by Doreen Martel

Created on: November 25, 2010   Last Updated: December 08, 2011

Freelance writers often overlook the unique opportunity to improve their writing income through blogging.  Those who are writing on paid to write sites may find that making money online using blogs is easier than they think.  Remember, your blog can cover anything you feel that you want to share, and something as simple as a portfolio can earn you extra money blogging. For those who are new to blogging, here are some beginner basics for making money online using blogs.

Starting a blog from scratch is hard work. Time and energy investments are necessary components for a successful blog. However, if you are already writing online, you can minimize how much time you have to spend on a blog by using your existing work for your blog. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel for a successful blog.  Here is a step by step guide to making money using your existing work on a blog.

Step 1:  Sign up for affiliate accounts - The first thing you want to do is to make sure that you have an AdSense account set up. AdSense approval does require that you have data available so you may want to start with an account on HubPages, Squidoo or Xomba for quicker approval.  Other programs you may want to consider include Kontera and Amazon.

Step 2: Set up your blog - There is no need to spend money that you do not have to set up a blog. Sign up for a free blogger account and find a template that suits you.  Put in the information for your AdSense, Kontera and Amazon accounts into the "monetize" tab of your dashboard. You will need to email Kontera your blog link to get it approved.

Step 3: Creating content for your blog - You might think that you have to start from scratch to create content for your blog, but this is not necessarily the case.  Take a look at the other work that you have written online on article writing sites.  Writers can use this content in a number of ways to create very effective blog posts. Some of these include:

• Link back to an article - Write up a short introductory paragraph or copy the first paragraph of your existing work and create a blog post that includes the link to your article.

• Create a guide on a topic - If you have several articles about a single topic, create a "guide" that talks about various aspects of the topic and include several links back to several articles. Make sure that each article is unique in how it addresses a topic so that you are not being repetitive.

Step 4: Promote your blog posts - Marketing your blog is essential to getting readers to see your post so that you can earn money.  You should use Twitter, social bookmarking sites and also consider using PingoMatic to promote your blog posts. There are several ways to market your work aggressively to make sure that the maximum possible reader base is reached.

These are a few beginner basics for making money online using blogs.  Those who get started using these simple techniques will find other ways to earn money from their blog as they become more familiar with online writing.  Making money blogging does require time and energy, however, it does not have to mean reinventing the wheel.

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