by Author Name Withheld 135

Created on: October 09, 2009

Wordpress is a particularly popular blogging platform, largely due to ease of usage and flexibility. Whether you host your own Wordpress blog or you have a free account on wordpress.com, you are able to turn those views and clicks into money. This is particularly good news for those whose content attracts a high number of readers.

Even if you only blog for fun, those extra pennies will undoubtedly come in handy. In fact, it is those who blog for fun, as opposed to profit, whose content seems to be the most popular. Perhaps when the pressure of earning from your writing is removed, the writing has a more natural feel to it. Who knows?

I'll discuss here a few ways you can earn from your Wordpress blog. Of course, this list is far from exhaustive, but will deal with the main ones.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense places advertisements related to the subject matter of your content in spots on your blog allocated by you. You are then paid for every click on the links from your page. It's pretty simple to get going with Adsense, but do not expect to make anything more than a few cents here and there unless you have a particularly popular blog. You can sign up for Adsense by going to http://adsense.com/ and once you have signed up, you will find an option for the HTML code you will need to install Adsense on your blog. Copy that and paste it into a text widget in one of your sidebars and you are all ready to go. Google AdSense pays into your bank account or by cheque and your identity will be meticulously verified when using it. There is no PayPal payment option (as yet).

Affiliate Marketing

One of the most popular affiliate programs is Amazon Associates, whereby you create links to their products and earn a proportion of the revenue they take from people clicking on those links. As a new user, you will start by earning 5% and as your commissions increase, your revenue does too. The most you can earn is 10% of each sale. Interestingly, you have the option of being paid either in cash or Amazon Vouchers. You can sign up for Amazon Associates here: http://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk

However popular Amazon Associates is, it is by no means the only affiliate option. Websites such as www.clickbank.com represent a number of companies and will enable you earn varying amounts from referring sales to these companies. This is another one worth signing up for.

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Banners

If you have a particularly popular blog, you may be able to sell banner advertising or other advertising space on your blog directly to companies or other websites looking to increase their traffic. This is really only likely if you do have a particularly well known blog with extremely high quality content.

Reviews and Write Ups

A number of companies, particularly smaller internet only ones, approach well known bloggers and offer to pay them for an entire blog post about their product, site or service. Now, depending on your blog content type and your morals, you might feel a bit unsure about this. If you blog is a trusted source of unbiased reviews, for example, to take payment for a positive review certainly undermines what the content of the blog should be about. As such, this is one you will seriously have to consider.

As I said, these are just a few of many ways out there to make money from your blog. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who earn money by blogging and, with some dedication and commitment, you could be one of them.

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