Setting up a blog is very easy but gaining the readership is difficult and time consuming. If you have the traffic, then you might be able to make money with your blog. Most bloggers today like the WordPress platform where you can host it yourself. Find a great web hosting company to set up your blog with if you go with that platform route.

There is also Blogger which very simple to navigate for those are not html savvy. Deciding on what you want to blog about is the fun part but narrowing it down can be hard. You don’t want your blog theme to be all over the place and the key here is your niche topic. Bloggers who make money run many different blogs so if you’re itching to blog about something else, you can start another blog. All of the money combined from all the blogs will be your earned blog income.

If you decide to go with an informational type of blog which is basically called a content site, then you can have Google Ads set up. It’s free to sign up for Google Ads and anytime someone clicks on an ad, it’s worth pennies to dollars. Be aware that it’s becoming harder to earn money from Google ads because every site has them up. The easiest way to implement this strategy is to have the Google ads blend into your blog.

Another way bloggers earn money from their blog is by selling a product. It could be their very own product or e-book they are promoting through an affiliate company. Again, it takes hard work and promotion to get your blog kicked off. Make sure you are promoting what you are selling to the correct market.

There are all sorts of products you can sell to your readers but the internet is known for an informational tool. So offering information that is hard to find online or that is not online as of yet is ideal. Try to tap into something that has not been done millions of times.

To promote your blog, exchange links with other bloggers who have the same market. Add your blog to niche blog directories. Get the word out using social networking sites like Twitter. There are many people who are probaly looking for what you have to offer on your blog.

With an organized plan and knowing what you will offer your bloggers, you can make money from your blog. It may be very little in the first year but take note of what is not working and change it. Read and see what others are doing. You would be surprised by how many bloggers share their own tips and tricks.

Do you write interesting articles that your readers can’t
wait to finish reading? Or do you write traditional, boring
articles; articles that your readers may not even finish
reading?

If you answered traditional boring articles or even a
collection of them both, you may want to reexamine the way that you write. After all, it isn’t a secret that readers actually like to enjoy what they read. That is why it is extremely important that you write captivating content.

As it was mentioned above, the subject of your articles isn’t as important as the way that your articles are written, but it is still important. For that reason, you will want to write articles that interest your readers.

The best way to come up with these article subjects is to use the internet to your advantage. After all, the internet is likely where your articles will be published. To find “hot topics,” to write about, you will want to use keyword research tools, search engines, news websites, and shopping websites.

Many use articles to create back-links to their websites.
These back-links are used increase website traffic. The only problem is that many article directories only allow links at the end of an article. This means for you to benefit from article distribution and back-linking, your readers must make it to the end of your article.

After you have created your article, you will need to proofread it. If you find your content dry, dull, or boring, there is a good chance that your readers will as well.

An article that is easy to read is also important. You can
write a captivating article, but if it difficult to read, it
won’t do you any good. When it comes to easy to read articles, grammar is an important component.

Whether you are planning on selling your articles, using them for your own personal use, or submitting them to article directories, you need to take the time to proofread your articles.

Many internet users claim that the number one turn off is articles that are poorly written. There is no quicker way to lose a reader than to have an article that is poorly proofread.

Customizing WordPress

Before you launch your blog and make it available to the public, you will want to customize the way it looks as well as the way it functions.

We can do this by uploading a professional theme, and activating it from within our blogs admin area.

There are also a handful of plugins that I strongly suggest when optimizing your blog for best performance in search engines and blog networks.

To start, you can choose a free blog theme from any of the popular template directories online.

While paying a designer to create a customized blog theme will certainly help you gain a bit of edge over the competition, it can be quite costly, so until your blog is generating an income for you, you can always use a free theme, that is clean and well designed.

One of my favorite places to look for themes is on fellow blogger sites, rather than the popular theme directories.

The reason I tend to seek out smaller networks showcasing free templates is for the obvious reason, that fewer bloggers are likely to be using these themes.

The more common a theme is, the less appealing your blog will be since those visiting it would have seen the design on another site before.

One thing that many new bloggers tend to overlook is the unique factor.

Here are a few of the places that I scour for new blog theme releases. Some of these sites offer affordable pay-to-use themes as well, which can be a wise investment and a lot cheaper than paying for a custom design.

http://www.BlogOhBlog.com

Explore the archives for previous releases that are hidden away. Fewer bloggers will notice them, and the quality of Blog Oh Blogs themes is very impressive and easy to work with.

http://www.WPSalon.com

http://www.BloggingPro.com (search the archives)

http://www.BlogsTheme.com

If you are good with editing CSS and HTML, you could choose to purchase one of the more popular premium themes such as the widely used “Revolution” theme by Brian Gardner, but I only suggest using these themes if you have the ability to customize them so they don’t look like the thousands of others using them.

Installing a WordPress blog

Once your domain name and hosting account are all set up and ready to go, we will go to a folder on your desktop where you download WordPress. To download wordpress got to http://www.wordpress.org

Unzip the wordpress file (you can use a free version of www.Winzip.com if you need to), and upload the files to your hosting account.

In order to do this quickly, you will need to set an FTP account with a program such as http://filezilla-project.org/ (a free service).

