I have quite a few friends who have put their passions to use by blogging about them. To name a few: music, movies, cooking, healing, fashion. They provide useful information, tips and techniques, media downloads, online classes, forum boards, etc. They do not sell anything. And even though most of them have no special knowledge of SEO and SEM, their sites (blogs) are popular and well ranked on the search engines.

Most of these sites are are also completely ad free, the reason usually being that it never even occurred to the website owner to monetize the site. I find that amusing considering the growing number of internet opportunists who do it the other way round: set up a quick drag-and-drop website, fill it up with free content readily available on the internet, and load it with ads hoping they will make them some money.

Well, here are good news for all you authentically passionate bloggers: it’s payback time. If you have been blogging for some time and have managed to attract a steady stream of visitors to your blog or website, you might as well start to cash in on it. This is a list of great ways to monetize your site and get some passive income.

1. Chitika

   Founded in 2003, Chitika is an award winning on-line advertising network serving over 2 billion monthly impressions across more than 80,000 websites. It is a tested channel for targeting on-line consumers and qualified buyers, and is an easy-to-use platform for earning daily ad revenue.

   Chitika has been greatly improved over the past year, and upgraded to Chitika | Premium ads which are designed to give publishers more revenue. Using innovative click prediction technology, Chitika determines when to show (and when not to show) an ad. Similar to Google Adsense, it is targeted to each user, so what you see on the page might be different than what your readers are seeing. However, since they are targeted to the user — they command higher CPMs than untargeted ads.

   The high-quality graphic/banner ads come in many formats and are highly and easily customizable. In the opt-out section, you can keep Chitika | Select switched on, but opt-out of the image ads part of the service.

   Finally, it’s worth mentioning that Chitika has had great reviews among publishers, and many say that it does not conflict with or decrease their Adsense revenue.

   Join Chitika

2. Kontera

   Another highly effective method of site monetization is in-text advertising. It is preferred by many because it is not as obtrusive as other methods. You can see an example of in-text ads on this blog – all the double underlined links that show ads once you hover your mouse over them.

   Kontera is the leader in in-text advertising. It serves over 15,000 publishers with superior relevancy and an exclusive ad inventory. Kontera platform is ultra user-friendly. It works within your text – no extra space is required and no changes are made to your website. It operates on plug & play basis, so set up takes a minute. Also available are easy-to-install plugins for popular blogging platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, Joomla & Drupal.

   With Kontera’s In-Line Ads you can make a sustainable revenue stream from your online content. They have the best payout in the business: 70% revenue share, signing bonus for qualified sites with over 25k US pageviews/month, and you get paid starting at $50.

   Thanks to superior semantic technology – Kontera’s patented story-level targeting delivers unmatched user-experience & results. It will scan your content in real time and serve your users with the most relevant and highest paying ads. You can keep track of your revenue and other performance metrics with their reporting system.

   Kontera holds another advantage to other in-text advertising networks: its exclusive ad inventory. They will give you big-brand advertisers that you won’t see anywhere else; with unique creatives that deliver record-high CTRs and CPC.

   Join Kontera

3. CPAlead

   The idea behind CPALead is to protect your website content through a gateway. Only when visitors complete a survey or an offer they get access to the content.

   It works best when you have premium content to offer to your visitors, such as video streaming or media downloads. In such cases it is possible to initiate a file download after completing a survey/offer. That’s helpful if you don’t want your visitors to grab the download links from the source code. Considering that people like surveys and expressing their opinion, it’s easy to see why CPALead works so well.

   CPALead is one of the fastest growing CPA networks worldwide because it keeps in step with technology and trends. Compared to its competitors, it offers other innovative features. You can also let people complete trial offers, pay via PayPal or send a paid SMS to unlock your content. Also available are plugins, widgets and tools to help you keep track of your stats. The dashboard gives you an overview of all the important statistics and functions.

   Last but not least, CPALead has excellent customer support. If you are not satisfied with your daily earnings, you can simply submit your feedback and they will work on it. They will also share more revenue when you start sending more leads their way, and will increase your payout two times a month (instead of just one time).

   Join CPAlead

4. Link Bucks

   Linkbucks is a social advertising network with an original concept in website monetization. It was built with bloggers in mind, to help them monetize their posts and links. Instead of providing you with links from other advertisers, Linkbucks lets you convert your own links into paying ones. This means that you are getting paid to link to those sites you would have linked to anyway.

