Chris gets it right when talking about affiliate tips for bloggers. But... what needs to be discussed more and more is how bloggers will react to the rev-share model, instead of the cost-per-click (cpc) they're getting from Chitika and Adsense.

That is the bigger question for the future of pro blogging, and one that I believe is all about education and practice and results, over time. In my opinion, as you'll read below, there will be a dramatic switch in how pro bloggers look at how they make money online (already happening).

I've written about this issue extensively, having come from an affiliate background myself, and being one of the first bloggers out there who was using affiliate programs on blogs (way, way, before Adsense). Here are some links.

1. ReveNews: BlogKits Survey: Blogs Embrace Affiliate Marketing Techniques - 73% of bloggers surveyed indicated they were ok with using affiliate marketing techniques in their blogs. While only 27% of the remaining bloggers being either neutral or in disagreement with the statement.

The CPA model seems to be growing into the mainstream tactics of the publishing world as bloggers and even large online newspapers and magazines (yes, they do it, they just don't like you to know about it) realize the potential for CPA to vastly out perform traditional models such as CPM and Google Adsense, if done right.

2. BlogKits: Google Adsense For Bloggers: Why It Doesn't Work...For Everyone - Forget Adsense, Bloggers are better served creating custom partnerships or sponsorships with advertisers. In arrangements of this nature, a blog with niche-specific content, that is straddled with low traffic, has the opportunity to earn much more by converting less.

3. Problogger: Why Adsense Doesn’t Work…For Everyone - The discussion continues over at Problogger.

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I remember in 2003-2004 having to hear from hundreds of people every month about "how blogs aren't supposed to make money" and "your ideas are crap because bloggers can't make money". Allow me to say to those people now... I told you so. :p

So here we are, finally at the point where you can make money with your blog. It DOES work. This is great for us bloggers who have toiled away and taken our lumps over the years, but it also creates an entirely new dynamic for us as well, especially the new breed of bloggers who aren't sellers.

See, to be a pro blogger, you need to start thinking like a seller. You've instantly become a publisher. It is now your job to provide not only what your readers want to read, but to also make money. Making money with your blog does not happen simply by writing good content, it's way more complex than that.

The problem with this is that most bloggers aren't sellers. They've never had a sales job. They don't realize the things you need to think about and do when dealing with a customer, as opposed to a reader.

And if you don't think your readers aren't your customers... they are. They are the consumers of your content, the ones who allow you to put up your blogads and the ones who click on your Adsense ads.

So shouldn't you be worried about customer retention just like everyone else? What are you doing to retain those readers and keep them? It's time most bloggers started to think about these questions if they plan on keeping their blogging business going long-term.