How to make money from your blog

How to make money from your blog: 5 tips

Many of the people who write blogs today simply want to share their opinion on something. But then there are the business-minded folks, who have found a way to use blogs, or Web logs, to bring in a little extra cash too.

recently wrote a column detailing how to get a blog up and running to boost your small business.

If you're interested in taking it further — blogging for bucks, if you will — here are five strategies that could turn your blog into a moneymaker.

1. Sell advertising. This is likely the most common means of leveraging a blog to generate income. If yours happens to become a well-known blog, or one that is well-received in a particular niche, it's always possible to sell ad space on your own. For lesser-known blogs, services such as Google's AdSense or BlogAds enable bloggers to establish ad programs.

AdSense's — which lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog — pays you based on how many readers click on the ads for further information. Even better, it's free. BlogAds, on the other hand, hooks bloggers up with would-be advertisers and levies a commission in return for any ad placements that result. "The nice thing, too, is that the ads are relatively unobtrusive," says Scott Allen, co-author of "The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online."

2. Help sell others' products. Here is another click-through opportunity. Affiliate programs enable your blog to serve as a conduit between readers and online sites offering various goods and services. One popular choice is Amazon.com. If, for instance, you offer book reviews or even just mention a book in passing in your blog, an affiliate program provides a means for your readers to click directly from your blog to Amazon to obtain further information about the book. If they break out the checkbook or charge card, you get paid as well.

3. Solicit contributions. Not every blog-related income opportunity involves hawking goods or services. As Blanche DuBois did in "A Streetcar Named Desire," consider relying on the kindness of strangers. Ask for contributions. If, for instance, your small-business blog supports a cause or issue in some fashion — say you repeatedly mention tax reform, health care or some other topic — you can always ask for reader support. Even if you've attracted a group of regular followers who simply enjoy reading what you have to say, they may be willing to underwrite their loyalty with a little financial help. Programs such as PayPal make it easy to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button. "There are lots of worthy 'cause' blogs that would qualify for donations from grateful members of the blog community," says Las Vegas communications consultant Ned Barnett.

4. Market your services in your blog. Many people associate blogs exclusively with a cyberspace-based soapbox — a place to shout your opinions and little more than that. Granted, blogs are an ideal venue to share your thoughts with others, but don't overlook their capacity to generate new business as well. When appropriate, work in references to what you do and, in turn, what you may be able to offer any would-be client or customer who may be reading your blog. That can spread your opinion and your business moxie at the same time.

"Instead of short commentaries that begin a dialogue with readers, as many blogs do, I write the equivalent of journal articles that demonstrate my abilities, strategies and perspectives on specific issues," Barnett says. "When it resonates, it means money. Since starting this approach, I have generated three new paying clients and brought in about $10,000 on revenue — directly attributable to specific blogs."

5. Use a blog to deepen your existing customer relationships. Nor does any marketing material inserted in blog content have to be limited to bringing in completely new business. By using a blog to regularly communicate with existing clients as well as other readers, you can take advantage of the opportunity to fully inform them about everything your business does. That may expand your readers' understanding of the full scope of your products or services.

"My blog has helped existing clients determine the range of my skills and services," says Ted Demopoulos of Demopoulos Associates, a Durham, N.H. consulting and training concern. "One client who had only used me for training in the past was surprised at my range of expertise and is now using me for a consulting project. Another who only used me on technical projects is now considering me for a more business-oriented project."

5 Reasons Many Adsense Sites Don't Make Money

With the huge success Google’s Adsense has been reaping, there are now only a handful of sites you’ll see that doesn’t feature Adsense on their sites. Everyone is hoping that they could make huge earnings from this pay-per-click affiliate program scheme Google has launched. While there are many success stories (they are true) of sites that have generated good income from Adsense, there are still some sites that couldn’t grasp the real way of making an earning from Adsense.

This is because many people have failed to generate the needed factors to create a successful site that compliments the features Adsense provides. Many webmasters just put up or create mediocre sites and place Adsense on their site and just sits back and waits for the cash to roll in.

If that is the mentality of a site owner, then he won't earn from Adsense. Remember, a mediocre site will also get mediocre earnings.

To finally realize the Adsense dream, a webmaster must produce a site that has the factors and characteristics needed to generate the traffic and clicks it needs to be profitable. There are many things a webmaster needs to do to achieve this and be one of the millions of sites who have successfully done so. But there are so much more things a site owner has failed to do to make their site more Adsense friendly.

Here are five reasons why many Adsense sites don’t make money.

1) There are no good keywords on the site.

Many sites have failed to do the very essence of search engine optimization, Good Keywords. The internet has many websites competing for the attention of the “netizens” and many sites contain the same or almost the same subjects, topics or niches. To date, Google is searching at over three billion sites; good keywords can get you a good lead above all the other sites.

It is essential that you research well on finding the good keywords your site can use to generate the traffic and get a high ranking on the search engines results. If many internet users are directed to your site, you get a huge opportunity to get great traffic. With traffic comes the profit.

In making money you must spend some. Invest in a good program that searches good and proper keywords for your site. These keywords that people are looking for changes and varies, a good keyword searcher is an investment that just keeps on giving.

2) The site doesn’t provide a good niche.

To get the attention of the people, you must provide a site that can perk up the interest of the people. Adsense works well if you maintain a good number of traffic, you have to keep the people’s interest on your site and have a group of people to keep coming back to your site and have them recommend it.

You must also find a niche wherein these groups of people are interested in. Find the right niche and you’ll find the right group of people that are willing to spend some money.

3) The site owner doesn’t maintain or update their site.

You can only maintain the interest of a person for a short period of time. Many websites have failed to keep up the traffic they generate for their failure to keep their site updated. Immerse yourself in your niche and try to find out what’s new and what’s hot.

You have to serve something new to the people or if not, try to keep abreast with the developments of your niche or maybe add some sub-niches on your site that still pertains to your niche to get new traffic and keep the attention of your clients in your site.

4) Some website owners don’t provide the full attention to their Adsense sites.

Many people just see their sites as a way to earn some extra money. You have to treat Adsense sites as a full size business to make it big. With the heavy competition you have, a good webmaster should treat their site as if it is their main source of income but still maintain a good schedule of their time.

5) Many webmasters have failed to devout time and research to their Adsense site.

Many elements are needed to build a successful Adsense site. Good keywords and the right niches can roll in the dough, but this takes time and effort. It is imperative to devout a certain amount of time in looking for ways to develop your Adsense site.

The internet is abound of sites that could help your own site. A little time, money and hard work can spell the huge difference between a successful Adsense site and a mediocre one.