably seen these on major sites when paging through slides or images or when clicking on another post after you’ve already read one.
If you want to see how these work watch this video. Mobile is known for getting more engagement with ads, so if you have mobile traffic this may be an option you want to consider using.
Choose whether you want these ads to be triggered at entrance to your site, between internal pages or when someone is exiting. (You can choose from any or all.)
How to Install Infolinks
First apply for an account. It typically only takes a day or two to get approved. There is a WordPress plugin, or you can just add the code before the footer.
Log into your Infolinks account to choose which types of ads you want to run. Turning them on and off and adjusting them is easy and only takes a few minutes.
They are coming out with an affiliate program soon. You may want to join and offer it to your readers who are also bloggers.
Infolinks Payment Methods
Publishers can request payments using their choice of these methods:
PayPal
eCheck
Western Union
Bank Wire
Payoneer (using an Infolinks Prepaid Mastercard® or use Payoneer for a local bank transfer)
ACH (U.S. bank accounts only)
You can select your preferred payment method under Payment Settings in your account. Some methods require minimum earnings of $50 or $100. Review the fees and minimums in the support section to choose the best option for you.
How to Increase Your Infolinks Income
Infolinks is painless to try out and free for publishers (bloggers that’s you). Like any other ad platform, how much you can make depends on how much traffic you have and where you position the ads. It doesn’t hurt to test it.
As you can see from this table, where you place the ads can increase your income. Placement is easily changed by simply checking boxes within your Infolinks dashboard. Reach it by logging into Infolinks.com and clicking customize.
Each type of Infolink ad has easy to select customization options. By testing the colors and placements you choose it is possible to increase what you earn.
The first step to making money with your blog is to sign up for Infolinks here.