How to Make Money from Your Blog

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You’ve been blogging your fingers off for a few years now, and despite the ego rush of watching your hits soar, you’re wondering what’s the point—or, rather, how do I make some cold hard cash from this thing?

Step 1: Focus your blog
Focus your blog. Blogs that make money are blogs with a specific market and a good PageRank. Be passionate about your subject and generate as much traffic as you can. If you’re obsessed, others will be as well.

Tip
Don’t expect to get rich from your blog. At least not right away. Some popular blogs report more than $40,000 dollars a month in earnings—but unless you’ve got millions of visitors already, don’t expect to quit your day job anytime soon.

Step 2: Sell advertising
Selling advertising is the top moneymaking method with a blog. AdSense, a service from Google, will place relevant ads from advertisers on your blog. If your reader clicks on the link, you get paid. Exactly how much depends on your traffic.

Tip
The upside to this method is that it’s very easy; the downside is that you don’t choose who advertises or what you get paid.

Step 3: Choose the ads yourself
Some ad-providers, like blogads.com, help you choose the advertiser’s you want and give you the right to set the price.

Tip
The upside to this method is that you’re in control; the downside is if you set the prices too high or are too picky about advertisers, you won’t make any money.

Step 4: Write a review
Get paid to write a product review that relates to your blog’s topic. Sites like payperpost.com will match you with a product. Reviews are usually short and don’t have to be positive, but you will have to disclose you’re getting paid.

Tip
Stay credible—be honest, and don’t post too many paid reviews. If you look like a marketing shill, you’ll lose readers—and money.

Step 5: Sell merchandise
Sell merchandise. Suppose your blog has a really cool logo or you’ve developed some catchphrase that has caught on—put it on a t-shirt or coffee cup. A bunch of sites will do this for you, including cafepress.com. They earn the base price, and you earn the mark up.

Step 6: Get an affiliate program
Get an affiliate program. Probably the most popular of these is amazon.com. This works by having a specific product advertised on your blog, and if readers follow your link and buy it, you get a percentage of the sale.

Tip
Affiliate programs are the better routes for newer blogs to make money, since it won’t be so crucial to have thousands upon thousands of clicks before you get a check.

Step 7: Make money indirectly
Make money indirectly from your blog. Many bloggers find they can earn money from their blog because it steers customers to a service they provide or to a product they’re selling. Think of it as an ad for you!

Step 8: Beg
Beg. There are a few sites like paypal.com that can put a 'donation' button on your blog. You’re blogging your heart out—why not ask your audience to toss a coin into your hat?

Did You Know?
The number of blogs doubles every six months.


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