How to improve blog income

So I love the concept of a residual income stream, but some of the steps are not clear. For example, I started a blog a few years ago. It seems to get quite a few visitors. However, I am choking on the right way to do advertising and exactly how to do that. I have earned zero dollars. My blog is www.powellacres.com. I do try to post informative articles with new information and pictures. How do I post ads that will generate income? Do I spend money to do ad campaigns? Is there a step by step that i can trust?

I created this new thread for that very topic.

First, I have to point out that when you mention your blog, you should try to make a link to it - more likely to get a visit.

Next, same for your signature

Next, we have a massive thread dedicated to how to drive traffic to your blog from permies:

https://permies.com/t/20020/tnk/Promoting-Stuff-Permies

Of course, none of this helps with your monetization. I would start with putting up an adsense banner. Just one. Find out where it does the most good for your blog.

Next, when I think of a blog, I think of erica strauss. http://www.nwedible.com/ (see how that automatically made a link). Notice at the bottom she has an adsense banner. She also has a book now! I think the book would not have happened without the blog. After all, you write all your bloggy bits for a while and PRESTO! Next thing ya know, you have all the innards of a book. And your blog is an excellent marketing engine for the book!

I wish that she would put my world domination gardening 3-dvd set on her blog - complete with my 40% affiliate program. I would think she should pull in a few thousand dollars right off, and then bring in a few thousand per year, every year, for more than a decade after. But that might just be fantasy on my part. But that would be one form of monetization. She could watch the dvds and then write a review, complete with an affiliate link. And then encourage her peeps to get it because if they do, she has made an arrangement with her buddy (that would be me) to get a juicy, fat, succulent cut of the action. And piles of coin from blogging inspires more blogging. VIVA LA CREATORS!

So I also have a blog http://askwildehilde.blogspot.com/ I began to get busy trying to get adsense going & I ran into a brick wall of a lost email account that is attached to my approved adsense account.. but alas I cannot enter into my account without getting into the dead account.
OK so are there any alternatives to adsense? I am on their forum trying to get answers; not completely giving up just want to know if anyone else has had to find other options and how that went.

Roxanne, I just started a new thread (https://permies.com/t/52406/cascadia/Cascadia-Bloggers-Websites-Facebooks-Project#423934) in the Cascadia forum, asking for links to old and new blogs and facebook pages, etc of people who are gardening/homesteading in Cascadia. I'm hoping this will help us discover each other, learn from each other, and give each other more ad revenue!

I started this thread because I kept realizing that there were a lot of local threads, youtube pages, etc, etc, (Like yours and Wranglerstars) that I had no idea existed. I'd love to know about people like you so I can learn from you!