If you're reading this then chances are you either blog, have tried it, or read a lot of blogs. If you're part of the last two categories, then I wonder if you realise that you can actually make real money by blogging.
If you already blog actively then skip ahead to the end where I discuss ways to 'monetize' your blog. Also, if you're more interested in actually advertising on the web, then I'll be writing a post on that soon, so add my RSS feed to make sure you get it as soon as it's released. In the meantime, have a look at Google Adwords. There is a link to Google Adwords at the top of the page.
So, you're thinking, 'Great, it's hard enough thinking of things to write about on a regular basis, let alone get people to pay me for writing it!' Well, it's not like they're paying your direct. In fact, to make money from your blog you need to attract advertisers. There are three main ways to do this: Ad Networks, Affiliate Networks, and Self-Negotiated Campaigns.
The most common ad network is Google Adsense/Adwords, then followed probably by Adbrite. They essentially bring advertisers and publishers together. A publisher is someone like you, who is willing to set aside a small area on their site to display ads. The exact ads which display are chosen by Google, although you can make small tweaks such as blocking competitor site's ads. You are paid mainly for the number of times people click on the ads displayed on your site, but also (as your blog becomes more popular) for the number of times ads are viewed.
As I said, Google chooses the ads to display on your blog based on the words it finds in your blog posts. And this is the great thing about advertising on your blog. Due to the targeted nature of Internet search engines, the narrower the niche of your blog the better. This is because when your topics are very specific, and people find your site in search engines then they are already looking for that exact topic. When you display what Google calls 'targeted' advertising, the ads your readers will see are matched to what they were looking for. Hence they are a lot more likely to click on the ad than if you had some kind of banner selling ringtones or screensavers (see Myspace for examples!!)
Another Ad network I found recently, are an Australian company called
AdToll. They've been around in the web industry for a while, but have only quite recently opened their ad network. The features are a lot more simple than AdSense, so this is where I recommend you start off as it's the easiest and quickest way to start earning. All you need to do is sign up, and set up the type of ad you'd like to display. You then paste the code that AdToll will give you into your blog. To get started, just sign up
here.
I really recommend trying it for several reasons. One is that people with popular blogs are actually making a living from advertising revenue alone. The other is that it will encourage you to post more and improve your writing skills. After all, you started the blog to write about something you enjoy thinking about, so why not have yet another reason to do it?
The next step is to place your ads to attract the best views, and thus the most amount of clicks. I'll discuss this in Part 2 of Making Money From Blogging.
