by Marie Bywater

Created on: December 08, 2010   Last Updated: December 13, 2010

Nowadays more and more people are reaching out to the Internet for ways to make extra money. Blogging is one way that people can make an income online. Earning money with a blog is very possible provided some hard and fast rules are followed.  The following tips will help those interested in earning money with a blog.  

One of the toughest parts of earning money with a blog is selecting a niche.  The niche selected should be a topic of interest to ensure that the blog is frequently updated with relevant and interesting content.  Starting a blog with little knowledge or interest of the niche often leads to the blog being abandoned and therefore results in very little earnings.  A personal blog is also unlikely to do well when it comes to selling affiliate products and making money from Google Adsense.

After the blog niche has been decided it is time to select a blogging platform.  There are many free blogging platforms to host a blog including blogger and wordpress.  These sites also provide free domain names and are ideal for beginners.   A domain name should be selected based on the niche of the blog.  This domain name should contain at least one of the main keywords from the niche.  Keywords can be selected by using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, which displays the average number of global and local monthly searches for keywords as well as providing an indicator of the competition for each keyword.  The trick is to pick a popular keyword or keywords with very little competition.

Advertising and affiliate products are two ways to generate an income from a blog.  There are many different contextual advertising networks, of which the best known is Google Adsense. Google Adsense ads should be displayed on the blog in different sized banners and link units. There is also the option to add image and video advertising and these may work well with some niches.  Affiliate products related to the blog niche should also be added. The main affiliate networks include Clickbank, Commission Junction and Amazon.

The hardest part and most crucial part of earning money with a blog is getting targeted traffic.  Targeted traffic means visitors who are interested in the blog content. These visitors are more likely to click on contextual advertising and buy affiliate products.  One way to help the blog get found by Google and appear high in search results is by using do follow links. Do follow links from high page rank sites help a blog move up the search engines.  Ezinearticles, Squidoo and Hubpages are high page rank sites which are do follow.

A niche blog which is regularly updated with quality and interesting content will appeal more to readers and encourage a blog following.  More readers provide a greater chance of earning more money from a blog. Time should be taken to select popular keywords and create high page rank back links to ensure that the blog appears on the first page of Google for as many keywords as possible. This will help increase the amount of money earned from a blog through Google Adsense and the sale of affiliate products.  

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