I really liked this blog post by Ravi Kuwadia and learned from it:
Learn How to Make Money with Blogs
by Ravi Kuwadia
Have you ever wondered how people make money out of blogging? Blogging is a popular pastime, and why wouldn’t it be? It allows its participants to share their thoughts with the world, reaching an audience that’s as wide as you want it to be, and generally very receptive and enthusiastic. But with so many people taking advantages of the benefits of blogging there comes the question of how you can still manage to take advantage of the financial benefits of blogging. The good news is that you can, and the better news is that its easier than you think.
The simplest way to make money from a blog is to have other companies advertising on your blog. Your blog would provide the link to other – often related – sites, and you’d get paid for this. The process of blog advertising is often facilitated by programs like Google Adsense. It’ll be easier to find advertisers for your blog is its related to a certain field of interest: a music blog, for instance, would be the ideal place for concert organizers or the manufacturers of musical equipment to place their advertising. You might not make a lot of money with this method at first, but hey, its all extra cash.
Making money from blog advertising becomes more lucrative when advertising turns to sponsorship. If an advertiser likes your blog, they could offer to sponsor and thus turn it into a great money-making venture for both your sponsor and you. Sometimes, sponsors pay their bloggers per post, and this is a great way to turn blogging into a source of regular income. Many companies also need writers for blogs on their own websites, and in this way you can earn money blogging while keeping your own blog separate. The trend towards sponsorship for blogging just looks set to grow in the future.
A “tip jar” is a great way of making money from blogs once you have yours up and running. If your loyal audience are willing to donate money to you and your blog, this can allow you to keep your blog up and running and perhaps contribute to the bloggers dream of being able to “give up your day job”. Don’t expect to make a large profit from this if yours is a smaller blog, but if you have a big audience or if you just want to earn some extra cash while doing what you love, this could be an option for you.
If you have a real talent for blogging, and you want to really make big money from it, you might want to try blog flipping. This is when you buy a blog from one person or company and sell it to another… But you’ll find that what you do with it in the time in between is what makes all the difference. If you can increase a blogs readership and following dramatically between buying and selling it, you can make a great profit on the sale. Of course, you’ll do even better if you do your research on where to buy and sell.
Some more ways of using your blog to make money are involvement with blog networks, consulting and speaking, and merchandising (selling products related to your blog). The internet offers a vast array of ways to make money online, and to find more related to blogging you just have to look around. Remember that the more time and effort you spend on your blog, the better it’ll be and the more followers you’ll find yourself gaining. The more people are reading your blog, the easier it’ll be to make money from it.
