How I Started Blogging and Ended Up Making Money Through Google AdSense

For my first entry in my HubPages 30-day challenge, I figured it woud be fitting to talk about how I got into blogging. It's basically the reason why all of this is happening now, writing on HubPages and all that SEO blabber you hear from me.

It all started in 2003, when my friend Tommy Halili encouraged me to join LiveJournal. It was a blogging community of sorts where you can add friends and get to read what's going on with their lives and other random things. At the time, there was no Facebook or Twitter. YouTube was even almost unheard of. So basically this is what introduced me to the concept of online publishing. LiveJournal really focuses on the concept of a community, something that I noticed many blogging services nowadays are lacking (or perhaps something I miss).

For those who can't understand Tagalog, a local dialect here in the Philippines that I used in the screenshot above, basically I was just talking about how my PC was broken and it's 2:30 in the morning. I was very worried of losing my mp3s and other indecent files haha. Also a short bit at the end of how impressed I was with Urbandub. That was a time when they just recently released the album Influence and haven't topped the charts yet.

So I've been blogging for 8 years and you can really see how much I've evolved and matured since then (possibly a debatable topic haha). This really reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours concept and how devoting time into something can really make you better. I learned the basic knowhow involved in blogging. As I kept on writing, I got better and better. And now I'm making money through Google AdSense. Time flies, I guess. It's been almost a decade of writing and online publishing. So much has changed since then from me using a crappy windows PC to now that I'm in front of this sexy and lovely Macbook Pro.

I'm starting to feel that getting into the Google AdSense affiliate program is an achievement in itself being that a lot of people are contacting me and telling me that they are having some difficulties with applying for it. And I mean a lot of people.

It's interesting that I never had to go through this tedious process of application. I remember not even having much content and all I did was fill up a bunch of online forms and instantly got my confirmation mail that I got accepted. This was many years ago, long before I got introduced to the concept of SEO or Search Engine Optimization during my internship as a content writer.

So basically, it's been stagnant for a few years and never got any income. My plan at the time was to make a website of some sort and put the ads. I didn't even consider making money through blogging. So I guess now with Google Panda threatening the rankings of my blog posts, I need to go back to that "thinking of a website idea" phase because the fact that I already have an AdSense account is already a big step forward.

During my search for an OJT for the internship program requirement thing for the university, I found this online job post looking for content writers, bloggers basically. I got accepted and during my stay with them I evolved from just being a content writer to being a multimedia assistant and a resource speaker as well.

I really learned a lot, as in a lot, about blogging, CMS, copywriting, and most importantly Search Engine Optimization. The personal learnings and development I gained throughout the whole OJT experience is priceless. These learnings eventually inspired and lead to the creation of my Beating the Search Engine series here on my HubPages and eventually I made a blog specifically on SEO, technology, and social media with the same name.

It all started when I was assigned to write a bunch of Hubs to provide backlinks to several blogs or websites that the company managed. They made me make my own account. And so I made an account here and I chose the name Wes Anderson, one of my favoritest filmmakers ever.

I was shocked at the ranking power of HubPages. It was really a eureka moment when I discovered the power of writing here. There's a statistics thing here on HubPages where you can see analyze your traffic and I noticed that some of the articles I wrote were already ranking and getting a lot of traffic like the one about Mga Alamat. And so right after discovering that, I instantly made my own account and started writing on it (this one I'm using right now).

At the time, I wasn't even aware that you can link your AdSense to HubPages. All I was thinking of was the traffic it can generate being that it has an amazing rank power. I didn't know that I'd be making money one day because of it. At the time, I was busy on fixing up my portfolio and didn't really bother on making money through SEO. It's really so amazing how things turned out! So I do have to admit that, aside from the skills and techniques I've learned, a big part of all this is luck and timing. Now I'm already experimenting on Google AdSense Ad Placement Strategies although I have already addressed the comparison of Blogger and HubPage but I'm still waiting for the long-term effects of Google Panda so we never really know. That's why, if you noticed, I've been blogging and backlinking like crazy recently and really trying to come up with quality-focused and informative articles.

It's amazing how things have changed and developed. A lot of it also has to do with my willingness to learn and unique perspective on things in this world haha.

This 30-day challenge thing is fun. Plus, it will surely increase my revenue and at the same time improve my writing and blogging skills even more. Also, I'm really motivated by the fact that I am broke right now. It'll be really great if you could support my other blogs as well.

I can't really be "overly promotional" because the moderators here in HubPages will get mad and this lengthy article I wrote might just go to waste haha.

So what are you waiting for? You too can make money just by writing random thoughts and ideas and posting random and irrelevant photos of yourself. I hope I was able to help and encourage you to try out making money through blogging or here in HubPages. Sign Up Now!