Blogging has become almost as common as email these days. It seems like most people either have a blog or MySpace account or other online presence. I don't think there is a television show, rock star or sports team that doesn't have a corresponding blog.

For people who want to create a blog, monetizing it is a great way to earn supplemental income. While it can take a long time to build enough traffic to make pay-per-click, affiliate advertising or pay-per-post efforts pay enough to amount to more than pocket change, there are many ways to develop your blog into a popular site thereby boosting your work from home income.

When I began looking into creating my own blog, I asked a lot of established and novice bloggers what book or tool they found most helpful to learn about blogging. The most frequently mentioned online source was ProBlogger. This is not surprising as Darren Rowse, the founder and man behind ProBlogger, is considered by many people to be one of the most successful bloggers ever. In terms of a simple, straightforward book to help the first-time blogger get started, I was directed to The Rough Guide to Blogging by Jonathan Yang.

I knew nothing about blogging when I sat down to read The Rough Guide to Blogging, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the book was presented in an easy to read manner that even the nontechnical, blogger-wannabe, like me, could understand. The book begins by describing the basics of what blogging is and goes on to explain more advanced terms like subscribing to feeds, linking, blog hosts, server-side blogging, blogrolls and more. There is also a wealth of information included in the book about templates and designs to help bloggers create aesthetically pleasing sites that capture the moods of their blogs. An entire chapter is devoted to introducing and reviewing over 250 of the top blogs currently online broken down into 30 different categories from political blogs to knitting blogs and everything inbetween. The author lists some highly entertaining blogs that can help a new blogger understand the critical difference between the tone used in writing blog posts versus the tone used in other mediums.

Most important for people who are looking to earn some revenue from their blogs, The Rough Guide to Blogging includes two chapters about increasing traffic to your blog and generating income from your blog. Of course, the first step to increasing traffic and making money is to develop a blog that people want to read. The Rough Guide to Blogging clearly explains the importance of choosing a topic for your blog that you feel passionate about and can write authoritatively and exhaustively on. Next, you need to develop a unique voice for your blog and invite interaction from your visitors. Finally, get the word out about your blog and update it frequently. The Rough Guide to Blogging goes into great detail describing each of these steps and helping beginner and advanced bloggers make the most out of their blogs.

There are so many tips and suggestions for creating an interesting, compelling blog included in The Rough Guide to Blogging. I found it to be an essential tool in developing my own blog, and I highly recommend it.