Over the past decade, blogging, a term born from the Internet and short for web logging, has become an online phenomenon of gigantic proportions. If you, and most everyone you know, doesn’t now have a blog or website, in all likelihood they soon will. The amazing advances in computer technology have made it relatively easy for anyone that is familiar with a computer to create a blog to share text and photos with friends and family, to promote a local business or to sell their products and services online.
During these challenging economic times, many people are finding they can blog about their interests or activities and make money doing it. Many motivated writers have used blogging to supplement their income or replace a full time job. While it is tempting to jump right in and start, there is more to monetizing a blog than a “newbie” might realize.
Domain Name
Put some thought into selecting a domain name. The name of your blog is your online identity.
Web Host
One of the most important items to address is selecting the right web hosting company to host your blog. Read the reviews to avoid scams. Select a host with an established reputation for dependable service and enough disk space and bandwidth to accommodate all the videos, images and text you may wish to incorporate into your blog. Avoid free web hosting. Your blog will be bombarded with advertisements placed by the host in exchange for the free service. These ads distract from the visual appeal of your block and compete with any advertisements you place to monetize the blog.
Promote Yourself
Place a link to your blog in your e-mail signature, promote all your content via social media and submit your blog to directories and search engines.
Guest Blogging
Submitting guest posts is another way to make money blogging. Do a Google search for other blogs about your niche topic and submit your services. There is a diverse array of blogs, many with high PR that are willing to pay other bloggers to provide well-written content. You are compensated for your effort and you will receive a backlink to your site within your author’s bio. It is a “win-win” situation. You are paid, and you receive additional traffic to your site. If you want to be a welcome guest, be sure to follow the rules of guest blogging.
Invite Other Authors
Invite other bloggers to submit content to your blog. You will likely receive some excellent submissions that add a new perspective and quality information to your pages. More posts mean more traffic, which equals more income, so if you are tired of doing all the writing yourself, get other author’s to do some of the work for you.
Advertising And Affiliate Programs
Evaluate affiliate and advertising programs carefully. One of the most used advertising programs is Google AdSense. Google places ads that are relevant to your niche topic content on your pages. Every time a visitor clicks on an ad, you get paid. Amazon, Clickbank and Commission Junction have established stellar reputations as some of the best affiliate programs available. They offer banners and text ads you place on your blog. When a customer clicks on the ad and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. Popular text ad programs include MSN Ad Center, AdBrite and Chitika.
Sell Ad Space
Once your blog gains popularity and creates a base of solid traffic, you can sell ad space on your blog. Advertisers promoting a product that appeal to your viewers pay a monthly fee to run their banner or text ad on your blog.
Sell Your Blog
If you are successful in creating a successful blog, you can flip it for profit. Savvy business owners purchase high traffic blogs to incorporate into their niche to increase sales. Although it requires time and a great deal of effort to build a high traffic blog; the rewards can be quite lucrative.
