subject: Blogging For Money - Can You Really Blog All the Way to the Bank? [print this page] Blogging For Money - Can You Really Blog All the Way to the Bank?
Blogging for money sounds like an ideal way to make a living. You type stuff, people read what you write, they click on adverts and you get paid cash. Which, in a nutshell, is what can happen but as you may have guessed you need to do a little bit more than that in order to really cash in on your blog. Here's some help with that.
Choose your subject carefully.
Whilst you may be fascinated by the habits of the silk worm, unless other people are prepared to invest in their silk worm hobby, you're probably going to be blogging more for fame than fortune. That's not to say you can't earn from obscure topics, just that it's a lot easier to earn cash if there's already a proven demand. Use keyword research tools such as the free one supplied by Google to work out how many searches a month are being done for your main term. Anything less than a few thousand should give you cause for concern. Anything too high should also worry you as you'll likely be just one very small fish in a giant ocean - better to narrow down your choice a bit than to never be found.
Are people spending money?
If you're to stand any chance of succeeding with blogging for money, you need to be in a market where people are prepared to open their wallets and spend money. That way you can qualify for a small slice of their spending by carefully placed adverts or affiliate links that mark you as the introducer to the sale and qualify you for a commission because of that. If your chosen market doesn't spend money, that's bad news as you won't be able to get commission on non-existant purchases. A quick check on Amazon is an easy way - if there are books and DVDs on your chosen subject then there's a good chance there's money to be made.
Is it easy enough to write about?
If you're going to blog on something that's of interest to you, chances are that you'll find it easy to write about it on a regular basis. If the topic seems more like labour than love, double think before going into that market. Do you really care enough about the possible cash to be able to write regular, interesting, things? Or will your underlying hatred of the subject come out in writing and put your visitors off.
