DaJobSucks

Blogging for money

Blogging has grown over the years as a means to share ideas and share lifestyles. Blogs are usually written in a personal tone and acts as a journal of someones personal life or ideas that individuals want to share with others. Apart from the foregoing however, many have also seen blogging as a means to earn a living.

Earnings are usually generated by using advertising programs like Google Adsense and widget bucks, affiliate programs like amazon and Click Bank, selling books written by the blog owner, running online seminars and courses, writing blogs for companies, blog flipping (selling blogs) and donations from readers. Some have even been asked to give conferences, to share their views publicly; this however is usually for persons with expertise in a particular area. So how do I get started? getting started is pretty easy. All you need is a computer and an internet connection and your good. I recommend that beginners use blogger from Google to start a blog, as in my opinion, it is geared more for the first time blogger than all the other options. It provides free templates, it is intuitive and most importantly, it is hosted by Google for free. More experienced bloggers tend to set up their blogs using there own templates, as this provides much more flexibility. Whatever means is used to start a blog, one thing is constant, when monetized, it can be very rewarding with dedication, patients and hard work.

Just like any other business, say a supermarket, the amount of products sold is based on the amount of customers that walks through their doors. The same thing applies to the blogger. The more traffic you have is the more you are likely to make money from blogging. Traffic generation is the single most important element of a successful money making blog. Every blogger has however struggled in generating traffic at some time or the other. Those that have overcome these issues, has done the following:

Some bloggers comment on posts from other blogs, forum and sites, leaving a link to their blog on the comment. They ensure that the comment is relevant to the topic that was discussed and never attempt to sell their blog too much.

Others use social bookmarking sites like Socialmedian and Digg to publish their posts.

Some have entered or hosted blog carnivals to generate traffic. Blog carnivals are events hosted by a blog owner to showcase posts from other bloggers on a particular topic.

Bloggers also try to exchange links to other blogs. When another blog, especially a blog that gains high traffic, places a link to your site on their blog, then there is an increased opportunity for you to gain traffic.

Some have advertised using products like Google Adwords, this method will however cost you.

Writing about current news and relating the same to the main purpose of blogs seems to work for some.

Others have answered questions on Yahoo questions leaving a link to their blog with the answer.

Finally, some have advertised their blog on Craigslist, which I don't do, but which has worked for a couple of people I know.

Most money making blogs uses or have used all or a selection of the foregoing methods to add traffic to their site, however, adding traffic is one thing, but maintaining it is another. To maintain traffic you have to ensure that your content is current, accurate and fresh. By fresh I mean new. New ideas will help to keep your viewers interested in your blog. You also have to have a good balance between being personal and professional in your posts. Some viewers tend to like blogs that are not too personal but lets them feel that they are socializing with someone of like passions rather than just an entity. You have to promote interaction with your viewers with yourself and the blog itself. To promote interaction with the blog, simple games and widgets that allows the viewers to leave their photographs and in some cases leaving telephone numbers to allow direct contact if you don't mine that kind of stuff can help. You also have to respond to comments; do not leave your commenter's hanging, whether their comments are good or bad.

Overall, blogging requires tremendous patients, but can be rewarding if you stick with it. The trick is not to give up, socialize with other bloggers, sign up and participate in blogging forums and read read read on the subject.

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