6 Ways To Earn Money With Your Blog (without spending a penny!)

This is easy to join and easy to set up. It doesn't cost you a penny and you can tailor the adverts to appeal to your visitors. If your blog is about tropical fish you'll get ads about tropical fish. If your blog is about cheese, you'll get ads about cheese.

The more traffic you can get to your blog the better your Adsense earnings are likely to be, so work at building it up in legitimate ways that don't go against the Adsense rules.

They don't like traffic exchanges, for example, but posting articles in article directories to gain links back to your blog is quite okay.

Experiment with where you put the ads as well, and keep good records. You might find that placing ads in a certain location on the page is better than putting them elsewhere. This is a great way of maximising your Adsense revenue.

AdSense is one of the easiest ways to make money from your blog, and you get paid every time someone clicks on one of the ads. So your cash can quickly pile up if your ads are in the right places and your blog gets enough visitors.

ClickBank is packed with thousands of products - mostly e-books but there are software products available too - on all kinds of different subjects.

Once you join ClickBank you'll get a unique username that will be incorporated into the URL for every product you decide to promote.

It's a simple process to write one or two blog posts about something relating to that product (without directly selling it) and inserting a clickable link in a relevant place which goes through to the product you want to sell. Every time someone clicks through and buys it, you make some money.

Try linking to different products and make sure they are relevant to the overall subject of your blog. Think about what your readers are interested in and then do a search for some products you think they'd like. You can do the same with Commission Junction if you want a wider range of products to promote.

This is gaining ground as a popular way of making money from blogging. But you don't need to approach people directly to ask them if they want to advertise on your blog.

There is an ever increasing number of companies that act as a go between for the advertiser and the blogger. All you need to do is join a site like Project Wonderful (where people bid to win ad space on your blog) or AdEngage to start getting relevant ads on your website that will earn you money.

The trick is to make sure your blog doesn't become so overcrowded with adverts that it doesn't even look like a blog anymore. Make sure you keep a good balance between content and advertising, otherwise you will lose your readers - and they are the ones who are going to be clicking on your ads in the first place.

If you enjoy writing about products and services on your blog, then this is for you. Why not get paid for something you are doing anyway?

There are several websites which bring together bloggers and advertisers, including Sponsored Reviews and Pay Per Post, and depending on what the subject is and who you're reviewing for, the pay varies between a couple of dollars per post up to fifteen dollars or more.

The more popular your blog is and the more traffic you get, the more successful you are likely to be taking on sponsored reviews.

These sites normally check out your blog before letting you into the program, so if yours is a newbie it might be better to wait until you have really started to build it up and they have some history to look at as well.

Not many bloggers do this, and it's probably more slanted towards those who have been blogging for a while and have built up a regular audience, but it's something worth thinking about a little further down the line.

Think of it as a way of providing an extra option for people that have read your blog for a while. As well as providing your usual blogging content you can also set up a private area of your blog which people would have to pay to get access to.

The key to making a success of this is to ensure that the extra content is worth the money. Providing much longer blog posts which essentially amount to an in-depth report on a subject are a good way to attract people's attention.

A good widget can really enhance your blog, and with WidgetBucks they can make you money too.

Once you've joined you can get advertising widgets to put on your blog, and they will earn you money every time one of your visitors clicks on them. The big advantage of these is that they are in rich media format, which can add colour and interest to your site in double quick time.

There is also a referral program which means you have the chance of making even more money if some of your blog's visitors decide to sign up to WidgetBucks themselves.