Tuesday, May 6, 2008

How To Make Money With Blogs

Managing a blog can be a great way to make money from the internet. A blog is like an online diary where you can add your thoughts and ideas on certain topics. The great thing about blogs is that they are very easy to maintain. Most blogging platforms make it really simple to add content and make changes to your blog. You do not need to know anything about programming or html to be a successful blogger.

In order to first create a blog you need to decide what your blog is going to be about. If you are an expert in a certain topic or are in a particular profession, you can use your blog to share your expert knowledge on that topic. The biggest key to a long term successful blog is the content that you add to it. Be sure to add genuinely useful and original content as this will keep visitors returning to your blog often and also update and add new content on a regular basis.

There are many ways to start a blog. You do not even need your own web host as you can take advantage of free blogging sites like Blogger.com. If you do own a site then you should still be able to easily add a wordpress blog through your website management interface such as cpanel. Once you have a few good posts up, consider visiting similar high quality blogs and leave useful comments on them with a link back to your site. Also tell as many people offline as you can about your blog that might find it useful.

Always keep in mind that most people are on the internet looking for free information so you need to provide good quality free content in order to attract the most visitors. The better the content on your blog the more people that will link to it and over time this will also improve the search engine rankings and drive even more traffic. There are many ways to monetize your blog.

The most obvious is adding advertising such as adsense. Be sure to check our section on adsense tips to learn more how to effectively use this to make income. Some basic points to keep in mind is to have an ad unit above the fold on your site which is the region of your page that is seen without having to scroll down. Also try to position the ads as close to the center of the page as possible. In addition try to blend the colors of the ads with the rest of your site.

Other sources of revenue can be affiliate links to related products and services. There are many affiliate programs online and a good way to locate a few is through some affiliate networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction, Linkshare and Azoogle. Try not to flood your site with ads as this tends to turn off a lot of visitors. You can also send traffic to your blogs through paid advertising sources like Google adwords or Adbrite but be sure to watch your budget and conversion rates closely to ensure profitability. Click here to learn more detailed information on how to succeed with blogging.

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