How To Make Money Blogging & Increase Blog Traffic

Your Niche

First of all you need to know what to blog about! In my opinion, you absolutely must blog about something you know a lot about or something you are interested in. The reason being is that this is going to be your new job - whether that be part-time or full time, you are going to have to blog daily.

You cannot blog daily if you have no interest in what your blog is about. It's no fun blogging about something you just aren't interested in.

Blog Platform (Software)

I know there are many blog platforms around (Blogger, WordPress, Typepad) but the best one to use is WordPress. WordPress allows you to do all the marketing strategies that Web 2.0 requires (more on this below).

WordPress has many free plugins you can use to help you improve your traffic and visitor experience. Also once customized the right way your WordPress blog will be very search engine friendly. I know first hand how much Google loves customized WordPress blogs!

Domain

You need to register a domain name to host your free WordPress blog on. Either relate the domain name to your blog theme or name it after yourself. Use a web host that has CPanel as you can easily install WordPress through your CPanel.

Your daily posts should be helpful and useful to your visitors. Add your own personality into your blog posts and even some humour! This will make your visitors wanting to keep returning daily to see what you have written.

Now you have a few blog posts and some visitors to your blog you'll want to monetize your blog for you to earn a monthly income from it.

Here is a list of ways in order for you to make money blogging:

1. Pay Per Click (Google Adsense, Yahoo, MSN etc)
2. Join Affiliate Programs
3. Banner Ads (Advertisers pay you to put their ads on your blog)
4. Sell your own product/service
5. CPA Networks/Selling Leads. Advertisers pay you for a lead.

Affiliate marketing is a very popular choice with bloggers. Imagine having 1000 readers come to your blog everyday because they like and trust you and learn from what you have to say.

Then in one blog post you say "I've just come across they great ebook on gardening, you'll learn lots from this book", and 100 people buy that book through your affiliate link. Say you get a $15 comission for each book you sell: $15 x 100 = $1500 from just one blog post!

Let's go one step further. If you market that specific blog post (with your affiliate link on) and you get it to the first page on Google, then you'll get free traffic to that blog post and some people will buy the ebook through your affiliate link - for years to come!

And that's just from one blog post and one monetization method. Imagine having hundreds more like that. Now do you see how people can easily make a five-figure income a month from blogging!

Of course none of this is going to happen if you don't increase traffic to your blog. I know of some bloggers getting 5,000+ visitors to their blogs everyday!

We aren't going to pay for any advertising either. Us bloggers want free traffic - and lots of it.

Here is a list of free ways to increase blog traffic:

1. Search Engines. Free targeted organic traffic directly from Google, Yahoo and MSN. If you set-up your WordPress blog correctly, and use your best keywords in your blog posts, then you'll get traffic from the search engines.

2. Social Marketing/Web 2.0. Be sociable and interact with people who are interested in your blog's niche. Do this through places like FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon etc. The list is endless. Social marketing is huge and you could get more traffic through this than Google if done right.

Web 2.0 is when visitors help you write your content. This is mainly done through blog comments made by your visitors. This helps you keep each of your blog posts fresh and updated which the search engines love.

3. Links.You still need other blogs and websites linking back to you. You will have to carry out a link campaign. But forget reciprocal links, they're dead. Interact with other bloggers in your niche and you'll get plenty of links coming your way. Oh, and don't forget to post comments on other blogs in your niche.

Say you want one of your 'keyword driven' blog posts to get to the first page of Google. Do blog commenting on as many related blogs as you need to in order to get your blog post on the 1st page of Google. It could only take a few dozen, but it could take about 100. Do what it takes. Also post that blog url on all social networking sites.

4. Brand Yourself. Stand out of the crowd in your niche. Put your blog on a different level, have a different slant to your competitors. You will eventually be known as an authority in your niche and people will start looking for you by name.

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