How can a blog writer earn?
There's no stopping a passionate blog writer from earning his monies. Once he has established a loyal readership, there are numerous ways to earn money through blogging, like displaying ads on the blog, affiliate programs, links to other blogs, selling or endorsing products, getting subscriptions and finally if the blog is a hit, selling ( flipping in net lingo !) is a great way for a blog writer to earn.Apr 24, 2007
Given below are many ways that can make a blog writer a rich man or woman!
1. Advertising
- Contextual Advertising - Programs like AdSense and YPN (beta) are very popular with bloggers and are probably the most common income generator today. In short - these programs scan the content of your blog and insert contextually relevant ads (text and image) onto your blog. They are generally simple to use and involve pasting some code into your blog's templates. Payment is on a 'per click' basis (referred to as CPC or 'cost per click' ads). Contextual ads suit blogs that have a particular niche topic, especially if it has some sort of commercial angle (i.e. it has products and services associated with it). They are not so good with 'general' type blogs (ie many topics) and/or political/spiritual blogs.
- Other CPC Advertising - There are a variety of other ad systems that pay on a per click basis which are not contextual in nature. So, you can put any advertiser on your blog.
- Blog Ads - Blogads have become something of an institution when it comes to advertising on blogs. They traditionally have had a focus upon monetizing political blogs but are expanding their focus lately. The beauty of them is that bloggers set their own rates and can accept or reject advertisers that apply to them to be featured on their blogs. These ads put the control of what ads show and how much they earn into the hands of the blog writer. The downside is that if you price them too high you could never have any ads showing at all.
- Text Ads - Another increasingly popular way to sell ads on your blog is to look into text links. They don't take up much space on your blog and also help you earn some cash.
2. Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are where you take a commission for referring a reader who purchases a product or service to a company. Probably the most common of these for bloggers is Amazon which has tens of thousands of product and services to be referred to. Link up your readers through the blog and earn.3. Donations and Tip Jars
A very small number of blogs has a history of making good money with these, especially if it is a spirituality, religion based, NGO and social work blog. To be successful with asking for money from readers the blog writer must have a large and loyal readership (and a rich one might help too!).4. Merchandise
Another method that some blog writers use with reasonable effect is to sell T-Shirts, Mugs and Stickers etc with the blog's name, logo and/or taglines on it. This is another idea that will probably only work if you either have a brilliantly designed merchandise range and/or you have a cult-like status as a blogger with some fanatical readers who are a little obsessive about your blog. But it sure has the potential to work.5. Selling Subscriptions
The idea of charging readers for content is one that surfaces from time to time. While there are numerous websites around the web that do this successfully (community membership sites) blogs haven't done it well as most blogs are freely available. It only works when the blog writer can give premium/exclusive content and/or has real expertise on a topic.6. Blog Networks
Another emerging income source for blog writers is blog networks you join a blog network as a writer and get paid for each post.7. Business Blogging or Ghost writing for blogs
Similarly there are some businesses who employ people to blog for them either as their main role or part of their role. Bloggerjobs is one site worth following if you're looking for these types of jobs. Most of the jobs there are from blog networks but occasionally they include businesses looking for bloggers also.8. Offline Writing Gigs
As an ace blog writer you can be picked up by newspapers, magazines, trade publications, etc for writing opportunities.9. Consulting
If your blog clicks and you are perceived as an expert on a topic you will find that people naturally come to you for advice - some of them are even willing to pay for it.10. Speaking Opportunities
Once again this is dependent upon the topic you're writing about but some lucky bloggers end up with all kinds of opportunities to speak at conferences, workshops and seminars on their topic of choice and get paid for it.And lastly,Flipping - The idea of selling (or flipping) your blog is one that many bloggers have in the back of their minds for 'one day' but in reality it is not something that is overly common...yet things are changing. Probably the largest sale is that of Weblogs Inc (a network of blogs) which sold to AOL in 2006.
So, if you are keen on writing and can sustain the interest of your readers, blog writing is waiting for you and what's best you can make a career as a blog writer. The only catch is - you better be good at what you write!

