How to Monetize Your Blog

Blogging has come a long way since it burst on to the internet scene a few short years ago. Back then, blogging as a business was a pretty new idea. Today, 'monetizing' your blog is so common that if you have a blog of your own your probably wondering how you too can capitalize financially. Today, you must plan your blog carefully to make it a business. The same steps to any type of business planning apply to a business blog. Blogging and blogs have matured a little since the beginning when just having the word 'blog' on your website meant traffic. Superior content, a good design, and promotion are the key steps to making money with a blog.

GET YOUR BLOG GOING

1) First, why a blog? A blog is just a website that you regularly update with content about a general topic (like a sports blog or a real estate blog, etc.). The key to any successful blog is to write about something your passionate about and keep feeding it. If you are passionate about real estate, then write about it. Discuss real estate numbers, the trends, market news, etc. It has to make readers want to come back. If you don't plan what your going to write and when, then you'll get left behind real quick.

2) Once you have a blog idea, choose a content management system and design. Using a system like blogger (www.blogger.com) or wordpress (www.wordpress.com), or anything else you think is easy for you to manage. Then, choose a design. There are hundreds of thousands of themes out there. Some for free, some you may have to pay. Be simple, and choose a nice design that ties in well to the content of your blog.

3) Write! The internet is full of articles on the right way to write for a blog. But in general, write what you like, as often as you want. Posting on your blog a few times a week is key. You'll reach a wider audience, and keep them coming back. If a reader checks in a couple times and you haven't updated your content, that reader might not come back. Your goals will define your writing style. Bringing some humour, sticking to reporting style, or "just the facts" will all help keep audiences and generating new ones. One tip is to write short posts. Blog readers generally skim through content, so your first couple sentences should be to the point. Often times, point form posts work well instead of long paragraph form.

THE REVENUE STREAMS

4) Advertisements are a great way to get your ads going. Getting ads your on your blog is pretty simple. Google's adsense program (www.google.com/adsense) doesn't take any time to get going. Google pays you a small commission everytime a reader clicks through on ad on your site. The pay out per click varies from $.02 up to a couple bucks depending on the content. Other ad companies include; Blogsvertiser, Chitika, Adbrite, BloggingAds, BlogAds.

5) Sponsorship is a great way to pick up additional revenue. Is there a product or service that can benefit from you having a blog? Are you writing about an industry or market niche where a business in that industry would like to have a presence on your blog? Don't be afraid to seek out sponsor within your industry to inquire about sponsoring your blog.

6) Sell Something! You can link a cafepress store (www.cafepress.com) to sell customized merchandise such as t-shirts, books, even custom music CD's. Alternatively, you can sell e-books, online training videos, or other items on your own through your blog if you like.

7) Become an affiliate. Sites such as amazon.com and others let you sell through them. When a user clicks on a link and purchases a product, you get a little commission for sending them there. All kinds of sites offer these affiliate programs. Your web host probably even has one!

8) Pay per Posting. Sites such as http://payperpost.com/ let you sign up to write blog posts on certain products and services and they will pay you a small fee for writing about the product. If the products they ask you to write about are relevant to your blog, it may be a worth while source of income.

9) News Relases. www.blogitive.com is similar to pay per posting. You write a short article about a companies news release which they provide to you. Again, if it's relevant to your blog, it may be worth while investigating.

PROMOTION

10) Now that you've got the ways to make some money with your blog, how are you going to get people there? Using the same offline tools that any regular business would is a start. Word of mouth is free and is a great way to get the word of your blog out there. If you contribute regularly to a print newsletter, mention your blog. If you blog for your business and you have sign-age or ads in a newspaper, magazine, or even online, consider using those same tools for your blog. Hand out business cards with your blog on them. People will probably check out a blog, they are still pretty new.

11) Get on the social networking scene. Sites like mySpace and Facebook could be key in getting you blog some attention. Link up with friends new and old and see if they'll read your blog. Join groups that relate to your blog. Social networking sites are only growing and providing you with another way to promote your blog.

12) Social bookmarking sites like digg.com and reddit.com can send readers over to you blog in a big way. Posting some of your stories to these sites help you get it out there.

13) Send Email. If people comment on your blog, get their email and send them an email as a thank you and then follow up when you post new stories. Build your email address book from other bloggers you respect and if you email them with a little professional tact, they will visit your blog again.

14) Get on the search engines. There are a few ethical and a lot of unethical ways to get high rankings on search engines. The good news is that search engines like blogs. Write a lot of content and link to a lot of content and you will have a lot of good search engine rankings. Search around online for tips on Search Engine Optimization. Links are usually the key, which brings us to the next point ....

15) Use a lot of links. Links are the veins of the internet. They carry you from one webpage to another. Ask other bloggers to swap links. They link to your site, and you'll link to theirs. It's usually a win-win for you, as you'll send more people to your site and generate higher search engine results in the process.

Obviously, the most important thing to having a good 'monetized blog' is to write great content. If you do this, the traffic will come and so will be a bit of cash. If you write garbage, nobody is going to want to check out your blog and all your hard work will be for naught.