How to Make Money Blogging

 

By: Matt Bacak

Entrepreneurs, new to blogging, often believe that if they build a website, people will visit and spend money at the site with little effort involved. While it’s not that easy to make money blogging, it doesn’t have to be difficult. Like all new businesses, there is a strategy to follow to earn money blogging.

What is blogging?

A blog is a website where information is posted on a consistent basis and published on the World Wide Web. Successful blog posts are authored with a theme or specific niche in mind. The information contained in a blog varies but the more common ones include reviews, tips, product branding, educational, instructional or personal diaries.  In addition to the regular posts, a blog website may also contain advertisements, images, and links to other websites or resources.

How to make money at blogging

In order to make money at blogging, you have to have traffic to your website. Not everyone who visits your site will become a customer, but the more traffic that comes to your site the higher your chances of converting serious visitors into buying customers.

1. Create a blog website. A blog website can be easily created with software such as Blogger or WordPress. In just a few minutes you can be up and ready to author your first post. If you are more knowledgeable and handy with programming there are more complex software available such as Dreamweaver.

2. Decide on a niche. You want visitors (and potential customers) to refer to you as “the” expert in a particular topic and to build a following. In order to accomplish that feat you need to select one niche per blog website. For example, if you want to be known as the expert on dog training, your blog posts would focus dog training. You may decide to include posts on dog food reviews or the latest on products for your dog. But you would not want to have one post on dog training and another post on internet marketing within the same blog. In that particular example, you would build two separate blog websites – one for dog training and the second for internet marketing.

3. Publicize your blog. The key to successful blogs (those with large followings) is to allow followers to be interactive and integrate social networking tools at all times. You can encourage followers to post comments, like your post through Facebook or retweet your post through Twitter. There is a number of other social networking sites to help spread the word about your post(s) all of which have their own icons that can be strategically placed on your website.

4. Monetize your blog. While you are establishing yourself as the expert by authoring multiple postings, there are several ways you can begin monetizing your blog. The most common include banner ads, affiliate marketing and ad space. While each of these methods works, other factors need to be considered. You want the website to look clean allowing visitors to find information easily; you do not want visitors to be distracted with clutter. Any banner ads or advertisements should compliment your website’s content. Make sure you track the results and eliminate any methods that aren’t working.

5. Offer to guest blog. Just as incoming traffic is one way to build a following, link building is the way to increase your website’s ranking. By offering to guest blog on another blogger’s website, you accomplish two things: getting your name out to a new audience of people and being able to link your guest posts back to your own website. In most cases, you don’t get paid to guest blog but the benefits of increased exposure and potential new traffic outweighs not getting paid.

For entrepreneurs just starting out or for established businesses looking to increase business, blogging is a great way to build a following and establish you as the expert in a particular niche. The key to success is to select a niche, author consistent posts and track what works and repeat that process over and over.