Making More Money From Blogging

Good afternoon everyone, writing this post a bit late because I had a really late night and ended up waking up around 2:50pm.  I'm writing this post as my own "definitive" guide at creating a generous income from blogging.  Although again, I don't claim to be a huge expert yet on the topic, I believe I can give some very useful tips that have helped me along the way, and I hope you can apply them to your blog.  I noticed I did not really get as much interest from my last blog post since there was not many direct benefits that you, the reader could apply.

I highly recommend downloading the free e-book, BBBFinalCourse (Bonafide Blogging Bucks) it has a tonne of useful information that any blogger will find highly useful.  This guide is intended for people who have already been blogging for a few weeks and are frustrated that they are not making as much income as they should for their hard work, hope this helps and you improve your blog.  If you have any additional tips, please share them with everyone too!

Step 1: Blog About Something People Care About, Make it Stand Out, and don't "overwork"

This should seem fairly obvious, but I am noticing that there are a lot of blogs that are basically mirror images or each other even though the content may be a little bit different.  Try to write in a unique style that sets you apart from other similar blog, or else you become easily forgettable and thus lose you money.

Many people can blog, but not many people can blog properly, and efficiently.  Blog writing should be intuitive to the reader, they don't want to spend that much time reading your posts if there is no direct benefit to them.

Overworking on a blog is another huge mistake for bloggers. (in my opinion)  Some bloggers spend a lot of time thinking of what they are going to write about, and then another few hours writing a long and boring blog post.  Make sure to PLAN ahead of time what you are going to write about and save them as drafts on your blog so you can go back and check on them.  Use the internet or the library to gather information, make sure you are getting your information from credible sources or your readers may start to question the legitimacy of your posts.

Tip: Try to get your readers engaged in the topic, get feedback on your posts, and always reply to every single question or comment

Step 2: Becoming Web-Savvy & Improving Your Layout

This is my main goal right now and the one I believe to be the most crucial to improving your chances at blogging success.  What do I mean by Web-Savvy?

" What do I mean by web savvy?  You don’t need to be a programmer, but you need a decent functional understanding of a variety of web technologies.  What technologies are “key” will depend on the nature of your blog and your means of monetization.  But generally speaking I’d list these elements as significant:

• blog publishing software
• HTML/CSS
• blog comments (and comment spam)
• RSS/syndication
• feed aggregators
• pings
• trackbacks
• full vs. partial feeds
• blog carnivals (for kick-starting your blog’s traffic)
• search engines
• search engine optimization (SEO)
• page rank
• social bookmarking
• tagging
• contextual advertising
• affiliate programs
• traffic statistics
• email

Optional:  podcasting, instant messaging, PHP or other web scripting languages. "

source: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to-make-money-from-your-blog/

There are some other things that are missing from the list but understanding these basic terms will allow you to take your blog to the next level.  This is the type of knowledge that separates the winners from the losers, and believe me, after roughly two weeks of blogging, I can already tell that at least 85% of bloggers will quit within their first month, it does some hard work and learning, but the benefits also be quite staggering.

Basically, your blog is a business, improving your layout by understand the rules will only help make your blog even better, do not neglect it and if anything, find a friend that can help you out and give you some suggestions.  There are also a tonne of useful guides out there that can help you if you are confused.

Step 3: Traffic, Traffic, Traffic, Traffic, Traffic, Traffic, Traffic.... and Traffic

Yes, traffic.  It is the single most important thing for any blogger who is serious about making some money from their hard work.  Your income is directly linked to how much traffic you receive on your website, and if you currently have around 10,000 views a month, and are making roughly 500$, imagine if you had 100,000 or even a million views.  Intrigued yet?  Also, if your blogging without adsense, make to to get it for your content and if you have a domain, for that too.

For times sake, I will leave a link here that will give you a very good idea on how to accomplish this feat.  I highly reccomend it for anyone serious about making more money from blogging.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-web-site-or-blog/

Step 4: Have Fun!  Show Character in Your Post, and Good Things Will Follow

Without this step, you might as well give up now.  Blogging should be a fun, a hobby that could be your job, but a hobby nonetheless.  If you are waking up thinking "God, this is awful, I need to write a blog post, it's already been two days..." Then you probably shouldn't be blogging in the first place.

I enjoy blogging, and even though I am fairly new and newbish at times, I put a lot of effort into writing these posts and still have fun at the same time.  It is important to have pride as a blogger, and not to take things too seriously.  

If anything, write a blog that genuinely benefit your reader, and they will always give you positive feedback and perhaps advice that could improve your blog.  We are still all human beings and being on the internet does not change that fact.  Remember that you are writing for your peers, and not a mindless robot spewing out information from your backside.

Final Words:

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting my three blogs during the last two weeks, your comments mean a lot to me and I am in the process of learning on how to take it to the next level.  Any tips and advice would be welcome, and feel free to post your own "steps" as a comment for other readers to view.

If you haven't already, check out my other two blogs:

Random Awesome Blog

Principles of Power

The Random Awesome blog was my first blog I started on my birthday, and has already made me a decent sum of money.

The important thing to remember is that traffic is more important than income and you should ALWAYS work on improving that first, or else your income will remain stagnant.

Hope you guys found this post enlightening,

Happy blogging!

P.S. If you like what you see here, please share with your friends who are interested, and recommend my blog to others, I would appreciate it immensely, thank you.