How To Start Making Money With Your Blog

[image courtesy: bewiki]

Many of us dream of location-dependent careers that allow us to work anywhere and at any time we like. Making passive income with the Internet has become a way for many people to do just that. Unfortunately, you can’t just expect to start a blog, start typing away, and wait for the ad offers to roll in. However, there are a lot of ways that you can make money with your blog and by blogging for others. Here is a look at a few of the ways you can earn a side income through blogging:

Google AdSense/Chitika

These programs display contextual ads on your site and pays you for the number of clicks or number of impressions that come from your site. In the beginning, you will likely not see big dividends. However, as your blog gains readers and builds traffic, you can easily start to make a significant income from this source.

Text Link Ads

These are ads that are hyperlinked to certain words in your text. For instance, perhaps the word “shampoo” is hyperlinked to an ad for a new hair care product, or perhaps the word “hiking” is hyperlinked to an for new athletic shoes. These links are sold for a set amount, rather than being paid by the click or impression.

Amazon Associates/Affiliate Programs

Amazon is one of the more popular affiliate programs available, but there are several. You earn a fixed amount of sales from traffic that your blog sends to these programs. These are especially lucrative around the holidays or other gift-giving occasions.

Direct Ad Sales

Blogs have become the new newspaper in many ways, and advertisers that would have spent money with print media are changing their focus to online media. Be prepared to justify your rates based on the number of unique visitors and page views you average per week, month or year.

Sell an e-Book

Don’t give away all your content for free! Create some “premium” content that can be compiled in a useful e-book. You can then sell the book on your site. The more useful and niche specific your book, the higher your sales are likely to be. Just like with your blog, you have to think about what you have to offer that is unique when determining the topic and the focus for your e-book.

Paid Blogging

Once you have an established blog, there are many opportunities for finding paid blogging work – and these can often send links back to your blog, driving traffic. Sometimes, these assignments can be guest posts on other blogs, and sometimes, they can be sponsored posts on your own blog. Some popular paid blogging sites include:

• http://www.payu2blog.com/ – Pay U 2 Blog
• http://PayPerPost.com – Pay Per Post
• http:// Bloggerwave.com – Bloggerwave
• http:// Smorty.com – Smorty
• http:// ReviewMe.com – Review Me
• http:// LoudLaunch.com – Loud Launch
• http:// Blogitive.com – Blogitive
• http://BloggingAds.com – Blogging Ads

You can also browse the popular job boards at ProBlogger.

Blogs are the best way for budding entrepreneurs to start their own business. They are the perfect way to build either a side income or to generate a substantial primary source of income. These are just some of the more popular ways that many bloggers use their blogs to make money, but there are many, many more opportunities!

This guest post was written by Alexis Bonari who is currently a resident blogger at College Scholarships, where recently she’s been writing on how to consolidate student loans to save money as well as researching how adults can acquire continuing education loans. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys doing yoga, cooking for fun, and practicing the art of coupon clipping.