How to Make Money Blogging

Overview

Under present economic circumstances when global economy is in bad shape and inflation is on the rise, everybody feels interested in increasing his sources of income. If you are a computer and Internet savvy then Internet may prove to be a great source of income for you. There are many ways of making money online. Blogging is one the most effective ways of making money online, particularly if you have passion and skills to write on any subject or topic that inspires your imagination and may draw the attention of fairly a large number of readers.

Making money online, while sitting in your home before your PC sounds quite attractive, but making money online especially through blogging is an art difficult to master that requires a lot serious efforts and patience. However, the benefits that you may enjoy by making money online through blogging are really worth the efforts and patience.  

Starting your own online business through blogging requires minimal startup costs. If, with the course of time, you can build a large and loyal readership and you know how to monetize your blog it can generate a reasonable and consistent income for you that does not stop even if you are not able to update your blog for many days.

Choose an appropriate Topic

There are no hard and fast rules for what you should blog about. You can blog just about any topic you like; some people blog about their personal lives; some people blog about their hobbies; some people like to write about celebrities; some people like to write about politics. I think the most important thing to consider while starting your blog is to choose an appropriate topic, particularly if your objective is to earn money through blogging then you should choose a topic that you feel passionate to write about and which may attract a huge and loyal readership. Keep in mind that you may need to write about subject or topic you choose for your blog many a time a week, and if you do not feel any passion or enthusiasm for the topic, this will definitely reflect in your blog post thus making your blog posts look unattractive and dull to your potential readers. Consequently, if you do not have any enthusiasm for your own writings and blog posts then definitely no one else will have enthusiasm to read them.

In other words to make money through blogging your main objective should be drive as much traffic to your blog as you can. Once you are successful in drawing the attention of a huge audience to your blog and you able to drive a huge traffic to your blog then you can easily turn your blog into a decent source of income.

In short, any topic which you are well-versed in and you have passion to write about, which interests a huge audience on the Internet thus driving a huge traffic to your blog is the most suitable topic for your blog to make money through blogging.

Where to setup your Blog online

Once you have decided upon the topic and subject of your blog you feel interested to write about the next step is to figure out how and where to setup your blog online. There are many ways of setting up your blog online. You can avail the services of WordPress, Blogger or another free site that host your blog free of cost. As an alternative option you can set up your own blog under your domain name by availing the services of webhosting companies which provide services to host your blog or website for nominal charges.

If you really want to make some decent income from your blog, you should have complete control over your blog. Free blogging accounts do not give you complete control over your blog as they impose so many restrictions and terms and conditions on your blog account that you lose the freedom to actively and freely promote anything at will. So to have complete control and freedom to manage your blog, you should avail the services of professional web hosting companies to set up your blog under your domain name. 

Improve your Language Proficiency

You may write your blog in any language you like,but since English is an international language which is understood globally,therefore,i think your blog should preferably in English so that people from across the globe could read your blog posts and may add to the traffic being driven to your blog. Whatever language your choose for your blog,make sure that you are proficient in that language and your blog posts are free of spelling and grammatical mistakes. 

If your blog posts are full of grammatical and spelling mistakes,then this may leave a very bad impression on your readers and this may result in lowering of your blog rating and quality leading to decline in the number of visitors to your blog.

Select a suitable Theme and Layout 

Once you have chosen the topic, web hosting service and the language for your blog, then you need to select a suitable theme and a layout for your blog. There is a large variety of blog templates available on the Internet, you can pick any one of them for your blog which seems appropriate to you or you like the look of which. You should preferably select the theme or blog template which is best suited to the topic or subject of your blog.

How to Monetize your Blog

Once you are done with all the essential steps mentioned earlier, you need to find out what are credible sources and ways of income to monetize your blog, so that you may generate decent income from your blog. Some credible ways to monetize your blog are discussed below:

