Blogging has evolved from its humble beginnings as a way to communicate with family and friends or as a diary for personal thoughts to a growing profession.  More and more people are turning what was once a simple communication tool to an all out marketing campaign in order to make money online.  Since 2004, blogging has become increasingly mainstream as more corporations, celebrities, and politicians have used this medium to promote their products, services, or themselves.

Not every blogger started out writing blogs to record their personal thoughts.  Some bloggers started blogging to make money, even if they didn’t know how.  There are two main ways to make money blogging.  The first way is to promote or review a service or a product for a company and the second way is to sell advertising space on your blog, such as through Google AdSense. 

Internet marketers are tasked with promoting their company’s products or services and one way to do that is through the use of a blogger’s personal opinion from their blog.  Companies will often pay bloggers to write their opinion about people, products, and services.  Companies can also choose to advertise on blogs that are related to their product or service.  For example, a company that makes tires might advertise on a blog about the current state of the U.S. auto industry.  There are many services available that will allow bloggers to make money blogging.

One service that was previously mentioned is Google AdSense.  Google AdSense is a service that allows you to get paid for displaying targeted Google ads on your site.  As the blogger, you get to choose what types of ads can compete for the advertising slots that you have chosen on your blog.  Advertisers bid on your advertising slots and then you get paid for displaying the ad.  Another service, Smorty, offers bloggers two ways to make money:  1) by publishing pay-per-click advertising on their blog or 2) by writing blogs. 

No matter how much money you are making, you should consider yourself a professional and treat it like a business.  You should track your finances like any other business for tax reporting, operating cost, and business tracking purposes.  If you track your revenues then you can adjust your advertising and publishing strategies so that you can earn more money.  Everyone knows that in order to be successful at selling or promoting anything, you have to make it known to large groups of prospective users/buyers.  You are not going to make a lot of money if there is no internet traffic being driven to your blog.  Driving traffic to your blog is challenging and time-consuming but it is worthwhile if you plan to make money online.  

The bottom line is that if you earn money by blogging, then you are a professional blogger.  Do you make money from your blog?  What is the most profitable way you make money from your blog?  Do you know how to increase the income from your blog?   

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While reading through the various links that came through my GoogleReader page today, I came across this one… and I quote:

“Let’s see if I have this right. Google places links to other people’s web sites on my site and they pay me for each hit. WHY? What’s in it for Google? How does Google know if the hits are coming from me…just to increase my check from them?”

It was then and there that I decided to write this article, so Ralph, here you go buddy!

If you look down the right margin on this page, then again at the bottom (and probably several more locations as well) you’ll see links grouped together with a small tag line at the bottom that says, “Ads by Google”. I have reserved these spaces and use a Google AdSense component to display these links to other people’s web sites. In return for letting them use my screen “real estate” Google pays me a few cents per link clicked. That’s pretty much how AdSense works…in a nutshell. But now the better question of Why? What’s in it for Google?

I have forgotten who said it but I think the quote goes, “If in doubt, follow the money.” Well that certainly applies in this case. Google is in business to make money, right!?! In addition to AdSense, Google has a program called AdWords. People with websites that want people to visit their site (eg, Joe’s Pumpkin Patch) create an account with Google AdWords and bid on certain key words (eg, “pumpkins”). When a website (like mine) mentions that keyword (pumpkins) frequently enough, and has space reserved for AdSense ads, then my site would display an ad for Joe’s Pumpkin Patch. Now, when Joe setup his account with AdWords, he agreed to pay $.05 to Google every time somebody clicked on a link to his Pumpkin Patch website. Google in turn pays a portion of that revenue out to the websites that display the ads. And there you have the magic of Google Advertising!

And finally, Google knows the hits are coming from my site because the link doesn’t go directly to Joe’s Pumpkin Patch, it goes to Google, THEN to Joe’s website.

Now don’t think Google is the only player in this game, or even the first. Yahoo! (and others) were doing it long before the Google search engine even went live. Google has however become the top dog for many, many reasons.

So this non-authoritative, non-comprehensive, (yet lengthy!) post leaves us with a couple of take aways.

First, create a Google AdSense account and get some ads on your website/blog!!! It is FREE and only stands to make you some money. Worst case, it won’t cost you anything and you won’t make anything.

If you have a website to promote, use Google AdWords. There are literally volumes out there on picking the right keywords, how much to pay, etc. Here are a couple of good places to start:

AdWordsHowTos

Besting AdWords
(This site makes EXTENSIVE use of AdSense advertising!)

Earning Thousands With AdWords

And finally, this is just the beginning! There are hundreds of ways to make money off your site/blog. None of them may make you rich by themselves, but as I’ve always said… nickles make dollars! Happy hunting and good luck!!!

-Thom

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If you are/have then here is a great article on maximizing your landing pages by Jon Rognerud. It comes from his blog SEO World.

Enjoy.

- Thom

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Since the beginning of the computer age users have been asking the same question, “Yeah, it’s cool… but what will you do with it?”

The first killer app was a spreadsheet called VisiCalc. It harnessed the power of the PC and made it a useful tool for the everyday business user. With a tool like VisiCalc there was actually a reason to buy a PC.

The Internet has been the same way. Oh, by no means has there been any shortage of killer apps for the Internet. (How about e-mail and web browsing just to name two!) Then, building on web browsing as a platform, we experienced e-Commerce, that multi-billion dollar industry we’re all still trying to tap for our few cents.

Well now there is a new killer app. Many have tried to do hosted applications before but none have been as successful as Google with their new Google Apps! With Google Apps you can now host your own domain, have email, calendar, and shared documents, even your own blog! And the best part is the price… it’s free!

I’m such a big believer in the Google Apps platform that I run my whole Internet existence with it. My domains are now hosted by Google, my email, calendar and documents are all hosted on Google Apps. And as you can see, I’m a big believer in AdSense from Google. More to follow.

-Thom

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$4.11

… but it is a start! So of course I supplied the missing info and now I’m waiting anxiously by the mailbox!

- Thom

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