Making Money from Blogs

As blogs gets more and more sophisticated, both in terms of the software used to create them and the uses to which they can be put, the potential to make money from them has proportionally increased. Anyone with a basic grasp of blogging technology, a penchant for hard work and a determination to succeed can make a a good income through blogging. But most bloggers don't for two simple reasons.

a) They overestimate the number of potential viewers who will visit their site and the amount of revenue their blogs can generate. Such inflated predictions invariably lead to disappointment when they fail to achieve their hoped for targets and the blogger loses interest.

b) Most novice bloggers hear or read about the ease with which large sums of money can be earned through blogging and think that just setting up a blog and adding content to it at regular intervals is sufficient to accomplish the same goal. The key to making money from blogs is to formulate a detailed and cogent plan of action and nurture it to fruition.

Having a large readership is fundamental if you want to make a good living off blogging. The more viewers your blog attracts, the greater the chances are that quality sponsors will want to advertise on it. However, everyday finds more and more new blogs being posted, so standing out of the crowd through just superior writing skills or a unique idea or product can no longer be taken as a given. Far too many bloggers devote their time and energy to posting content or updating their blog in the hope of attracting a large following. But all the hard work will be in vain if no one knows about your blog. You need, instead, to promote your blog vigorously in order to make it known to the widest possible audience. Apart from the usual forms of advertising, you could trade links with other established bloggers and make contacts with the wider blogging community. Building a loyal base that grows exponentially takes time, but pays dividends that more than offsets the hard work and initial frustration.

Once you have set up your blog and have a steadily increasing number of readers, how do you go about maximizing its the earning potential? The three simplest ways for a beginner are:

i) Advertise on Your Blog

One of the easiest ways to make money with blogs is through Google Adsense. You can easily sign up as an affiliate and add the code to your blog site. Google will place ads that are consistent with your web content and every time a visitor clicks on an ad on your blog, you will get a part of the profits. There are a lot of other advertising programs available like BlogAds, Text Link Ads, CrispAds, to name a few. If you position your Ads in those areas of your blog that catch the eye of your reader and if they are relevant to the topic you are writing about, there is no reason why your readers should not click them, since they have come to your blog site searching for the type of information you are delivering.

ii) Sell Your Own Products and Services

Almost all successful Internet marketers have their website linked to their blog as it carries content that complements the products sold on their site. Blogs are an excellent source of website traffic as they can easily be pinged to directories. This means that once you make a single post, you can be instantly added to all the directories and social bookmarking sites. You can even have multiple blogs optimized around keywords in your website and linked back to it. All this helps increase your site's Page Rank, thus driving more traffic to your site.

iii) Sell Affiliate Products

If you don’t have a web site, you can still make money from your blog. Decide the type of goods you want to market and research the Internet to find the best companies that sell the products you are interested in promoting. Many companies offer affiliateships that can generate an income of 50%-75% off each sale that occurs through your referral. Use your blog to review the products in detail and as you gain recognition and build trust among your readers, they will tend to buy products recommended by you.

Just because blogging is comparatively easy, it does not follow that effort, creativity and planning are not required. You may have a great idea or product, you may even be a marketing whiz, but that still does not guarantee overnight success. However, on the positive side is the fact that it is not very difficult to get readers visiting your blog. Once you have a sizeable number with whom you have built a relationship based on trust and respect, money should start flowing into your coffers.

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