Sunday, September 25, 2011

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

There are two major types of business models that entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first
and most common way to turn a blog into a profit making machine is to sell advertising to different
companies and brands who want to reach that blog's readers. The second kind of money making blog is one
that helps a single brand improve its image by creating positive associations between the blog and the product
in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen
mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising, there are two basic ways that you can go about
recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site; you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you
can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue. Within the first group, many people make money
blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense program. The advantages of this program are numerous,
as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most people discover that they make less money through this method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route.

People who have a strong background in sales and are experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit
of money by renting blog space to interested companies.The most serious problem with this model is that you
often have to build quite a sizable readership before you can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to do several months of work before you start to make money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative business, a lot of established companies are considering
how they can get into the action. One way that companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by
having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for their corporation. Often, a company will employ an
established blogger to create a weblog designed specifically to appeal to that company's customers and
to create positive associations with the brand in consumers' minds. More than one writer who never
even dreamed that he or she could make money blogging has been approached by a company and
offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.  

Using A Free Blogging Web Site

For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular
blogging web sites like blogger and eponym allow users to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all. This encourages people to start blogging, because the fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of the tools that you need to get your blog up and running without spending any money means that you have
nothing to lose by starting a blog. The fact that it is so easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons
why so many people who have never had any other kind of web presence before find themselves drawn to
blogging.

By signing up with a free blogging web site, you may find it easier to get listed in search engines that you
would if you were starting your own blog from scratch. For example, google runs the free blog hosting site
blogspot and crawls its pages very often looking for updates, so if you have your site hosted by blogspot you
are almost guaranteed to be listed on google's blog search engine. This easy access to search engines can
take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and can help you gain a following with a minimum of
marketing effort.

If your blog attracts a large readership, you may want to consider moving your site. Many people feel that being hosted by a free blogging web site gives a blog a kind of amateur flavor that is fine for a new member of the blogosphere, but is not appropriate for a high-profile blog. Having your own domain can help you make your blog feel professional, and finding a company that will host your domain is not difficult or expensive. Once your blog takes off, you will probably be able to sell enough advertising space to be able to afford to buy a domain and pay for a hosting package, and still have money left over. However, it does not make sense in most cases to invest in these glossy luxuries before you have a sizable readership.

Starting your blog on a free blogging web site is a great way to build a following before you spend any money
on your blog. If and when your blog becomes popular and you are ready to take the next step and purchase
your own domain, your readers will follow you to your new home. The fact that it is possible to use a free blog host like blogspost, blogger, or eponym as a kind of incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers
everywhere.

The Definition of Blogging

The definition of blogging is something that is very much in flux, as the new technologies that appear every
day redefine what a blog is, what a blog can be, and what a blog should do. For many years, blogs were
defined as text-based websites that kept records of days, similar to a captain's log on a sailing ship. However,
this started to change as the group of people who kept blogs became more diverse. The more bloggers began
to explore the limits of the medium and of the technology that made it possible, the more the
boundaries of what could be called a "blog" expanded.
             
Today, there are an abundance of photo blogs, and there are even video blogs as well. Mobile blogging devices may well change the definition of blogging entirely by making it possible for bloggers to create new kinds of posts. Another element of the blogosphere that is starting to redefine blogging is the corporate blog. As more companies hire writers to keep blogs with the sole purpose of creating positive buzz about their brand, bloggers across the globe are arguing about whether these manufactured blogs are really worthy of the name.Between all of these different forces that are constantly expanding and reshaping the blogosphere, it is difficult to imagine that the definition of what is and is not a blog will ever remain fixed for very long.