Making Money with Blogs

The blog bug has it many people in recent years. As we move forward in the game, more and more of the people the blog bug has infected are hoping to make money from their blogs. Sometimes they start horrible blogs, other times they work real hard to make it all work out.

We have proof that blogging can make money (the problogger is said to bring in about 250k a year from blogging, not too bad, eh?). But it isn't as simple as starting a blog and watching the thousands pour in!

Often we want to think of where the money is going to come from before we make our choice. I recently heard that it should work the other way around. Ask yourself:

-Will my topic draw the traffic that I need? To be successful you want thousands of visitors each day and not just thousands of visitors each month.

-Can I continue to write more and more content both as backlinks and toward my topic to keep on drawing more traffic and ranking higher in the search engines?

These thoughts are more important than questions such as, "What will I sell?" and "How will I make money?" Once you have the traffic you play around with the different money making options so that you can find what works best for you, your site, and your visitors.

Ads-Ads are a great way to make money with your blog. If you are very talented with designing your own page you can be very picky about the blogs you place and how much money you will make from them. If you aren't very talented in this realm Google Adsense can make you money. However, in order for you to see benefits of Google Adsense you have to have a lot of traffic!

Sponsored Posts-Many bloggers choose to use sponsored posts to make money. These are posts where you follow directions set forth by an advertiser and write a post for your blog about what they want you to write about. In exchange, they pay you money. There are several sites that facilitate such transactions.

This can be a quick and easy way to make money from your blog. However, Google recently cut page ranks for everyone who posted sponsored posts in their blog, and everyone who paid for sponsored posts in their blog. This has cut down the business a lot and makes it harder for blogs with no page rank to get in. However, the choice is up to you as to whether or not you want sponsored posts on your blog.

It takes a lot of work to make a blog make money. In order for it to happen you have to have a blog that is money worthy and something a lot of people will come and see. Here are a few suggestions.

1)Choose a topic you know a lot about. It will be easier for you to write a lot of quality content if you don't have to do a ton of research. Choose a blog topic that you already know a lot about.

2)Choose a topic you are passionate about. Sure, you may know a lot about a subject, but if it isn't something you are passionate about, it will eventually be hard for you to post in your blog regularly. You want something you know a lot about and that you are passionate about so it is easy to post.

3)Choose a topic with a lot of subtopics. This is important. If you choose a topic that is too narrow you can run out of things to say quickly. You want something that is specific enough to attract a certain group of people, but large enough to keep you writing. If you write down your idea and can add at least 10 sub-categories or similarly related categories, then you are good to go.

4)Blog Regularly. I can't stress that enough. For people looking to read blogs, they want to see new stuff regularly so they can keep coming back. You should be posting at least, three or more times a week.

5)Keep at It. Whether you have choosen to make money with affiliate program ads, Google adsense, or sponsored posts it takes time. You have to keep at it. Keep working on it.

Promote your blogs by adding them to your profile pages, where ever you have some. Share them with those who recieve e-mails from you by including them in your signature. Talk about them where you go online. Use social book marking sites to book mark your work. Join blog networks to have your blogs listed. Now that it's out there, you have to work to make sure it is getting viewed!

It is important that you work on building links while still keeping your good name in Google's eye. To do this you want to write high quality articles that link back to your site. However, you must make them something of worth, you must get them hosted on several domains, and you don't want to build your links quickly. It is much better to build a link here and one there then to build hundreds of links in a short period of time.

You can make money with your blog. But don't expect to get rich over night. It takes time, energy, and work. You are starting a small business, and it will take time. Be willing to work at it, and enjoy blogging for the sake of blogging. If you are just doing it for money, you will burn out before the money arrives. Love what you do and you will make it far!