Earn Money by Blogging - What You Need and How to Do It

Blogging is hot these days and everyone knows it. What everyone doesn't know is how to change their blog from a hobby into a profession. In this article you'll learn what it takes to create a successful blog that will keep bringing in a steady revenue stream for you month after month.

For the purposes of this article I'll assume you already have a blog up and running, either on a free host site like Blogger or on your own web space. If you don't already have a blog, head over to Blogger and sign up. You can also download Wordpress from Wordpress.org and install it on your own web space. Some hosting companies already have Wordpress all set up and ready to install with just a few clicks so you may not even have to download it.

So, you've got a blog and you're wondering what to do now. Or maybe you have a blog and have some idea what needs to be done to monetize it but you're not sure exactly where to start. Well, first, if you don't already have it you're going to need traffic. More traffic isn't necessarily better. What you want isn't massive hits to your site, though that's always nice for an ego boost. The thing you're looking for is targeted traffic--traffic that is interested specifically in what you have to say rather than a random visitor from the web who has never even heard of the topic you're writing about. There are a few ways to get the targeted traffic you're looking for and we'll start out with the easiest: commenting.

Commenting on other blogger's blogs will allow you to draw some of their readers to your site. If they like what they see, it's a good bet they'll be back to read more of your blog so it's important that you're commenting in blogs that are in the same niche as your own. If you run a blog on automotive widgets then you certainly don't want to be trying to attract traffic from blogs about knitting. When commenting, try to leave a comment that is meaningful and shows that you actually read what was written; don't just post "Nice blog." and expect anyone to come and read yours.

Another way to get traffic to your site is through signatures in forum posts. If you're already a member of one or more fourms in your blog's niche then all you have to do is add your blog's URL to your forum signature and make some posts. Once again, don't spam, make meaningful on topic posts in the forum and the traffic will come. The other forum members will see that you know what you're talking about and they'll eventually see your link and come to see what else you have to say.

Now you have a blog and you're getting some targeted traffic, what do you do now? Now you monetize it. AdSense is by far the easiest way to do this and, depending on your blog's topic and traffic, this can be quite lucrative. If you don't already have an AdSense account, head over to google.com/adsense and sign up. They'll look your blog over and within 24-48 hours they'll accept you as long as your blog isn't adult in nature, full of hate speech or illegal in some way. Once you're approved, sign into your AdSense account and choose the type of ad you want to display (banner, square, etc) and the AdSense website will generate the code for you. Copy the code and insert it on your website where you want the ad to appear and you're good to go.

Assuming you're getting targeted traffic that is interested in your topic it shouldn't be long before you begin to see money showing up in your AdSense account. If you follow these simple guidelines to get targeted traffic to your blog and AdSense to monetize it you'll be making a tidy sum of cash in no time.