Of course, quite a few people who start a blog are not thinking about using it to make an income, many blogs are started for events such as weddings and holidays, but the chances are that if you are on my blog, looking for a job over 50, then you are looking for ways to get a job, or start a business or just make some money from home, and if so, maybe you have thought about blogging.
Many people would have understandable doubts but there are ways to make money from a blog, and some blogs do very well indeed.
There are differing views on whether or not a blogger should monetize their blog right from the beginning, or not do so and build up a strong readership base first. I personally think it does not matter which decision you make about your blog. Many readers, especially if they know you personally are going to know that you need to make some money, it may seem intrusive to others reading your blog for the first time when they do not know you, but the etiquette in blogging is to interact with your readers and respond to comments and to also interact with other bloggers , this builds up your readership and if you are blogging and blogging well on a popular niche then selling products and services related to your topic on your blog will quite likely do no harm and even a lot of good .
http://www.sparringmind.com/successful-blogs/
https://fizzle.co/sparkline/81-blog-topic-ideas
http://www.tropicalmba.com/101-monetizable-blog-topics/
However, as in all things moderation is the key, remember a blog is primarily to be read rather than being a shop, so don’t make the advertising too intrusive. I admit I have a lot of advertising space in use on my blog, but I do need to maximise the earning potential and also I had a large readership before I increased the advertising space being used. It seems to work for my blog but you may need to experiment with what works best for the layout of your own blog.
Pay Per Click Ads
 |
| http://www.infolinks.com/join-us?aid=1701335 |
Many bloggers setting out to make money on their blog start with and like pay per click ads, such as infolinks . Such schemes are often easier to get accepted for than the more well-known and very popular AdSense. My blog was accepted for Adsense but no ads ever appeared and so I gave it up to maximize my advertising space for infolinks and other schemes instead. Pay per click ads show links and a short description of the advertiser and are matched up to your sites niche. I warn you, it is slow and you will not earn much to begin with at all, as you have to have a lot of page views and ad clicks and the pay is worked out per ad as something like a percentage amount of the total clicks that ad has got, or this is kind of how I understand it …. anyone wishing to have a chance to guest blog for me on pay per click is very welcome, indeed I am happy to consider all requests to guest blog for me. Some site owners have claimed to be very successful with this method of monetizing a blog or website.
Sell Advertisements
Selling your own advertising space on your blog or website can be a great way to make money, but you do need a lot of traffic (visitors) for this to be successful. After all, nobody will pay you to advertise on your site unless they have a good chance of getting business from you. There are various ways that you can sell advertising, including text links, banner ads and mentions in a newsletter. If you are not yet ready for selling your own advertising spaces, then instead sign up to paid or sponsored blogging programmes. Here are some suggestions, I have used all of the updates to this link as they have some differences ….
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-that-pays-you-to-blog/
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-to-get-paid-blogging/
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-pay-writing-blogging/
Affiliate Programmes
There are affiliate schemes for everything under the sun from airlines and travel agents to London Zoo!! And you can post affiliate links selling products and services relevant to your site. For example, I have a jobs board on my blog from Work Circle and am exploring other career related affiliate programmes .
Another very successful way to place affiliate links on your site is via the Amazon scheme where you can place on your site links and widgets for all kinds of products relevant to your niche.
Promote yourself and your business
Remember that while you are writing, as long as you are getting your work out there and seen, you are making a name for yourself as a writer and hopefully an expert in your chosen field. Google promote your blog free, blog promotion sites, how to promote a blog post on twitter, blog post promotion checklist, how to promote blog content and promote blog on Facebook and the more you are seen, the more chance there is that you may be asked to write for others, or indeed can use your site as a portfolio of your work to apply for paid writing jobs
If you work steadily and regularly at publishing good content and building up your readership, there is no reason why you cannot make money with your blog or website.
Valerie Hedges
