Archive January | The Work At Home Blog

Archive for January, 2010

Get Paid to Blog – 3 Tips for Getting Started

I get paid to blog. In fact, blogging is what started me on my work at home journey. I get paid on my own sites and clients pay me as a ghostblogger or contributing blogger for them as well. I started my first blog in 2003. I didn’t stick with it and didn’t monetise it but in 2006 I launched my first monetised blog and have learned a lot in the last 4 years.

Where have I earned money blogging?

Blogging has paid me in many ways, such as:

paid blog ads
Google Adsense
Amazon
Kontera
Blogging Networks
Client links
Ghostblogging
and more

Today’s post is a kick-off for a new series about getting paid to blog. Some bloggers are earning 6 figures a year at it. I’m not at six figures yet but know I can provide helpful information to newbies who want to learn how to get paid to blog anyway.

Here are some small but important tips to help you get started on your blogging journey:

Pick a topic you can write endlessly about.
Learn about search engine optimisation (SEO, search engine optimization)
Start your own blog

Blog Topics – Your Blog Niche

The topic you write about is something you need to be willing to write endlessly about. Don’t make the mistake of picking a ‘stuff’ topic where you plan to just talk about anything and everything. You can do this, of course, but it isn’t likely to make you money. No one, beyond your immediate friends and family are likely to care about your random musings. Random musings blogs are fine for your soapbox and online diary but really, in 99.9% of cases are not going to be earning an income. Choose something that you know you know something about, that you’re willing to keep learning about, and that people want to read about. Be willing to become an authority on a subject so that you can get subscribers.

Learn SEO

SEO writing is an imperative aspect of blogging. By optimising for search engines (search engine optimisation) you can get found. Again, unless you’re just writing for you…a blog is going to be pointless and penniless if no one finds it. First and foremost, your blog has to be interesting and valuable to others and second…it needs to be indexed by search engines according to categories and keyword phrases that people surf/search for so that those interested in what you’re talking about will be able to find you. By choosing a niche, you make it glaringly obvious to search engines how they should categorise your site. Then, you start getting traffic.

Start Your Own Blog

There are many free blogging platforms. They’re great. I love them. But they aren’t likely to make you nearly as much money as your own blog on your own domain. I use them but not for my primary monetised blogs. Don’t cheap out and try to make money from a Blogspot or WordPress blog. Do use them, especially for link-building but if you’re serious about making money blogging, start your own blog. While they can build traffic and a following, your best bet is to pay for your own blog on a domain you own. Why?

You have full control over your content and decide what ads you want on the blog
Search engines pay more attention to your own domain rather than a shared domain
It’s easier to do your own domain from the beginning rather than wait until you’re ‘ready’ and then deal with link re-directs, lost traffic, and duplicate content if you plan to run a second blog. It’s worth the money.

How much does it cost to have your own blog? Under $10 a year for your domain name and $10 or less per month. If you go with Hostgator, you can have a $10 a month account and add unlimited domains to that account (provided you stay within a certain bandwidth. You’d have to have MANY many successful blogs to go over the limit of what your Baby Croc account would get and if you really needed more bandwidth, chances are your blogs would be successful and profitable enough that you wouldn’t mind paying a little more than $10 a month for hosting.

It can take a while to get your blog making money so take your time, learn as much as you can, be patient, and persevere. More from me on this topic soon! If you want posts delivered to your mailbox or feed reader, subscribe to The Work at Home Blog.

Tags: Get Paid to Blog, getting started in blogging, pro blogging, work at home