Hobby Blogs: 5 Websites for the 'Making Money Online' Hobby

I've been online since December 2005, when I first discovered blogging -- but I hadn't yet discovered that people were making money online way back then using display advertising like Google Adsense.

By November 2006, I began to figure it out, though, and delighted as I made over 200 bucks from Amazon Associates, the referral program for earning money by leading people to Amazon through my special links. (For example, I get a cut of the money that people who buy products like Not Your Daughter's Jeans through my links give to Amazon.)

My salary in 2010 swelled to more than $50,000 for year - and is exploding in new ways each year.
How do I do it? The grace of God, of course, coupled with reading lots and lots about new trends and researching how other real people actually make money online.
Here are five of the blogs I follow:

#1 - Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net
Rowse makes anywhere from $120K to $1.2 million dollars per year online.

Darren Rowse is an internet guru who has been around online for years, and began with a digital photography blog that he realized was making a lot of money in affiliate sales after four years, simply because he had a lot of pages about photographic equipment indexed in Google.

He urges people to choose topics that they have a genuine passion about - a passion that will make people want to stick with the topic for years to come.

Darren also encourages people to diversify their income streams.

He has four different main blogs with four different interests.

Back when Rowse first wrote about his success in making money with product reviews, I asked myself: Why not write product reviews every day for nearly every product I find on Amazon, like Spanx for men underwear or whatever?

Part of me wishes I would've followed that idea, but I'm glad I learned how to write better niche sites and product reviews from some of the others on the list as well.

#2 - Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income

Pat Flynn is a guy who was laid off as an architect in 2008 - an event that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him in terms of career moves, because that's what led him on the path to becoming an internet superstar.

He now makes over $200K per year with his niche websites.

For example, if one searches for "Security Guard training" in Google, one of Flynn's niche sites pop ups in the enviable #1 position.

Based on Pat's niche site success and training, I'm experiencing success with my own niche sites set up around swimsuits, swimwear, bathing suits and shapewear for men.

#3 - Lisa Irby's 2CreateAWebsite.com
Lisa Irby has been online for about a decade, and her 2 Create a Website has the #1 Google ranking for the term "How to Create a Website" when people search online.

She gives away tons of information for free on her website, as well as in her helpful YouTube videos - many of which can be found on her website.

#4 - Yaro Stanak's Internet Marketing Blog Entrepreneurs-journey.com

Yaro's blog makes $20,000 per month and gets over 25,000 people visiting it daily.

He sells a "Blog Profits Blueprint" that shows people how to make money from a variety of sites like membership websites, etc.

Stanak made a bunch of money from a site that teaches people how to play tennis, which he turned into a paid forum type of membership site.

#5 - Wanda and Paula of Affiliate Blog Online

Wanda and Paula are two business partners who've figured out how to make nearly $20K per month from Amazon by writing product reviews.
By reading their book called Amazonian Profit Plan, I learned how to write better product reviews and make money with them.

I began writing longer product reviews - at around the 1,000 words that Wanda and Paula recommend, and I wrote many of them on products I already use (or probably used) and love, like Miracle swimming suits, Olay Pro-x or Hot Tools curling irons.

The Affiliate Blog Online writers also taught me the importance of researching the specific products and writing them in a compelling way that appeals to readers, especially with items like off-center laced shoes or Spanx slimming suits that I don't yet own.

All in all, reading these bloggers as well as plenty of other online entrepreneurs that are actually making over $50K online (like the ones I profile on 50over50k.com) have taught me real-life principals that have helped my own blogging hobby: making money online!