Jim Kukral writes in his blog about BlogRush and the problems small trafficked-websites face in making the most of this opportunity. In fact, he asks one question that is hard to answer ..?

Are you ready to give up valuable space on your blog for a few new readers a month?

But I would like to ask an even harder question…

Are you ready to lose your readers to any of these websites, in exchange for a few visitors or a few cents?

Actually, he really encouraged me to write this post because it is a problem that all small time blogs (like this one) face: to monetize your blog, you almost always send traffic away. Let’s look at some of the top ways to monetize your blog.

Adsense – Adsense involves you placing an adblock in your blog, either in a post at the top or at the bottom or in the sidebar. If it’s at the top, then you are literally begging your readers to click on it and send them away!

Paid Posting – Again, if you write a post, you will usually include a link in the post or several, that invite readers to visit the linked website.

Text Link Ads – In the sidebar, and at the bottom of posts (for post level links).

Affiliate Ads – Such as the one for Thumb Drives on the right of this website. They can include all manner of products, though. Perhaps the best known are Amazon and Commission Junction.

Contextual Advertising – These are the little links that you see in posts from companies like Kontera, and of course they take traffic away to other websites.

There are additional ways to lose traffic, too, though they are not considered revenue generators.

MyBlogLog – That’s the pretty box on my right sidebar with lots of little images. If you click on the image of one person, then you are taken to the MyBlogLog website, where you are not presented with the blog of the person you are clicking to, but a page about the blog. In fact, you have to look really hard to see the blog link.

Twitter, Technorati and Alexa badges and links also function in similar ways. And now, BlogRush adds to the ways you can use to send traffic AWAY from your website. To read about BlogRush, visit Jim’s post. You may not wish to use it after you read that!

So, when you add the next EXPLOSIVE sales pitch or TRAFFIC website to your sidebar, you should wonder why is it when I visit a website like Engadget so hard to find a real link in any posts? I mean, a link that actually takes you to another website…! Try it, you’ll see what I mean.

PS. Of course, there are no links in this article at all! I want to make a point!