How Do I Start a Blog for Profit?

Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 9:52 am

blogging for money 80 How Do I Start a Blog for Profit? A blog is actually an online journal of sorts. With a blog you can upload daily posts about anything that you want.

Some people create personal blogs as a way to keep in touch with family members. Pictures, videos and other information are uploaded so your loved ones are current with what is going on with you.

Business Blogs A business blog is a blog that you begin to attract traffic to in order to sell products or services. To be interesting to others, your blog will need to:

Have frequently updated content for visitors
Be marketed to draw traffic
Register with search engines so it can be found in the rankings

How to Start

If you are new to blogging you might consider starting out using a free blogging platform to get your feet wet. Sites like Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Blogspot.com and others offer free blogs to users.

Depending on the site you choose, the themes and plug-ins (added features) will vary. Most will walk you through the process step by step so that you can be up and running in no time.

Before you start posting, decide what will be the theme, or niche of your blog.

A jack-of-all-trades type of blog doesn't do as well as one that is geared towards a certain niche. If you like crafts, that can be your niche. Create posts that talk about how to craft, what to craft, how to make crafting profitable and so on.

A second blogging option beyond the free one just mentioned above is to do what is called a self-hosted WordPress blog. That is what this blog, Idea Jolt Marketing is based on.

The advantages to self-hosted blog are numerous.

1.) You have more control over your blog

Google owns Blogspot for instance, and could wipe your Blogspot account off the map on a whim.

With a self-hosted blog your own the domain name. This is very important for branding purposes.

2.) Better search engine optimization choices

Free blogs don't provide the SEO horsepower that WordPress does in the form of search engine type plugins.

3.) More choices for themes and templates

The amount of themes and plugins provided in the WordPress.org marketplace is mind boggling.

4.) The ability to sell your blog

Go ahead and try to sell your free blog. Can't be done, at least not to my knowledge. Not a problem with self-hosted blogs.

There are more advantages to self-hosted over free blogs than those listed here but I think you get the picture.

How to Make Money

In order to make money with your blog, you need to have people visiting it. That is where marketing comes in. to draw traffic you have to get the word out about your blog. Tell all of your friends and family members that you are online with your blog for a start.

Any money-making venture will take place once you have built your readership with interesting posts. Then you can put into play a number of profitable additions:

Google AdSense
Selling Advertising
Affiliate Marketing
Ebook Marketing

The simplest one to pursue is Google AdSense. You are using targeted advertisements to create revenue for your blog. You are paid per clicks on the ads.

There are other options where you can get paid when someone makes a sale on that website. That is more likely to happen when you join an affiliate program. Join affiliate programs that are related to and work well with your website niche.

Ebooks are short downloadable electronic books that you can create yourself and sell on your website. They can be on a variety of subjects but in order for them to sell, you must be able to offer new information to your customers.

Blogs can be used to build revenue. Start with your chosen niche and market your blog to find the traffic you need. Then, utilize these ideas to turn a profit.

To Your Online Success,

Mark Hanson

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BLOGGER'S PAYCHECK

For helpful information about starting a profitable blog check out John Yeo's -

"Blogger's Paycheck"

The information in this course is geared towards beginner bloggers.