Do you want to join the thousands of people making money blogging on their own website? It’s a great way to work from home, and your income potential is only limited by the time and energy you are willing to put into it.

Sound good to you? Let’s show you how to make money blogging about…….anything!

What is Your Interest or Niche?

Before you start thinking about anything else, you need to decide on what you want to blog about–this is called choosing your niche. You may think that the best way to choose is by thinking about all the things people are interested in. But I think that the best (and most profitable!) blogs are created based upon the writer’s own interests.

Why? Because your goal is to engage your readers and get them interested and excited about the topics you present to them. To do this you are going to be spending a lot of time researching and writing articles about the subject that you’re blogging about.

That can be difficult to do if you pick a niche that just seems to be popular and you don’t have any real interest in learning new things about it to bring to your readers.

If you are not passionate about your subject matter, it will be hard to convince anyone else to be passionate about it as well. Have you ever been on a website where you feel the writer is trying to sell you something more than being excited about it?

Think about the blogs you’ve enjoyed and maybe visited again and again. I’ll bet you can feel how much they enjoy bringing the information to you–your readers need to feel that too!

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Creating a Website is Easier Than You Think

Now you have to create your website. I am still amazed at how technology has advanced to the point where its so easy to start your own website!

With the program I use, you’ll be able to create a website in under 3 minutes–here’s a quick video to show you how:

 

One of the most powerful platforms available is also one of the easiest to use–WordPress. Within a couple of minutes, you can create a website with your own domain name for free! For a site that you can monetize with ads, you can upgrade to just $8 a month.

For just $25 a month, you can get a site that has search engine optimization tools, analytical tools, and plugins that enhance your site for the best reader experience.  You will want this in order to drive traffic to your site–Traffic = $$$$!

WordPress powers about 30% of all websites on the internet, and you can get everything you need to get your blog ranked by the search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Choosing a Domain Name

When you create your website, you need to choose a domain name, which usually costs about $14 a year. There are a few tips you can use when trying to find a great domain:

• It should have something to do with your niche
• Keep it fairly short–a long name is more difficult to remember
• It should be easy to type
• Try not to include hyphens or numbers
• Use something catchy that is memorable

No matter what you choose for a domain name, keep in mind that your content is what’s going to keep readers engaged and coming back for more. So pick something that you feel good about and don’t stress too much about it!

How to Choose Topics For Your Articles

Now you’ve got your website and you’re ready to start blogging! So how should you start?

The first thing you want to do is create a post that tells people something about you and your site. This will let your readers relate to you and starts the process of building a relationship with them.

Why is this important? The more they relate to you and the information they get from your site, the more times they’ll come back and refer you to others!

The next step is to start writing articles and posting them regularly on your site. But what do you write about?

For an example, let’s say that you love to make homemade soap and have chosen this as your niche. Here’s some ideas for blog posts:

• Methods of making soap
• Best ingredients for cleansing, conditioning, healing, etc.
• Best tools to use
• Recipes for different types of soap
• Do’s and don’ts to make quality soap
• Types of soap molds
• Soaps as gifts
• Best scents and colors
• Using essential oils in soaps
• Organic soap making

Every one of these ideas can be expanded into several articles, and there are many more topics that can be added to this list.

Many articles can be written as general information, such as methods of making soap. Then you can take each method and expand upon it in one or more new articles. The list is literally endless!

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Writing Great Content

Writing the actual blog posts for your website is probably the most intimidating aspect of creating an online blog.

The only way you’re going to get traffic is to have informative, well-written articles that interest your readers. And the only way you’re going to make money is to get traffic to your site–there’s a reason they say Content is King!

When I first started, even my husband agreed that my articles looked and sounded more like a boring textbook (he’s a very brave man!) But I was determined to start my online business and decided that I could use some training!

The training that I chose came from a platform called Wealthy Affiliate, and it wasn’t long before I learned how to write an article that would interest and engage readers, along with so much more!

The biggest change in my writing came from learning how to talk to my readers. When writing a blog post, you need to think about how you’d explain something if you were sitting down at a table and talking in person. In other words, it needs to be conversational.

In our soap making example again, suppose you were writing about the best types of soap molds. What would you say to someone if they asked you, “What are your favorite soap molds?”

You’d tell them which ones you liked using best, why they work well, what you look for in quality molds, where you got them, how much they cost, and more. The way you’d tell them about the molds is the way you write to them!

The more you write, the more comfortable you will get. You don’t have to be an author or have taken creative writing courses to write great blog content–you just have to be able to communicate!

