Make Money Online By Blogging

I mentioned in a previous post that I would go further in to ways to make money online. One of the methods I suggested was blogging. If you haven’t been living in a hole for the last few years you’ve no doubt heard about this crazy thing called a blog. In fact, you’re reading one right now! Believe it or not, you can actually make money just for writing about things that interest you. Here are a few things I’ve learned in my research on just what it takes to make money on a blog.

1. Set up a blog-There are many free and inexpensive resources to help you get started. Blogger.com, Blogspot.com, and Wordpress.com are just a few of the free sites out there where you can create a blog in no time. I also recommend looking in getting your own domain name and host to differentiate yourself from others. I use 1&1.com for my host and pay only a few dollars a month, and that included the MoneySessions.com domain name. If you need any help getting a blog set up with them, I’ll be glad to help.

2. Find a topic that interests you- This is one of the most important parts. People won’t want to read what you write about if they can tell you’re not into the topic. Also, its much easier to write about stuff that you care about.

3. Advertising- This is the piece that will bring you money. Whether you decide to go with Google Adsense, Adbrite, another provider, or multiple providers, this is the piece that will allow you to make money with your blog. When users visit your blog they will see these ads and if they click them then you’ll make some amount of a “commission” based on the ad they click. Usually this amount isn’t large, but with enough traffic it can add up quickly. Eventually when you get more traffic you may be able to sell ad space directly to advertisers and this will bring you more money. Another piece of advertising is using Affiliate links. These will allow you to make a commission off of purchases people make using your links at various sites in which you have set up and affiliate account.

4. Get the word out- This is one of the most important pieces in the process. If people don’t know your blog exists, how will they ever read it? By commenting on other blogs, joining communities like MyBlogLog.com and spreading the word through your social networks, you can let others know about your blog and get them to read it on a regular basis. Traffic is the key to making money as a blogger.

5. SEO, SEO, SEO- What is SEO you ask? It stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is another way to get the word out about your blog. Basically what your are doing when you are doing SEO is using the keywords, headings, and other tricks that help you to get noticed when people are using search engines. There are methods that search engines use to determine what pages are shown when users search for specific keywords and figuring out how that works is crucial to increasing the traffic to your site. SEO is an artform so spend lots of time researching it.

6. Work Hard and Be Patient- Making money from your blog won’t happen overnight. You’ll have to spend a lot of time writing blog posts, spreading the word about your blog, and changing keywords before your blog will make you a lot of money, but hard work and patience will get you there. If you put in a fair amount of time every day you’ll eventually get to the point where you’re making a fairly decent income off of your blog. Blogging is definitely not a “Get Rich Quick” opportunity, but it can pay well.