How To Make Money Blogging

Do you want to make money blogging? The best piece of advice I can give you is not to jump in with both feet and expect to be making a six-figure salary by next month from your blog. Your primary goal with starting a blog is to do research, more research, and then even more research, before even registering a domain name.

If 'making money' is on your list of top five things you'd like to achieve from your blog then you may like to consider the following 3 possibilities. It's a good idea to choose one as your primary source of monetisation. If you've already got a blog and aren't making money blogging, well, you'll probably be limited to choosing one of the below options not because you want to (because it's the only lucrative opportunity for your blog topic)
Blogging Money - Choose Your Topic

Make a list of topics that you would consider blogging about. Condense each idea into a one or two word topic area. If you already have a blog, then simply consider how you can condense everything you write about into one key category, then write down that category is.

Next, consider your opportunities by looking at all free options below. You'll want to choose the topic you are most passionate about, while making sure that your topic also has the best opportunities from each money-making option below out of all the topics on your list.

If you're already running a blog but you are not making any money (or not enough), then you may want to re-evaluate which monetisation opportunities you're using.
Option 1 - "Google AdSense"

Many 'make money blogging' gurus simply tell you to use "Google AdSense" to monetize your blog. That's all well and good, if your topic is profitable for Google advertisers, and if your visitors are actually taking notice of the ads at all. If they're not, you'll be wasting your time.

One of the best ways to discover how much "Google" is paying for advertisements placed on your topic his to use the "Google Keyword Tool". You'll notice that some of the topics on your list may be returning results of $2-3, or even $6-8 and higher, while others only 20-30 cents. Generally speaking, anything above $3 is pretty good. If your topic is going to be earning you much however, you might like to consider other money making options.

Option 2 - Referral Programs

If your topic isn't going to be a big money maker with Google AdSense, then you may consider making your primary blogging income source 'referral programs'. Unlike advertising, you'll actually have to use referral programs on your blog that you recommend to your readers. Therefore it is a much more personal process, and you have much greater control over what appears on your blog.

Find out whether there are any effective products or services around your topic area that you can promote using their referral program. You can do this by searching referral program databases like clickbank and commission Junction. You will need to evaluate programs based on how well they fit the content of your blog -- for example a blogger writing about why everyone needs an Xbox360 who advertisers an Xbox on his sidebar is likely to make more money than placing a PlayStation 3 advertisement on his sidebar.

The referral programs you sign up for also need to be lucrative, allowing you to make money blogging. Some referral programs will pay you $300 and above per referred sale, while others only 20-30 cents per referred sale. If you're going to choose a referral program with a relatively low payment, you will have to work at maximising your blogging traffic to drive up the quantity of referrals.
Option 3 - Selling Coaching or an E-Book

Most successful bloggers are experts in their chosen topic area. This makes it easy for them to offer private coaching in that area to their blog visitors. If you've found the above two areas yield few potential opportunities for your topic area then you may like to offer online consulting or sell your own e-book. This usually requires a little bit more in terms of marketing skills, such as knowledge of how to set up your own mailing list, pre-selling, and promoting your products and services in the blog-o-sphere.