Remember, the focus of your content should be to give visitors to your site a positive, informational experience. If you succeed at that, they’ll return again and again.

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Getting Love From the Search Engines–Using Keywords

Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the three most popular search engines on the internet. In order to drive traffic to your site, it will need to show up in the search results when people do an internet search. This means you must use Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

The word or phrases that are typed into a search engine are called keywords. When you write your articles, you’ll want to find popular keywords related to your niche and incorporate them in your writing.

A great keyword will have many searches each month with few other sites competing for it.  The keywords that fall into this criteria are long-tail keywords.

Let’s say that you’re getting ready to write an article about making your own soap.  But a general keyword about soap making will have huge competition.

So you need to look for a long-tail keyword, such as “how to make goat milk soap”.  This will have much less competition, and you’ll have a greater chance of your post appearing on the first page of Google search results!

So how do you find those great keywords? There are keyword tools available, but my best recommendation is Jaaxy.

To find out all the features that can help make your blog posts search engine friendly, you can read my review here.  Jaaxy offers a free trial, and you also have access through Wealthy Affiliate along with up-to-date SEO training.

When you find a great keyword phrase, you’ll want to include it in your title, somewhere in the first paragraph or two of your post, and somewhere in the last paragraph or so.

Be careful with how many times you use your keywords in your article. They need to flow naturally in your content, not be peppered in every paragraph just for the sake of having more in there. This is called keyword stuffing, and your site will be punished for it by the search engines, especially Google!

You’ll also want to target about 1000 words in length for your articles or longer.  Article length is a factor that the search engines look at, but be careful of making it longer by adding filler content.  Explain your topic thoroughly and completely, and you’ll be fine!

How to Monetize Your Blog

Making money from your blog is called monetizing your site, and there are several ways to do it. Here are 5 of the most popular ways:

~  Affiliate Links–Adding affiliate links to your site is called affiliate marketing, and it is one of the most popular income avenues for beginner and experienced bloggers alike. When you write your blog posts, you insert links that your readers can click on to take them to where they can purchase items that you write about.

There are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there that you can sign up for and one of the most popular is Amazon. You’ll earn a commission from every sale that a customer makes who is referred to a retail site from your blog. Learn more about affiliate marketing here.

~   Google Adsense or Other Ads–Adding Google ads to your site is probably the easiest way to start earning money from your site. This is Pay Per Click advertising, or PPC.

Google places ads on your site based upon the reader’s browsing history, and you get paid every time they click on one of them. You have to apply and be accepted to be able to get a code that puts the ads on your blog and may need to have several pages of content.

Google has a very strict policy regarding its ads, so you’ll want to get familiar with it here. You won’t make a lot of money right away, but as your traffic grows, you can expect your ad revenue to grow as well.

Other ad networks include Media.net, Chitika, Popads, and Infolinks.

~   Sponsored Posts–Once you start getting significant traffic, there will be others who may want to be a guest poster on your site.  They can receive a backlink to their site by writing an article and having it featured on your site.

You will be able to charge a fee and have control over the topic, quality, editing, etc. The fee you can charge is usually based upon how much traffic your site gets and how much exposure the article writer can expect to receive.

~   Email Marketing–“The money is in the list!”  That is as true now as it ever was.  You can collect email addresses by offering a freebie, like an eBook for example.  This email list contains targeted traffic that you can start building a relationship with.

You do this by doing things like providing updates of your latest posts and info about new products.  If you use email marketing to provide valuable, helpful information, you can bring visitors back to your site again and again!

~   Selling Products–Do you have a product you can sell on your site? How about creating an ebook or online lessons? What about selling your services, such as tutoring or freelance writing?

Selling products or services on your website is not passive income and will take more time and effort. I’d recommend a beginner start with affiliate links and Google ads first. But finding a product to sell can be very lucrative and is well worth the hard work.

If this sounds good to you, I’d recommend checking into a process called dropshipping and the wholesale supplier directory, SaleHoo.  Combined with your blogging and a commitment of time and effort, selling products this way can be a terrific revenue stream.

No matter how you choose to monetize your site, always keep in mind that the focus of your blogging should be to inform and engage your readers. When your priority is making sure they have a positive experience and gain quality information, they’ll come back over and over–and the income will follow!

Turn Your Interest Into a Money-Making Blog

Whether you’re starting a blog to share your experiences and photos or to earn an income, it has never been easier with the technology available today.

So whether you want to make just enough money to pay for your website fees or whether you want to get training with a community like Wealthy Affiliate and create a revenue stream, lets’ get started!

If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Remember, there’s no time like the present to learn how to make money blogging about…….anything!