Because there are hundreds of ways to monetize the traffic to your blog, at some point you’ll have to nail down which of them is the best fit for your goals and your personality.

Basically, you need to decide what kind of blogger you want to be when your grow up.

Here’s a glance at three of the most common business models, along with examples of their most prominent advocates.

1. The Ad Supported/Affiliate Model – Darren Rowse of Problogger.net

Arguably the Godfather of the make money blogging world, Darren relies mostly on advertising to make $250,000 (or so) annual income online. A few months ago he posted income sources. I recommend reading that post and this one because between the two of them you’ll have a pretty good idea of what a day in the life of ProBlogger looks like. My impression is that the man works hard for his money, 40 – 60 hours a week.

2. The Joint Venture Model – Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

Steve writes Personal Development for Smart People, and I remember reading on his site once that he gets over 2 million page impressions per month on his site. That’s a lot of eyeballs, so Steve could just follow the ad supported model if he wanted to. He still makes decent money with Adsense, but in the last couple of years he discovered the power of the joint venture – meaning he uses his audience and credibility to sell products related to his field.

I’m not going to ask you to read his post about it, because Steve can get pretty long-winded (although the posts are fantastic – you just have to be willing to invest the time). Here’s an excerpt from his post about getting paid to blog. He shares the why and the how of the joint venture.

Last year I made more money from JV [joint venture] deals than from advertising. When I recommend a product or service on my web site, it’s a safe bet I generate substantial income from it. I always look for win-win-win deals. This means that the product publisher wins by gaining new customers and sales with virtually no risk (zero advertising costs). My visitors win because I negotiate a special discount or bonus for them, at least for a certain period of time, and they get introduced to something that’s been personally filtered by me according to extremely selective standards of quality and value. And lastly, I win by earning a performance-based commission from sales and from hearing the positive feedback from my visitors who benefit from the product. In an average week, I probably get at least 5 people asking to joint-venture with me on some product or another. Most of those offers I have to reject with snap decisions because I simply don’t have time to evaluate everything. I’m unwilling to recommend something unless I take the time to do my homework on it. I also make a point of talking directly to the President/CEO/Founder of the business to feel them out. I need to make sure they’re really dedicated to serving their customers. It isn’t easy to separate the diamonds from the lumps of coal. Some products I’ve recommended required 20-40 hours of work on my part just to reach the point where I felt I could confidently green-light it without reservations.

This philosophy has driven Steve’s blogging income to nearly $500,000 per year, just from blogging. He’s another guy who seems to put long hours into his site, but most of that time is geared toward creating content that inspires him, and that he believes will inspire his readers.

3. Develop Your Own Product – Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com

Aaron is one of the more prominent SEO gurus out there, and I love his blog. In fact, his is the only blog I read every day other than this one. Court does a fantastic job of breaking down the nuts and bolts of SEO and niche targeting, and Aaron takes a high-level view of the search world in general, with a constant eye on the future of search. He brings a very objective view of the search engine game, without crossing over into cynicism.

Several years ago Aaron wrote and published the SEO Book, a comprehensive guide to SEO (over 300 pages worth). He sold the book for about $80, and in the course of those years he sold over 12,000 copies (link). That’s close to $1,000,000 in total sales, so not bad at all. I recommend reading Aaron’s post about changing his business model from selling an ebook to a paid training program. There’s a lot to learn for all of us hearing about his experience. Aaron doesn’t disclose his income, but we can project based on the price of his new training program, which costs $100 per month: 500 active clients would pay him $50,000 per month, and 1000 active clients will get him to over $1 Million per year in income. I don’t doubt he’ll get there sooner than later.

Which Model is Right For You?

As you think about your ultimate internet marketing goals, consider which of these business models will suit you best. Some points to consider:

1. In your opinion, which model has the biggest upside in terms of income?

2. Which model lends itself best to being sold for a large sum when the blogger is ready to move on to new projects?

3. Which model sets the blogger up to be the most beneficial to the audience?

I have my own bias and my own answer to these questions, but I want to hear what you think. Which model is right for you?