Follow their instructions to download and configure the FTP client, so that you are able to connect to your hosting account. You can also contact your Host for personal help if you need it.

When you do connect to your hosting account via FTP, you will see a directory structure that includes a folder called: public_html

This is where you would upload all of the WordPress files, in the event you want your blog to appear immediately when someone visits your domain name.

For a quick start guide to installing WordPress, I recommend reading their Five Minute Installation tutorial available at:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Famous_5-Minute_Install

You should be able to install WordPress within 30 minutes or less, following the documentation available on WordPress.orgs’ website. If you need help, WordPress offers a public forum where you can post your questions.

Customizing WordPress

Before you launch your blog and make it available to the public, you will want to customize the way it looks as well as the way it functions. Also this will increase site traffic to websites in general. WordPress is not set up to the max where seo is concerned.Of course you may not want a blog to make money but you should still set it up so that posts are easily seen in Google.

I came across an interesting article that discussed a blog: How to make money with blogging. It was rather informative and actually made me stop and think for a few minutes (okay, okay, I’ll come clean – seconds!).

I copypasted the article below so you can read it yourself. Just make sure that when you’re done, you come back up and check out this info about a blog: How to make money with blogging, too.

How to make money from a blog is one of the most common questions asked by Internet marketers who are also bloggers, or by bloggers who want to make their first foray into monetizing their blogs. There are several common ways to have your blog be a profit center for you instead of just a fun way to pass the time. You’re about to discover how to get paid for blogging.

You can make money from just about any blog, but if you start with the idea of pulling in a bit of cash from your posting efforts, your successful journey into entrepreneurship will be much easier. There are a couple of things you have to do in preparation for your little blog venture to make sure you’re not starting the next non profit.

First is to do some research into the niche or theme that you’ll be blogging about. You want a theme that has solid profit potential. There’s no sense in prattling on and on about your crazy Aunt Mary or your family’s visit to you brother Bob’s house in Tuscaloosa. Although that may be of great interest to you, that’s about as far as it will go.

You’re trying to attract visitors that have some monetarily value to someone. You’ll determine just who your visitors have value to from a business perspective by how you choose to monetize your blog. You have a veritable plethora of choices here. The most common source of revenue for bloggers is probably contextual advertising, such as Google’s Adsense.

Contextual advertising is simply placing ads on your blog that are closely matched to the content of your post or page. The ad provider automatically looks at your post to determine what ads are the most relevant to the content of the particular post. When one of your visitors clicks on the ad, you’re paid a percentage of the revenue paid by the advertiser.

The advantages are that if you’re approved it’s very easy to place the ads, and if you have significant traffic in a profitable niche, it can add up to big dollars. Many bloggers make an extra $20 – $100 a day using this kind of advertising, and some make far, far more than that.

The other popular way to get some cash from your blog is through affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing you are paid for referring one of your visitors to a merchant’s website. Once they get there you’ll be paid when your visitor performs the required action. The two most common types of actions are pay per sale and pay per lead actions.

With a pay per sale you’re paid for referring one of your visitors that buys something. For example, if you have a blog about fishing, you can review a new fly rod, and then if you really like it, communicate that fact to your readers. Provide a link to a vendor with an affiliate program who sells that particular fly rod. If one of your visitors reads your review then clicks on your link to the vendor, and purchases it from them, you’ll be paid a commission for your efforts.

Done correctly, this can be extremely lucrative. The advantages are that you have no customer service issues, as you’re not selling any products, you’re simply referring your visitors. The disadvantages are that you have no control, and are at the mercy of the vendors, who can, and do change the terms of their affiliate programs at will.

These are two of the most common ways to make money from your blog. There are countless more, including selling banner ads and using your blog as a sales tool for your own company or products. The point is that you don’t have to just blog for fun if you know how to make money from a blog.

This article was written by: Steve Faber

Interesting, huh? I thought so too myself. Check out this info for MORE about a blog: How to make money with blogging.

—–
Photo Credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

The life and times of an Internet blogger are really something to behold.  Someone who spends their day typing, just creating stories about whatever they want, is someone who is destined to be happy.  What’s even more amazing is that they can make a considerable living doing it.  A lot of people know what a blog is, and many of us even have our own blog.  How to make money writing a blog is really no secret, either, yet very few people know about it.

The first step towards this goal is to pick a topic for your blog.  Make it about something you love, something that you are passionate about.  That way, you will have no problem creating content for it.  Content is what gets people interested in reading your thoughts, and it also makes your site more attractive to advertisers, links, and search engines.  If you write about something that you are knowledgeable about, you would be amazed at how easy it is to make new content for your personal blog.  How to make money after that is as easy as falling off a log!

The real trick to getting money for your blog is in the advertising.  If you realized how much money goes into online advertising each your, you would blanch.  Hundreds of millions of dollars, and that number can only go up as more and more people gain access to the Internet.  Take advantage of all that money and traffic and send it to your blog.  How to make money from millions is not that hard at all.  And if you ever get stuck, look online for help.  Someone like Jack Humphrey, who has been making money for a decade with his blogs, could be a serious help.  Don’t be shy, start writing today!

Photo Credit: N e o G a b o X

Got A Blog? How To Make Money On Autopilot Info HERE