What's your attitude towards blogging? How much profit can sharing publications on your web resource bring you? Can you earn a fortune by doing the things that you truly enjoy? Surely YES! Blogging can not only be fun but also profitable. To prove this claim, we have made up a list of the 10 top earning web design bloggers whom we recommend you to follow and from whom you can learn.
Following someone else's example and keeping yourself motivated to achieve new heights is always a good idea. It can be tough to get started, but once you take the first step, you will rarely have a desire to look back.
The following 10 blogs are considered to be among the best, top-earning resources in the web design and development industry. Not only do they share useful pieces of content, but also find additional ways and opportunities to get the most out of their web projects.
So, how can one make money from blogging? There are so many solutions that the top bloggers opt for in order to monetize their online projects. While in certain business niches it's easier to promote your content and attain the desired conversion, in others you need to apply more effort to attract millions of visitors. Let's enumerate the most popular techniques that the top web design bloggers listed in this article are using in practice.
- Pay per click is one of the easiest ways to earn money online.
- CPM advertising will work well on the web resources that receive huge amounts of traffic. Opting for this model, you get paid for impressions rather than sales or clicks.
- Affiliate marketing is another proven solution that allows you to boost income while promoting someone else's ready-made products on your site and gaining profit from each deal completed. One of the top reasons to opt for affiliate marketing is that you do not need to make any financial investment, design work or development routine. You just get what has been already done for you, share it on your web resource, and generate income.
- Banner advertising (or display advertising) is one of the most well-established income boosting techniques for which bloggers can opt. As a blog owner, you provide certain space for rent to an advertiser. You set your own rates and decide on how many ads will be there in rotation.
Now, let's see which of the aforementioned techniques are used by the top-earning web design blogs. Noupe is the first on the list.
Noupe
Monthly income: $200,000
Main income: ad spots
Owner: Michael Dobler
Noupe is a German-based magazine posting about all the things related to web design and development. Headed by Michael Dobler (CEO) and Dieter Petereit (Editor-in-Chief), it was founded back in 2007, with the primary goal of delivering stylish and dynamic content. They share publications covering the topics of CSS, AJAX, JavaScript, Web Design, Graphics, Typography, Advertising, and much more. Noupe provides attractive ad spots for those who want to advertise in their magazine. They also accept articles and showcases on topics ranging from Photoshop tutorials to the trendiest web fonts that web developers can use on their own projects for free.
Smashing Magazine
Monthly income: $190,000
Main income: ad spots
Owner: Vitaly Friedman
Find him on Twitter
Smashing Magazine is one more German-based blog on this list. Founded by Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz back in 2006, this is one of the largest online design magazines that we've ever come across. Smashing Magazine started as an online resource that gathered all useful CSS techniques, tutorials and material like that in a single place. The magazine cares about sharing only top-quality content. Not only does their skillful editorial team share cool pieces of writing on the site, they also accept posts from guest writers. With ads being one of their primary sources of income, Smashing Magazine welcomes sponsors.
1stWebDesigner
Monthly income: $20,000
Main income: Google Adsense, product sales
Owner: Dainis Graveris
Find him on Twitter and Facebook
1stWebDesigner is a popular community for web design pros. Dainis Graveris established it in his 19s, when he was freelancing and looking for ways to gain more opportunities online. The first income that he generated on his blog was Google Adsense commission for putting ads on the site. This is also one of the best-commented bloggers that we've come across. Focusing on WordPress primarily, Dainis posts about the things that he is most qualified in.
Techcrunch
Monthly income: $800,000
Main income: ad spots, CPM ads
Owner: Michael Arrington
Techcrunch was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005. In 2008, Time Magazine named Michael one of the world’s 100 most influential people. As per his own project, for over 11 years of its existence, TechCrunch has become more than just an ordinary blog covering news related to startups and the latest technological innovations. In 2011, TechCrunch started running annual conferences in the most developed cities of the world. Boasting 6,5 million monthly readers in the US, 13M+ social media followers, 21 million monthly page views, Techcrunch has become one of the most influential web design blogs ever founded. They also welcome sponsors for their events, display and CPM ads, and premium brandings.
Mashable
Monthly income: $600,000
Main income: ad spots, shop
Owner: Pete Cashmore
Find him on Facebook
Born in Scotland, Pete Cashmore founded Mashable in 2005, when he was 19 years old. During the period of recovery after surgery for appendicitis, he started to learn about the web by subscribing to as many blogs as he could, reading their publications and learning from pros. This was the period when he started to write his own articles for well-known publications. When Pete was 19, he launched Mashable. Back at that time he was writing about 18 articles per day covering topics related to social media, technology, etc. Now, Mashable has grown into a huge and powerful blog that has localized versions for users from Asia, Australia, India, France, and the US. The topics that they write and record videos about, range from entertainment to business. They also have a shop selling branded Mashable clothes and accessories.
CSS Tricks
Monthly income: $87,136
Main income: CPC, ad spots
Owner: Chris Coyier
Find him on Facebook
CSS-Tricks was launched on July 4th, 2007 by Chris Coyier. Primarily, the blog was all about CSS tricks and tutorials. Now, it has grown into a real giant covering all topics related to web design and development. Chris Coyier, the founder of the blog is also a writer, designer and email personality standing behind the pieces of content that are delivered on the blog directly or in CSS-Tricks newsletters. Along with display advertising, they accept sponsored posts (pricing details are available right on the blog). They also accept guest blogging. If you are a qualified professional in the field of web design and development, then you can get paid for your articles. Details can be found here.
CSS Zen Garden
Owner: Dave Shea
Find him on Flickr
CSS Zen Garden was launched back in 2003 by Dave Shea. Over a decade ago, he was obsessed mainly with technology and coding. Learning and writing about the things that he masters, he established his blog, which has now grown into a worldwide web development resource showcasing all possibilities of CSS-based designs. By means of style sheets contributed by graphic designers from all over the world he reveals how to change the visual presentation of a single HTML file, creating multiple different designs. The web resource is translated into multiple languages, so international visitors interested in HTML5, CSS3 and design principles can access all content freely.
Spoon.Graphics
Monthly income: $2,400
Main income: ads
Owner: Chris Spooner
Find him on Facebook
Chris Spooner set up his design blog soon after he graduated from university in 2007. Being obsessed with all things related to graphic and web design, he started writing tutorials explaining to a wide audience the techniques that he masters. At the moment, Spoon.Graphics is one of the most frequently read blogs by web designers and developers. Although Chris didn't have the primary goal of growing it into something that big, it has found its loyal audience. Today, along with providing design tutorials, free resources, and inspirational stuff, Chris also welcomes advertisers to gain better exposure and recognition for their brands and products.
Naldzgraphics.net
Daily income: $324
Main income: banners, sponsored tweets
Owner: Ronald Bien
Find him on Twitter, Google+ and Dribble
NaldzGraphics was founded by Ronald Bein in 2008. Known as one of the most popular and most trusted web design blogs on the Internet, NaldzGraphics showcases only the best freebies, tutorials and inspirational stuff that will make every visitor fall in love with web design. With 1 million visits per month, this is one of the most tweeted and shared online resources with 30,000+ subscribers and 1,500+ articles.
davidwalsh.name
Daily income: $947
Main income: BuySellAds, Sponsored Posts
Owner: David Walsh
Find him on Twitter
David Walsh started his web design blog back in 2007. A software engineer in the past, he doesn't build websites. Instead, he knows how to make them work and shares his knowledge on the blog. A 31-year old software developer from Madison, Wisconsin, David posts articles and tutorials on topics related to Ajax, SEO, PHP, WordPress, HTML5, JavaScript, etc. His life philosophy is never to be afraid of trying something new. Obtain new knowledge and skills by experimenting, failing and fixing, and always keeping an open mind. You will find such an approach to doing business in his posts and tutorials. David also welcomes advertisers to his blog. Giveaways and sponsored posts are also welcome.
There we go. We hope that the stories and examples that we have highlighted in this blog post will help you build a blog that can compete with the industry leaders. Do you already have one? What blog monetization tricks do you apply in practice? Feel free to share your experience with us below this article.
