Web Development

I’ve been writing this blog since 2007. For the first couple of years, I blogged because I enjoyed sharing insight rather than to make money. Over the last few years, it’s turned into a relatively decent business as a result of having advertisers. If it wasn’t for the advertising revenue, I would be doing other things to generate an income since time=money. In this post, I want to share information about how you can make money with a blog.

I am sure something like this has been shared many times before, but I wanted to offer some personal insight into how to earn money from a blog. Some of these tips seem pretty simple, but like almost everything else, they require work. Perhaps you can make money with a blog and earn a living doing something you love.

I don’t think I would start a blog today with the hopes of making a living from it, and perhaps that is the key to making money from blogging. However, if you are passionate about a topic, perhaps you can turn a hobby into a living by monetizing a blog.

Some tips to make money with a blog:

Step 1:

• Choose a topic you are passionate and knowledgable about (expert level if possible)
• Write articles about various topics related to the main topic of the blog
• Don’t simply post news or press releases – actually write interesting articles
• Get to know other people in that field and discuss the topic with them so they get to know you better
• Do business with potential advertisers
• Link to other sources in the field with your articles and comment on other blogs, sites, forums…etc so people get to know you.
• If necessary, advertise your website on other websites to grow your readership
• Build a measurable audience (get traffic)
• Encourage feedback from readers and interact with audience when they comment
• Use social media to grow your audience
• Be honest and open with readers so they get to know you and respect your opinion on topics, whether they agree with you or not

Step 2:

• See who is advertising in the field and get to know them personally if possible
• Open up ad space on your site and offer competitive rates
• Meet industry leaders who sell products or services in your field and offer your ad space (discount it if necessary)
• Continue writing good content while interacting with people who have an interest in the topic

Step 3:

• Sell all of your ad space, even if it means it’s discounted
• Create a waiting list of advertisers
• Increase prices to a point where there is value for advertisers and demand for space
• Continue writing good content regularly

Finally, I wanted to offer some resources that may help you make money with a blog:

• John Chow
• Pro Blogger
• Heidi Cohen

There is a considerable level of trust required when working with web developers, people who do data entry for you, and others who are working on your websites or representing your business in other ways. After working with people for a period of time, we tend to trust them with important tasks, but we should always verify their work.

A few months ago, I hired a company via Elance to do data entry for one of my websites. I manually approved each of the 100 or so entries that were added, and the company did a fine job of adding this information accurately, and without stealing content from elsewhere. I was very satisfied with the work.

A few weeks ago, I hired the company again for another similar project. The work was done quickly as before, and I paid them right away, trusting that the job was done as it had been done before. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Many (maybe all) of the entries contain content that was lifted directly from other sites – some even competitors. Because of this, I can’t trust that any of the information is accurate.

It was a big error, but I am also to blame because I should have verified before releasing payment.

When you hire someone to work on your websites, sell your domain names, or do other work for your business, they are representing your interests. People who visit your websites or do business with your employees will assume you either posted the content or approve of how you are being represented, and when you don’t verify that it’s done correctly, you can end up looking bad or may even get sued depending on the issue.

It’s important that you trust the people working for you. However, you should always do what you can to verify that their work is representative of your business and what you are expecting.