Blogging - And Making Money

Making money from your blog is possible. But you have to remember, it is no different then a website-you still have to do the work. But first, you must get your blog out to the masses so that they know you exist. Advertising your blog is a little different from advertising your website.


Advertising Your Blog

Since your blog is usually content based, you will have to find a different method of advertising besides hitting the article directories. So what avenues are available to you?

Social Media Marketing
Once you have your blog up and running, you will need to advertise. You can do it through the Social Media Marketing. Examples of Social Networks are:

Examples of Social Networks are:
Metafilter
Digg
Shoutwire
Newsvine
Sphinn
Tweako
Twitter
StumbleUpon
Blogcatalog

The above is just a sampling of the social networks that you can join. But be aware that some social networks are "subject specific". So, you will have to do some Googling to find your niche.

If you are technically challenged and are afraid of going behind the scenes of your blog then look at AddThis. AddThis easily add Social Bookmarking icons to your blog or website. AddThis (currently supports Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress). You can create a free account, and they do most of the work when adding the icon to your blog or website.



Blogging And Making Money

There are different ways to making money with your blog. These are the most common. 

Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs on blogs can work two ways, referencing your affiliate products or services within your blog, and sending them to your website. Or as a stand-alone-giving a review, testimonial or endorsement of the product or service. If you give a testimonial to the product, you might want to use it first. Or you can place a banner ad on your site to promote the product.


Selling Banner Space
I've seen this on some blogs. But it is the blogs that usually get a lot of traffic that is more likely to be able to see some success in this area.


Google Adsense
With Blogger, you will be able to partake in Google Adsense. However, with WordPress, they state that they occasionally use Adsense from your free Wordpress blog to make money off your site. Wordpress states that in the future, they will offer an upgrade so that you can advertise on your site to make money (This is the free Wordpress platform).


Third Party Advertising
You can also incorporate third party advertising into your blog. Examples of that is Kontera. I've found Kontera to be more product based-so if you have a product based website or blog, look into it. However, you have to meet their criteria before getting the go ahead. 


Content and Telling A Story
Your content is another method in which you can sell your products. But it can't be a sales page/landing page scenerio. Blogger want the experience of the product.