by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: February 06, 2009

Most people think of blogging as a hobby. It is a way of sharing their thoughts and their interests with friends and with the online community at large. Making money from the practise is not something that ever enters their heads. Blogging is a form of communication and of relaxation.

There are, however, an ever increasing number of serial bloggers and professional bloggers. These are people who have not only mastered the art of creating "sticky" blogs but of monetising them to an extent to which they are capable of generating a significant amount of revenue. So how do they do it? What are the secrets, the tricks of the trade, that allow these small few bloggers to actually make a career out of blogging? Luck of course plays a part in it but the knowledge of how to target a market, or "niche," is far more important.

We all have something which interests us. It may be stamp collecting, some type of arts and crafts, reading the books of a favourite author, or any one of thousands of other things. In order to look at making a career out of blogging we therefore need to blog on one of these subjects that interests us so much and market our blog to those who share our passion.

The first step is to get our blog up and running. I always recommend Google's free blog hosting site, Blogger, to beginners. It is easy to use and it is possible to tour the site from the home page before we even get started. Do so and pick up some valuable practical tips. We then set up our blog and make our first post. It is vitally important that we continue to add valuable posts of fresh information on an extremely regular basis. For this reason, don't make the posts too long and risk running out of fresh material.

We then have to sign up for a Google AdSense account and add it as instructed to our blog. This facilitates our earning pay per click revenue from the ads which Google will display on our blog. We also want to sign up for such as Amazon and eBay affiliate ID's that we may sell their products on our blog. Cafepress and Clickbank are another worthwhile couple of affiliate companies you may find worthwhile taking a look at.

We have to include relevant outward links on our blog to other sites that our visitors may find to be of interest. Readers will find this a valuable service and the search engines too look favourably upon this practise.

Obtaining inbound links is even more important. Join all the big social networking and bookmarking sites and add a link to your blog. Mention your blog in any chatrooms you visit and encourage friends and associates to come and take a look. Leave comments on similar blogs and perhaps their authors and even some visitors will come and take a look at your blog. Think up as many ways as you can of letting the world know about your blog and the information which you provide through it.

I remember once reading about a blogger who made substantial income through blogging about what he had for breakfast each morning. He had simply been fortunate enough to pick up on a popular topic and monetise a blog on it successfully. What can you write about in such a way?

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