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Everyone’s a Blogger – But Are They Making Money?

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Make Money Blogging

Everyone today is considered a blogger. Anyone who has a web journal and posts thoughts about their daily routine is considered a blogger. While many people might not have a blog, they still post their thoughts in long, drawn-out facebook status updates or notes. But can you make money from blogging? Actually, you can.

Blogs, as we mentioned, are web journals where you maintain entries in chronological order. You type an entry, submit it, and there it is, on your blog. You can start a blog for free when you begin, but you start making money by blogging once you move up to a blog that is

self-hosted. A self-hosted blog isn’t free but it isn’t very expensive either. You pay for a domain name and web-hosting which will cost you under twenty bucks per month.

The first step is getting a blogging platform. Platforms such as tumblr.com, blogger.com, WordPress.com, and WordPress.org are free but they contain limited features. It is possible to make a few hundred dollars per month using these bogging platforms, but making a sustainable income will be done with a self-hosting blog. A self-hosting blog means that you buy your own domain name. This can be done at places such as psychicwhois.com which will tell you which names are available. Once you have decided on your domain name you find a place to purchase the domain name such as bluehost.com or godaddy.com.

Once this is done you select a host. The webhost is a company which stores the files for your blog. Hosts such as Bluehost at just under $7 per month, whereas Media Temple if $20 per month. iPage is a simple host for beginning bloggers and costs just under $4 per month, similar to JustHost. Otherwise there is Dreamhost which is $9 per month. Once you have a domain name and a webhost, you design your theme. By having a great theme, you can increase your earnings. You can purchase themes which allow you to optimize ads, generating income.

Now comes the making money part. While it is true that you write articles and then place them on your blog, you get paid in a few different ways. You can generate income through CPC Ad Networks such as Google’s Adsense program. Much like the ads which surround your gmail as you construct an email, this program places ads on your blog relevant to the content of the article. You can also make money through CPM Ad Networks which are pay-per-click ads. Affiliate product sales are when you get a percentage of the sale for referring customers. Direct ad sales are when you sell ad space on your blog and they pay you for it. Of course you can’t make money overnight with a blog. It takes a lot of time and some hard work. Working a blog an average of ten hours per week will make you very little money for the first year. But as the end of the first year comes to a close, you will see some gain. At that point, the second year will lead you into supplemental income and finally, a larger income to replace yours. It is typical that the first year does not yield much but the second year is the crucial year leading to continued income.

Now that you have the blog, you want traffic to your blog. This can be done through means of guest posting, signing up for community blogging sits, submitting to Blogcarnivals, joining directories, commenting on blogs, commenting on forums, linking your blog to other blogs, creating Squidoo pages, submitting articles, and specifically working with SEO content.

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    • Tagged as: making money as a blogger

    • dollars4diapers

      I think it can be beneficial to start with a free blogger first, develop your brand and then switch over to self-hosting once you have a loyal following. That way you have an idea if your niche is going to be worthwhile or not without spending a lot of money.

      • http://www.moneymakingmommy.com/ MoneyMakingMommy

        I think a free blog is a good way to go if you’re testing waters to see if you even “like” blogging and writing. But getting a domain name upfront (which is so cheap – maybe $13 or less, getting an affordable hosting plan and setting up wordpress from the get-go can save a lot of time and effort later. But you’re right – for someone whose just unsure and really starting – might just play around with Blogger or something.