In today's economy, a lot of people are trying to find a bit of extra work to supplement their income. Many of those people have families and can't spare the extra time that would be required to take on a part time job at the local whatever. Fortunately, there are options for those who find themselves in that situation -- they can work from home, and no, it won't involved licking one million envelopes.

Blogging is a bigger business than people realize. If you can write something people want to read, you've got a market. You can work for yourself, or you can work for someone else. The first will require patience and dedication -- the latter mostly just involves finding someone to hire you. We'll take a look at both types.

Creating Your Own Blog:

1. Be willing to make the effort.

There is money to be made in blogging. There really is; but you've got to be diligent and you've got to be self-motivated and you've got to be prepared to wait. It's not an overnight thing, but it will happen if you put the effort into it. Pick a topic that appeals to you. Mind, it doesn't have to be something that gets you excited, but it does need to be something that you can continuously work on, without getting so bored that you stop. Niche blogging is the way to go, so pick a niche you can tolerate -- and make sure it's one you can at least pretend to love blogging about, cos no one wants to follow a blog that reads like a homework assignment.

2. You can get started with little or no investment.

You can create a free blog on Blogger.com and start building a readership immediately. (There are other blogging platforms as well, but in my four years of blogging, I have found Blogger.com to be the best.) There are numerous free blogging templates available, but if you want to create something professional looking, I recommend hiring a blog designer -- you'd be amazed at how far your 100 Euros will go. You can also forward your blogger.com blog to a private domain name, which would make it look as though your blog was actually hosted at your own url.

3. You can monetize your own blog in several ways:

• Adsense (assuming your content is appropriate)

• Paid sponsor ads (people paying you to advertise their sites or companies)

• Donations (you'd be surprised at how many people will donate if you're providing quality content they enjoy reading)

There are other methods of monetizing your blog, but you need to have a decent Page Rank / Alexa rank before you can really start implementing them. For now, these will do.

4. Have patience!

It can take several months or even a year before you start seeing results you'll be pleased with. You have to start somewhere -- and everyone who is making money doing this starting from scratch at some point. The difference between them and you is just motivation. Dedicate yourself to making your blog the best blog it can be and you will be rewarded.