Recently, more and more blogs are flooding the cyberspace. From its traditional notion as a platform to share personal ramblings, blogs have now become a popular way of information sharing. From the new hype restaurants in town, the newly launched gadgets, to places to go abroad, all kind of information can be found in blogs. Readers acknowledge blogs for their information sources often because they perceive that the contents provide a first-hand experience of someone who is similar to them. Similarity draws people together and grows a sense of liking, which in turn increases the level of trust among them (Cialdini, 2001). Take my case for example. I found myself following a few bloggers whose words I trust for product reviews and recommendations because I feel that they are similar with me, in terms of age, preference, and lifestyle.

The growing popularity of blogs has now evolved into a new marketing tool used to advertise products or services. Advertisers started to acknowledge the influence of bloggers and turned blogging into an activity that pays. Having such business potentials has undoubtedly boosted the popularity of blogging phenomenon. Not only the bloggers could continue doing what they like, they could also earn money out of it. However, what are the odds that a blogger could earn money out of their postings?

To begin with, a blog needs to be popular enough to achieve a certain reach for advertisers to be willing to invest in it. Some popular blogs like engadget.com, Smashing Magazine, dailykos.com have millions of reader and already full-scale business  (See: Top Earning Blogs – Make Money Online Blogging). But, let’s put these established-business scale blogs aside. What I’m interested here is more on individual bloggers like (perhaps) me and you. How could a relatively novice blogger have enough offering for the advertisers?

Nuffnang.com

Nuffnang.com is Asia Pacific’s first blog advertising community that gathers bloggers and provides opportunities for them to earn money out of their blogs. It serves as a collective platform for individual bloggers to joint-force and get a share of the pie out of the blog advertising opportunities.  Originated from Singapore in 2007, Nuffnang now has more than 1 million bloggers in 8 countries: Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and United Kingdom. With this vast network, Nuffnang, as a whole community, is able to offer the reach that advertisers would be interested in. Consequently, Nuffnang shares the money among its member depending on their blog traffic volumes.

Nuffnangers could earn money not only from placing banner ads in their blogs, but also from the advertorials and sponsored post. Nuffnang often provides access to exclusive events such as press screenings, product launches, or hottest parties in town. Bloggers could get free giveaways and be the first ones to try out new products (such as gadgets, beauty products, sport apparels, etc) or services (gym membership, movie screenings, etc) before everyone else (how cool is that?!!). In return, bloggers need to write a piece about their experiences on the products, which is exactly what they are going to ‘brag’ afterwards anyway. Of course, how much a blogger could earn from these ad banners and sponsored posts depends on how popular they are. Below are some of the top Nuffnangers who won the “Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards 2011”:

• Best Geek Blog – Geekout.ph
• Best Food Blog – LadyIronChef.com
• Best Fashion Blog – Cheeserland.com
• Best Travel Blog – JustWandering.org
• Most Influential blog – XiaXue.sg

So, what does it take to be a Nuffnanger? Being a member of Nuffnang is completely free. To be a member, you only need to have a blog with an original content and live in the countries where Nuffnang has its network on.

In a nutshell, Nuffnang explores the potentials in the ‘long-tail’ region of the blogging world (a.k.a the blogosphere). While some bloggers are popular, there are other personal bloggers whose potentials could be explored. These bloggers could collectively reach a lot of readers too. Besides, being a smaller-scale bloggers within the local community could be perceived to be more similar and trustable then a more established business scale blogs.

So, are you a blogger yourself? If you want to monetize your blog and don’t know how, Nuffnang might be the one you’re looking for. Who knows, your post might be the one I am reading next!

– Yuvensianti Therecia

 

Sources:

• Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Harnessing the science of persuasion. Harvard Business Review, 79(9), 72-81.
• Dungo, M. How to Earn Money in Nuffnang by Blogging. http://philpad.com/how-to-earn-money-in-nuffnang-by-blogging/ 
• Walsh, B. (2007). Monetizing Your Blog for Fun and Profit. Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them, 251-274.
• Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., Gumbrecht, M., & Swartz, L. (2004). Why we blog. Communications of the ACM, 47(12), 41-46.