How To Make Money With Blogging

Making money by blogging is becoming quite the popular business venture these days. Once thought of as simply "online journals", blogs are turning into a new form of media that is taking the internet by storm! There are literally millions upon millions of blogs nowadays ranging in a myriad of topics. People blog about politics, their personal life, technology - you name it, there's sure to be someone out there blogging about it!

What started out as just a hobby for people hanging out online has now become a great way to make money as well. How is it possible to make money from blogging, you ask? Well, there are many ways to do so and some of them are similar to how you would make money if you had a website. After all, a blog is a website as well, except you also get to insert your own opinion and commentary.

If you're new to blogging, you've probably started out by signing up with a free hosting account through Blogger or Wordpress and created an entry or two about a favorite topic of yours.

Here are some ways you can make money from blogging:

1) Add Google Adsense ads to your blog. This is probably the most common way that people make money with their blog. Visit just about any blog on the internet these days and you'll see a set of ads somewhere within the blog with the phrase "Ads by Google". When visitors click on any of those ads, you make money based on how much the advertiser pays for the ad. You simply add some Javascript code to the template of your blog or within your blog posts and Google will display ads that are related to the topic of your blog posts.

There are some Google ads that will make more money than others. The more competition there is out there, the more that advertisers are willing to pay for people to click on their ads. Consequently, there are now many people that are creating websites and blogging about topics that will make them the most money in terms of Google Adsense. As with any website, the more traffic you get to your blog, the more chance that people will click on those Google ads. Sign up for a Google Adsense account at www.google.com/adsense

2) Sell your own advertising space. If your blog receives a great deal of traffic, you may consider selling your own advertising space. Many companies are abandoning traditional advertising venues such as newspapers and TV and instead are advertising on blogs because these companies know that more and more people are turning to blogs for news and information.

3) Sign up with affiliate programs and make money promoting products or services. If your blog is about flowers, then perhaps you could sign up with Amazon.com as an affiliate and blog about a book you recently read on tulips. When someone clicks on the link in your blog and purchase that book at Amazon.com, you receive a commission! Another example is to sign up as an affiliate of your favorite flower delivery company and recommend the company to your readers.

The key idea here is to build up a readership to your blog. These are people who know you, trust you, and value your opinion. It is also a good idea to limit your posts to one topic for search engine optimization purposes. Generally, you'll be more successful if you stick to a specific niche.

A great example of a blog that makes money through affiliate programs is SheFinds.com. The writers of the blog recommends beauty products and clothing that they've tried or feel would be beneficial to their blog readers. SheFinds has thousands of readers who want to find out the latest and don't have the time to scour the internet.

There are quite a few affiliate directories where you can search for affiliate programs that are related to your website. For instance, if your website is auto related, you can sign up to be an affiliate with companies that may offer auto insurance or sell auto parts. Two affiliate directories that I use are CJ.com and Linkshare.com

4) Have Companies Sponsor Blog Posts - Companies are now starting to take notice of blogs as a viable source of advertising and marketing. They realize that bloggers have relationships with their readers and people are now turning to bloggers for news and information. There are companies out there who will connect you with advertisers looking for bloggers to review their company or link to them in a blog post. Think of them as "blog brokers", if you will. You sign up these blog brokers and choose which companies to link to or blog about. The advertisers will pay anywhere from $2 to $100 (some even pay more!) for you, the blogger, to link to them or review their website.

Below are a few companies that offer lists of advertisers who are looking for bloggers to link to them. Some of them are fairly new, so they only offer a few opportunities, but as this concept of sponsoring blog posts becomes more widespread, I'm sure we'll see more advertisers signing up.

• PayPerPost.com - This is one of the more popular companies that have many open opportunities from advertisers.
  
• Blogsvertise.com
  
• BlogToProfit.com
  
• Creamaid.com
  
• Blogitive.com

As you can see, there are many opportunities for bloggers to make money with their blogs. And this is only the beginning! Blogging is a new platform for freelance writers or online business owners and the "blogosphere" is literally growing by the minute. So, go out there and start blogging!