Do you like to write? Not satisfied with your day job? How would you like to be a full-time blogger? Leo Babauta, author of zenhabits.net is just one example of someone who did this after one year of intense blogging. I recommend you go to his website and stay awhile. In the meantime, I can give you the main points:

Create from your heart. Write about what you know. What's your passion? If you enjoy your subject, chances are your audience will too! You know what they say, if you love what you do the money will follow!

Offer something useful. If you have something that your readers want, you will attract new users and they will keep coming back for more.

Focus! Focus! Focus! This is my particular bane...it's hard to make progress if you go in many directions at once. Keep it simple. Focus efforts on what you enjoy and what is most important to you.

Ask for help. There are many creative ways to ask for donations. I once saw a site that asked for a cup of java to keep her awake while she wrote, then directed users to PayPal so they could contribute to her coffee fund!.

Sell something. Join an affiliate program (most sites such as Amazon, Ebay, and product sites have some type of affiliate program) that has products which relate to your site.

Offer interaction. People want to connect, to share ideas and to make their voice heard. Encourage and embrace this on your site and you will build a strong community.

Blogging sites lifehacker.com, icanhascheezburger.com, shoemoney.com, lifehack.org, and especially: ProBlogger.com are all successful and worth your while to visit. In fact, 45n5.com/top100/ will show you a list of the top 100 moneymaking blogs. You'll definitely want to look at them and learn from the best.

OK, now you've written your blog. How do you make money from it? Trust me, if you build it and then sit back and wait, they won't come. You need to build traffic to your blog.

First, always put a link to your blog in your signature, whether you are writing an email, posting to a newsgroup, or adding a comment in a forum or another person's blog.

You can also add your blog to Blog Directories. One site that has a listing of urls you can submit your blog to is toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/, another one is masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/ and there are many others. Sites like digg.com, reddit.com, stumbleupon.com etc can bring you a LOT of traffic.

Once you have traffic, you can start earning money. One site that lists clients who will pay you to blog about their product is http://payperpost.com/. Another good one for advertising is http://www.bloggingads.com/