Making Money through Blogging - Part 1

By: Red Rahman aka the Frontier Freelancer

Before I dive in to the juicy methods available for tech-savvy bloggers to start earning money online, we should first clarify what blogging actually is. Literally, the term blog is simply a contraction of ‘web log.’ Basically they are web-based personal journals written by individuals that are usually updated with new content frequently. Blogs can be about just about anything – from accounting to playing xylophones or from zoo keeping to agricultural economics. The variety of topics covered by blogs (collectively called the ‘blogosphere’) is nearly as vast as the reach of the modern internet itself. In fact, two of the internet’s most active websites being Facebook and Twitter, are in fact ‘micro-blogging’ sites that also have multi-author blog (MAB) systems embedded within. Then of course, there are professional blog outlets like Tumblr, Wordpress and Blogger that are incredibly popular and frequently used and accessed by web denizens.

Blogs are created by different people to serve different purposes. Most blogs on the net are personal blogs that serve as personal spaces for people to provide social commentary, express their opinions, write about personal feelings and events (sort of like a diary) or to simply source content from other blogs or websites. Increasingly, large and small businesses alike have found relevance and profit in establishing their own social networking profiles whether it be a blog, Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Linkedin or YoutTube accounts. Organizations and groups, just like individuals, understand the importance of reaching out and communicating with others whether it be friends, customers or the public at large. All blogs usually have standard elements and generally have textual elements and may also contain images or links.

Now we move on to the meat of the article. So how exactly can you expect to make money from blogging? Lucky for you and me there’s more than one option to start earning cash while writing about stuff that’s fun and interesting to you. Below is a list of popular methods by which you can earn money:

1. Advertising programs - AdSense

By harnessing the strength and scale of Google’s AdSense or lesser known programs like Yahoo’s Chitika, you can start monetizing your blog right away.

Owing to its broad popularity, I will only discuss AdSense in this article. Using Google’s super-powerful and uber-popular Google search engine, Google can place advertisements within your blog based on your site’s content, your audience’s geographical location or other factors. Essentially AdSense is a contextual advertising program whereby Google places ads on your blog related to your subject matter. The ads can include automatic text, images, videos or interactive media advertisements that are carefully targeted to the blog’s site content and viewers. The application of AdSense is usually a default choice for anyone starting a new account on Google’s Blogger site but covers all publisher mediums within the Google Network. The program also provides income through input of a Google search site tool as well as referral tools. The main channel by which revenue is generated is either through a per-click or per-impression basis.

Today, it is the internet’s most popular advertising network for websites - used by around 15% of all websites and controlling over 75% of the total advertising network market (1). For individuals and small businesses, it is an especially crucial means for generating income owing to lack of available funds for developing advertising sales programs or hiring sales staff. There are a variety of means by which webmasters (the owners of a website) can maximize their AdSense revenues. To keep this article brief and relevant to the titular topic, I will cover this important topic in the future.

My next article will focus on the other lesser-known ways to earn money through blogging.

Until then, bon voyage and stay tuned!

(Red Rahman is a business student by day and a frenetic digital copywriter and freelancer by night. He can be reached by Twitter @ReduanRahman)