*standardized test
Ok.. so now that we have that taken care of, let's look at your sentence.
to make money off something ...just means to profit from it. Often it is used in a negative way, as if the person were taking advantage of something or someone. I didn't read the article you indicated, but just from the use of "make money off", I can guess that the article is not formal.
Of course more standard vocabulary would be: earn, profit, etc.
make money out of something.. this means to turn a profit... but it is quite informal.
Disclaimer: any and all of my comments about English are based solely on my own knowledge of American Standard English.. if there is such as standard.