Making a few pennies from blogging?

[That Guy]

I blog just for fun really but am interested in making a little bit of extra income from it. I have two main things to discuss:

Making Money From Your Blog:

I have researched this a little and have discovered people earn a bit from:

- Affiliate Links
- Product Reviews (not sure how to find products to review)
- Google Adsense
- Targeting USA (bigger population and more disposable income)

What do people think about the above? Is there anything you can think of to add to the list/change?

Gaining Extra Traffic to Your Blog:

Also what tips do you have for getting traffic to your blog? I currently have/do the following:

- Submit Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools
- Submit Posts to Twitter
- Submit Posts to Digg
- SEO Friendly URLs
- Wordpress All-In-One-SEO Plugin

What other things do people do/have to help Earn a little bit of an income and get extra traffic?

 

[DanHarrison]

I do this as my day job now (running a number of websites). To answer question 1, I recommend the following resources:

http://forum.authorityblogger.com/showthread.php?p=20337#post20337
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/ways-to-make-money-online-with-website/

Additionally, you could create a service/product related to your blog that you then sell on your blog.

To answer question 2, I personally:

participate in related forums for the topic of my site (establishing myself as a knowledgeable person in that subject).

write guest articles for other people's blogs in return for a link (called guest blogging).

comment on related blogs, adding useful ideas and comments to the threads of discussion.

I'd be interested to know what your site is/are (via PM if you prefer).

Dan

 

[That Guy]

Thanks for the info. I have a Blog but now thinking the domain is wrong, dark theme etc. So think I will be starting again before I start getting to much traffic (I hope)

Will keep you updated though

 

[Wavecrest Ltd]

Hi - I have three blogs on the go at the moment.

One is related to my day job (shipping, freight forwarding & warehousing) -

http://wavecrestlimited.choseit.com - this main point of this one is to drive traffic through to my main web site and generate enquiries

I also have two other blogs which I write mainly for fun at the moment but who knows one day if the traffic grows they could turn a penny or two as well -

http://lights2flag.blogspot.com - is about motor sports such as F1, touring car racing etc

http://kenttodayandyesterday.blogspot.com - is about events and places in Kent, historical stuff to do with Kent, trivia about Kent (you get the picture!)

At the moment I am following a free course on the Problogger web site (http://www.problogger.net) called 31 days to build a better blog.

If you sign up for this it gives you a tip each day for improving your blog, increasing your traffic etc.

It's quite easy to follow (even for someone like me who know f**k all about IT!)

Glen

 

[That Guy]

Hi - I have three blogs on the go at the moment.

One is related to my day job (shipping, freight forwarding & warehousing) -

http://wavecrestlimited.choseit.com - this main point of this one is to drive traffic through to my main web site and generate enquiries

I also have two other blogs which I write mainly for fun at the moment but who knows one day if the traffic grows they could turn a penny or two as well -

http://lights2flag.blogspot.com - is about motor sports such as F1, touring car racing etc

http://kenttodayandyesterday.blogspot.com - is about events and places in Kent, historical stuff to do with Kent, trivia about Kent (you get the picture!)

At the moment I am following a free course on the Problogger web site (http://www.problogger.net) called 31 days to build a better blog.

If you sign up for this it gives you a tip each day for improving your blog, increasing your traffic etc.

It's quite easy to follow (even for someone like me who know f**k all about IT!)

Glen

Thank you off to sign up

 

[An Oasis]

Making Money From Your Blog:

Done to death.



Look for niche avenues, i.e. can you put together a group of people that could offer translation into say 12 languages? If so, you could probably corner a market for product reviews...say of mass market electrical goods!?!?

That would create a blog that was not easily emulated and you would be first to market (assuming that it’s not already done).

Don’t think mainstream basic ideas as you’ll spend 6 months trying and then give up…go for a non conventional train of thought.