   Linkbucks provides monetization of your outbound traffic, not loyal visitors. This is done with three different ad models:

   • Intermission
     Intermission ads show up before the page you linked. Since these ads bring more views, you get paid more per view. These ads will forward the viewer to the target link after 15 seconds or the instant they click on the “continue” button.
   • Top Banner
     Top Banner ads are displayed in a small top frame above the site you are linking to. They are completely unobtrusive and stay in a top frame above the target site until the viewer closes the frame.
   • Pop Ups
     Pop Up ads will appear as a little pop up window on the page you linked. The advantage of this method is that your links go directly to their destination with any intermission or framing.

   The control panel is easy to use and gives you total control of your advertising: what sites to link, which ad format and placement. They offer custom programs for forums and blogs.

   If you have popular content, you can make good money. The sites that do best are the ones with offering videos and other media downloads. You get paid twice per month.

   

   Join Link Bucks

5. Bidvertiser

   Bidvertiser works on a PPC advertising model. You get paid for every visitor that clicks on an ad. Bidvertiser’s advantage compared to other PPC providers, is that they are maximizing your profits by letting advertisers bid on your ad space. They will always display the highest bidders on your site, assuring the maximum revenue possible at any given time. You will see a constant improvement in your bidding over time, as both your visitors and advertisers will be exposed to the opportunity of bidding against each other on your ad space.

   BidVertiser supports 5 groups of ads: Banners, Buttons, Inline Ads, Skyscrapers and Free Design. All ads are fully customizable to fit the site’s look & feel. With a simple point-and-click tool you can customize the layout of the ads to fit your site’s look and feel. You are also able to filter-out any unwanted ads. Prior to your own filtering, each ad has to be pre-approved by the editorial team to ensure proper spelling and grammar.

   By using the Publisher Center you can generate detailed online reports to monitor your ads performance, including the number of page impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and the total amount you’ve earned. Bidvertiser pays monthly, either by check, or instantly through PayPal with a minimum of only $10.

   
   Join Bidvertiser

6. LinkWorth

   Linkworth is an advanced advertising network that offers multiple website monetization opportunities:

   • Sponsored Posts
   • Text Link Ads
   • Paid Blog Reviews
   • In-Content PPC Ads
   • In-Text Ads
   • Hosted Content Ads
   • Multi-URL Rotating Ads
   • Banner Ads

   Among the partner products in LinkWorth arsenal, you will also find useful tools like Press Release Service and Directory Submission. The site is generally easy to use and the reports are clear.

   After you register an account, you must still sign up for sponsored post or text link ad opportunities in order to be able to receive them. They offer two options on how much of the commission you want to share: 50/50 or a 70/30 split. The advantage with the 50/50 split is that you get a lot more opportunities. Obviously, Linkworth gives these accounts priority. Try the 70/30 and if you havent received opportunities for a couple weeks, I recommend switching to 50/50 split.

   Linkworth pays out by check, PayPal, or direct deposit.

   

   Join LinkWorth

7. Image Space Media

   Image Space Media is the leader in In-Image advertising, providing an innovative way to monetize your site’s images. It is a large advertising network, reaching over 60 million unique users worldwide each month. ISM matches relevant ads to images across the network of 5,000 publishers.

   ISM is very easy to implement on your site or blog, with just one snippet of JavaScript or a simple WordPress plugin.

   Considering that In-Image ads are transparent and unobtrusive (they only appear when you hover over the image), they are a great way of generating additional revenue for your site.

   

   Join Image Space Media

8. DocStoc

   Docstoc is a premier online document database and social network that allows users to freely store, search, and share professional documents in most file formats (word, excel, power point, PDF, illustrator, etc.). The users can upload, categorize, and rate thousands of documents that are shared with other users. It acts as a large online library of both free and paid legal, business, financial, technical, and educational documents.

   With DocCash you can earn a recurring and passive income from your documents. All you need to do is sign up and connect your AdSense account with DocCash. When you upload your documents, you will start earning passive income on a recurring basis from the ads displayed alongside your documents.

   For an example of DocStoc in action, take a look at the list Top 10 Scary Concepts to Consider, specifically the number 9 on the list.

   Join DocStoc

9. Jounce

   It is impossible to write about monetizing website and not mention affiliate marketing. It is a great way to earn extra money by referring your site visitors to products and services you are writing about. However, with so many affiliate networks selecting the right program can be extremely time-consuming.

