by Henry Case

Created on: June 10, 2009

People blog for a million different reasons. Some want an outlet for their political opinions, others want to share the details of their life for the world to see, and yet others just want to make some money.

If you have decided to monetize your little Wordpress-powered corner of the web, the next step is to figure out how to do it. The first, and possibly most lucrative, avenue of monetization to consider for a blog is adding Google AdWords. Google has built a billion-dollar enterprise by serving short, targeted ads based on the content of the webpage and sharing the ad revenue with the webmasters. No matter what kind of blog you write, Google will automatically find ads to fit your target audience and integrate them nicely into your website. A step-by-step description about adding Google AdWords to a Wordpress blog can be found at the end of this article.

Another money-making opportunity for Wordpress blogs are affiliate programs run by websites such as Amazon.com. Since most blogs serve a targeted audience, it is easy to figure out the kinds of books and products they might be interested. Amazon's affiliate program, called Amazon Associates, allows you to make a widget displaying products you select from Amazon and embed it into a sidebar on your Wordpress blog. A blog about gardening, for example, could be monetized by having Amazon Affiliate links to the blog author's favorite gardening books. You can sign up for Amazon Associates by visiting https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

CafePress is another option for bloggers looking to make some easy money. CafePress allows you to create customizes products such a t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and a million other things. Sign up for a free CafePress account, create some customized products, and then use this plugin to display your wares on Wordpress: http://www.prestogifto.com/plugin-wp

Adding Google AdWords to a Wordpress Blog

Blogger, one of the other popular blogging platforms, is owned by Google and thus has an integrated AdWords option. But users of Wordpress can easily put Adwords ads on their blog, too. Follow the four steps below to monetize your Wordpress blog by adding Google AdWords.

Step 1: Log into your Google AdSense account (or register for a new one) and click on the "AdSense Setup" tab. Click on "AdSense for Content" and select the type of AdSense ad you want to appear on your blog. You can play with the size and colors of the ad unit. Don't worry; it's easy to create different ad units if you want to change it later on.

Step 2: Once you are done with the Google AdSense wizard you will get the HTML code for the AdSense unit you just created. Click on the text box containing the code and copy it.

Step 3: Log into your WordPress Dashboard and select the Widgets option from the "Appearance" tab on the left menu bar. Add a text widget to your blog. Depending on your theme, you will be able to select in which sidebar, header, or footer the text widget will go.

Step 4: Paste the Google AdSense Code into your newly created text widget on your WordPress blog and click "Done" and then "Save Changes". You now have added a Google Adsense unit and can repeat the process if you wish to add more units in different places of your blog.

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