When you think of monetizing a blog, what immediately comes to mind? Google’s AdSense, right? AdSense is easy to set-up, and pretty much all legitimate sites are accepted into the program, so it’s the method most bloggers use right away. However, AdSense has it’s shortcomings, as do other monetization methods. It doesn’t work well for blogs in some niches, less and less people click them, etc. Luckily, there’s a better option.

The 125×125 ad, used by “big blogs” like ProBlogger, TechCrunch, and ReadWriteWeb, they are a great way to monetize blogs. I’ve been using them for a couple of months with great success. It’s taken me a year and a half to reach $100 in AdSense earnings; meanwhile I’ve made over $140 so far by direct-selling ads.

125×125s are, as their name suggests, square ads of one hundred twenty five pixels in both directions. They’re fairly unobtrusive, unlike monstrous leaderboard banners, and they’re less susceptible to banner blindness problems. They are the Bloggers’ Ad Format, thought-up by bloggers, and suiting their style of site well. The ads are sold directly to advertisers, cutting out the ad network middleman, and leaving you with more work on your part…but the difference in income is much greater. (more…)

How would you like to sell T-Shirts through your website without having to do any of the hard work yourself? With CafePress you simply upload an image, and you’re selling shirts (or other products) in no time at all.

I’ve experimented with CafePress a little in the past, but not too seriously yet. As NorthXEast.com had said months ago, back when it was still the personal blog of Collis Ta’eed, you probably won’t have great results if you’re selling shirts with just your logo on them. Only sites or companies with large mega-fan followings can do that (like Firefox, Apple, Google, maybe ProBlogger). Instead, you want to sell shirts with something funny on them (like at the Freelance Switch store). Would people buy a shirt that just says “FreelanceSwitch.com”? No, but they’d buy shirts that say “Think Outside the Cubicle.”

CafePress has two types of stores; the “free” version, and the “premium” variety. The way the free version works is

• CafePress says a basic T-Shirt is $8.99
• You apply your image and mark-up the price to $10.99 to make a $2 profit. If you think people will pay $15, then go ahead and mark it up to that amount.
• You can only have one variety of each type of product (basic shirt, premium shirt, bumper sticker, etc). You can’t have two versions of the basic shirt with different images.

The premium version, for a monthly fee, removes some of the stupid restrictions and gives you more shop customization choices. Now, if only I could think of something good to put on a shirt…