   Jounce is a young company that provides solution to this problem. It is an informational hub for affiliate marketing, featuring their own search engine. Jounce is able to search various affiliate networks for one single product and return them as search results, providing affiliate marketers with an overview of available offers. From there you can quickly grab your referral link (Hoplink), and start promoting immediately.

   Join Jounce

10. OIO Publisher

    OIO Publisher is a software that allows you to place ad spots throughout your website and manage the sales of those ads yourself. The goal of OIO Publisher is to save you time, keep you in control of your ad space, and let you keep 100% of your website’s revenue.

    If you are promoting your ads yourself, you always need to negotiate with the advertisers, send payment details, get link info, etc. With oiopublisher, all you need to do is add your advertise page link in the post or email. You don’t even have to be online when advertisers buy ad slots. This saves time and helps to fill more ad slots in a shorter time.

    The advantages of using OIO Publisher is that you can place ad slots of all kinds on your blog. Text links, Banners of all sizes, inline ads (video ads, banner ads, and in the rss feed), paid posts article provided by advertiser, and paid reviews so you can write about the advertisers product, service, or site. Also available are plugins that make work much easier.

    OIO Publisher can be used to sell your own digital products. As long as you can place it in a zip file, you can sell it via OIO Publisher. You can even have your own affiliate program. Regardless of what you are selling: ad slots, paid posts, your own product, you can easily set up an affiliate program that will enable to track and pay your affiliates.

    You can take payments through PayPal, 2Checkout, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, EntreCard and offline payments.

    

    Join OIO Publisher

11. Text Link Ads (TLA) are the simple text links that can usually be found on a blog’s sidebar under ‘Sponsored Links’. Unlike other ad formats they are just text links and are not so irritating to your site’s visitors.

    Text Link Ads are sold at a flat price for a 30 day period. The price won’t fluctuate with your traffic nor will it depend on how many people click or view the Text Links but is based on factors like Alexa Rank and Google PageRank. So your site will have a higher link price if you have good Alexa Rank and Google PageRank.

    You can choose how many ads you want displayed, and whether they appear on a single page or sitewide. These selections will affect the value of each link on your site. The more ads you choose to appear, the lesser will be the price per link. You can also choose where to place the links on your site, but keep in mind that certain ad spots can get you more money. The left side of your page can earn you the most and the link worth decreases as you move to the right side. Text Link Ads calculator is provided so you can see how much a link is worth on your site depending on where you put it and whether you chose to offer a single page or a site wide link.

    Text Link Ads can be a good source of passive income depending on your sites ranking. New sites may not get accepted, in which case you will have to improve your rankings.

    
    Join Text-Link-Ads

If you ever spent any time looking at the numerous free wordpress theme sites you have probably come to understand that free themes are  free for a reason. Of course, you can always hire a web designer to create a nice looking website, but designers can be expensive. Premium wordpress themes that can be customized according to your website needs and design requirements are definitely an affordable alternative solution.

Here we take a look at ten premium theme clubs that comply with the highest aesthetic standards and offer a wide variety of features for customization.

1. StudioPress Themes

   Studio Press offers attractive, professional themes that are very easy to use. They are built on the Genesis Theme Framework, a simple looking mother theme which comes with all kinds of built-in features, useful plugins and widgets, and offers maximum flexibility in layout and design. The Genesis theme can be extended and further customized with any one of the 19 child themes. Changing a theme behavior is easy as the Genesis theme settings control the child theme as well. One of the most valuable things about Genesis is that it is packed with SEO specific options to configure, and will help your blog rank higher in the search engines.

   StudioPress stands behind their products 100% and offers excellent support. Customers get access to the StudioPress forum which is supervised by its team, and has a very active global community that ensures your question gets replied to within hours.

   Mashable recently named Genesis the “best of the best” premium WordPress themes.

   BLACK FRIDAY SALE:

   Using the code THANKS at checkout (don’t forget that), you can save 25% off of anything you’d like at WordPress design shop, StudioPress.

   1. Get the Genesis Framework for only $45.

   2. Snag most Genesis / design combos for a song and save close to $20.

   3. Wipe the entire shop clean and get the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package. Get Genesis plus every design they’ve made, plus every design they make in the future, and save more than $74 off the regular price and over $875 off the retail price — and that’s just the existing 43 designs!

   All you need to do is use the code THANKS when you check out and you’ll save 25% on anything and everything at StudioPress.com.

   This deal ends promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011. Hurry up and claim your new WordPress theme before the code expires!

