Are You Making Money With Blogs? 6 Ways To Do It

Making money with blogs is one of the hottest topics around, especially with the struggling economy that's causing more and more people to search for extra sources of income or even replacements for lost revenue. Blogging is appealing because it is so easy to get started and it doesn't have to cost a dime. Even if you choose one of the blogging platforms that do require payment, the fee is comparitively minimal to other money making investments.

So how how can you earn money with blogs?

1. Offer your skills and expertise in the form of services. The general image of blogs is a place where you can offer your opinions, suggestions and other subjective informaiton. This is one way that blogs can be used, but blogs are also great at building relationships and creating happy visitors into customers or business partners as well.

If you make sure that your posts are original and informative and offer value to whoever will be reading them, you'll make your readers happy. 

What kind of services can you offer? The list is endless. . .choose something that you like and do well like writing, graphic design, PPC, SEO, email campaigns, babysitting, coaching, anything goes. Write about it. Offer tips, suggestions, how-to and do-not lists, etc. This will establish you as an expert in whatever your service is and the blog is then referred to as an authority blog.

2. Sell advertising space on your blog.  This is most likely the most common way to leverage your blog to generate income. If you create a well-known, value-packed blog, it's pretty easy to sell ad space. In fact, you won't even have to offer it. . .advertisers will seek you out!

For new or less-known blogs, services such as BlogAds or Google's AdSense enable you to earn income from advertisers. 

BlogAds puts bloggers into contact with advertisers and takes a commission in return for any ad placements that result. AdSense is free and lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog. You get paid when readers click on the ads. These types of programs are the among the main reasons that making money with blogs is so easy nowadays!


3. Ask for contributions. The thought of this may bother you but if your small-business blog supports some kind of cause or issue, it doesn't hurt to ask for suport from your visitors. And readers who become loyal to your blog are especially willing to make little contributions. You can use an easy program such as PayPal to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button.

4. Help sell other people's products and/or services. Let your blog be the connection between readers and other sites that offer products and services. Just go to ClickBank or Commission Junction and pick out an affiliate product or service to sell - it should be something that goes along with the content of your blog. Or you can create a new blog specifically for the products you decide to promote. If you write articles about certain products that you would recommend, you can get paid a commission when someone takes you up on the offer. This is one of the most popular ways of making money with blogs because you don't need your own product or service.

5. Use your blog to keep your customers coming back for more.

Using a blog to regularly communicate with existing clients as well as other new readers is a way to fully inform them about everything your business does. 

Your posts can enlighten your readers about the full scope of your products or services and even inspire them to refer you to others.

6. Remember that effective blogs are updated regularly and often with original and high-quality content. Make sure that you're giving your readers a reason to come back to your blog again and again.

More and more people are making money with blogs. Are you one of them?

Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .