How Can I Make Money Blogging?
I just got a great idea for a blog. Any good sites for me to blog on? Would it be better to start my own website/domain? What are the ways I could make money from blogging? Is it solely advertising?
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First off, definitely get your own domain name, it will be a lot better for you in the long run. As far as monetizing a blog, there are many different ways, you mentioned advertising which is the obvious choice, however you need a large amount of traffic to make a decent amount of money with advertising. Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money, depending on your niche. Amazon and eBay have programs that allow you to show products on your site, and get a % based commission off every sale made. You can also sign up with an affiliate marketplace, like Click Bank – they have many different products you can sell in a variety of niches. Some of them pay as high as 75% commission. You can also run a membership site, where some of the content is free, and the rest is hidden unless you are a paid member. Again you’ll need a decent amount of traffic for this, and really good content.
I always prefer my own sites for my blogging efforts, but I don’t suppose you must go that route.
To make money just from blogging you do need to advertise either by becoming an affiliate of some sort or by using the Google Adsense to put ads on your blog.
I have a music oriented blog that posts Amazon links to each of the songs I discuss so that if someone makes a purchase, I get a little cut. Likewise, I have ads for Sheet Music and other music related things on the blog to earn a little revenue. http://www.lynnsspot.com/music
I have another "shoot the breeze" kind of blog on my site where I talk about my personal stuff and I have a Good Adsense thingie there to earn money for clicks, but I don’t post enough on this blog to have enough traffic to be honest. http://www.lynnsspot.com
And I have a professional blog at my business site where I post about technical things and have ad space for related services. So for me, ad space is the primary way that my blogs earn money, but you can also use a blog to promote other things….like if you have stuff to sell on Ebay you can use a blog to drive traffic to your for sale items.
And there are a few pay for traffic sites that allow you to blog or post articles and if your writing draws enough interest they will pay you directly rather than you relying on your ads selling themselves.
Hope that helps!!!
But the key to monetizing your blog is to get and keep traffic. You need to post regularly and do a little research on SEO for blogs. Enough traffic WILL get you a little money with any of the suggestions above.
Bertrand,
Yes, it is much better to have your own hosted website. A free site is difficult to make money with. So first you need a web host. The host provides all the space and tools you need to create a great blog.You also get your own domain with a hosted site like http://www.bertrand.com.
I suggest you use WordPress to create the site. It comes included with your hosting.
Most of the ways to make money do involve advertising. There is Google Adsense which are small Google ads you put on your website. There are also affiliate ads. When a visitor clicks these ads and buys, you make a commission. Some commissions are as much as $100.
I do help people get started with this and I dont charge to help. Feel free to contact me for more info.