   StudioPress

2. Premium Themes

   Premium wordpress themes are among the most expensive ones on the market. The price is justified in that their themes are designed by SEO experts to ensure that your sites get maximum benefit out of the theme. Some of the major benefits are these: page load time is very less compared to other themes, it reduces the load of the server, and most importantly, as the premium wordpress themes are already developed taking search engine optimization factors into consideration, theme helps your site to get listed in search engine automatically.

   You can request your own customized premium wordpress theme with all the above features. New premium wordpress themes are released every moth giving you a huge verity to choose from. Every theme comes with tips, how to use guide and very easy to install feature. Apart from these advantages, Premium wordpress themes come optimized with many features that are easy to run from the control panel even if you are a beginner. It’s easy to upload videos and other multimedia materials, ad rotators are already implemented for you to use, etc.

   We especially recommend their restaurant themes Gourmet and Restaurant, and the tourist related theme called Destination.

   Premium Themes

3. Thesis

   Thesis is without doubt one of the most popular wordpress themes, and it is so for many reasons. First and foremost, it is a theme that allows for an easy customization and design and offers a wide variety of features which can be configured from within the WP control panel. You don’t have to know any html in order to set up your thesis blog, and you are pretty much free to do anything. Aside from being a theme, Thesis is also a framework ideal to build upon, which makes it a great tool for developers.

   Here is a video that explains the basics.

   Thesis

4. Headway

   Headway is another Do-It-Yourself theme that attracts creative bloggers and developers. It allows you to drag and drop your website or blogs layout to easily rearrange content and customize the colors, fonts, and features included in the theme.

   Headway 3.0 has just been released on November 25th.  This is an amazing new product and it comes with Headway Child Themes.

   Headway Themes

5. Rich WP Themes

   Rich WP Themes have several very good themes related to news and magazine sites. Check out their Big News, Blog Beast, Daily News, and Magazine themes. Rich WP Themes are easy to install and maintain, and let you build your website in minutes. You can change the colors, the fonts, modify the content of the front page, all from the options page.

   This video will walk you through the installation process and the option page.

   Rich WP Themes

6. PageLines

   Pagelines offer three simple, professionally designed CMS themes, designed for marketing (SEO tuned and customizable), fully browser compatible, support for ads, photos, videos and forms, plus every theme has a variety of features and page templates. We recommend their Station Pro theme for professional marketing websites, and iBlog Pro 3 as it offers a wide variety of features and is ideal for large showcase sites.

   PageLines

7. Woo Themes

   This is a place where you can find some really great themes. Our favorites are Headlines, a magazine theme, Suite and Tie – a neat business theme, Aperture and Forward Thinking related to portfolios, and WooTube – a beautiful multimedia theme. Woo Themes are built on a solid code framework with a backend that lets you easily access theme options and styles. You also get access to theme documentation, tutorials, knowledge base and a very active support forum. They deliver 2 new themes every month.

   BLACK FRIDAY SALE at WooThemes:

   • 5-for-1 on theme packages + 20% off the price
   • 20% off and a free month on our club subscriptions,
   • 20% off WooCommerce extensions.

   Use coupon code: BLACKSTD

   Woo Themes

8. Press75

   Press75 showcases some of the most elegant themes on the net. If you are looking for some neat business themes, Work Space and Office Space are the top recommendation. We also like theme Cafe Press, ideal for small business like bars and coffee shops, and On Demand, a powerful video content theme, inspired by Hulu. Whichever theme you choose, Press75 provides you with a detailed installation, setup and usage instructions. Furthermore, they offer full technical advice through support forums.

   Press 75

9. PhotoPressPro

   This is a well developed theme for professional photographers. There are many handy features, such as customizable header image and slide show, the ability to post images 960 pixels wide, inline comments with Ajax plugin, etc. PhotoPressPro comes in three versions: basic, platinum, and platinum works.

   PhotoPressPro

10. Theme Spinner

    Theme Spinner offers a wide range of professional looking widget-ready, customizable WordPress themes, integrated with AdSense for quick monetization. When you purchase a Spinner theme, you are given all the required PhotoShop files, fonts, images, etc, in case you want to further customize the pre-defined theme. Also available are extensive FAQs for every theme, to help you with the setup process.

    We recommend Chimera Pro and Tauren Pro, with an integrated professionally looking flash slide show. Both themes are very well suited to magazine and news websites.

    Theme Spinner

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