1. Pay Per Click (PPC): It is a well known advertising program in which  ads are placed on your blog.whenever visitors to your blog click on these ads,you are paid on per click basis.bloggers mostly use this method to make money online as it is remarkably easy and involves very little effort.All you have to do is to ensure that a huge number of visitors visit your blog on daily basis.You can drive a huge traffic to your website by your creative writing skills,posting interesting blog content and using SEO  techniques.The greater the traffic to your blog the higher are the prospects of earning money through your blog and higher will be the income generated by your blog.Some well know companies that place ads under this scheme on a website or blog are : Google AdSense,Chitika,Yahoo,Bidvertiser and Adbrite.
2. Cost Per Thousand (CPM) : Here 'M' in CPM stands for thousand as 'm' is a Roman  numeral for thousand.CPM is an impression based advertising scheme,in which advertisers,who place ads on your website or blog,pay you on the basis of how many times the ad shows up.This is a very profitable method generate income for a blog or website which receives huge traffic on daily basis, even the smallest blogs can benefit from this method a lot.The greater the page views of your blog the greater is the money earned by your blog,so all you need to do to make the most out of this scheme is to increase the page views of your blog.In this regard,some well reputed names are: Value Click and Tribal Fusion.
3. Money Widgets : This is a very simple advertising system,which may easily be integrated into the sidebar  of your blog with widget to display ads.When the widget is embedded into your sidebar and the ads begin to to be displayed on your blog.Some resources in this regard are: The Newsroom, WidgetBucks, ScratchBack and SmartLinks.
4. In-Text Ads : ln-Text Ads are links in the text based content of a website or blog with double lines below them.When your hover your mouse pointer over the word or sentence with double lines underneath,a small window opens up just above or below the mouse pointer,with the relevant Ads displayed inside that window.When that Ad is clicked by the visitor to your blog or website,it earns you a specified amount of money fixed by the company placing In-Text Ads on your blog or website.Some useful resources in this regard are : Kontera,Vibrant Media and Infolinks.
5. Parked Domains : Parked Domains are additional domains that you host on your account without using its services such as e-mail or as website etc.Parked domains display the same website as your primary domain  but no content is placed on it.Parked domains do not have separate web statistics.Parked domains are often used by businesses that want to have more than one web addresses for advertising and traffic redirection.This is probably one of the easiest ways of making money online but in small chunks.All you need to do is to get  a domain name by finding some easy parked domain programs.Some notable resources in this regard are : Parked and Google Parked.
6. Affiliate Marketing : Affiliate marketing is perhaps the most lucrative way of making money online.Through affiliate marketing you can use your blog to recommend useful and relevant products to your readers and may earn commissions from the company whose products you recommend to your readers,if any thing is sold through your blog.The common and valuable examples may be seen on the blogs with links to different themes, ebooks and other products. The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you only market the product,you need not sell it.You only need to ensure that the product you market should be relevant and not over-used.Some notable resources in this regard are : ClickBank, Commission Junction, Azoogle Ads and Link Share.
7. Paid Polls and Surveys : This way of earning money is evident from its title.You can earn money by filling out polls and surveys or you can earn money by placing them on your blog or website for others to fill them out.But you should be careful in this regard as spammers are quite active in this field.Before going for this option You should explore companies which have credible backgrounds.A valuable resource in this regard is : VizuAnswers.
8. Pop-up Ads : These are irritating and annoying advertisements which may prove to be a valuable source of making money for sub-domains or niche blogs.Pop-up ads are particularly suitable for those blogs which are not able to grow significantly over time and are striving for their existence.But keep in mind that these Pop-up Ads may be very annoying to the readers of your blog.This is why these Ads are not recommended on blogs you actually plan to build a community on.Despite all this these Pop-up Ads may prove to be a decent source of income for many bloggers.Some useful resources in this regard are : Adbrite Tribal Fusion, PayPopup, PopupAd and Adversal.
9. Feed Ads : A good way of increasing the income generated by your blog through advertisements is to add the advertisements on your blog to your rss feeds.The easiest way to do this is to get Feedburner and set it up for your blog.After doing this click on monetize tab and this will add Google AdSense to your feeds.Some useful resources in this regard are :  Feedburner, BidVertiser and Pheedo.
10. Article Marketing : Article Marketing may prove to be a great source of income for your blog.It is like killing two birds with one stone.You not only get quality back links to your blog but also your blog posts may create many earning potentials.Some useful resources in this regard are : Squidoo and Associated Content
11. Direct Banner : As compared with ppc and cpm,placing direct banner ads on your blog creates much higher earning potentials through advertising.Although it requires a little more effort on your part but the fairly decent income that you can generate in very short time through this technique is really worth this effort.Some useful resources in this regard are : OIOPublisher and Ad Rotator Plug-in.
12. Sponsored Reviews : These are actually reviews of products either through direct involvement of the product owner or through a review site.It is pretty easy to accomplish and your can have a chance to try out some cool products for free.Some useful resources in this regard are : ReviewMe and Sponsored Reviews.
13. Sponsored Posts : Sponsored posts, like sponsored reviews, are paid for by others.Sponsored posts are created about a specific website or the sponsored post contains link to another blog with very specific or targeted keyword links.Some useful resources in this regard are : PayPerPost.
14. Ebook Sales : If you have skills in writing,you may put your writing skills to work for you in earning a decent amount of money through your blog.You place your books on your blog in electronic form like pdfs so that others may buy it.To understand this technique you need to learn how to write an ebook and how to sell it.Some useful resources regarding 'how to sell you book' are: E-Junkie and  WP E-Commerce.
15. Freelance Work : Once you have established your repute and your blog,you can market your skills and services through your blog,like consulting,writing,designing and any other service relevant to your expertise and field of study.So use your blog to market your skills and services.Some useful resources regarding how to sell your services through your blog are : Paypal WP E-Commerce.
16. Job Boards : Experienced bloggers have learnt through their personal experiences and knowledge that there are great earning potentials in job boards.A good example to quote in this regard is ProBlogger's Job Board.You can get monthly fee just to post the job opportunity and may drive a lot of traffic to your blog by launching a job board on your blog.Some useful resources in this regard are : JobThread , Web Scribe Job Board ,SimplyHired Job-o-matic and Jobbex.
17. Event Sponsors : Holding different interesting events on your blog is a great way of driving traffic to your blog and you can earn decadent amount of money from your blog.For example you can hold a blogathon (blogging marathon),contests,giveaways,featured story and other events like that to bring traffic and sponsors to you for.A good strategy in this regard is to have a webinar on your blog.To take good advantage of the webinar that you would like to hold through your blog is to publicize it extremely and then get some good  relevant company to sponsor that event.This may not only get you huge traffic but also you can earn decent income through such events. 
There may be many other ways to make money through your blog,however the above mentioned are some of the credible ways of monetizing your blog to make money blogging.

There may be many other ways to make money through your blog,however the above mentioned are some of the credible ways of monetizing your blog to make money blogging.There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to blogging.Over time with experience you will gradually learn what works for you and your blog will settle down into a nice shape that your reader will definitely enjoy visiting.Over time you will experience that your personality and character will start to reflect through your writings and blog posts as it is actually a personal account of an individual's life and personal experiences.Blogging is thus a way of showing people what you are made of and what your internal feelings regarding your experiences in life are.

Once you have set up your blog and your blog is running,you need to update your blog on regular basis and get it in front of as may interested eyes as possible to get a loyal and huge readership.